14 DAY TRIAL // Publisher Electronic Arts might not yet have an official launch date for its upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, but the company is talking a lot about the game's prospects, saying that it expects to have a good showing right from launch, gaining a position of leadership in the market.
Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, John Riccitiello, the chief executive officer of EA, has stated, “We're going right at it. We want share, we want leadership position here. I'm not expecting to sort of knock them over, but ... we're gonna get a big chunk.”
The CEO also launched into a comparison with World of Warcraft, the leader of the subscription-based MMO market from Blizzard, saying, “In a way, theirs is a silent movie and ours is the first talkie. By and large, theirs is not a voiced MMO. Ours is a fully voiced MMO in multiple languages.”
Riccitiello was talking about the fact that Star Wars: The Old Republic will have fully voiced non-player characters, the aim being to immerse the gamer in the universe by providing a deep auditory experience as well as a visual one.
Recently the developers from BioWare have said that the creators of World of Warcraft have set standards in the MMO genre and that they are working hard to meet them and also deliver something new.
Sources from inside Electronic Arts have said that Star Wars: The Old Republic was initially slated for a spring launch date, but that it has been delayed into the fall season, probably to give the development team at BioWare to polish the game some more.
The publisher has also recently revealed that, if the game gets half a million subscribers, it can be profitable but that they aim for bigger numbers at launch and for a solid install base that grows over time.