In its recent earnings call, publisher Electronic Arts reiterated its goal to ship Star Wars: The Old Republic during their fiscal year 2012, which begins after April 1. It was already suspected that this this was the case. EA slates the game for before the end of the calendar year 2011.

In addition, EA CEO John Riccitiello answered investor questions and discussed the game’s position in the market. One interesting point is that the game will reportedly be profitable with anything more than 500,000 subscribers, and any amount higher than 1 million subscribers would be “very profitable” according to the CEO.

EA CFO Eric Brown also noted that “EA is incurring significant development costs for the Star Wars MMO.” This aligns with reports that game was costing the company $300 million. However, Riccitiello also noted to not believe anything that is coming out of “gamer blogs”, most likely hearkening back to EA Louse.

“One is there’s been a fair amount of talk on various blogs, describing spends that are vastly higher than anything we’ve ever put in place,” Riccitiello said. “So don’t read gamer blogs as having any substance. Some of them bring a chuckle but they also bring a frustration for those that are being responsible in the management of EA’s R&D dollars when they read sort of falsehoods out in the press.”

EA is betting quite a bit on this game’s success, but perhaps not as much as some would have you believe.

Dr. Ray Muzyka, BioWare co-founder and CEO, announced this weekend at an Electronic Arts showcase event that EA would be taking over publishing duties for Star Wars: The Old Republic from LucasArts.

EA has released a press release detailing the agreement, citing the reasoning “so that all publishing, marketing and distribution responsibilities can be centralized for efficiency.” LucasArts will stay involved as a “key partner”.

The new agreement will not alter the game at all, but Muzyka said it will benefit gamers in the long run with things such as customer service. He also said that LucasArts will remain “very involved” in ensuring the game remains in an appropriate Star Wars style and tone.

Speaking in New York today, EA Chief Banker Eric Brown described the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic as “largest ever development project, period, in the history of the company.” More cash is going into this game than any other before it at EA.

He went on to say that a typical packaged game costs around $30 million, but because of the nature of MMOs, they “[cost] significantly more than that.” Brown estimated that it cost Blizzard “$100 million, perhaps more” to ship World of Warcraft in 2004. From the sounds of things, EA is looking for SW:TOR to be similarly successful in the amount of revenue earned each month from subscriptions to recoup costs.

It’s always interesting to hear about how much EA is putting into the game, but surely it is LucasArts’s largest project ever as well? The Old Republic is still aiming for a Spring 2011 release date.

SWTOR is EA’s “largest ever” project [Eurogamer]

An EA executive has confirmed that Star Wars: The Old Republic will not launch before March 31, 2011.

Speaking during EA’s most recent earnings call, company CFO Eric Brown discussed the game’s future and noted that it would not ship during EA’s fiscal year 2011.

“We are not assuming that we bring a major new MMO to market in fiscal ‘11. We will continue to increase significant development cost as we prepare this title for launch,” he said.

This statement is coming only weeks after LucasArts and BioWare confirmed the game was aiming for a Spring 2011 launch window. If this schedule is followed, the game could see a release in April or May 2011.

However, EA CEO John Riccitiello was quick to point out that the costs to develop a well-done MMO are “significant”.

“MMOs can cost as much as two to six, seven times as much as a front-line title, if they’re done right,” said Riccitiello.

Brown concluded that they were not revealing a specific date for the game.

Star Wars: The Old Republic beyond March 2011, says EA [VG247]

Speaking in an update call concerning their 2010 fiscal year, Shacknews reports that Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello said that their next “major MMO” was coming along for a Spring 2011 release, leading many to believe he was speaking about Star Wars: The Old Republic, with no other known major MMO projects on EA’s plate.

“One key driver is going to be the launch date of our major MMO. As it stands today, the game is making great progress towards a Spring 2011 launch. But given the volatility of this particular sector and the fact that we haven’t yet provided a specific launch date, at least for now, we’re excluding the revenue, or will be excluding the revenue, from our FY11 plans.”

Spring 2011 is later than many had anticipated for this game, and will possibly give the game over a 5 year development cycle if it follows that schedule. We’ve contacted LucasArts and BioWare to see if they have any comment or can confirm that the comment was made about The Old Republic, and will update this post if we hear back.

UPDATE: Sean Dahlberg has responded on the official forums, confirming the report:

While everyone is used to seeing the Star Wars galaxy saved on screen and in the games, could Star Wars be the one to save Electronic Arts? According to Cowen Group analyst Doug Creutz, EA has “missed the boat” this time around. This is because of the company’s recent inability to produce hit titles for the core gamers.

Creutz goes on to say that the upcoming MMO from EA’s child company BioWare is their “best chance” to save face and improve their profitability. Read more»

In an update to a previous news post, Electronic Arts has said CEO John Riccitiello’s statement on The Old Republic’s business model was based on a ‘misunderstanding’. Riccitiello had originally commented that TOR will be ‘microtransaction-based’, which is quite different from the traditional MMO payment model based around monthly payments.

It’s surprising that Riccitiello would make such an obviously important statement without checking with the rest of the EA brass. Most of the speculation as to why usually attributes it to just another way TOR is going to stand out from the rest of the MMO crowd and that makes sense, given how much attention BioWare has given to the story and the characters. But for now, it seems that fans will be left to speculate on just how much they’ll have to pay until February, when this issue is hopefully cleared up.

Read the updated Shacknews post here.

ShackNews has reported that Star Wars: The Old Republic will feature an uncommon form of payment. Instead of being subscription-based like most MMOs are, paying a flat rate each month, EA has classified The Old Republic as a “microtransaction-based” title.

EA CEO John Riccitiello spoke on the matter today. “We are continuing to stick to the plan relative to building out our direct-to-consumer models which include microtransactions and subscriptions… The recent launch of Warhammer is a great example of that.”

Read more»

Analyst Colin Sebastian suggests that Electronic Arts, which bought BioWare in 2007, may be cutting jobs and game franchises after disappointing sales of games such as Rock Band 2 and Mirror’s Edge. These games are under-performing and may lead to the game giant cutting back during the current financial crisis.

The analyst did note that certain franchises, such as Left 4 Dead, were selling well and were offsetting some of the poorly performing titles and that EA is lowering its expectations for several other games. It was noted specifically, however, that Star Wars: The Old Republic has “the potential for significant traction in the massively multiplayer online market”.

The economic issues are hitting EA just like everyone else, but it looks like SWTOR is safe for the moment.

If you’re interested in more details, read the full article at CVG.

EA Games label president Frank Gibeau has recently answered some questions about The Old Republic, including how the game will work alongside Warhammer Online.

“Well, as much as Need for Speed is a competitor for FIFA,” he said. “They compete in the same genre of videogames but they’re very diverse customer bases. The Warhammer customer base will overlap to a degree with Star Wars, but obviously you’re bringing in millions of new customers with the Star Wars universe.”

He is also confident about some players even playing both games. Read more»