The wait is finally over. BioWare today has announced a release date and a set of three subscription options for their highly anticipated MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic. While previous reports this week suggested that the title might slip to 2012, gamers should be excited to know that 2011 is the year.
Unfortunately, though, The Old Republic won’t be releasing until near the end of the year, December 20th to be exact, but any solid release date is better than no release date. Also, for those living in various European regions, you can look forward to getting your hands on the game a mere two days later, on the 22nd.
As far as the pricing options that will be available at launch, those come in a one-month, three-month, and six-month package. Each will be a one time charge, and are comparable to what is available to World of Warcraft players. Of course The Old Republic will ship with 30 days worth of subscription time, but from then on it’s up to the player to decide how much time they want to commit to the MMO.
Here’s a complete breakdown of the three pricing options:
- 1 Month Subscription: $14.99 (£8.99/€12.99)
- 3 Month Subscription: $13.99 per month (one-time charge of $41.97/£25.17/€35.97)
- 6 Month Subscription: $12.99 per month (one-time charge of $77.94/£46.14/€65.94)
BioWare also makes note of the early access promised to pre-order holders but does not say how that will figure into this launch. We imagine, based on the phrasing of “Early Game Access” that those who first purchased any of the game’s three editions when pre-orders were announced will be able to jump online before the 20th.
There isn’t much else to say about The Old Republic that hasn’t been said a thousand times over. Our previous hands-on experiences with the games have shown a solid blend of BioWare’s signature storytelling abilities and the MMO experience, And, with the promise of a unique storyline specific to your character’s class, we can’t help but feel like this game will be sucking away a large portion of our life.
Are you ready to finally explore the galaxy far, far away? Which of the three subscription options are you going for?
Star Wars: The Old Republic release December 20, 2011 for the PC.
Source: The Old Republic
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Finally an official release date I pre-ordered the collectors edition with all the extras, let me just say looks like Christmas will come early for me this year even if its just a couple of days from the actual day!!
Don’t know what subscription I’ll be gettin though
ill wait untill early 2012 to decide if im going to get this or not. i never payed for an mmo, and with me playing gears 3, battlefield 3, and halo i wont have time for it this year.
“Our previous hands-on experiences with the games have shown a solid blend of BioWare’s signature storytelling abilities”
Well to be honest guys I do not think Bioware is actually that interested at “telling stories” any more. Certainly they seem to be steadily moving away from making RPG, to wit, changing Dragon Age Origins (an RPG) into Dragon Age 2 (an arcade fighter-like game with a bit of dialogue and a perfunctory story line).
Bioware now makes ‘action games’, not RPGs. If you want an RPG, avoid Bioware completely and play something like Witcher 2
Did u play mass effect 2? I agree DA2 was lame, but ME 2 was dreaming awsome. And, I played the ME 3 demo at comic con, and they added back some of the “RPG elements” that people missed from ME1. So yea, Bioware still has it
Yes I did and ME2 was actually pretty good…
…but if you read what Bioware’s people have been saying about ME3, they are clearly moving away from RPGs and towards more “accessible” games…
…and “accessible” is industry-speak for “aimed at a less thoughtful, more action oriented market”… i.e. not RPG players.
I figured Bioware didn’t have the guts to raise the price ceiling on the subscription model……everyone should be thanking them for that.
Wait a minute…. I thought this game was going to be free to play?
I think they discussed the possibility of going free-to-play, but in the end they went with the solid monthly subscription plan, which is in my opinion the best choice. I’d rather pay one solid fee per month and get access to all the content than paying bits and pieces at a time for upgrades and content and different things like that.
Happy for the MMO players out there…but I still wish this was a Bioware-produced KOTOR III instead.
I agree that is shouldn’t be free, but why use the same prices as WoW? Going a little bit cheaper would draw in alot more buyers and make the players happy.
this will be sooooooooooooooooooo cool, star wars the old republic the game will be TBD for TBD 2011.,, cool, bring it, but,i wish that the game have some of my female fattales like,big grown big breasted tailsko aka big grown big breasted tails/tailsko in the game as a female jedi with two lightsaber and all fearsome force powers., and, like force lightning,force dash ,force jump., dashing shock . , sith saber flurry, sith saber attack, sith saber throw, and all other sith force powers too.,, and other force powers,force push, resillence,vitallity, battle meditation, battle medallion, and all other force powers, yes, do it, bioware, for the sake of all female kitsunes of japan ,and of japan’s yana temple, and that will be great for TBD 2011,