Star Wars: The Old Republic launch date announced

Post by darkjedi @ 11:41pm 24/09/11 | 64 Comments

It's going to be a Star Wars Christmas this year, with the confirmation today that The Old Republic will go live on December 20th in North America and December 22nd in European areas, but no details around the eventual roll-out in Australia.

BioWare and LucasArts are pleased to announce that Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ will launch on December 20, 2011 in North America and on December 22, 2011 in the European Launch Territories! The announcement was first made by BioWare co-founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk during their keynote address at the 2011 Eurogamer Expo in London, England.

Each copy of Star Wars: The Old Republic will come with 30 days of subscription time, after which you have the option to continue playing with one of the following monthly subscription fees:

* 1 Month Subscription: $14.99 (£8.99/€12.99)
* 3 Month Subscription: $13.99 per month (one-time charge of $41.97/£25.17/€35.97)
* 6 Month Subscription: $12.99 per month (one-time charge of $77.94/£46.14/€65.94)

You can read the full press release here.

As previously mentioned, BioWare haven't geo-restricted logins, so if you've managed to score a North American copy of the game then you'll be able to play on launch day.

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Latest Comments

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Eorl
Posted 10:20am 25/9/11

I managed to get a copy from Amazon before they restricted those sales, so hopefully they adhere to it.

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Shaexen
Posted 11:22am 25/9/11

I got my copy from Amazon. I'm still amazed that Australia has been left out in the cold. We've always been bundled in with US MMO releases (apart from swg). I mean Warhammer online was made by a lot of the same people and it actually had Australians servers.

A pretty bad oversight considering that the amount of Australians/NZ who play mmos is quite a considerable number.

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carson
Posted 12:40pm 25/9/11

A pretty bad oversight considering that the amount of Australians/NZ who play mmos is quite a considerable number.

Especially given such a popular IP.

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BladeRunner
Posted 12:57pm 25/9/11

I ordered from amazon too, I also hope they don't reneg on it lol. If they post it on Dec 20, it should get here after x-mas some time.

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ravn0s
Posted 01:06pm 25/9/11

im gonna wait for reviews and maybe get it when it's released here.

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Grundar
Posted 02:12pm 25/9/11

Disappointed about a lack of an announced Australian release. Loved the original SWG but was disappointed with the first alterations to combat and of course the game breaking NGE. SWG is winding down now and those who long for a "good" Star Wars MMO experience will be clamouring for this game to be good. I didn't pre-order from Amazon incase they decided to throw around the whole "regional" thing and cancel existing pre-orders.

At least my Christmas won't be full of server down, unable to authenticate etc.. problems that new MMO's seem to suffer :P

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Shaexen
Posted 04:05pm 25/9/11

At least my Christmas won't be full of server down, unable to authenticate etc.. problems that new MMO's seem to suffer :P

Tbh this sounds a great better deal than having to spend time with my family

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DM
Posted 04:22pm 25/9/11

All I can find on youtube when it comes to gameplay videos are shaky cams taking in german and official trailers and "gameplay" which no doubt has been selectively collected to look good. To me everything looks flat and uninteresting. Graphics don't even look that good to me and only thing keeping this from being s*** as far as I can tell is the fact it's star wars.

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andrewus
Posted 04:28pm 25/9/11

im gonna wait for reviews and maybe get it when it's released here.

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Phandaal
Posted 06:00pm 25/9/11

I couldn't care less.

What my life doesn't need right now is another linear hamster wheel MMO, desperately trying to squeeze the last remaining bucks out of a declining IP and a vanishing subscription model.

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Eorl
Posted 07:04pm 25/9/11

It ain't looking to good from some of the beta testers opinions I've heard, but here is hoping they don't rightfully screw up.

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DM
Posted 07:17pm 25/9/11

Beta opinion. Rather interesting read I thought. 28gb client? jesus christ.

But then you login and the client boots up. There's a few other minor issues here. At first launch (never opened the client before), it sets TOR at a whopping 1024 x 780 resolution, rather than your monitor's native resoluton (1920 x 1080 for me).

F*** that s**** me when you load up a new game and it uses some retard resolution like that instead of what your monitor is currently set to.

And even though I knew I was going to play a female, I checked out the male body types. O - M - G, they are borderline atrocious. You have skinny, moderately built, beast mode, and a mix of the Hulk and Uncle Phil from Fresh Prince.

Ahahahahahaha.

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Nerfy
Posted 07:30pm 25/9/11

Despite my enormous flip flops, when it comes around, if I'm not dying of cancer or something, I'll probably give it a shot, just because underlying it all is probably a decent continuation of the KotOR storyline (though god the trailers do not inspire much excitement in terms of story here, seems to have taken every established star wars cliche and done nothing new, not even remotely interested in the outcome of this "conflict" as it stands).

Coupled with those three underwater episodes of the clone wars, and, the franchise may finally be milked to death of any original seriousness or sense in my eyes.

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DM
Posted 07:33pm 25/9/11

Despite everything negative I say about it i'll no doubt try it for a month at least as well as a bounty hunter. I love MMO games and have a sort of compulsion to try every single new one that comes out.

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Hogfather
Posted 07:51pm 25/9/11

Pass.

See hamster wheel post above, WoW is my last mmo of that type thanks.

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ravn0s
Posted 08:03pm 25/9/11

Rather interesting read I thought. 28gb client? jesus christ.

what do you expect? it's an mmo with a f*** ton of content. of course its gonna be huge.

i wonder how much of it is just audio.

I'll probably give it a shot, just because underlying it all is probably a decent continuation of the KotOR storyline

there's rumours going around that lucasarts is working on a kotor3

last edited by ravn0s at 20:03:38 25/Sep/11

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Khel
Posted 12:13pm 18/10/11

< Redacted >

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Thundercracker
Posted 08:40am 26/9/11

Khel what's the top level content going to be like? Is it going to be like WoW where the race to max level is only a small portion of what you can do?

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Khel
Posted 08:50am 26/9/11

Not sure, I didn't get to max level and the endgame content wasn't available for testing when I was playing anyway. I think theres some max level flashpoints to do (their version of instances) and theres at least one raid announced. The instances are pretty sweet though, very story driven, like the raid for example starts with your group on a ship travelling to the planet, then the ship gets attacked and you need to fight off attackers and make it to escape pods, then you land on the planet and you're all separated so you need to meet back up and make your way to the prison you're attacking, etc, etc.

A lot of effort has been put into making the levelling up process more meaningful, so its not just a race to max level. Lots more story-driven stuff going on and your character has its own story that unfolds throughout the game, etc. I dunno what that means for endgame content, but at least the journey on the way to the endgame content is much more fun than your average level grind.

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ravn0s
Posted 09:27am 26/9/11

The instances are pretty sweet though, very story driven, like the raid for example starts with your group on a ship travelling to the planet, then the ship gets attacked and you need to fight off attackers and make it to escape pods, then you land on the planet and you're all separated so you need to meet back up and make your way to the prison you're attacking, etc, etc.

the eternity vault.

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Eorl
Posted 10:08am 26/9/11

Sounds pretty sweet then Khel, thanks for that. You might just turn a few people over to the "dark" side.

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Thundercracker
Posted 02:25pm 26/9/11

If I had more time I would definitely be checking this out.

I'm time poor :(

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Obes
Posted 02:51pm 26/9/11

The instances are pretty sweet though, very story driven, like the raid for example starts with your group on a ship travelling to the planet, then the ship gets attacked and you need to fight off attackers and make it to escape pods, then you land on the planet and you're all separated so you need to meet back up and make your way to the prison you're attacking, etc, etc.

Sounds like EQ2 the first expansion. You'd be randomly running through a zone and then one of the group would get kidnapped and you have to get him out by stacking boxes and planks and s***. Then a bunch of dungeons in much the same way.

About the only thing new I have seen in TOR is stupid ass regionalisation.

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Keato
Posted 02:54pm 26/9/11

You'd be randomly running through a zone and then one of the group would get kidnapped

Oh man that sucked, when the healer got kidnapped

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ravn0s
Posted 03:13pm 26/9/11

i wonder if they're going to charge us aussies a higher monthly fee when its released here. didn't another mmo released a little while back charge more?

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Nerfy
Posted 04:29pm 26/9/11

Ok, this actually looked quite f*****g awesome, graphics have improved and "Bliz", oh god Bliz, my keenness for this game just increased dramatically.

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Khel
Posted 12:14pm 18/10/11

< Redacted >

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Nerfy
Posted 11:35pm 26/9/11

The Jawa pulling out the bazooka was just the kind of silliness that I didn't think would make it into this game, I'm so much more keen after that (mmos need silliness, f*** serious roleplaying).

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Khel
Posted 11:36pm 26/9/11

Yeah, its actually quite lighthearted at times, I got a lot of laughs out of some of the conversations options and dialogue

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DM
Posted 11:39pm 26/9/11

Ok that companion thing made me interested again. Being able to actually forge a relationship to be friends and have them do stuff for you is a fantastic idea I feel. I must have that Jawa. He is so damn cute.

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DM
Posted 12:13am 27/9/11

WTH it says I cant edit because it's been too long? What kind of s*** is that? Anyway as much as I hate amazon I pre-ordered from them because... well why the hell not. Good way to waste a month of gaming at least until D3 arrives.

EDIT - Ok page won't load in the "redeem the pre-order code" thing. Hrm wonder whats up with that?

last edited by DM at 00:13:11 27/Sep/11

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Khel
Posted 12:15pm 18/10/11

< Redacted >

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BladeRunner
Posted 05:29pm 27/9/11

This all sounds good, It will not come fast enough.

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Eorl
Posted 05:59pm 27/9/11

Pretty cool Khel, thanks for the info :)

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ravn0s
Posted 06:00pm 27/9/11

that crafting/companion system sounds pretty good.

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Nerfy
Posted 01:26pm 17/10/11

This was actually pretty sweet

Damn my flip flops, damn them to hell.

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ravn0s
Posted 01:35pm 17/10/11

i love how they announced a global release date in dec for everyone cept australia/nz. guess we're not part of this planet.

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Reverend Evil�
Posted 02:14pm 17/10/11

I like that companion idea. I wonder if you can have a relationship with an R2 unit?

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Zapo
Posted 02:17pm 17/10/11

I'm looking forward to playing this with my partner. We played WOW together a while ago, but haven't played anything together since Portal 2 - and that was short lived.

Will be interesting to see how quickly I get fed up with this! I must admit though that since preordering I have purposely ignored reading much about it.

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Khel
Posted 02:38pm 17/10/11

The music in it is so epic, thats the music from the login screen/character select, and sometimes I'd just sit on it listening to the music cos it was so damn awesome

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Eorl
Posted 03:22pm 17/10/11

The music in it is so epic, thats the music from the login screen/character select, and sometimes I'd just sit on it listening to the music cos it was so damn awesome

Were you invited to the Open Beta Khel? I think I've still got my Amazon pre-order, so I've at least got a subscription for a month. Not really expecting much, hopefully it's somewhat okay.

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ravn0s
Posted 03:47pm 17/10/11

khel's been in the beta for a while.

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Nerfy
Posted 03:56pm 17/10/11

So we all like this game now? I'm ok with this.

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Cheez
Posted 04:26pm 17/10/11

I still got beta till 11pm wednesday and im loving it, im gunna be like a junkie needing a fix between then and release.

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Khel
Posted 05:11pm 17/10/11

I was in the friends and associates beta cos I know some guys who work at EA, its ended now though (or at least the one I was in has ended). I got a Sith Inquisitor to about level 36 or 37ish (max level is 50), so I got a pretty decent taste of it. It was just starting to feel a little bit grindy at the level I was at, but that might have been the planet I was on. I was doing Alderaan and wasn't really a fan of it, it wasn't as good as some of the others. Hoth was a higher level planet that I never got to, apparently thats pretty cool (no pun intended... ok maybe a little bit intended).

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Cheez
Posted 06:20pm 17/10/11

I was doing Alderaan and wasn't really a fan of it, it wasn't as good as some of the others.

You're not the only one who isn't a fan of it, I heard the empire wasn't either.

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Eorl
Posted 07:03pm 17/10/11

How many planets are there, are they good, is it to story book like, what's the combat like and are there raids? Answer these questions and be rewarded a shrubbery.

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Khel
Posted 12:16pm 18/10/11

< Redacted >

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TicMan
Posted 10:48pm 17/10/11

Khel just made me want to get this.

Thanks Khel.

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Reverend Evil�
Posted 11:07pm 17/10/11

I'm still undecided. It might be fun for a few weeks but I just know it's gonna be like playing WoW all over again. I might wait a bit till after it's out to see what the go is.

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typo
Posted 03:53am 18/10/11

I didn't think that the NDA wall had come down yet.

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typo
Posted 03:59am 18/10/11

I'm still undecided. It might be fun for a few weeks but I just know it's gonna be like playing WoW all over again. I might wait a bit till after it's out to see what the go is.

Who cares if it's only a few weeks of fun? I paid exactly the same amount for TOR, that I did for Mass Effect. I didn't expect more than a few weeks of fun from ME/ME2. The likely worst case scenario is that you play a game that is very similar to ME/ME2, except with lightsabres and extensive coop multiplayer, for a few weeks and then go back to killing trolls in WoW. That's still a win.

It's not like you'll get kicked in the balls by stinky every time you play WoW over TOR.

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Cheez
Posted 07:27am 18/10/11

I didn't think that the NDA wall had come down yet.

It hasn't, Khel is a rebel.

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stinky
Posted 09:41am 18/10/11

you guys should all buy it ... if for no other reason than to keep me gainfully employed.

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Eorl
Posted 09:57am 18/10/11

It hasn't, Khel is a rebel.

Quick, get him!

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Khel
Posted 11:12am 18/10/11

Oh, I just assumed it had cos theres posts all over the net about it now, and its in open beta

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typo
Posted 12:10pm 18/10/11

> and its in open beta

No, otherwise we'd all be playing it.

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Khel
Posted 12:17pm 18/10/11

Oh well, oops. I thought the beta weekends were considered "open beta".

Anyway, edited my previous posts

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Enska
Posted 12:19pm 18/10/11

I think he means open being it's out of alpha and the friends and family stuff.

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Cheez
Posted 04:24pm 18/10/11

Oh well, oops. I thought the beta weekends were considered "open beta".

No the one I'm in is a stress test beta, runs an older client, but still sort of extended weekend test. Still invite only and there is no 'Open Beta' the NDA will get dropped when the game goes live.

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Khel
Posted 07:15pm 18/10/11

Seems very odd that the NDA is going for so long, all the way up to launch. Blizzard usually drops its NDAs months and months in advance of the actual release.

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Nerfy
Posted 08:56pm 18/10/11

It's good if the story doesn't get spoiled at least, it's really Bioware's best feature imo.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 09:05pm 18/10/11

A friend of mine just classed it as

a single player game with thousands of randoms playing too

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Nerfy
Posted 12:40am 19/10/11

Har, that's amusing. Not necessarily a bad thing though, I love Bioware games, I don't mind the clone wars series, I love WoW - mix these things and it could be ok, so long as the play is smooth...

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