SWTOR Handed Over to MMO Veterans?; BioWare to Devote Full Attention to Single-player Games [UPDATE #2]
Electronic Arts is planning to hand over Star Wars: The Old Republic to a new developer. BioWare, on the other hand, is expected to focus on single-player games.
Update #2
A solemn announcement has been made, in which the devs confirmed that further development of SWTOR will be handled by Broadsword, joined by veterans from BioWare, who have worked on the project so far. Electronic Arts will remain the game's publisher. The rest of the statement repeats the information we provided earlier.
Update #1 (June 22)
The game's official forum has released an official confirmation of the following revelations. In doing so, it was assured that SWTOR will be developed as actively as before, and some of the existing developers will join the team taking charge of the project (its name was not revealed).
Original news (June 7)
Interesting things are happening around Star Wars: The Old Republic. There are many indications that this MMORPG set in the Star Wars universe will soon change its developer.
- The source of these reports is IGN. According to the information, the game is to be handed over to the independent team at Broadsword Online Games.
- The decision is to be dictated by the fact that Star Wars: The Old Republic's current devs, BioWare, want to focus on single-player games.
- If these reports are confirmed, the game will end up in good hands. After all, Broadsword Online Games was founded by MMORPG veterans from Mythic Entertainment and former BioWare deputy director Rob Denton, who was involved in the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic at an early stage of work.
- Currently at BioWare, the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic is said to involve about 70-80 people. More than half of them are expected to move to Broadsword Online Games.
- Broadsword Online Games has specialized in acquiring existing MMORPGs. The studio is currently developing such classic productions as Dark Age of Camelot or Ultima Online. The latter of these was formerly published by Electronic Arts, so the two companies already have experience in cooperation of this type.
- Asked for a comment, Electronic Arts confirmed that talks are underway with Broadsword Online Games, but have not yet been finalized. As part of the deal, EA is expected to remain the game's publisher.
These reports should please fans of the game. Further development of Star Wars: The Old Republic is clearly no longer a priority for both BioWare and Electronic Arts. However, the game still has a large and active player community with an appetite for new content.
On top of that, according to these rumors, the process of transferring the game to a new studio itself should go smoothly. Not only will more than half of the team responsible for the title find employment at Broadsword Online Games, but the studio is full of veterans of the genre who know well how to develop MMORPGs for years to come.
