Breaking out on Belsavis!

Today brings us a new planet and an announcement as the Friday update. Let's start with the latter.

For a long while BioWare has run the Threat of Peace webcomic on their site, but now they've announced another webcomic that's soon to come, namely "Blood of the Empire". Just a wild guess here, but it might have something to do with the Empire and with blood. Here's the official announcement (plus the sneak peak):

BioWare™ and LucasArts have once again teamed up with Dark Horse to create this original comic series published entirely online. Blood of the Empire features a new perspective and strong character-driven story written by BioWare’s Senior Writer Alexander Freed and published by Dark Horse.

Set in the years before the Treaty of Coruscant and the establishment of peace between the great galactic powers, Blood of the Empire sets the stage for The Old Republic with new heroes, new villains and new revelations about the inner workings of the Emperor’s cabal.

Be on the lookout for the release of the first issue of Blood of the Empire coming soon on the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ website. Get a sneak peek at the series below!

Now here's hoping that it's better than the other webcomic (which seemed to be so all over the place that it was hard to follow, getting only three pages every two weeks).

The other update is the announcement of the prison planet of Belsavis. Here's the official news:

Since before the Great War, the ancient Rakatan prisons of Belsavis have been maintained by the Republic and used to incarcerate some of the galaxy’s most dangerous Sith lords, Mandalorian warriors, and ferocious aliens. Having recently discovered the location of this Republic super prison, the Empire is determined to see its allies released.

Access the HoloNet to learn more about the ancient prisons of Belsavis, and the horrible secrets contained within its vaults. View the glacial world of Belsavis in this video and visit the media section for never-before-seen screenshots, concept art, and wallpapers depicting the setting – and the struggle – of Belsavis.

And of course a new wallpaper for the planet (screenshots and concept art can be found on the planet page itself, as well as a short video).

Strange how many MMOs seem to have a prison zone (with the players usually fighting the escaped prisoners). Maybe because of that I kind of expected a prison planet in SWTOR. But regardless should be an interesting place to quest. Hopefully BioWare can give it some more interesting stories besides "convicts are escaping; go catch them" and "help the convict escape".

Then there's also a comment by Sean on Star Wars: The Old Republic's (lack of) presence at GDC this last week:

While there were no panels this year specifically related to The Old Republic during Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2010, there are a few panels that consisted of BioWare developers.

There was also an off-site event specifically for The Old Republic that various press and fan sites were invited to. None of this information will show up till early next week so keep your eyes peeled for that.

We will be updating the list in this post as more articles and threads appear and we plan on having a wrap-up article next Friday.

• GDC 2010: Gordon Walton (SW:TOR Dev) on MMO Retention

And that's it for the moment. According to another of Sean's posts next week will be a Fan Friday which will include a GDC wrap-up.