EA and LucasArts Targeting WoW with New Star Wars MMO

EA and LucasArts discuss how The Old Republic could end Blizzard's MMO reign.

By Kris Pigna, 10/25/2008

Obviously, when any new massively multiplayer game hits the market, there's no avoiding the fact that it's competing with World of Warcraft. But with the recently announced Star Wars: The Old Republic, Electronic Arts and LucasArts are not only accepting the competition, they're welcoming it -- and they're using some fightin' words to do so.

"We have very high expectations for this," said Frank Gibeau, president of the EA Games label, to Videogaming247. "Just look at the base of Star Wars fans, plus what BioWare can do. Trust me: we want to win. EA's reputation is for wanting to win. This is going to be a powerful category and there's lots of ways to compete in this category. [Blizzard] created a much larger opportunity for everybody else, but that doesn't mean it's going to stay that way."

At this point, Gibeau evidently tagged LucasArts online boss Tom Nichols into the fracas, as he expressed his own thoughts on how to take down Blizzard's behemoth. "When World of Warcraft came out, everybody thought, 'No, the market is only this big, because that's as big as EverQuest was.' Blizzard showed that it could be much larger," Nichols said. "Our goal is to show that by bringing storytelling to the genre that we can attract an even wider audience. Plus, we have the benefit of this huge brand, which has done very, very well for nearly 30 years."

When pressed whether he actually predicts TOR could become bigger than WoW, Nichols was unsurprisingly confident. "I think this game has that potential, with a premiere developer behind it; with a clear differentiating feature being story and something that's very compelling, and being a feature that's true to BioWare's expertise as well as the Star Wars brand; plus the power of the Star Wars brand, which is still doing very, very well 30 years after it started."

So realistically, what are LucasArts' and EA's chances? It's far too early to tell, but you can check out our own thoughts on what we've seen of The Old Republic so far. We know this much -- if BioWare can come through on everything they're promising with this game, the MMO genre will get a lot more interesting.

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They jsut basically commited suicide, I don't think they know that not only are they going up against WoW, but Blizzard as a company, and Blizzard is well known for making the best of whatever they are focusing on. Even BioWare can't hold up a candle Blizzard (won't even mention EA and LucasArts, they are jsut a joke compared to Blizzard). Worst comes to worst Blizzard is forced to make a new MMO and bury them all in the ground again.

Well, if it turns out nicely, you can be damn sure that they'll be getting my dollars. And I've never paid for an MMO before.

I have been really excited for this MMO. I loved KOTOR, and think the Star Wars universe is one of the best for an MMO setting. Do I think it will directly effect WoW. Maybe a little, but I doubt it. WoW just seems to keep getting more and more subscribers, and with WOTLK, coming, it doesnt look to slow down anytime soon.

Blizzard has already stated that it is looking at a possible level cap of 100. With the recent expansion sets opening up it looks like at least (2) more expansion (10 levels per) before Blizzard possibly send WoW away......we shall see.

If they take the route of EQ2. ie more power. Then it's done and over. If they make the game requirements capable for even LOW end machines then they have chance. Star Wars has the name. Also keep in mind that this game won't be released for at least a minimum of 3 years. Even WoW will get old.

Also in comment for "more subscribers" I don't currently play. Nor do many of my friends, but I garuntee we are being counted as part of the subscriber total. This figure by no means active paying players.

Are you saying they won't pull the same schtick when it comes to "more subscribers?" Even when they do that I highly doubt they will manage to pull off more members  than WoW. Also like I said, if Blizzard wanted to keep its dominance it could do so with ease.

On another note, it seemed like Blizzard was putting in a lot more story in WotLK. Look up Wrathgate in youtube, but be warned since it's huge spoilers of an epic quest event.

like with all MMOS it will really depend on the point if the devs can deliver a game that is fun enough for longtime play, offers enough options of different things to do for all types of players with different playstyles (casual players, pvp players, hardcore raiders....)
additional factors will be how the hardware requirements will be, how much new things it will really offer, how good it does the standard things everybody expects from an mmo (chat, user interface, character developement, story line, quests, immersion into the gameworld...)

KOTR MMMO definitely will get a lot hype and it will most likely see very high initial sales but if it can get as big as WoW will depend more on the lasting apeal of the game and players bringing their friends and friends of the friends to the game. Even wow needed 2-3 months to reach the first million subscribers and over a year to reach 5 millions+. if players don't stay for that long and bad user reviews spread out in the gaming communities the game won't reach WoW numbers and will most likely end up in the 100-500k subscribers range where most other MMOs run.

Do i want to be KOTR MMO to be as big as WoW? yes definitely, but i have learned over the last years not to judge a MMOs long term chances just based on hype and announcements for it. Announced features tend to be missing in released games, release dates tend to be pushed back, games tend to be buggier than expected... So i will reserve my judgement on this game like on any other MMO till i have played the beta or read enough leaked user feedabacks on the beta.

finally i would like to say this game is still years away and they have only announced basic features yet. Looking at the usual developement cycles for MMOs and at how early stages they tend to be announced i think we won't see a beta before mid/late 2010 and a release in 2011. So way too early for me to get hyped about it.