14 DAY TRIAL // Star Wars: The Old Republic is finally out and, while watching to see how the players react to their products, the developers at BioWare are also thinking about the future of the franchise and how it can keep gamers interested in the long term.
James ohlen, who is the creative director working on Star Wars: The Old Republic, told Gamasutra as part of a bigger interview that, “Unlike a lot of other game companies that, once they launch a game, downsize their teams radically, our plan is to keep the team together and continue to focus on building content. "There's no secret project currently being done in the Austin studio. We're very much focused on Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars for the foreseeable future.”
Greg Zeschuk, who is one of the co-founders of BioWare and has a leading role when it comes to role playing game and MMO development at Electronic Arts, added, “It's hard to say right now what we may or may not do as far as future projects. We're really busy working on future SWTOR content as well as continuing to improve the service. This will never end.”
Star Wars: The Old Republic is one of the most ambitious MMO projects ever created, with most of the mechanics familiar to those who love the genre but a new focus on the story side, including a lot of choices for gamers and rich backstories for all the characters that gamers meet.
BioWare has already revealed that it plans to launch content at a steady pace for The Old Republic, even suggesting that it has a new system in the works to expand the range of options available during battle for all players when it is introduced during 2012.
At the moment The Old Republic is using a subscription based business model but many analysts believe that a move to free-to-play will be made after the first few months of next year.