Eleven years and a half after the launch of Star Wars The Old Republic, BioWare might be moving on from supporting the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game.
The news broke yesterday via an IGN report that unearthed a letter of intent signed by EA to hand over development to Broadsword. In case you’re unfamiliar with the company, it was founded by Rob Denton, formerly of BioWare and Mythic, to support historic MMO games like Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot.
Needless to say, Star Wars The Old Republic would become the biggest ongoing project at Broadsword. According to the report, more than half of the 70-80 development team would move from BioWare to Broadsword to continue supporting the game, while the rest would either remain inside Electronic Arts or be laid off. EA would remain the game’s publisher, while BioWare would be able to move on from the project and focus on the next single player installments of its own franchises, Dragon Age and Mass Effect. An EA spokesperson later confirmed the report, admitting that conversations are ongoing with Broadsword. Meanwhile, the development of the next three patches continues as planned.
Star Wars The Old Republic was meant to be EA’s answer to Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. It had a massive development budget of around $200 million, mostly due to BioWare’s decision to offer a fully voiced storyline different for each class.
Despite a strong launch, the game suffered a steep drop in subscribers in the ensuing months, leading EA and BioWare to shift to the free-to-play business model less than a year after the December 2011 release.
As a F2P game, Star Wars The Old Republic did relatively well over the years. While it wasn’t nearly as big a hit as EA and BioWare had hoped for, it eventually reached one billion lifetime revenue in late 2019.
The game received many post-launch updates, including eight expansion packs: 2013’s Rise of the Hutt Cartel, 2014’s Galactic Starfighter and Strongholds, 2015’s Knights of the Fallen Empire, 2016’s Knights of the Eternal Throne, 2019’s Onslaught, and 2022’s Legacy of the Sith.
This change in stewardship may not be that bad for users since Broadsword is known for its decent support of Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot. However, the heydays of Star Wars The Old Republic are clearly in the past.
In related news, Embracer Group’s latest earnings call confirmed that the Knights of the Old Republic remake is still in development, despite having been delayed indefinitely after a studio change.
