EA Announces Knights of the Old Republic MMO

Published on July 18, 2008 By kryo In PC Gaming

It's been rumored for a while now, and this week at E3, an Electronic Arts executive has confirmed it: KotOR is going massive, multiplayer, and online. Could this be the one to beat World of Warcraft?

Bioware is well known as a maker of quality roleplaying games, but this will be their first MMO, and they're certain to have plenty of hype behind them. After all, who doesn't like Star Wars?

More interestingly, the executive also commented that they expect to see PC games grow from 1/3 of the gaming market to 1/2 in three years--seems EA's not buying into the talk about PC gaming being dead. He also mentioned that the company was interested in "online, and direct-to-consumer" (read: digital distribution?).

What do you guys think--can Bioware/EA be the one to beat Blizzard at their own game? It'll surely be a while before this new MMO sees the light of day, and Blizzard seems to have plans of their own, so this may be an interesting battle to watch for MMO players indeed.

Comments (Page 3)

rattletrap

on Jul 19, 2008

Has anyone here played 'Age of Conan'? I'd be interested to hear any thoughts on that MMO. It got good reviews and if I was gonna play a MMORPG that would be the one I'd 'want' to play. I don't really know if it's really any good though.Any thoughts?

I hear a lot of negative things about it but on the other hand I hear some good things as well. I've been keeping an eye on it at www.mmorpg.com and the user review/ratings keep dropping.

It's no longer:
1) Most voted (development)
2) Most voted (released)
3) Most popular (today)
4) Most popular (1 week)
5) Most popular (1 month)

Infact, Hello Kitty Online now has a higher score based on Most Voted. AoC's user rating has dropped a quite a few points since release. Never trust the "our-rating" reviews (the reviews that the websites give, ect). User reviews tend to be the most insightfull.

FrostMage

on Jul 19, 2008

its not even officially confirmed lol its all hype

As far as I'm concerned I hope they officially UNconfirm it! Please do not destroy a good franchise for the sake of making a buck!!! (like that's ever gonna happen)

That brings me to Age of Conan (in response to FrostMage asking if this is a worthwhile MMO to try out).... a large amount of bugs added weekly to every game patch you can see how frustrating it is to justify paying monthly fees for this game. The Age of Conan general forums are swamped with I quit posts, angry cries of things being broken/nerfed and delusional fanboy defending posts. The game was fun for awhile and the look and the feel of Hyborea makes World of Warcraft look silly. It is just that FunCom released too early and are now fumbling to complete the other half of the game, but really it had potential - if it can retain enough of a player base to justify doing that.Hopefully Bioware will take their time in making this new Star Wars MMO - if it's 4 years later I'm sure I'll still be looking forward to it.

Thanks for the info Casw and Somedeadguy. I kinda figured that it would be that way. That's why I said AoC is a game I would 'want' to play, not a game I'm actually gonna buy and play. It's really a shame 'cause I was quite hyped when I heard that they were making a MMO based in Hyboria... but like usual these days, it's just a lot of fancy graphics with no substance.

And that is EXACTLY why I don't want KOTOR to become an MMO. Although, you know... if Bioware were NOT owned by EA now I would be doing backflips about a project like this. But that's not the reality of it. *sigh* It's a bloody shame!!

Cheers

DarthAsh

on Jul 19, 2008

its not even officially confirmed lol its all hype

name one game that has been released that got 'offical' confirmation just from a person saying so. When games are confirmed they do it properly.

ozo

on Jul 19, 2008

I like SW but.... I want my KotORs as single player games.
And as i'm WoW player, i'm not going to pay for KotOR too.
And WoW is here to stay, it's not going anywhere 'till WoW2 comes, if it comes...

ManSh00ter

on Jul 19, 2008

Heh, as a long time SWG player who gave up in disgust after they introduced NGE, I remember how everyone kept saying "they should have placed the timeline in the Old Republic era and just make Jedi as another skillset, not some uber-pwnage crap..."

Loved KOTOR, would love to see what Bioware comes up with MMO-wise. Kind of doubt they will make something so grand and so "sandbox" as the original SWG.

Player run economy (I roleplayed a trandoshan hunter and could actually make deals with player traders for skins), skill-based character build (a bit of vibroblades, a bit of blasters... why not throw in some survival skills to boot), absolutely huge (albeit somewhat empty) worlds... and the best roleplay community I ever had the pleasure to spend nights with in a virtual cantina.

It took guts to put somthing so unorthodox on the market, and of course the corporate bigwigs got greedy when they saw what WoW did, so they made NGE... basically a cheap, ugly WoW clone. Which failed miserably.

So I hope Bioware takes a more original and innovative road. Though as sandwitched as they are between the two commercial giants LA and EA, I sort of doubt that.

Time will tell I guess.

Anniko

on Jul 20, 2008

Kotor 2 was rushed, sadly, but it was still a good game... and we have no idea what they plan... they could go with a Guild Wars style storyline... separate worldspaces, missions done in small groups, or alone with bots.I'm sure it'll be good

Bioware didn't make KotOR2, that was made by Obsidian. They were rushed by Lucas Arts to get the game out in time for Christmas.

Aractain

on Jul 20, 2008

Obsidain (black isle guys, the real spirit behind the Baldurs gate stuff) also did NwN2 which was what NWN1 should have been. Obsidian is better a making games than Bioware, Bioware just have more money to make high buget games (which arn't good enough from the gameplay prespective imo). (As in Mask of the Betrayer was more fun and longer than Mass Effect - even though I prefer guns and sci-fi games in general).

Mazuo

on Jul 21, 2008

Eh, Dragon Age looks a lot more like the BG2 I knew and loved than anything Obsidian's made. Don't get me wrong, I like NWN2, but we've had an expansion, they're working on the second and still very basic flaws and bugs remain in the game.

Modders have done far more for it than the official guys who were paid to release a smoothly working final product.

nightwraith40k

on Jul 21, 2008

I want my KotR 3 (

not an mmo, unless that profit ends up to make better games then I don't like the KotR mmo.

Anniko

on Jul 21, 2008

Eh, Dragon Age looks a lot more like the BG2 I knew and loved than anything Obsidian's made. Don't get me wrong, I like NWN2, but we've had an expansion, they're working on the second and still very basic flaws and bugs remain in the game.Modders have done far more for it than the official guys who were paid to release a smoothly working final product.

I'm gonna place the blame for the bugs on Atari (Formerly Infogrames, horrible publishing company). They forced Obsidian to release before it was ready.

Freeman43

on Jul 21, 2008

I want my KotR 3 not an mmo, unless that profit ends up to make better games then I don't like the KotR mmo.

it will happen my fellow fan it will happen.

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