14 DAY TRIAL // We still do not have a clear launch date for the BioWare developed MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, but publisher Electronic Arts is already talking about how the game will perform when it is out and about the infrastructure that will be needed to support the players that are interested in the experience.
Frank Gibeau, who is the head of the publishing division at Electronic Arts, has stated during a call with investors that, “”We're pretty relaxed about what we're going to be able to achieve there. We'll be able to scale up and light up new severs on a fairly quick basis. We've got a plan to do that over the months following ship, and we've got a lot of capacity built into that.”
The executive refused to offer clear numbers on how many pre-orders Star Wars: The Old Republic has received so far, but he has said that the figures are better than what the company expected at this point before the launch date for the game.
Gibeau says, “It's the largest number we've done at EA comparison to other titles; the next closest title was Battlefield 3, and it was up significantly from there.”
The executive has reiterated the fact that Star Wars: The Old Republic needs just half a million subscribers in order to sustain itself and that any gamer population of more than one million gamers means that the new MMO might justify the entire price that Electronic Arts has paid for BioWare.
BioWare has been bought by EA during October 2007 and has since relied on the company to drive its role-playing game and MMO divisions.
Players who are interested in Star Wars: The Old Republic can now pre-order the game in order to get early access to it and Gibeau has also announced that during the month of September an official announcement about the holiday launch date will be made.