GDC 2010

I'm not entirely sure what happened. All that I can think of is that when Darth Hater updated their website it broke my rss feeds to them (both on this site and in my Google Reader). So I pretty much missed all their updates over the weekend and they had a lot of them. Hopefully the feeds should be fixed now though.

And they weren't the only ones. With GDC last week, even though Star Wars: The Old Republic had no specific presence, there were a number of interviews and details popping up all over the web. In particular from the off-site event that LucasArts held where the press got some hands-on time with a Trooper.

Over on the official forums Sean Dahlberg made a post listing a lot of them (some of which I already reported on before):

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
• Hands on [Eurogamer]
• GDC10: Hands-on with Star Wars: The Old Republic [Massively]
• LucasArts' Jake Neri on BioWare's James Ohlen, Endgame & Intertwining Pillars [Darth Hater]
• Interview: Story In-Depth With Daniel Erickson [Darth Hater]
• GDC: Trooper Hands-On & TOR Game Play Impressions [Darth Hater]
• STAR WARS: The Old Republic Preview [1Up]
• GDC: Facial Animation & More Aliens! Session Breakdown
• Star Wars: The Old Republic: GDC 2010: Hands On With The Trooper [MMORPG]
• Trooping Through The Oblivious Enemies of The Old Republic [Kotaku]
• GDC 2010: Video Preview of SW:TOR's Troopers [ZAM]
• GDC 2010: Hands-On with SW:TOR's Trooper Class [ZAM]
• Star Wars: The Old Republic PC Games Interview - Daniel Erickson Interview [IGN]
• Star Wars: The Old Republic Hands On [IGN]
• Preview: Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO [G4]
• Hands-on: Star Wars: The Old Republic's Trooper class [Joystiq]
• Shawn Schuster from Massively dishes the dirt on his secret trip to Lucas Arts to see Star Wars: The Old Republic! [GameBreakr]
• Set Blasters to Question: A Star Wars: The Old Republic Interview [GameSpy]
• GDC 10: Grabbing a bomb in Star Wars: The Old Republic [Destructoid]
• Star Wars: The Old Republic [GameDaily]
• We Get A Deep Look Into Ranged Combat [GameInformer]
• Star Wars: The Old Republic: GDC 2010 Jake Neri Interview [MMORPG]

Check out Star Wars: The Old Republic on X-Play as Adam Sessler covers GDC2010, Wednesday, March 17th @ 6:30 PM ET

He didn't get everything yet though; here's a couple more he missed so far:

• Star Wars: The Old Republic Roundtable [GameSpy]
• Star Wars: The Old Republic Updated Hands-On - The Republic Trooper [GameSpot]
• Hands On: Star Wars: The Old Republic [The Escapist]
• What Are They Hiding at Lucasarts? [The Escapist]

Since Sean posted the X-Play video has also been released:


As for a few other things; IndustryGamers reports that, according to one analyst, EA are looking to get 2 million subscribers when Star Wars: The Old Republic releases next year:

Between major successes like Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2, BioWare has quickly become one of the most important studios throughout all of Electronic Arts since the publisher acquired the RPG specialists. EA has already indicated that the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO is the "largest ever development project, period, in the history of the company,” and it's quite clear that expectations for this title are huge.

Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia recently came away from a meeting with EA and reported that although "earnings are somewhat depressed due to ongoing expenses of the Star Wars MMO, management has high hopes for this and believes 2M+ subs is possible." He added that a little over 1 million subscribers is needed to reach the break-even point, but the ultimate goal is to get several million subscribers.

According to GamerVision Star Wars: The Old Republic isn't the only Star Wars MMO in development. They say that "trusted sources" confirm that Sony Online Entertainment is working on a Clone Wars MMO. This is not the first time that we've heard this rumor. Here's what they had to say on it:

Thought EA's The Old Republic was the only Star Wars MMORPG in development? Think again. Trusted Gamervision sources have confirmed that there is a second MMO in development by Sony Online Entertainment, the creators of once awesome, now less-than-awesome Star Wars: Galaxies. Supposedly called Clone Wars Adventures and due by the end of the year, it's to be a browser-based game aimed at a much younger demographic than The Old Republic. Namely pre-teens, the same audience for the popular Clone Wars television show, and far away from those who might even consider subscribing to BioWare's RPG.

So far that's all the information we have, though I'd be surprised if there wasn't an official announcement fairly soon. We're still waiting on details involving the gameplay and pricing model, as any specifics are still unknown, though thinking it's going to be modeled after Free Realms, Sony Online Entertainment's free-to-play online RPG, isn't a stretch. Odds are it will follow a similar pricing model, built on microtransactions instead of a costly monthly subscription. Either way, we expect to hear more information soon, and will be sure to keep you up to date on the other Star Wars MMORPG. Odds are it's going to be much, much different than The Old Republic.

This Friday is said to be a Fan Friday, during which they'll also do a GDC Wrap-Up.