More good news for those holding stock in EA and more rebuttal for the nay-sayers that SWTOR is tanking and that it is causing EA stick to drop- EA stock reportedly surges after the recent Q3 2012 Fiscal Earnings Conference Call in which it was revealed that SWTOR now has over 1.7 million active users and growing. DualShockers brought us the story that quite honestly, was not a surprise to ushere at all. YesterdayEA stock closed at $18.44. Today, on the closure of the market a few minutesago, the shares of the publisher from Redwood were priced $19.565 showing avery solid 6.1% climb. By comparison the whole NASDAQ index gained only a 0.4%. Mostof the growth actually happened yesterday during the after hours tradingsession, that started as EA’s conference call was closing. Both in the afterhours trading session and this morning in the pre-market trading session EAstock was one of…
SWTOR
SWTOR is Growing- Now More Subscribers than Ever!
I wrote yesterday about how some observers think SWTOR is sinking and that its subscribers are dying off. There are gloom and doom prophecies and even a haters Facebook group but no one really knew for sure how well the game was performing. However, the numbers are now out and it looks like SWTOR isnot doing so bad. In fact, they have more subscribers than ever before andboast 1.7 million active subscribers. DualShockers shared some insight on the story today. Electronic Arts had its Q3 2012 Fiscal Earnings Conference Call and CEO JohnRiccitello explained that SWTOR is actually doing quite well after all. He explains: “Star Wars: The OldRepublic is developing a committed community of players withmore than 1.7 million active subscribers and growing.” And the game also sold more than 2 million copies. This isbetter-than-expected results from the popular MMORPG, something that EA reallyneeded as skeptics feared their stock value would…
SWTOR White Saber Crystal Uncovered
At first, SWTOR coveted the magenta crystal but now there is a new favorite item in a galaxy far, far away. One high level character has been seen sporting around with a sparkling white lightsaber. The owner of this whitesaber, Catch Deathwalker, posted about it on the official forums: I would like to let everyone know that the live servers still do have the white crystals. It’s a server first for us on Prophecy of the Five… might be a game first after live? Edit: So you can see the stats. There was an instant buzz about the crystal as everyone wanted to know where Catch got it (of course) but later in the day, staff dropped in with some startling (or not-so-startling) news about Catch and his flashy lightsaber. This was released by BioWare staff: We’ve done some investigating and discovered that CatchDeathwalker did not obtain the white crystal…
BioWare Story is So Good in SWTOR- Could it Be Too Good?
Have you ever watched a great movie that moved you in some way but after it was over you felt a tad sad that it had ended? Sure, you’re glad you watched it and you’re thankful for the opportunity but you’re left with a slightly empty feeling of “what now?” Could this be a problem with SWTOR? IGN writer CharlesOnyett has some thoughts on this very topic. He talks about “fear of the finale”and how absorbed he is in the story- but that maybe this could be a bad thing. CouldBioWare have done too good of a job with the story in SWTOR? Onyett says: Mymain concern is what happens when the story ends. I’ll meet no new quest giverswho care what I do or fear what I say. I’ll run through the same corridors ofenemies time and time again for a percent chance to achieve a reward. I’ll playthe…
Operation & PVP Guide Videos
Are you having a hard time deciding between PVP specs for your Marauder? Perhaps your guild is wiping on bosses like Bonethrasher, G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator or Annihilation Droid XRR-3? Well then you’ll want to check out these video guides. Marauder PVP Guide (Rage spec): This guide covers the rage spec for the Marauder, be sure to check the annotation if you want to look at the Annihilation spec instead. Annihilation Droid XRR-3 Guide (Hardmode): This is the first boss in the Eternity Vault Operation. The guide covers both the normal and hardmode versions. Bonethrasher Guide: This is the first boss found in the Karragar’s Palace Operation. Since the video was made they have now fixed the bug where he attacks you as soon as you enter the room, which used to cause a lot of issues. His knock back has also been reduced a bit. I hope these…
EA Has Invested Half a BILLION Dollars in Star Wars
In a story at MarketWatch.com, we learn a bit of interesting news about SWTOR. It’s an article/interview about Electronic Arts’ CEO Riccitiello, 52, but contains a fun tidbit about the BioWare hit of the year- SWTOR. According to the source: In a Dec. 23 statement, EA boasted that “The Old Republic” had attracted more than 1 million registered subscribers in just three days on the market. Doug Creutz of Cowen & Co. says that Riccitiello’s tenure as CEO has featured misfires along with its successes but that “Star Wars” may represent his biggest bet of all, considering both the purchase price of BioWare/Pandemic and the development costs poured into the game since then. “I think it’s safe to say that the total all-in investment in ‘Star Wars’ is probably approaching half a billion dollars,” Creutz says. “EA has minimized its risks as much as it can on this bet, but…
SWTOR Has Neutral Plans to Come Soon
SWTOR’s alignment system is one thing that sets it apart from other games, gives it that added edge and makes it more exciting and more personalized for the player. The only thing that got in the way of the alignment system in SWTOR is the fact that there was gear designed specifically for Light Side (LS) and Dark Side (DS) points but nothing for neutral. I’ve found on my first character that when I just played the storyline the way I wanted, answering by instinct, I ended up more neutral than one side or the other. I guess that means I am a fairly balanced human in general, which is probably cool for my friends and others around me, but it’s no good in SWTOR when it means I cannot use any of the gear that I’m getting because I don’t have enough LS or DS points. Ok so it…
SWTOR Makes the Record Books
Star Wars: The Old Republic has been officially recognized by Guinness World Records which is a very cool honor indeed. Just shortly after its launch on December 20, 2011, the popular MMO was awarded a spot in the latest Guinness World Records 2012 Gamer’s Edition. The big title? the Largest Entertainment Voice Over Project ever. More than 200,000 lines of recorded dialogue were performed by several hundred voice actors, making it a far more ambitious recording project than any undertaking for a feature film. (via MMOSite.com) Because the record is such an awesome one, it received a full 2-page spread in the book, which I try to get every year because it’s great fun to read and have around. Here you will find a tribute to 30 years of Star Wars gaming with fun facts, new records, figures and more – all about Star Wars. The new Guinness World Records…
The great hunt: Annihilation Droid XRR-3 (Eternity Vault 8man HM)
Ready to start raiding in SWTOR? Well you’ll want to check out this guide to the entry boss in the first available “operation” (raid) in the game. It covers both the normal and hardmode versions for a 8man set-up. There are three levels of difficulty available, normal, hard and nightmare. You can also go as a 8man group or 16man. Right now the difficulty shifts the damage done, the health of the boss and the speed/danger of some of his abilities. Swtorextreme will be bringing you guides on all the bosses through the next few weeks so make sure you don’t miss them. We hope to also bring you nightmare mode guides as well, but even we need some time to get them down! 😛 It’s also worth mentioning that we are now Live Streaming our raids (as well as other things such as pre-mades in PVP) over on Twitch….
TOR Wins MMO Game Of The Year From GameSpy
While it’s not really a surprise to any of us here, we are happy to announce that Gamespy ranked SWTOR as Game of the Year: MMO Category. Released just before the end of the year after years of anticipation, the game is off to a fantastic start, breaking genre records across the board and drawing in tons of happy gamers. In what many believe to be the first MMO to rival WoW, SWTOR has made an impressive launch into the industry and now only time will tell if BioWare can keep it up for the longterm. FromGamespy: “We’restill logging hours in a galaxy far, far away to bring you our full review, butthis award should give you an idea how we feel about BioWare’s long-awaitedStar Wars MMO. From day one, the renowned RPG studio said it would set its gameapart from the competition with story, voice, and choice — and…
Swtor Extreme: Revan’s Saga & Fate (Spoilers)
Do you know who Revan is? Did you play Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2? Perhaps you have forgotten everything since you played it so long ago? Maybe you want to know the final fate of Revan and you can’t wait to play both Republic & Sith to 30+? Well no worries, I have an excellent series of videos which will help you on all of these fronts. Dalagrath from Swtor Extreme decided to start a series called “Know Your Saga”, where he details important characters which will appear in SWTOR. The first of those characters chosen was Revan. The character you play as during the Knights of the Old Republic RPG game. If you’d like to learn about who Revan is, and what happened to him during KOTOR 1/2, then head over to part 1 & 2 of the saga by clicking the video below: (Part 1…
TOR TV: The Inquisitor Takes You Through Athiss
Greetings good Sithizens and other lowly Jedi. Normally we make our Sith Inquisition posts here on Thursdays, but we just finished production on a very impressive video yesterday and we wanted to share it with all of you. This is a full playthrough of the Planet Athiss flashpoint from the perspective of the Inquisition’s Lord himself. We go through all three major bosses and get a basic grasp of the mechanics, as well as the trash and mechanics of the flashpoint overall. It’s just under an hour long, and brought to you in full 1080p eye bleeding quality. Feel free to ignore the chatter throughout the video, we were discussing the flashpoint, some basic mechanics, and other happening during the last day of beta, but I turned it down specifically so the audio of the flashpoint could be heard. You can find more great videos of The Old Republic Here!
SWTOR Mosaic – What to Do with 13,000 SWTOR Screenshots
So what would you do with 13,000 SWTOR screenshots from the beta? There are probably a lot of ideas you can come up with but will any of them be as cool as what this player did? Michael Guy (t0liman) created a fantastic SWTOR mosaic out of all of this screenshots from the final beta weekend. He captured over 24 hours of game time on the final weekend of SWTOR beta and also created a 35 minute montage video from the screenshots: This is how he says he did it: “Using “Foto-Mosaik-Edda” to do the heavy work of rendering the mosaic, I then reduced the size to fit the 10mb file limits for twitter using Photoshop (Plus, finding the point between juggernaut 200 megapixel posters and “instantly crash all apps in windows” with 8GB RAM, 400 megapixel’s, then working out how to resize 900mb PNG’s to 9mb, is fun) the…
Leia and Han Solo in SWTOR
While we have to admit that what this guy did is pretty cool, we also have to admit that it’s going to be very annoying to see loads of Star Wars movie characters running around the SWTOR universe, especially for those who are serious about their storyline and roleplaying. However, if you’re looking for something fun, here’s how one guy created Han Solo and Leia with the character creator of SWTOR. You can probably play around with the settings and controls and try to create other Star Wars characters that you recognize as well since there is so much customization available in SWTOR. He even tells you the slider numbers so you can make them yourself. And here’s some more fun from Starfleet Dental:
1.6 Million WoW players ‘could switch to Old Republic’ according to surveys
The battle between SWTOR and WoW rages on and as we get even closer to the launch date of TOR (December 20th) we continue to hear talk of WoW players who are or are not planning to jump ship and trade one game for the other. “Analyst house Lazard Capital Markets thinks World of Warcraft could lose between 900,000 and 1.6 million players following December’s Star Wars: The Old Republic launch”, as reported on Computer and Video Games. The stats aren’t really that surprising when you think about it. People are getting tired of WoW. It’s something we’ve written about many times and this also wouldn’t be the first analyst or expert to make such a prediction. The story explains: “A recent survey conducted by the firm in conjunction with Peanut Labs found that over 50 percent of 381 respondents have grown tired of Blizzard’s game.” This really isn’t a…
“BioWare Bets Big With the Old Republic” Says Fast Company
Star Wars: The Old Republic is scheduled to launch December 20, 2011 and BioWare’s expectation for its future is huge. With all the time and energy put into this MMO, BioWare bets big that it’s going to be a big hit. The SWTOR headquarters is located in Austin, Texas. This seems fitting to some since the Lonestar State has the slogan “everything is bigger in Texas” and SWTOR is one of the largest MMO to ever be released. Fast Company tells us how BioWare bets big with SWTOR. Is it a bet that will pay off in time for the company? BioWare has put 6 years of testing and debugging into the game and logged 4.6 million hours of beta testing. They are now ready to see if the efforts they’ve put into the game are going to pay off. Will gamers respond to this MMO the way they expect…
Will the Novelty of SWTOR Stand the Test of Time?
As we draw close to the biggest beta weekend in the history of SWTOR, we take some time to look at all the things that make SWTOR great. It’s an awesome game from a popular title wrapped up in a pretty bow with all the bells and whistles. The amount of polish that has been added to the game is the one thing that sets SWTOR apart from other MMOs that have come before and will likely come after as well. Without this polish and the Star Wars name, it’s just another MMORPG and for many gamers, that’s nothing so special after all. It’s the little details that make all the difference in SWTOR. The voice acting, the animation and of course, the story are all things that make this game stand out from so many others in the market. They make you feel that your character is more important…
SWTOR in the top five best selling pre orders
EA Inc.’s Star Wars: The Old Republic Collector’s Edition for the PC held in the top five best-selling pre-order products at Best Buy Co. Inc.’s online division this week due to high demand, reports Punch Jump, but then that’s not really a surprise to us here at all. This week it ranked #5 for best-selling pre-orders but I’m willing to bet the closer we get to the December 20 launch, the higher it will climb up that pre-order list. In fact, due to the massive beta testing weekend they just launched, I’m willing to bet a lot more people who have not pre-ordered yet will jump on the bandwagon to do so now that they get to check the game out for themselves. SWTOR is popular but it’s also not cheap. For some gamers, they need to try it themselves before they fork out that kind of cash on a…
3 Years with SWTOR Strategies: An Anniversary Post
As we approach our 3rd birthday here at SWTORstrategies.com, we look back over the years, the posts, the updates and the progression of SWTOR as a game. We are now closer than ever to a launch date, with less than two months before the game will be available worldwide. It’s an exciting time and we’re thankful you’re here to share it with us. We’re even more thankful to those of you who have been here for quite some time now. We’re excited to continue bringing you great Star Wars and SWTOR related content and we appreciate you for dropping by. In honor of the occasion, we’ve compiled a list of some of our most popular posts. Here are some of our most popular posts to date: New Game Mod Brings Star Wars and Call of Duty Together May the Schwartz be with You: Entire Star Wars “A New Hope” in…
New SWTOR Beta Build Returns Wednesday
Have you been waiting for game testing to return? If you’ve been bored waiting for the news that your beta build would be back up for re-download, then today is your day. The new SWTOR beta build is up; get ready to download. This message was posted by Allison Berryman today: Hello Testers! Welcome to the new testing forums! We’re excited to announce that the new build is being deployed! Today, you’ll receive an e-mail letting you know that the new build is available for play, and you’ll be able to log into the launcher and begin downloading the new build. Please make sure to remove your old installation before downloading the new one (see instructions below). European players: The servers in our European datacenter (Carth Onasi and Mission Vao) will not be available today. If you are European, we ask that you please roll characters on those servers when…
Huttball PvP Live Commentary – Jedi Guardian – NYCC
Our friends over at TGN TV have another SWTOR Weekly episode up and this one is a lot of fun, complete with footage from NYCC and a recap of TOR news from this week. We love the Huttball PvP live commentary video from NYCC and if you haven’t seen it, we think you will enjoy it as well. Check it out: Throughout this week, we continue to see more and more videos and stories from NYCC and since we were unable to be there ourselves, it is our great pleasure to bring these to you whenever we spot them as well. This video has a great “sneak peek” of Huttball, a PvP Warzone in SWTOR. It’s really a fun video with a glimpse of Huttball and hilarious commentary. “This is an objective game; not a killing game, folks!” Since I’m a sports writer as well as a video game nut,…
Impressions of SWTOR from a WoW Vet: Part 2
Yesterday I brought you a write-up from a Reddit user on his impressions of game testing SWTOR. It seems the post was popular enough that he decided to write up a part 2. Since his initial impression of the game were mostly positive (for which he received some criticism), he has added some downfalls of SWTOR to his Part 2. A snippet: Some troll-being yesterday said that Voidstar was quote “an abomination” which is far from an accurate portrayal of the state of that particular warzone. Voidstar is kind of like Strand of the Ancients in WoW. You’ve got to either blast your way through a series of gates or you have to defend against people blasting their way through said series of gates. Just like Strand there’s a time limit on the game and if the attacker wins, when teams switch sides, the former defenders have their time determined…
Darth Malgus Action Figure Coming From Hasbro
Are you a fan of Darth Malgus? Would you be enough of a fan to buy this action figure? Darth Malgus will now be an action figure, thanks to Hasbro. This is pretty cool news for any SWTOR or Star Wars fan and collector. Stephen Reid tweeted a picture of the action figure this week. ToyArk.com announced at the Hasbro Star Wars panel that Darth Malgus will be available as Wave 3 of the Star Wars Vintage Collection this coming April. Since he is expected to be a major character in the game, this is fun and exciting news. On their website, ToyArk also has some great slideshows from the Star Wars panel and some other SWTOR and Star Wars related news. It’s definitely worth heading over to check out their slides and stuff.
NYCC 2011: STAR WARS THE OLD REPUBLIC Panel
It’s what we’ve all been waiting for at NYCC- the Star Wars panel! What kind of fun, exciting info is coming out of there today? Fans are hungry for info and NYCC attempts to give us anything new they can at Friday’s panel. Newsarama has been giving us the best coverage to come out of NYCC and has this to say about the Star Wars Panel: BioWare Austin’s Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid led the panel, joined by Game Director James Ohlen, Writing Director Daniel Erickson, and Cory Butler, Live Producer. They went on to provide an overview of the game (in case anyone in attendance actually did not know already) and Reid explained the backstory a bit. “But we’re making an MMO, not a movie, and gameplay is very important to us as well,” said Reid. Those of us following SWTOR already know all too well how important story…