14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts has once again explained its reasoning behind the decision to limit the initial release of Star Wars: The Old Republic, saying that it's ultimately for the good of the player, as the company's been making sure that it will handle a certain number of players logging on when the game deploys on December 20.
EA has just launched a major game, in the form of Battlefield 3, and is now getting ready for another release, Star Wars: The Old Republic, the new online role playing game from BioWare.
As you all know, despite the fact that the game is available for pre-order, the initial release might not see every customer get a chance to play the game, as EA and BioWare are limiting it to make sure servers will handle the pressure of millions of people logging in at once.
Talking with investors during a recent earnings call, via MCV, EA Labels boss Frank Gibeau elaborate on this aspect of Star Wars: The Old Republic.
"We've taken a very detailed approach to looking at how do we maximize the customer experience when they go online with Star Wars - how to maximize the fun that they're having online, the stability, the quality?" he said. "We're using our beta test to inform us of what scale that we can handle. Our pre-order campaign is tailored towards how we're going to do that.
"We're looking at a rollout plan that is fairly ambitious. We don't feel like we're going to be leading too much demand behind at launch but we definitely are going to be very cautious and thoughtful about how many people we bring on and in what order."
Gibeau also highlighted the importance of the Star Wars brand and how The Old Republic will remain viable for quite some time due to its prestige, getting new players to try it out in the next few years.
"It's a very interesting proposition from that standpoint because you have the Star Wars brand that draws in a lot of people. That is a good thing because we think we can sustain the business over a very long time as we grow. There's going to continually be new customer segments that we can open up and bring into the service."
Star Wars: The Old Republic is currently available for North American and European customers, with the official release scheduled to happen on December 20, although early access will be offered to those who pre-ordered the game since it was revealed.