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Star Wars: The Old Republic is ambitious, but maybe we don’t know just how much. Speaking in San Francisco last week, BioWare boss Ray Muzyka told VG247 that the Canadian firm had been planning an MMO for more than ten years.

“We’ve been thinking of making an MMO for probably over a decade,” he said. “At BioWare we tend to have long-term plans.”

Working to such long scales is necessary to keep the developer’s output at an “awesome” level, said Ray.

“We want to make sure that everything we do is awesome, really high quality,” he added.

“So what we did was assemble a great team, a mix of some of the best people from the MMO space and some of the best people from BioWare Edmonton who focused on BioWare RPGs, and put them together: that’s our Austin team.

“It’s really a fusion of the best of breed from both sides of the industry.”

Ray told us that BioWare has now staffed up to a roster of almost 500 employees, and that The Old Republic is a major deal for the company.

“This is an incredibly significant product for BioWare,” he said.

“I said in the presentation, ‘People ask us why we didn’t do KOTOR 3?’ For us this is KOTOR 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9: it’s that big in terms of the amount of content. It’s that ambitious in terms of the scale, and the interactions of the players with the world and the universe.”

Star Wars: The Old Republic was announced last week in California. No date’s on the game as yet.

I'm guessing the planning stage took a while. Ten years would mean even before KotOR was released, before KotOR development even started, before they even had a deal with LucasArts, I'd guess. But I guess they've had a long time to forge ideas for make an MMO better, whatever its setting.

I would guess the first 4-5 years was all about talking, discussing and pulling the right strings to get the licenses, funding etc...

Perhaps they stalled it to see what other MMO's would do on the market, I'm sure they wouldn't have continued if WoW wasn't a succes it is today.

Still since they opted to buy a premade engine and toolset I guess work progresses faster then doing it all from scratch :)

Yeah, a lot of it was probably talking about the kind of gameplay they wanted to have and just very general ideas. I don't imagine they could have done anything serious until after they made KotOR. Still interesting to know that they have been planning one for so long. Certainly makes expectations high for this game though.

Certainly makes expectations high for this game though. Both ours and theirs. BioWare will want to make sure they do anything to make this game a success, if they have been planning an MMO for so long. :)

"Alright, men! Set your output to 'awesome!'"

projects this big take ages to do if they are to be delivered in quality.

I honestly above all hope to god that they do not let themselves be pushed by fan's rush to play the game or industrial pressure to release the game before X or Y happens.

I want them to take another decade if need be to do this game
I want it to be and have everything no other mmorpg ever aspired to become, I want it to reflect the star wars universe and immerge us deep into it with the top quality mankind can provide with current gaming technology.

when I heard about this game being made I was a bit skeptical to feel good about it since there is a big BIG difrence between bioware's single player rpg sucesses and a work of art of this magnitude.
and I felt content of their very much unique and great single player rpgs like kotor I, 2 and mass efect, those were great because they had new systems, (still need serious development if they intend to use anything of the like in a mmo) but they still felt unfinished/unpolished in many ways.

I feel they are planing and doing bigger for this game, they arnt looking to compete they are looking to create... and I have a sense that it will be trully big, wow big, perhaps even more.

and I want them to give it all their hearts into this, because gaming isnt about industry (if people who make games think it is they fail simple as that), gaming isn ot even JUST entertaining anymore, its art, I trully believe gaming will be (or is undeclared) the 8th form of art.

and you dont compete there or think of big bucks when you make art... you do it from your heart and you make it strong, thats how master pieces are born

Too bad LA nor Bioware are interested in making an artful masterpiece. They're looking to make profit. That's what corporations do.

I realize at this point the formal announcement is still fresh and the initial buzz is still being played-up, but I do hope that subsequent interviews with Bioware and LucasArts contain more substantial information and less hyperbole.

I realize at this point the formal announcement is still fresh and the initial buzz is still being played-up, but I do hope that subsequent interviews with Bioware and LucasArts contain more substantial information and less hyperbole. I'm on your side. I just saw the announcement video, and I'm more unimpressed than I'm with current information. There should have been some game footage or a trailer. I was bored to tears listening to the babble. BioWare knew this was a anticlimatic announcement; however, they should have done something that was explosive. "Oky people. We know we let it slip; however, take a look at this footage, this trailer, and these screens." *BANG* BioWare should had done something to impress the fans; thus, getting us all excited about actually considering to buy this game.

We ended up getting - "Hey Dave! Run the Powerpoint presentation. You know the one with pretty pictures. Get everyone together to talk for a few hours. I have a company meeting around 5:00; thus, I want to be out of here by 3:00."

Some of my last few posts sound the same. My apology to the public. The subjects are closely interrelated.