The Old Republic switching to new dev team

[Teaspoon]

"EA is nearing an agreement to move the ongoing development and operation of MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic from BioWare to third-party studio Broadsword Online Games, IGN has learned."

https://www.ign.com/articles/star-wars-the-old-republic-development-third-party-bioware?utm_source=twitter

EDIT:

Now officially confirmed by EA

EA has addressed the news that Star Wars: The Old Republic is going third-party, saying, “our goal is to do what is best for the game and its players.”

https://twitter.com/IGN/status/1666191447475847169?s=20

[Zero McDol]

Hmmm..... we'll see. It could be interesting - at least the game will continue to live .

[Larten Crepsley]

Originally posted by Zero McDol:

Hmmm..... we'll see. It could be interesting - at least the game will continue to live .

the studio who took over only has two games under there belt, both of which are much ollder mmos that are scarcely played anymore... (ultima online and dark age of camalot)

this is sounding more like a maintence mode switch than a good thing

[Bordric]

I don't know anyone who works there now so irrelevant to me. Will probably get more attention now. Or die who knows.

[Nain]

well, seeing mythicentertainment keeping another game up and running is fine i guess...
looking over the website of both games, im not seeing any actual new content released for neither, so.....

but if this is an actual thing to give those guys/gals over there something to actually work on, then sure, why not.

[Dugga Doo]

When do we start to panic?!

[Bordric]

Originally posted by P Sutherland:

When do we start to panic?!

The end is near!!!! Or nye or nee or whatever they say when they call for the end of the world!

[Berserkr]

Originally posted by P Sutherland:

When do we start to panic?!

The fungus and zombies aren't here yet but I'd still stock up on bullets just incase

[Xautos]

One thing i'd like to know, how are the accounts going to be handled when the game is handed over? will everyone be required to make a new account with BSO, link to the EA account to transfer their data?

Or will the accounts data just be pulled up and moved across without interruption? What about 2FA?

Will the old accounts on the EA side just get shut down and deleted and everyone has to start over on a new account on BSO?

---
The switch over isn't likely to happen until the end of the year almost certainly, this gives EA time to finish their Malgus storyline and finish up on everything else before handing it over.

I just wonder if BSO have the resources to create new content? if not then it really is maintenance mode. This does explain why the game servers are moving to a cloud based service though, it's much cheaper to run and BSO can keep it going indefinitely so long as the player numbers remain strong. the game has been completely outsourced to third parties.

[Alacrity Fitzhugh]

One assumes Broadsword will inherit SWTOR's dev and comm teams, so apart from different management not too much should change. I hope.

[Alacrity Fitzhugh]

Originally posted by Xautos:

One thing i'd like to know, how are the accounts going to be handled when the game is handed over? will everyone be required to make a new account with BSO, link to the EA account to transfer their data?

Or will the accounts data just be pulled up and moved across without interruption? What about 2FA?

Will the old accounts on the EA side just get shut down and deleted and everyone has to start over on a new account on BSO?

---
The switch over isn't likely to happen until the end of the year almost certainly, this gives EA time to finish their Malgus storyline and finish up on everything else before handing it over.

I just wonder if BSO have the resources to create new content? if not then it really is maintenance mode. This does explain why the game servers are moving to a cloud based service though, it's much cheaper to run and BSO can keep it going indefinitely so long as the player numbers remain strong. the game has been completely outsourced to third parties.

EA will still own and host the game, so I assume accounts, et al, won't change.

[Xautos]

Originally posted by Alacrity Fitzhugh:

Originally posted by Xautos:

One thing i'd like to know, how are the accounts going to be handled when the game is handed over? will everyone be required to make a new account with BSO, link to the EA account to transfer their data?

Or will the accounts data just be pulled up and moved across without interruption? What about 2FA?

Will the old accounts on the EA side just get shut down and deleted and everyone has to start over on a new account on BSO?

---
The switch over isn't likely to happen until the end of the year almost certainly, this gives EA time to finish their Malgus storyline and finish up on everything else before handing it over.

I just wonder if BSO have the resources to create new content? if not then it really is maintenance mode. This does explain why the game servers are moving to a cloud based service though, it's much cheaper to run and BSO can keep it going indefinitely so long as the player numbers remain strong. the game has been completely outsourced to third parties.

EA will still own and host the game, so I assume accounts, et al, won't change.

No, EA is giving up on the claim to SWTOR. the exclusive star wars contract is up now and EA may not want to pay costs towards a game in the star wars ip that may very well be expensive to pay for.

They are dumping it so they can move their resources on to something else entirely and save their money so they don't have to pay towards the IP rights for yet another game. From what i've read about half of the team from EA that work on SWTOR are moving across to BSO, more than likely to maintain it if BSO has no great plans for it.

That ship has sailed, it's just what type of damage they'll inflict on the way out, that's my main concern.

[Bordric]

Probably get more attention now actually.

[Bordric]

I was surprised they still had that many people dedicated to the game. I expected a really small skeleton crew. So they must be making good money still to employ that many staff. With half being retained for the moment, assuming the deal goes through.

[DesolationGod]

Originally posted by Xautos:

Originally posted by Alacrity Fitzhugh:

EA will still own and host the game, so I assume accounts, et al, won't change.

No, EA is giving up on the claim to SWTOR. the exclusive star wars contract is up now and EA may not want to pay costs towards a game in the star wars ip that may very well be expensive to pay for.

They are dumping it so they can move their resources on to something else entirely and save their money so they don't have to pay towards the IP rights for yet another game. From what i've read about half of the team from EA that work on SWTOR are moving across to BSO, more than likely to maintain it if BSO has no great plans for it.

That ship has sailed, it's just what type of damage they'll inflict on the way out, that's my main concern.

ea is not dumping the game they will still act as publisher, they are pulling it from bioware and giving it to Broadsword. Whats changing is bioware is focusing soley on single player games now namely mass effect and dragon age.

[Bordric]

Yeah that is what I read was Bioware wanted to get back to RPG single player games only. Which is what they are really good at.