ARTICLE@IGN (http://pc.ign.com/articles/109/1093149p1.html)

Today at the Janney Capital Markets' 2010 Consumer Conference EA's chief financial officer Eric Brown commented on what a massive undertaking Star Wars: The Old Republic is. As reported by Gamasutra he stated that EA is spending more money on Old Republic development than any game in the company's history.

The site also reports that there's no specific time line for the game's release. Brown commented: "We're not expecting it to ship in fiscal 2010, nor have we given a specific ship date thereafter. We're intentionally being nonspecific on the ship date."

Brown also noted that due to the game's mass appeal and BioWare's history of releasing highly rated games, they have no problem betting the bank on the success of the Star Wars MMO.

With how much money they are most likely shoving into voice acting it isn't really a surprise. Really big gamble. Most MMO's are made or broken within the first 6 months, and if this investment falls through... EA is in a lot of trouble, and so is Bioware.

At this point it really isn't surprising that the art, characters, worlds and so on are borrowing so heavily from the 6 movies. They need to pull in as broad an audience as possible very quickly or could be one of the largest sinking ships in gaming history. This comes as a fairly large problem considering WoW still dominates the market and every new MMO to come out within the last, like, 5 years has just sunk into quiet oblivion.

This may end up being a Titanic.

They should have done this in the Galaxies time frame. Of course that first they should finish with Galaxies first...

I think EA is big enough to absorb the hit if this game tanks. Most other developers/publishers? Not so much.

They should have done this in the Galaxies time frame. Of course that first they should finish with Galaxies first...The problem with Galaxies is that everyone wants to be a Jedi or a Sith, and we see the results when they are shoehorned into an era that doesn't support them.

They should have done this in the Galaxies time frame. Of course that first they should finish with Galaxies first...

The big problem with the SWG time frame is how limited it is. You can't do anything with all of the major characters because they're timeline locked to survive and do certain things. Anything done with Luke is boring because you know he'll survive no matter what. Ditto any of the other major characters or even EU bit players. With TOR, its characters are made up just for this era, and it's fair game. You don't know if Satele Shan will survive an encounter with the Sith Emperor. You don't know if Hylo Visz will survive an encounter with Mandalore. It goes on and on. A completely new era gives unlimited freedoms to do anything short of destroying planets and extincting races that weren't created for the game.

True enough. One thing with WoW is that it is definitely writing the narrative as it goes. Yes there are major characters from the RTS, but they hold the keys to defining where those major characters go, when and if they get killed off, exiled, etc.

The whole Garrosh vs Thrall bit they're building up looks to be great fun lore wise. SWG never had that kind of freedom to play with major characters.

As far as this being super expensive...dunno how I feel about it. If something this greatly expensive doesn't start to eat into WoW's market share...if this MMO is only as successful as say LOTRO...it's gonna hurt and once again do damage to the Star Wars brand name as well as put a big blemish on Bioware. But they'd have to invest tons of time into it if they wanted it to get to where WoW is. The way WoW is tuned now is very impressive and SWTOR can only benefit from those lessons learned.

The only great player I can see losing something in this gamble is EA itself. Star Wars will move on; it has existed for way longer than this MMO and if it hasn't ended with an endless rehash of crappy games, it won't end now. Bioware has enough blockbusters under it's name to impress any gamer or publisher. Their reputation, in the case TOR sinks, will most likely stay the same.