Star Wars: The Old Republic 'major update' due every six weeks

BioWare has promised a "major update" roughly every six weeks to keep players interested in the game, including new Warzones, Operations, Flashpoints, and events.

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Faced with a dwindling user base, Star Wars: The Old Republic recently announced it will switch to a free-to-play model. But even F2P MMOs need a steady stream of players to support them, which may be why BioWare has promised an update roughly every six weeks for the game.

"We're committed to: about every six weeks, doing a major update for the game -- which would be a new Warzone, a new Operation, a new Flashpoint, a new event -- and to doing that on a really frequent cadence, every six weeks. So we’re going to stick to that," BioWare Austin general manager Matt Bromberg told AusGamers.

Bromberg also reiterated the incentive for players to come back. "Subscribers who have lapsed are already qualified to get Cartel Coins, which will be the in-game currency in the game once free-to-play launches," he said. "So you get credit, not just for becoming a subscriber now, going forward, but also for all the time that you were a subscriber, you get more credits and more coin. So we're hoping that that will encourage people to come back to the game and try it now."

The Old Republic was a big investment for EA, and despite a positive reception the game struggled to maintain subscribers. A free-to-play option seemed inevitable, but only time will tell if the pricing model ignites enough interest to keep it going long-term.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 11, 2012 2:30 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Star Wars: The Old Republic 'major update' due every six weeks.

    BioWare has promised a "major update" roughly every six weeks to keep players interested in the game, including new Warzones, Operations, Flashpoints, and events.

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      September 11, 2012 2:37 PM

      reaching hard.

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      September 11, 2012 2:43 PM

      Neat, glad to hear this, keeping my Sub active.

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        September 11, 2012 5:20 PM

        I stopped subb'ing this past month but I'll at least try to support them in some fashion in the future. Still some of the best stories that I've experienced in an MMORPG.

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      September 11, 2012 2:45 PM

      Seems pretty desperate. I'm doubtful that they can put quality updates every six weeks.

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        September 11, 2012 2:50 PM

        It's an MMO, pretty much the lowest common denominator when it comes to gamers. They don't have to put out quality updates, just updates.

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        September 11, 2012 3:42 PM

        Ah, that's the secret. Nowhere in the release did it say they would be quality updates :P

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        September 11, 2012 8:23 PM

        Yeah, I don't see how they are somehow going ramp up the content delivery now after they downsized the dev team and all. I think they released one piece of content since 1.2 and that was MONTHS ago.

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          September 11, 2012 9:11 PM

          Only "real" content since 1.2 was the scavenger hunt event in mid August which was very lame. 1.3 was a good patch, brought a buncha stuff that was needed in the game like group finder. 1.4 should be in a couple of weeks and that has the new Operation. There was probably going to be a new flashpoint, warzone and space missions in 1.4, but now instead of having a megapatch they're taking stuff out and spreading it around.

          I'm sure they've dedicated a large amount of of time/effort for the switch to F2P, i think that's hurt them pretty bad with the content production and has cost them a bunch of subs. Hopefully they actually will be able to follow the schedule and actually give meaningful content updates every 6 weeks but i do have my doubts. Wouldn't be the first time they say something and then can't deliver.

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      September 11, 2012 2:50 PM

      when is the F2P going live?

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        September 11, 2012 3:03 PM

        No specific date yet just 'this fall'

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          September 11, 2012 4:30 PM

          It's said "soon" on their website for weeks now too. And the upcoming patch 1.4 has taken forever to come out. So I'm not too confident that they can deliver something meaningful every 2 weeks. Hell, the upcoming patch has a new armor sets...except it uses the exact same models, just recolored from the previous set. Pathetic.

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            September 11, 2012 4:30 PM

            Not sure why I typed every 2 weeks...meant 6 obviously.

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      September 11, 2012 3:22 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 11, 2012 3:45 PM

      too little too late :(

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        September 11, 2012 3:46 PM

        very much so

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          September 11, 2012 5:00 PM

          If they had more than 3 lousy warzones at launch, it could have been interesting for me. I liked PVP the most in that game.

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            September 11, 2012 8:26 PM

            I had a good time with PVP as well but having to fucking do huttball back to back all the time gets old fast not to mention the lack of actual warzones.

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      September 11, 2012 8:44 PM

      [deleted]

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        September 11, 2012 8:46 PM

        ^^^ Dragon Age 3!

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          September 12, 2012 2:09 AM

          after the disappointment 2 was? not holding my breath

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            September 12, 2012 2:31 AM

            maybe this time we will end up getting something decent. I remember an older article about bioware/ea wanting to make DA3 more like Skyrim.

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              September 12, 2012 3:27 AM

              ill believe it when i see it - bioware games now are always very "closed world" and on the rails

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              September 12, 2012 4:04 AM

              yeah well they said dragon age was inspired by game of thrones and look what happened

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      September 11, 2012 9:51 PM

      I really wanna try this game out once F2P kicks in just for the SP experience for the LFG and PvP doesn't interest me in the slightest. So, new updates for free is a good thing... right? Thx!

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        September 12, 2012 5:47 AM

        I'm also looking forward to the F2P. I bought the game, but never activated it, because I was playing WoW at the time and was going to wait until after the summer but then they announced F2P so now I have to wait for that...

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      September 12, 2012 3:12 AM

      Wasn't an update every 6 weeks an original pre-launch promise?

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        September 12, 2012 8:54 AM

        Yep. A new planet every 2 months.

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