Earlier this month an anonymous blogger referred to as EA Louse posted an inflammatory blog claiming that they were part of a planned layoff at EA scheduled to take place later this year. While many have speculated that there was no credibility to the bloggers words because there was no way to confirm whether or not EA indeed had layoffs planned. However, earlier today Shacknews reported something that could confirm at least some of what EA Louse posted. A source told Shacknews that as many as 100 people at EA may have been laid off just in time for the holidays. Joystick later confirmed the layoffs through EA corporate communication spokesperson Jeff Brown, who explained that the “seasonal roll-offs” (aka layoffs) are a common thing following game launches. Despite that, I will call it what it is, layoffs, and not that attempt to fluff the word with “seasonal roll-offs.” This…
News
James Ohlen reveals a few secrets in the new Star Wars Insider
In the Recent Star Wars Insider Magazine #121, James Ohlen revealed a lot about almost every aspect of Star Wars: The Old republic. For hard-core followers of the game, there isn’t much new information, but there is a few interesting statement, concerning casual content: “A lot of people are scared of massively multiplayer games because a lot of MMOs can become a grind… We’ve chosen to avoid that. We always give the player a story to drive the game forward. One of the more Interesting part of the Article is where Ohlen is speaking about the Sith Storyline. He explains about one of the first tasks that need to be done will be to kill your master. When that is done you need to locate a jedi and corrupt him. Furthermore he is outlining how the decisions you make affect the story you experience but also effect your character customization….
Mysterious Transmission From Faint Old Republic Signal
Few days ago I got a mail about a Incoming Transmission from a faint signal. I deleted it as I thought it was random spam, but apparently I was wrong. It seems like many people on the official forums plus some of the other Swtor fan sites also got the same mail The message reads as follows: Subject: ## Incoming Transmission from a faint signal… Message Body: ## Incoming Transmission from an old Republic signal… ## Initiating trace ## Signal cannot be located! ## Receiving transmission burst… “where it all began…in a Violent display, lIght meets dark…GrEat power still remaiNs hERE” YMESCJMFXZWTGYEUSGMUHLWTARYVIEMFKLSBGC ## End Transmission ## Signal lost! ## Attempting reconnect… ## Searching… ## Searching… ## Would you like to continue searching for the signal…?_ swtor-life wrote the following about it: There is a cipher that decodes the upper cryptic sequence of characters. To help you out right away, the…
BioWare hits high on Canada’s top 100 Employers list
BioWare has been named as one of the top employers in Canada. The studio was compared with over 75,000 employers to be recognized as one of the leading places to work at in Canada. The Canadian Top 100 Employers is a list compiled annually by Mediacrop Canada Inc. The winners are selected based on a number of criteria including outstanding human resource practices, exceptional training and development opportunity for employees. Via Digital Journal BioWare Corp. is honoured to announce that it has been recognized as one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers. “This acknowledgment is a great honour, and we are thrilled to receive this award. It is important to BioWare because it reflects our core value of Quality in our Workplace, and it also demonstrates that BioWare is an employer of choice for prospective employees not only in Canada, but world-wide,” said Joint CEO Dr. Ray Muzyka. The future for…
SWTOR – The $ 300 million Failure?
fear leads to anger. anger leads to hate. hate leads to suffering A soon to be former employee of EA Bioware/Mythic has written a very lengthy post on why he/she believes Warhammer Online has failed. I don’t really care much about the Warhammer stuff, as I left that game soon after it was released. But for us the most relevant bits are where the poster talks about Star Wars: The Old Republic. And, according to the poster, it isn’t pretty: And Bioware? Don’t make me laugh. They’ve spent more money making the Old Republic than James Cameron spent on Avatar. Shit you not. More than $ 300 million! Can you believe that? And you know what they’re most proud of? This is the kicker. They are most proud of the sound. No seriously. Something like a 20Gig installation, and most of it is voiceover work. That’s the best they have….
A Conversation with Damion Schubert
The guys over at Darth Hater had the opportunity to speak with Damion Schubert, the Principle Lead Systems Designer of Star Wars: The Old Republic, at this years GDC Online. The interview is an interesting read, were Schubert discusses topics that include character creation, animations, the design of planets, class stories, and the “Legacy System”. “””One of the questions we ask of our focus groups and in our player surveys when we give them is ‘Does this pace feel correct? Does this feel like a grind to you?’ I am actually incredibly gratified to find that most people give an answer of ‘this is about right’ with ‘little too fast’ and we get like a five-five which is actually good because players feel a little like they are cheating, and that is kind of where we want to be, and hopefully that feeling will extend throughout the experience of the…
GDC Online updates
As this October’s GDC Online — formerly called GDC Austin — prepares for first content announcements, the Texas-based show has added Playfish and Electric Bat execs to BioWare, Nexon, SOE, and Zenimax notables on its Advisory Board. As this is an industry conference for folks who make games, the focus is not actually on playing them, such as at PAX or GamesCom. As such, we don’t expect any SW:TOR related news to come out here. Still a few interesting news has hit the internet. ZAM.com snagged an interview with BioWare’s Gordon Walton and ZeniMax Online Studios’ Matt Firor while at GDC Online in Austin, TX. In this two-part interview Walton and Firor discuss online gaming trends. Read part one here and part two here. ZAM: Gordon, BioWare has so much coming out, but the major game on most players’ radars is Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. Can you give us…
Sean Dahlberg joins UTV True Games
Former BioWare Community Manager Sean Dahlberg announced on his blog that he has taken a position as Senior Designer at UTV True Games. In the future he will be working on a new MMO called Faxion. In his blog, Sean talks about his decision to go back into the developer side of games and what he likes about the company’s vision for Faxion and its emphasis on micro-communities. Break time is over! I requested a few weeks off before starting at my new job and I have to admit, it was nice to have a vacation. I think it’s the first one I’ve had in years that was stress and work free! But, as anyone who knows me can attest to, I can only have so much free time before I start needing to get back into the game. So I’ve made the jump back into the development-side as a…
Upcoming TOR Database Site
The great guys over at Ask A Jedi got an exclusive interview with Aaron Cox, the founder and lead development director of R2-DB.com. This new website will be an upcoming database site for TOR Players just like Thottbot and wowhead is for WoW Players. “I will honestly say wowhead.com has been an inspiration to us for its clear, precise, and speedy presentation of information,” It will be interesting to how this website turns out. As far as I know, Nothing have revealed about the possibility of using Add-ons on SW:TOR. Both Thottbot and Wowhead relied on add-ons that gathers information about loot and quests. If this will be possible in Star Wars: The old republic, I believe this website could becime a huge success, If not, it still might, but it will take a huge clone army to keep it updated.
BioWare Blog: Designing the Advanced Classes System
To explain some of the choices in BioWare’s approach to the advanced classes system in The Old Republic, this Friday’s update gives us a BioWare blog post from Principal Lead Systems Designer, Georg Zoeller. Here’s an except: Example: The Smuggler Han Solo, Lando, Talon Karrde… There are plenty of different Smuggler personalities to be found in the Star Wars universe to choose from and this is reflected in the versatility of their available Advanced Classes: The Scoundrel The Scoundrel is not afraid of getting his hands dirty, as the ‘Scrapper’ skill-set has an off-hand Scatter Gun, a number of powerful (but not necessarily fair) melee moves and access to a Stealth Field Generator with various possible upgrades for a dramatic entrance … or exit. The ‘Sawbones’ skill-set on the other hand offers ways to dramatically improve the Smuggler’s healing and support-related abilities, including access to the powerful Emergency Medpack. And,…
It’s official: Star Wars going 3-D in 2012
Lucasfilm Ltd. announced today that the live-action Star Wars Saga will be converted to 3D! There are few movies that lend themselves more perfectly to 3D; from the Death Star trench run to the Tatooine Podrace, the Star Wars Saga has always delivered an entertainment experience that is completely immersive. Presented by Twentieth Century Fox and Lucasfilm Ltd., the cutting edge conversion will take that immersion to the next thrilling level, with Industrial Light & Magic supervising the project. Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace is expected to be released theatrically in 2012. A release date has not yet been determined. “Getting good results on a stereo conversion is a matter of taking the time and getting it right,” said John Knoll, Visual Effects Supervisor for Industrial Light & Magic. “It takes a critical and artistic eye along with an incredible attention to detail to be successful. It is…
Hasbro confirms The Old Republic action figures
Lucasfilm isn’t shy about diving deeply into Star Wars lore to churn out plastic toys based on the people, starships and beasts of George Lucas’ universe(s). But what about turning those Star Wars video games into action figures? Sounds like two upcoming video games could be ripe for Lucas exploitation. According to the September 17 episode of The ForceCast, answers from an interview with Hasbro’s Derryl DePriest confirmed the plans: 0:44:00 – And as we look at 2012, that’s really where we think we’re going to look at The Force Unleashed II and The Old Republic. We have to work in some of those great characters. Of the many, many Star Wars video games, how many of them have been rendered in plastic 3 3/4″ form? As a lapsed Star Wars action figure collector, I’m asking you, hoping for an answer.
Developer Dispatch: Designing the Light Side
It’s a full Star Wars: The Old Republic Fan Friday this week and along with the usual updates with fan art and forum fun there is also a very cool Developer’s Corner that shares a bit about ship design. Anyone who has every wondered how concept art is created needs to check this one out. This week the Art Team is pleased to share a step-by-step demonstration of how a piece of concept art is created for The Old Republic. Senior Concept Artist, Ryan Dening, will give us a break-down of the process involved and some of the thinking that went into this particular concept. Even as cool as that update is, it still isn’t the star of this show! Also released today is a video Developer Dispatch that discusses how the team designed SWTOR for the Jedi. Learn more about the Jedi classes and what it takes to make…
Community Manager Sean Dahlberg Departs Bioware
What began today as a rumor, has now been officially confirmed: Sean “AshenTemper” Dahlberg has departed Bioware. Sean served as Community Manager for the Star Wars: The Old Republic community, and this story originally began as a simple rumor posted to the official SW:TOR forums this morning. The rumor asserted that, according to “various sources” Sean had left the company. The post’s author, “Lauren”, pointed to Mr. Dahlberg’s Twitter account, which no longer reflected his position at Bioware, to reinforce their claim. Earlier tonight, Bioware’s Senior Community Coordinator Joanne Laroche confirmed the report, explaining that Sean had indeed left the company: Hi Everyone – Sean Dahlberg has recently left BioWare. We would like to thank Sean for doing a great job building the TOR Community and we wish him well in his future endeavors! Best, The Star Wars: The Old Republic Team Sean himself confirmed it on his own blog…
PAX 2010 SW:TOR presentation
The vidoes of BioWares presentation during the Pax 2010 is now finding it’s way into the internet. TOROcast has now uploaded a 32-min video of the complete presentation! The only part that misses is the Q&A you can see it here below: The Q/A part of the show that took place at the end of the presentation is now online. askajedi.com have posted a few videos revealing some spoilers on Jedi story (including on how you will get a lightsaber) and the Republic Smuggler. Darth Hater went there as well and got a few nice tidbits for us. First there’s an interview with Blaine Christine. Here’s an excerpt: There is really a controversy on the forums right now about the Jedi Wizard, and the meanings behind that name and why it was chosen. Blaine Christine: I’m not intimately involved with that particular naming process, but all I can say at…
Pax 2010: Mysteries of Knights of the Old Republic
Bioware just released a new video about the “Mysteries of Knights of the Old Republic”. It shows a few new gameplay scenes as well, but is mostly about the history of Revan. The Jedi Civil War left many unanswered questions. In the difficult days following the showdown between Darth Revan and Darth Malak, the Jedi Order struggled to survive, leaving little time for investigations. Redeemed as a Jedi, Revan traveled into deep space in search of a mysterious evil. We now know that the source of this evil was the reconstituted Sith Empire, but that solves only a portion of the mystery… Personally I think this is going to be awsome. A final conclusion…maybe…to the story of Revan…something we’ve all wanted for since his disapperance in the second KoTOR. From a story stand point though it would be good to look back at the KoTOR’s for some advice. In the…
LucasArts Confirms Staff Cuts, As Much As 30% Trimmed
LucasArts confirmed that today that it had let some of its staff go – a response to an earlier rumor that it had fired 30 percent of its staff. In a statement to multiple publications a LucasArts representative said that it was reorganizing its development teams to address the “needs of the internal studio.”” The LucasArts representative would not discuss the actual number of employees let go or which departments they were cut from. Full and brief statement from LucasArts below: “LucasArts is reorganizing its teams to better address the needs of the internal studio. Unfortunately, this means adjusting staffing. LucasArts continues to be committed to creating a first-class internal studio – and to fostering relationships with trusted external partners – in order to deliver quality games that amaze and inspire fans.” We’ll have more on this story as it develops.
Gamescom 2010 Wrap-Up
Today’s official update consists of another issue of Blood of the Empire… and that seems to be it. Luckily I’ve also still got the Gamescom wrap-up to do, so I’ll add that as well to spice things up. But first the comic; here’s the official news: In the tenth issue of Blood of the Empire™, a battle between Republic and Imperial fleets rages over Korriban as Teneb Kel chases down his foe. The fate of the Sith homeworld and the Children of the Emperor is in the hands of one young acolyte and his slave–but duty and patriotism aren’t the only forces guiding them… Check out the latest issue of Blood of the Empire now! As for Gamescom, I felt that The Old Republic didn’t have quite as strong a presence as I was expecting. Maybe it didn’t stand out as much anymore after its E3 presence, but to me…
Advanced Classes
A few days ago we reported about the new advanced class details that was given to us during Gamescom. Although alot of detail was still vague, the official SWTOR website has now updated us with the latest. The main goal of the Advanced Class System is to allow you to customize your character according to your play style. So far, we’ve announced the Advanced Classes for the Sith Warrior and Jedi Knight. Today we’re letting you in on the names and specializations of the remaining Advanced Classes! Please be aware that since the specific class details are still under development, the information provided below may be subject to change. We’ll, be updating the class pages with more information in the months to come, so be sure to check back for our future Friday updates. Trooper Commando Heavy Blaster Cannon Grenades Ranged DPS Vanguard Blaster Rifle Energy Shields and Defense Tank…
Space Combat Details
It seems that the German magazine PC Action has been released with details on the space combat in The Old Republic. And to say that the official forums have exploded over it is probably an understatement. The gist of it is that it seems that space combat in The Old Republic isn’t the X-Wing, Tie Fighter or even the Jump to Lightspeed type gameplay that everyone was hoping for, but rather more of an on-rails shooter meant for the more casual gamer. SWTOR-Station has the (translated, you might have to click the English flag first) details both on Space Combat as well as some further class details (nothing shocking there though). Here are the space combat details from SWTOR-Station: Sprace Combat reminds of Rebel Assault We call this gameplay “tunnel shooter”. That means there are especially designed levels which make you follow a certain path. The player has a range…
Jedi and Sith Species Announced for Star Wars: The Old Republic
The Star Wars: The Old Republic website has announced that all classes in the upcoming MMO will include different alien species to play as. Aside from Chiss, Rattataki, and Twil’lek, fans haven’t heard a lot about the playable races in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Now Players can look forward to becoming a Sith Pureblood, a Miraluka, a Mirialan, or a Zabrak. So far we’ve only dropped hints about the range of playable species in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. You may have heard about the Rattataki Bounty Hunter, Chiss Imperial Agent, or the Twi’lek Smuggler, but we can tell you now that all classes will include optional non-human species. Sith Purebloods are “the red-skinned descendants of such notorious Sith Lords as Naga Sadow and Marka Ragnos.” SW:TOR is the first video game allowing players to choose the original Sith as a playable race. Sith Purebloods originated on Korriban and later settled on Ziost and…
Haden Blackman Resigns From LucasArts
Only months after LucasArts saw its President, Darrell Rodriguez, depart the company, its Executive Producer has now also left. IGN reports that Haden Blackman, executive producer and writer for The Force Unleashed series, has resigned from his LucasArts position. IGN got confirmation from LucasArts on the news and a representative assured that the development of The Force Unleashed II will not be affected. Blackman issued a statement that included the following: “I’ve had a fantastic time working with the team at Lucasfilm and am really grateful for their ongoing support.” “While the decision to leave LucasArts did not happen overnight or come easily, I really feel that now is the best time for me to move on and explore new creative challenges and I look forward to the next phase of my career.” This news is just coming out so we’ll be sure to update as we learn more on…
Friday Update: Music & Sounds of The Old Republic
This friday update gives us an incredible Developer Dispatch about the making of music for Star Wars: The old republic. The movie also shows lot’s of new in game footage that I can imagine we will see tons of dissection of over the next few weeks. The emotional experience of Star Wars™ comes to life in new music created exclusively for The Old Republic™. From soft melodies that ring in the forest of Alderaan to the magnificent booming of a battle scene on Ord Mantell, a talented team of composers, musicians and developers came together to create a magical score for the game. Watch Developer Dispatch: Music of The Old Republic to see what goes into weaving the familiar Star Wars riffs with a new original score. And learn how music impacts the thrilling moments in video games as well as movies. You can watch the whole movie below: Sticking…
Bioware: thoughts on game development
BioWare is a company that’s known for its big titles, like Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Dragon Age. The one thing all these have in common is their size; in terms of length, depth, and scope, BioWare adventures and RPGs are all epic. But BioWare co-founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk says the company is currently working on a small-scale MMO and is looking at titles for non-console platforms. Dr. Greg Zeschuk was on stage at this year’s Develop Conference in Brighton yesterday, providing wisdom culled from over 15 years in the development trenches at the top-tier developer. Over the course of the keynote, Zeschuk warned against new developers aiming to create blockbusters, stating “Striving to do triple-A console development right now is the wrong goal for most developers.” Zeschuk also spoke of the drastic changes that come with success, noting that BioWare has had a tough…