14 DAY TRIAL // BioWare, LucasArts and Electronic Arts have not yet talked about a launch date for their MMO project Star Wars: The Old Republic but the developers working on World of Warcraft at Blizzard don't seem to be concerned about the coming competition for their successful game.
Speaking to Eurogamer, Greg Street, who is the lead systems designer working on Cataclysm, has said, “As players, we're excited about it, because we like MMO games and that looks like it's going to be a good one. So we're excited to be able to play it and get our hands on it. I don't think we're super worried about competition.” “Our game's been around for six years now, we've added a lot of features and a lot of polish and it's going to be really hard for someone new to come in and immediately challenge that,” he further goes.
But the developer also says, “I think it's going to be really hard to compete with World of Warcraft in every single area,” with the experience of the Blizzard team outweighing the fact that BioWare can deliver a more modern product in terms of technology and focus.
Street also says that any big profile MMO launch that takes place attracts more attention to the genre itself and this can only be a good thing for World of Warcraft, which already has the biggest number of subscribers in this space, over 12 million at the moment.
The Old Republic is set to deliver a more focused experience for an MMO, with the player immersed in the game world via both moral decisions that shape the universe and via fully voiced dialog.
Electronic Arts admitted that it had spent more on the new Star Wars MMO than on any other project in its development history.
In addition, BioWare is currently working on Dragon Age 2, which will arrive in March 2011, and on something connected to Mass Effect.