A Busy Weekend for BioWare
As many of you undoubtedly know this past weekend was BioWare’s largest Testing Weekend yet, and tens of thousands of gamers and Star Wars fans everywhere logged out of the real world and logged in to The Old Republic. Surely several of you participated in the festivities unknowingly contributing to quite the staggering statistic. As revealed by the BioWare doctors in an interview with Eurogamer at last night’s BAFTA in London, over 1 million hours were logged in last weekend’s beta testing alone.
This weekend we had a big test – tens upon tens of thousands. One crazy number is we had over a million hours of testing over the weekend. It was a huge test, and there are even bigger ones coming. The key thing is for us to take those learnings, apply them and make the service really stable. We’re happy with the game.
Our goal is a smooth launch, we want to serve our players really well. We want to serve them with a great, stable, secure, high quality experience. That’s our goal. We’re doing everything we can.
An impressive number to say the least, but probably not unexpected to those who participated and waited through some very long queues. It sounds like we can expect more of these “server stress tests” in the near future so if you haven’t had a chance to test the game, don’t give up yet!
Read the entire interview at Eurogamer.com
“Beta Weekends” To Start in September
In conjunction with pre-orders starting today, BioWare has also announced information about beta access for the game. While game testing has been going on for a while now, this sounds more like a traditional closed beta.
As anticipation grows, BioWare also proudly announced today that Star Wars: The Old Republic will open “Beta Test Weekends” starting this September. These weekend play sessions will be open to selected players worldwide and create an opportunity for fans to get a sneak peek of the epic stories, worlds, quests, battles and characters in the game.
In addition, Dr. Ray Muzyka commented on the game’s upcoming release, fueling speculation on a potential release date: “We are targeting Star Wars: The Old Republic to be one of the biggest launches of holiday 2011.”
Read the full press release here.
BioWare Doctors Discuss SWTOR Development
Talking to Gamasutra, BioWare’s leaders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk speak about their expectations for The Old Republic, preparing for launch, and how they are handling comparisons to the biggest MMO on the market. The interview is quite lengthy and also includes talk about BioWare’s other IPs, Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
There are quite a few topics covered just on TOR, but there are a few key points. Talking about what is required to launch an MMO of this scale, the doctors admit that they do not have experience in this area. Luckily there are many members of their team who have launched an MMO before, with BioWare Mythic having launched multiple MMOs in the past. They also talk about the difference between a traditional boxed game launch, and The Old Republic as a service launch. BioWare has had problems in the past already with digital game launches, with users unable to connect and authenticate their games online such as Mass Effect 2, so they are sure to take extra preparations for such a large launch.
The Old Republic has constantly been compared to Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, and while no game can match up to WoW’s success, Zeschuk says it’s “inevitable” that the games be compared. But whether TOR can overtake WoW or not, BioWare are confident. “[Once] you’ve tried it, you just can’t go back,” says Muzyka.
BioWare Doctors Talk “The BioWare Method”
Last week at DICE, BioWare founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka held a presentation called “The BioWare Method” where they discussed what goes in to building a successful studio such as BioWare and some of the philosophies and ideals they follow that helped them get to where they are today.
While not directly related to The Old Republic, it’s a great watch for those interested in the behind the scenes industry efforts. Topics discussed include the importance of building the right team and having a strong company culture. My main takeaway: don’t wear a finely striped shirt on camera.
Old Republic Pricing to Have “Twists”
Last week at Game Developer’s Conference, BioWare General Manager Dr. Ray Muzyka spoke to gaming blog Kotaku about the pricing plan for their upcoming MMO. While he clarified that they have not announced anything regarding their payment model, he commented that it would “be more of the traditional business model with maybe some twists as well.”
It has been hinted at in the past that The Old Republic would be microtransaction-based, or at least have microtransactions as a part of the payment model. Could this be the twist Muzyka is referring to? Most MMOs that are microtransaction-based are free to play, but it is reasonable to assume that TOR will have a subscription.
Muzyka went on. “With Star Wars: The Old Republic, we haven’t announced anything yet. But what we’re striving to do, to clarify what I said earlier, is to make sure the fans and the audience that we’re trying to reach feel they are getting something they understand and feel that it is a good value for their money — and feel that there is a way they actually want to engage in the experience, both in how they play it and how they pay for it. That’s our high-level goal.”
What kind of payment model would you like to see for TOR?
BioWare Exec speaks about strength of PC market
Contrary to what most may think, BioWare CEO Ray Muzyka has spoken out about the strength of the PC gaming market and feels it is in fine shape. The areas where it is doing well is different than the industry is used to however.
“I think there are more people playing PC games and more dollars being spent on the PC space than ever before, but it’s taking a different form,” Muzyka told CVG.
According to Muzyka developers have to adapt to these changes in the industry instead of continuing to use the same formula to lesser results.
“MMOs are one way that’s occurring… And there are more people playing flash-based games and casual games, even core games that are played in a casual way, so maybe [they have] a more core experience and you only play them for short bursts or for half an hour or something.”
Source: BioWare: PC gaming is in fine health (CVG).
PC Gamer Magazine Gets First Look at TOR
While everyone has been begging for more info on Star Wars: The Old Republic, PC Gamer magazine got a look themselves as they had a visit to the Bioware Austin studio to have the first look at the upcoming MMO. Unfortunately the info is not available online, but you can pick up the holiday copy of PC Gamer to check it out. This includes new content developments, screenshots, and interviews with Creative Director James Ohlen, Principal Lead Writer Daniel Erickson, and BioWare Co-Founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk.
You can read a snippet of the article below: Read more»
Rescue the Princess: What to expect from The Old Republic
It looks like The Old Republic, BioWare’s biggest project yet, is taking some ideas from Super Mario Brothers. Ray Muzyka, general manager at BioWare, said in an interview with VG247.com, “Wouldn’t it be cool to be part of a mission team – Obi-wan Kenobi and Luke, C3PO and R2D2 and Han and Chewie – going to rescue Leia. Break the tractor beam, free up your Millennium Falcon and take off from the Death Star? Wouldn’t it be cool to take part in a quest to do that in a massively multiplayer game?”
Interview with Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk
The Escapist has had a great opportunity to sit down with Bioware founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk and have a discussion on how their previous careers as doctors have influenced their current careers at Bioware. The end result is an excellent article and you can read it here: Hippocratic Game Design.
