Star Wars: The Old Republic finally has an official release date. On December 20, 2011 the game billed “the most heavily anticipated MMO to date” will launch.
(I pulled that line directly from EA/Bioware materials so it may not be the most objective statement, ‘most heavily anticipated’, but there does seem to be a lot of buzz around this game. And that’s not just the fangirl in me talking.)
Back in July, after only 5 days of pre-order access the game had sold 200,000 copies according to a statement released by the company. As of September 2, 2011 the American Pre Order Chart had listed SW: toR as selling approx. 30,000 games a week in America, with a little over 400,000 physical copies in total pre-ordered. Yeah, that’s right; there are approximately 30,000 physical copies of the game pre-ordered in America every week. These numbers ignore all pre-orders sold outside of America, as well as those sold to anyone in digital format.
With nigh on three months to go before the game is released anticipation can easily become frustration for some (myself included); so I’ve come up with some suggestions for folks who need their Old Republic fix sooner than later.
SW: toR has the benefit of being the long awaited successor to the very successful Knights of the Old Republic games: KotOR (Bioware/LucasArts) and KotOR 2: The Sith Lords (Obsidian/LucanArts). If you haven’t played them yet – go get them. They’re both playable on the 360 even though they were released for the original Xbox, and there are Mac and PC versions available as well. With over 60 hours of play time per game per play through, multiple classes, and different quest lines culminating in multiple endings based on your choices - you can easily kill a few weeks playing these games in your downtime. If you have played them already, play them again. Because they’re awesome, and despite taking place 300 years before SW: tOR, there are connections to be made between the franchises. It’s a good primer for those new to the Old Republic universe, and it’ll get you back into the swing of things if you’re an old hat.
For those who somehow don’t already know - canonically Revan is male and he follows the redemption storyline. Of course in both KotOR and KotOR II the player can choose to be either male or female and light side/dark side alignment are entirely based on player preference. But canonically Revan is a light side dude at the end of the KotOR storyline; which is only important if you want to have a seamless transition into KotOR III.
Ok, so there is no KotOR III and everyone knows that (right?). But it wasn’t a total all out in your face lie. KotOR III was going to be made. But then it wasn’t. The official line was something about LucasArts needing to make strategic cuts to achieve a more advantageous financial position. Blah, blah, blah – all that matters is that they cancelled it. But it was cancelled after a whole lot of art was created (including this concept art of Naresha, above) and some storyline for the project was written. If you’re interested to see what was created (and then unceremoniously set aside) for KotOR III you could always pick up a copy of the 2008 book, “Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts” which according to Wookipedia is a history of LucasArts and includes, “more than 300 pieces of concept art, character development sketches, and storyboards” from published LucasArts games as well as from those that didn’t make it to retail – including KotOR III.
While I’m interested to see where developers were heading with KotOR III before they were sent to the chopping block, I have a better outlet for my impatient fervor. By the time I finish my umpteenth playthrough of KotOR and KotOR II mid November will be here. Yes, yes, there are a few non-Star Wars games that I want to play coming out at about that time, but more importantly, November 15, 2011 is the anticipated release date for Drew Karpyshyn’s new novel entitled, “Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan” which finishes up the KotOR storyline, finally revealing the reasons behind Revan’s fall to the Dark Side and his abandonment of the Republic following his redemption at the Star Forge.
It’s not exactly KotOR III. Obviously. It’s not a videogame or even a ‘choose your own adventure’ book. I can’t finish my Revan’s story exactly the way I wanted to do it. But I can see who or what the big bad is, what was so dangerous that Revan took on the Darth title. I can see what happens to the characters I came to love in the game series. I can get the sense of closure that I’ve been craving for more than half a decade now. And then I can let my imagination run wild. Or I can just head over to fanfiction.net sometime in late November and see what those folks came up with. They are a prolific bunch.
Add in some comic reading (both SW: tOR and KOTOR), a bit of forum surfing, guild preparation and some beta weekends (PLEASE Bioware. I NEED this!) and that should bring everyone nicely into December in a mostly stable state of mind. Some holiday prep, baking and shopping and wrapping and what not and there will be just enough time to rest up for the inevitable marathon of gaming granted by an early access pre-order code.
For more information on Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan, check out this interview with the author:
http://www.swtor.com/news/news-article/20110422
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