EA Announces Knights of the Old Republic MMO

By kryo Posted July 18, 2008 00:56:51

It's been rumored for a while now, and this week at E3, an Electronic Arts executive has confirmed it: KotOR is going massive, multiplayer, and online. Could this be the one to beat World of Warcraft?

Bioware is well known as a maker of quality roleplaying games, but this will be their first MMO, and they're certain to have plenty of hype behind them. After all, who doesn't like Star Wars?

More interestingly, the executive also commented that they expect to see PC games grow from 1/3 of the gaming market to 1/2 in three years--seems EA's not buying into the talk about PC gaming being dead. He also mentioned that the company was interested in "online, and direct-to-consumer" (read: digital distribution?).

What do you guys think--can Bioware/EA be the one to beat Blizzard at their own game? It'll surely be a while before this new MMO sees the light of day, and Blizzard seems to have plans of their own, so this may be an interesting battle to watch for MMO players indeed.

+17 Karma 41 Replies 9 Referrals

Oh dear, why can't bioware stick to what they're best at - single player games? They may very well pull off a good MMO, but with the level of competition in the area I have my doubts if they'd be able to gain enough of a market share; people on one subscription based MMO aren't going to want to get another I wouldn't have thought, unlike normal games where if you have one you are still likely to want another.

watch out World of Warcraft.

I wish competitors would stop saying this. It doesn't matter how good your game is or how much content it ships with, it will NOT dent WoW's subscription base. The game is here to stay.

When people are still playing EverQuest after all this time and WoW has been vastly more popular, you're just setting yourself up for failure if you're looking to compete with it. Carve out your own niche and succeed.

I wish competitors would stop saying this. It doesn't matter how good your game is or how much content it ships with, it will NOT dent WoW's subscription base. The game is here to stay.

It may be here to stay, but over time it does lose subscribers. The question is if Blizzard can bring enough new subscribers in to make up for the ones that quit over time.

I used to play but quit long ago. After the better part of a year of playing WoW I'd had enough. Yes there was new content being added along the way, but over time it became the same old thing no matter what was added. I'm sure others came along and started playing along the way, but still others have quit too. Eventually it'll slow down enough that it won't be the game everyone else measures up against.

Could a KOTOR MMO become the new champ? Hard to tell. There are lots of competitors in that area. More competitors trying to get more customers for themselves from a somewhat limited potential pool of customers. EA hopes to see the market expand and it might, but they may very well continue to see a struggle to get people to play games on PCs while the PS3 and/or Xbox 360 (or whatever replaces it over time) continues to sell into more homes.

Isn't there already a star wars MMO? Do we really need another one? I know it's set in a different era but come on! Anyways, I have a feeling this is more EA's idea than Biowares. EA is looking for a way to get more shares in the MMO market and their trying to do it off of Bioware's back.

*In a C3PO voice* It's a sad day in gaming history if you ask me... the beginning of the end for Bioware. *hangs his head* ??

I used to play WOW I had a in the end a lvl 70 warrior Tank. What got me was that although I was regarded as very skilful as a Tank I ranked about the same in my guild as another guy who was definitely weak but had superb gear. His gear was really good because he invested a huge amount of time in the game.

That seems to be about it in WOW you need to invest a huge amount of time in order to be at a level that allows you to experience the end game. Now I could have carried on as the guild main off-tank (we had another guy with time+skill as a MT) but even then I was under pressure all the time to get better gear. Since I had a life outside I either had to drop that or buy gold to buy equipment in game.

I have a vision of a MMO which has a pretty flat level structure and instead focuses on skill, tactics and teamwork; which WOW does have but only if you meet the grind requirements first. Even then they believe that you must compensate time with gear, rather that just accolades. Unfortunately that would require an awful lot of developer time to keep new content flowing. WOW could do that with their resources but they instead rely on the timesink element to keep people slowly trawling through.

If Bioware create a new style of MMO without the grinding I would love to try it.

If Bioware create a new style of MMO without the grinding I would love to try it.

An MMO without any kind of grind cannot exist, or there will be nothing to do

The difference is how heavy the grind can be.

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHH.

I think is BAD news! Why can't they make a KOTOR 3 and FINISH THE STORY!

Although having said that, I have to play a game before passing judgement on it.

What a bunch of whiners, I'm sure this will be great! As fot the other star wars mmo... it's out of canon and pretty much crap... I have faith in Bioware... they = gods

I have faith in Bioware... they = gods

I love BioWare, but making an MMO isn't quite the same as making an SP rpg. The scale of the game changes drastically, and there is always a push from the publisher (in this case, EA) to get an MMO launched which is always quite risky. Many things can cause delays in MMO making and while I have a lot of faith in BioWare, it's well within the realm of possibility that they'll be forced to release the MMO a bit too early - never a good thing, but also not the doom of the game necessarily.

What a bunch of whiners, I'm sure this will be great! As fot the other star wars mmo... it's out of canon and pretty much crap... I have faith in Bioware... they = gods

I love Bioware as well, but technically we don't even know if Bioware will even be involved with the product. Remember that EA bought Bioware, so they have access to all their assets and copyright. I wonder what good ol' George over at LucasArts thinks about the deal. He's probably willing to go along, he sold his baby a long time ago so it won't matter to him as long as he sees his share of the cash.

Anyways, I guess it really doesn't matter for me, I don't have time to play MMO's anyways.

Cheers.

Kotor 2 was rushed, sadly, but it was still a good game... and we have no idea what they plan... they could go with a Guild Wars style storyline... separate worldspaces, missions done in small groups, or alone with bots.

I'm sure it'll be good

An MMO without any kind of grind cannot exist, or there will be nothing to do The difference is how heavy the grind can be.

I don't agree, grinding has its purposes in preparing you to use the basic skills your need end game. But you don't have to have it after you learn what your doing. The achievment of taking down a boss or dungeon should be enough to keep people interested.

After all in the starwars films do the Jedi rush off to kill Jabba so they can loot his body for an upgraded lightsaber or more resilient cloth robes.

Nah, they have a robe and a lightsaber and they go do heroic stuff. Not grind on Wamprats 8 hours a day so they can afford to repair their shoes.

I get this annoying feeling that Bioware's ego has grown past thier ability.

Maybe it's just Mass Effect and the amount of cringe I had to do to get past the horrible story cliches (the heroic pose? omg) and the hollow gameplay past the tiny amount of 'core' areas.

The fact that they felt that was what they 'represented' as a brand now makes me worry about what they will do in the future.

Of course, on console this is top notch level stuff and it totaly works in that platform. Just not on PC.

(Just for refrence I totaly loved Mass Effect as the Third person sci-fi shooter RPG! Just not the "We can do Hollywood too!" feel. If you like what Hollywood does, you probably disagree with me so, meh. They will rake in the cash - good for them.)

The achievment of taking down a boss or dungeon should be enough to keep people interested.

For which, in an MMO, you either need to grind gear sets, or consumables, or money for either the gear or consumables

Lucas Arts owns the rights to KOTOR, not Bioware. EA is going ahead with a KOTOR MMO in partnership with Lucas Arts.

Yah... that's what I thought.

It would be awesome, but I refuse to play an MMO with subscription fees or no (free with game) singleplayer mode.

The achievment of taking down a boss or dungeon should be enough to keep people interested.For which, in an MMO, you either need to grind gear sets, or consumables, or money for either the gear or consumables

Why? Just because thats how WoW does it?

I don't see why the 'need'. The achgievment could stand alone fine without some pixel reward, works fine in all single player games.

I just want to know what happened to Reaven.....

cyber creativity creates cashflow

sweet pirets, gangs, the exchange, the republic and the Sith empire. Cool can't what to fly a ship.
but is it going to be a expanse pack for star wars galixys or is it going to be a game in its self.
and one more question do i have to pay to play or just add stuff to it like the Ebon hawk and other cool stuff

I don't know what's worse.. LA + EA or LA + SOE? Chances are EA and LA will bog Bioware down so much or this new Star Wars MMORPG will become the "NGE2" or LA's fabled dream of what the NGE should have been. Either way, I'm not getting my hopes up to much over this. From what I read it sounded like an MMO, minus the RPG bit. I don't want to see a single player game with a multiplayer mode tacked onto it. These days that will get any game labled as an "mmo".

What I'm worried about seeing..

1) EA and LA pushing bioware to make a not so polished or boring game.
2) Dumbing the game down for consoles.
3) Making the whole game cookie cutter-like.
4) A shinier NGE.
5) The standard class + level + "talent" based character progression.
6) Jedi being the only class/profession.

another MMO, another grind fest equals another potential cash cow.

its not even officially confirmed lol its all hype

The EA CEO confirming it sounds like an official confirmation to me.

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EA Announces Knights of the Old Republic MMO