After a week of teasers and rumours, TomTom has finally announced its tie-in (or should that be Tie-fighter) with Lucasfilm, voiceskins.com and Star Wars. The satnav company has been sending unannounced Star Wars merchandise, including a natty Darth Vader lightsaber torch, to journalists along with emails from Vader himself in the build-up to its major unveiling: the officially-licensed voices of Darth Vader, Yoda, C3PO and Han Solo are coming to its range of navigation devices. The first to be available, Darth Vader, has been launched today for £7.95, with the others to follow shortly (one a month until August). And, not only are directions delivered by his surly tones, but a stack-load of Star Wars sound effects are included. Customers can also download, for free, official warning alert sounds voiced by Darth Vader, along with start up screen wallpaper and Lord Vader map icon. It’s enough to make a Star…
Stuff
What does Alganon and SWTOR have in common ?
The fine people over at Kill Ten Rats alerts us of press release for the upcoming fantasy MMORPG Alganon, that copies one of the first BioWare press releases almost word by word. Here you got Alganon press release. Note it is dated Wednesday, April 28, 2010. Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars – combat, exploration and character progression,” Derek Smart continued. “In Alganon, in addition to these we’ve added the fourth pillar to the equation; a story. We delivered a fun, immersive adventure that gamers expect in a top quality massively multiplayer online game. To top it all off, we’re not done yet. A whole new adventure with new updates will follow soon, starting with a consignment house, new classes, PvP and much more. Read this before somewhere? That’s probably because it was posted a while back on The Old Republic’s official site – October 21, 2008 “Traditionally, massively multiplayer online games have been about three…
No Sarlacc Enforcer Class!
At the start of April BioWare announced that they were including a ninth class in Star Wars: The Old Republic, namely the Sarlacc Enforcer. And I’m sure that many of you were looking forward to playing the stealthy lurker. But now BioWare dashes all of your hopes and dreams by announcing that the Enforcer won’t be a class after all. As per Sean Dahlberg’s post: Hey everyone, We hope that you have enjoyed the Sarlacc Enforcer class reveal we made on April 1st. We just wanted to confirm that the Sarlacc Enforcer is not going to be a class and that it was just some fun we were having for April Fool’s day this year. We’ve had quite a bit of fun reading all the posts and threads that were created and we sure do hope you’ve had as much fun as we’ve had! While you can no longer post…
May The 4th Be With You
Happy Star Wars Day everyone! May the 4th, and the force, be with us all today. May 4 is called Star Wars Day (also sometimes known as Luke Skywalker Day) because of a pun on the similarity between “May the 4th be with you” and “May the Force be with you”, a phrase often spoken in the Star Wars movies. Despite efforts to start a Jedi Church with 4 May as its Star Wars Day, as of 4 May 2009 there is no religion-supporting organization that promotes 4 May as Star Wars Day. In 2005 German news TV channel N24 interviewed George Lucas and asked him to say his famous sentence, “May the Force be with you.” The translator simultaneously translated to German: “Am 4. Mai sind wir bei Ihnen”. (We are with you on May 4). This was captured by comedy show TV Total and aired on May 18, 2005….
How Much Money Will Converting the Star Wars Films to 3D Make?
Apparently, LucasFilm has decided to covert the Star Wars Trilogies into 3D. This is not exactly a surprise, as Hollywood is an a rush to make every movie 3D. But how big of a money maker will it be for the franchise? The cost to convert a traditional 2-D movie into 3D can range between $50,000 and $100,000 per minute. If you split the difference, and say the cost would be $75,000 per minute, then the total price tag to convert all six films would be around $59 million. In 1997, George Lucas released the special editions of Episode IV, V and VI into theatres. Star Wars opened in January and sold $138 million worth of tickets. The Empire Strikes Back opened a month later, but only had $67.6 million in tickets sales. Finally, Return of the Jedi opened in March, and ended its run with $45.5 million in sales….
Couldn’t finish A New Hope because of your ADD? Never fear! A 4-minute teaser for Star Wars: Uncut is here!
Put on your best Star Wars costume and get ready for a spectacular remake, as PIX becomes the first festival in the world to show ‘Star Wars Uncut. Since August 2009, thousands of Star Wars fans have united in the project Star Wars Uncut in order to recreate George Lucas’s classic ‘Star Wars’ from 1977, which laid the solid foundation for the Star Wars universe. The film has been divided into 473 scenes lasting 15 seconds each, which the fans have re-shot themselves, after which all 15-second clips have been combined to form one big remake of the film. The clips range from home-made remakes via stop motion to professional 3D animation, and the result is a highly innovative reinterpretation, with John Williams’s original score mixed in. We are talking about a true bombardment of creativity, which is sure to take all Star Wars fans by surprise. The film is…
Sarlacc Enforcer, Devourer of Injustice
It’s april fools day, and Bioware has a great one for us – Sarlacc Enforcer, Devourer of Injustice Think you’ve seen all the playable classes in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™? Think again! We’ve saved the best for last! Now you can realize your fantasy of playing as a Sarlacc Enforcer in Star Wars: The Old Republic! For thousands of years, the brave souls who answer to the name Sarlacc have been the ultimate authority on final judgment in the galaxy. A perfect combination of ruthless efficiency and calculated precision, the Sarlacc Enforcers make sure the galaxy’s trash doesn’t have a chance to pile up. Access the latest HoloNet entry now to see a full profile of the deadly Sarlacc Enforcer, including combat footage of the Sarlaccs in action! From the holonet I can read that this is my type of class 😉 Patient, Calculating, & Elusive The galaxy is…
BioWare’s Countdown Clock Reveals the BioWare Bazaar
About a week ago, BioWare launched a new countdown clock on their site that has had gamers watching it patiently to see what exactly it means. The countdown is officially over as of 12:00pm EST today and the big secret revealed by the countdown is the new BioWare Bazaar, a series of week-long mock online auctions that will begin on April 6th, 2010. In order to bid on the more than 400 items ranging from custom Alienware laptops to BioWare apparel, and much more, fans will need to collect tokens through various challenges to acquire tokens for bidding. The first auction is scheduled to begin at Tuesday, April 6th at 9:00am PST. New items will be made available every 15 minutes from there. The auction series will end at 4:00pm PST on Saturday, April 10th, 2010. What are you waiting for? Click here to learn more.
Sign up for our newsletter!
Hey its Clayton here.. I just want to say that just a few days ago we set up a newsletter just for YOU. Here’s what you’ll get: -The latest and best Swtor news and updates -A bunch of cool stuff including a free swtor eBook/handbook that Soren and I are putting together -Subscriber-only content and much more… So just put your first name and your email address in the signup form on the right and send us feedback on anything that you would like to tell us about! Thanks again (P.S, our Facebook page is almost at 5,000 fans thanks to all of you!) -Clayton
Star Wars Vs Star Trek Essay
Listen to this kid. He is a Genius. He really knows what he is talking about. I hope he got an A+
Launch site for SWTOR?
I read a story this morning and it looks like some members of the swtor forum have found a “launch site” for SWTOR! The link can be found below.. You have to login with your account information and when you login there will be a message in red that says “No game servers are currently available for play.” This is obviously going to be the site where the beta will be played 🙂 This is super exciting to all of us who have been waiting for the beta and for the launch of next year.. This site proves to us that they are making more and more progress with the game… They’re setting up the servers and getting everything ready for a nearing beta launch and we will possibly hear an official launch date very soon 🙂 So what do YOU think that this could mean? Leave your comments below!…
May the schwartz be with you: Darth Vader Feels Blue
Have you ever wondered what Anakin Skywalker had underneath that Darth Vader mask of his? Well, this video will reveal all the wonders of that unanswered question… This is a touching moment between father and son as Darth Vader demonstrates a talent to Luke that didn’t come from the force. Vader has some blues in him and plays his built in harmonica beautifully. Watch as Darth Vader busts into a blues jam right in the middle of a dramatic scene..
Is SWTOR worth 2 million users
Yesterday IndustryGamers reported that, according to one analyst, EA are looking to get 2 million subscribers when Star Wars: The Old Republic releases next year. Many have since speculated that EA needed this amount of subscribers for the game to break eave. In a genre where only one game has ever exceeded two million subscribers at $15 per month, that’s a very high standard to put yourself up against. Then again, we are talking about Star Wars, beloved by geeks the world over. We’re also talking about BioWare, who have blown many gamers away with the awesomeness of Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins. Over at massively they discuss this matter in further details. A a really good read I recommend to check out: Two million is possible worldwide, right? The other issue that I’m hanging on is the fact that 2 million subscribers is a far fetch for…
GDC 2010 Wrap up
With GDC last week, even though Star Wars: The Old Republic had no specific presence, there were a number of interviews and details popping up all over the web. In particular from the off-site event that LucasArts held where the press got some hands-on time with a Trooper. Over on the official forums Sean Dahlberg made a post listing a lot of them (some of which I already reported on before): While there were no panels this year specifically related to The Old Republic during Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2010, there are a few panels that consisted of BioWare developers. There was also an off-site event specifically for The Old Republic that various press and fan sites were invited to. None of this information will show up till early next week so keep your eyes peeled for that. We will be updating the list in this post as more articles…
SWTOR is EA’s “largest ever” project
Though this should come as no surprise to anyone, Eurogamer is reporting that Star Wars: The Old Republic is EA’s largest ever project. Their text: BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic is the most expensive game ever created at EA. The publisher’s chief banker Eric Brown described the MMO as the “largest ever development project, period, in the history of the company””. He said a packaged game usually costs around $30m to make at EA, but “any MMO costs significantly more than that”. When asked by a member of the Wedbush Morgan Securities audience in New York today how the cost compared to World of Warcraft, Brown said Blizzard spent “$100 million, perhaps more” to ship the game in 2004. “That’s lifetime [research and development] to actually ship it and obviously then there’s maintenance subsequent to ship and expansion packs,” Brown added. These days, WOW makes around $100m a month…
Evidence of Personal Starships in SWTOR
Small video showing Evidence of Personal Starships in Star Wars the old Republic.
HeroEngine Developer Simutronics Reorganizes
Gamasutra is reporting that Simutronics, who developed HeroEngine which, in turn, is being used by BioWare in Star Wars: The Old Republic, is reorganizing to support the growth of their engine business: Simutronics, the company behind the HeroEngine that’s used in MMOs including BioWare’s upcoming The Old Republic, has reorganized in order to support growth of its engine business. [Simutronics], founded in 1987, will now be home to two new divisions: HeroEngine and Simutronics Games. The company promoted Neil Harris to president of HeroEngine, overlooking licensee support, and Herb Marselas as VP of engineering. CEO David Whatley is taking over as president of Simutronics Games. HeroEngine is used by a wide range of customers, including large and small studios that make anything from games to government applications, Simutronics said in a statement. Aside from BioWare’s highly-anticipated MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, HeroEngine is also licensed by Zenimax Online Studios,…
Obsidian Developing Wheel of Time Games
Well over a year ago we reported that Red Eagle Games was looking to develop games (including an MMO) based on Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. Now they’ve announced that they’re partnering with Obsidian Entertainment to do the game development (for, I assume, the single player games). As Dragonmount reports: RED EAGLE GAMES SELECTS OBSIDIAN ENTERTAINMENT AS GAME DEVELOPMENT PARTNER Noted RPG Developer to Assist Red Eagle Games in Building Video Games Based on Robert Jordan’s Fantasy Series “The Wheel of Time” Malibu and Irvine Calif. – February 12, 2010 – Red Eagle Games and Obsidian Entertainment today announced they have entered into a services agreement which provides a comprehensive framework for Obsidian Entertainment to work closely with Red Eagle Games’ in-house development team to create new video games for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 based on Robert Jordan’s best-selling fantasy series, The Wheel of Time. “The…
EA Earnings Call
Yesterday EA had its Q3 FY10 earnings call, during which (as I understand) they let shareholders know how the company is doing and where it is going. That means that we get a sneak peak at what they’re planning to publish in the coming year. Regarding Star Wars: The Old Republic they made statements which seem to suggest that (unsurprisingly) the game won’t be released before March 31, 2011. As VG247 reports: EA’s confirmed that BioWare’s Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic, won’t make the publisher’s next financial year. Speaking in EA’s Q3 earnings call last night, CFO Eric Brown said the game won’t ship in the 12 months ending March 31, 2011. “We are not assuming that we bring a major new MMO to market in fiscal ‘11. We will continue to increase significant development cost as we prepare this title for launch,” he said. Both EA and Lucas…
Gamasutra Interviews LucasArts President
Gamesutra has an interview with LucasArts President Darrell Rodriguez “On 2010 And Beyond. They talk about all kinds of games-related LucasArts things, but there are a few bit about The Old Republic as well, which I’ll quote here: You’ve worked with some obviously strong partners to bring some of the Star Wars game in recent years, like Krome. Do you hope to continue those relationships or are you staffing up to sort of bring back control of your products in-house? [Darrell Rodriguez]: We’re doing both. So, we’re definitely growing internally, like I mentioned. And we’ll also have phenomenal partnerships. We’ve got a great partnership with BioWare on The Old Republic, one of the best partnerships that I’ve personally worked with. I love working with Ray on a personal level, Ray and Greg, and we’ll continue to look for those opportunities. How closely do you work with BioWare? They have a…
SWTOR Trailer Nominated for VES Award
The Visual Effects Society (VES) announced the nominees for the 8th Annual VES Awards ceremony, with awards in various categories for film, animation, television, commercials and video games. Among the various categories Star Wars: The Old Republic has been nominated for “Outstanding Visual Effects in a Video Game Trailer. I’m assuming that this refers to the “Deceived” cinematic trailer they unveiled at last year’s E3 (mainly because it’s the only official trailer): Star Wars: The Old Republic isn’t the only BioWare Trailer nominated; one of the other nominees is Mass Effect 2 (with I assume their cinematic trailer revealed last Christmas). Both trailers were created by Blur. Though that makes me wonder why the Dragon Age: Origins trailer wasn’t nominated. Other nominees are DJ Hero (with I’m guessing this trailer) and Halo 3: ODST (I’m guessing for this trailer). I think that they make a decent chance of winning. Congratulations…
IGN Presents the History of BioWare
With Mass Effect 2 right around the corner, IGN posted an article, titled “IGN Presents the History of BioWare”, looking at the history of developer BioWare. Starting with their humble beginnings as two students of medicine programmign educational software at the University of Alberta, right down to the present day of them working on Star Wars: The Old Republic it looks at the string of successful titles they’ve released, the publishers they’ve worked with and such. Here’s an excerpt: Shattered Steel was a modest success, receiving positive reviews and seeing decent sales. Of particular note was the detailed deformable terrain that allowed players to blast craters in the sides of hills, and zone damage that allowed strategic-minded sharpshooters to take out weapons mounted on enemies. Interplay was pleased with the game, too, and a sequel was planned for 1998. It would never come to pass, as BioWare’s second game was…
Rumor: Elder Scrolls MMO
EDIT: Game is now out! Here is a Elder scrolls online digital download price comparison, if yo are looking to buysIn the “not SWTOR” news column a somewhat interesting rumor just surfaced. It’s been leaked (by the court filings of the case between Interplay and Bethesda over the Fallout MMO Interplay is working on) that Bethesda is working on it’s own “World of Warcraft type MMO””. Now VG247 claims to have been “very reliably informed” that this MMO is in an Elder Scrolls MMO. Combined with earlier rumors that elderscrollsonline.com has been registered by ZeniMax (Bethesda’s parent company) as well as a slip-up stating that the next Elder Scrolls game is set 200 years after Oblivion and it’s looking quite likely to be true. Apparently the MMO has been in development since late 2006. If we estimate a development cycle of four to five years then that means that this…
Jon Stewart interviews George Lucas!
The creator of “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” reveals the secrets of the blockbuster film. George Lucas didn’t actually write a book, it’s just a doorstop so he could get on the show. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c George Lucas www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis For those of you outside the US