Star Wars: The Old Republic isn’t hurting World of Warcraft as much as you may think

To what extent has Electronic Arts’ Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) been keeping users away from Activision Blizzard’s cash cow World of Warcraft (WoW)? Surprisingly little, according to traffic reports from leading independent community websites for both online games.

The high-risk, high-reward market of subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) has become more competitive since Electronic Arts bet the farm on SWTOR, which took six years to develop and allegedly cost about $200 … Continue Reading

How shame and anger aided the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic

Bioware‘s Emmanuel Lusinchi’s seven “lessons learned while designing an AAA” massively multiplayer online (MMO) game included an explanation of fan irrationality, the social benefits of dog ownership and unconventional tips for the hiring process (“If the interview process doesn’t feel cruel, you are probably doing it wrong”).

Speaking at the Vancouver Game Design Expo, the Associate Lead Designer of Star Wars: The Old Republic summarized his experiences from six years of development on Electronic Arts’ … Continue Reading

BioWare spills more details on Mass Effect 3

Spoiler alert: Some new story details.

Mass Effect 3 is easily one of the most-anticipated games of the year. And fans are eating up new details about the game as they wait for the March 6 debut. Ever one to milk the attention, Electronic Arts and BioWare are spilling out the details about the game to generate more enthusiasm.

We previewed the hands-on game play of Mass Effect 3 with the Kinect voice commands last … Continue Reading

HeroEngine is the unsung platform behind Star Wars: The Old Republic

Star Wars: The Old Republic is one of the most ambitious undertakings in video game history. When the game launched in December, it was the fruition of six years of work by as many as 800 developers and an investment of an estimated $200 million. One of the secrets behind the successful development of the game was the HeroEngine, a development platform for building online games that was created by Maryland-based Idea Fabrik.

The goal … Continue Reading

EA spent ‘only’ $200M to make Star Wars: The Old Republic?

A debate is breaking out about exactly how much it cost to build Star Wars: The Old Republic, which is easily the most ambitious video game project in recent years.

Three days after analyst Doug Creutz of Cowen & Co speculated that the “total all-in investment” in Star Wars: The Old Republic “is probably approaching half a billion dollars”, a story in the LA Times blog Hero Complex put a sticker price of “nearly $200 … Continue Reading

How BioWare saw a chance to differentiate Mass Effect 3 with Kinect (interview)

Aaryn Flynn has a lot riding on Mass Effect 3, the sci-fi shooter and role-playing game that debuts on March 6. Flynn is general manager of game developer BioWare‘s studios in Edmonton and Montreal in Canada, and his teams have been in charge of one of the biggest games of 2012.

If it’s a hit, Electronic Arts, the parent company of BioWare, will reap the benefits with sales of millions of copies at a time … Continue Reading

Use voice commands to play better in Mass Effect 3 (video)

Mass Effect 3 is one of the hot new video games coming this spring from BioWare, whose previous two installments have sold millions of copies. For the third time around, there’s always a risk that it could be boring. But BioWare’s team found a way to innovate using the voice commands in Microsoft’s Kinect motion-sensing system for the Xbox 360.

The game debuts March 6 and be one of the major releases of the year. … Continue Reading

DC Universe Online exec talks about the game’s future and competition from Star Wars (interview)

Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) is celebrating DC Universe Online’s one-year anniversary today. All current players (with characters created on or before today) will receive a mission allowing them to earn a unique One Year Anniversary Cape.

The massively multiplayer online game (MMO) is notable for a number of reasons, including a dynamic, real-time combat system unlike most other MMOs, which generally feature quasi-turn-based battles (a la World of Warcraft). This gives it more of an … Continue Reading

Pages: 1 2

BioWare explains recent Star Wars: The Old Republic bans

Star Wars: The Old Republic developer BioWare is defending its recent decision to ban players for what is commonly known in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game community as “gold farming” — the practice of harvesting large amounts of in-game currency in order to sell the gold (or, in this case, credits) to other players for real cash.

The action suggests that BioWare, a division of Electronic Arts, wants to stay ahead of the gold … Continue Reading

Star Wars: The Old Republic drops 30 spots on the UK sales charts

Electronic Arts and BioWare’s long-awaited, big budget Star Wars: The Old Republic has seen an unprecedented drop down the UK sales charts. According to Chart-Track, the licensed massively multiplayer online game plummeted from 10th position all the way to 38th during the week ending on December 31.

The steep decline is not a good sign for the momentous MMO, largely accepted to be one of the most expensive games ever made. Released on December 20, … Continue Reading

5.5 million hours spent in Star Wars: The Old Republic over Christmas weekend

Electronic Arts is touting the latest numbers for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and it seemed that lightsaber hums competed hard with the sound of jingle bells.

Over the last weekend, 5.5 million hours of potential quality family time were sacrificed for the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire instead, according to the publisher. It’s a sign that EA’s major bet on The Old Republic, which has been in development for years in the hopes … Continue Reading

Star Wars: The Old Republic reaches 1M registered users in less than a week

Over one million people have registered to play Star Wars: The Old Republic less than one week into the game’s launch, making it the fastest-growing subscription MMO (massively multiplayer online) game in history, according to developer BioWare.

“We likely had the largest one-day subscription account registration process in MMO history — over one million people are now registered players of the game, and the number is growing rapidly,” say BioWare co-founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and … Continue Reading

Star Wars: The Old Republic attracts crowds, server queues require Jedi patience

Players seem to enjoy Star Wars: The Old Republic – once they can get on a server, that is. Yesterday the new massively multiplayer online game by Electronic Arts finally launched after a one-week early access period for pre-order customers. The influx of new Jedis, Bounty Hunters and Sith Lords resulted in waiting times between a few minutes and more than an hour on about half of the 130 North American game servers. Players enter … Continue Reading

EA executive touts opening day for Star Wars: The Old Republic

Electronic Arts has officially launched Star Wars: The Old Republic, one of the most expensive online games ever made, in a bid to grab a share of the lucrative massively multiplayer online games market that is dominated by Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft.

Electronic Arts executive and BioWare c0-founder Ray Muzyka (pictured center), co-founder Greg Zeschuk (left) and EA executive Frank Gibeau (right) rang the opening bell on the Nasdaq Stock Market today. In an … Continue Reading

Review: Should you buy Star Wars: The Old Republic?

Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft could soon be feeling a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of subscribers suddenly cried out and started heading for a galaxy far, far away. Star Wars: The Old Republic is an impressive and easy to play new competitor from Electronic Arts that makes great use of the Star Wars license. It is the most promising new massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) since World of Warcraft claimed … Continue Reading

Pages: 1 2 3 4

VGA premiere: EA shows off Command and Conquer Generals 2

Electronic Arts showed off a trailer from its brand new game Command & Conquer Generals 2. The company showed off the game’s new trailer at the VGA awards show tonight on Spike TV.

That means EA is serious about reviving a franchise that hasn’t had a new installment for some time. C&C is a classic real-time strategy game and the Generals franchise debuted in 2003. So EA has kept this series on the backburner for … Continue Reading

10 of the most anticipated video games of 2012

Looking back, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t agree that 2011 was a great year for video games. It was a year that brought us Portal 2, Batman: Arkham City, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Minecraft finally left beta, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 slugged it out in a grudge match for military shooter supremacy, and soon hundreds of thousands … Continue Reading

Pages: 1 2

EA acquires Superhero City maker KlickNation, adds to BioWare label

Electronic Arts is continuing its buying spree. The KlickNation development team behind Facebook titles like Superhero City and Age of Champions will now be known as BioWare Sacramento, following an acquisition by BioWare parent EA.

The newly dubbed studio will join with existing studio BioWare San Francisco (formerly known as EA2D) to form a new BioWare Social business unit, the company announced today, with KlickNation CEO and co-founder Mark Otero at the helm. EA didn’t … Continue Reading

BioWare slaps four-player multiplayer mode onto Mass Effect 3

Game maker BioWare has added a four-player cooperative multiplayer mode to its Mass Effect 3 game, one of next year’s most anticipated titles, the company said today.

The new multiplayer mode drops you into a game with three other players. The Mass Effect series has traditionally been a single-player experience and the game has relied on compelling storytelling and creating a cinematic experience to draw gamers in. It’s a formula that’s worked exceptionally well so … Continue Reading

Empire Avenue raises $1M for social stock market

Empire Avenue has established itself as a stock market that measures the social influence of its members. The company’s social standing in the world moved up a notch today when it raised $1 million.

The Edmonton, Canada-based company has created a fantasy stock market that measures the rise or fall of your social influence. The more active and influential you are, the higher your stock price goes. It’s a good proxy for figuring out who … Continue Reading