Company says response to first free period was overwhelming

Mar 21, 2012 09:19 GMT  ·  By

The development team at BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts have announced that they are launching yet another free weekend for their MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, which will start on Thursday, March 22 and will run until Monday, March 26.

Another free weekend for the MMO was run during last weekend and only those who have not yet registered an account for a free trial of The Old Republic before will be able to take part in this next period of free play.

The developers at BioWare are saying that they decided to launch yet another free weekend for their MMO so quickly because of the “overwhelming” positive response from the player base to the first one and because many players expressed interest but were unable to take part.

Those who register, create an account and download Star Wars: The Old Republic will be able to explore the Origin Worlds for all the eight character classes, giving them a taste of the way the game is written and how mechanics work, and they can also engage in the Flashpoints linked to the two factions and in Warzones for Player versus Player battles.

The hope is that players become hooked during the four days of free play and will then be ready to buy a packaged or a digital version of The Old Republic and then pay a monthly subscription to keep getting access to it.

Some analysts see free play weekends as a sign that an MMO has failed to keep its player numbers up but both Electronic Arts and BioWare have stated that they are satisfied with the sales of Star Wars: The Old Republic and its subscription level.

The game has launched in late December 2011 and has so far managed to get more than 2 million copies to gamers, with an increase in sales expected as new mechanics are introduced.