An update on the development of SWTOR

[jedimasterjac]

7 minutes ago, CrazyScruffy said:

We know some devs may transfer. I honestly wouldn't believe any of the numbers they reported. If they already have gotten 30-40+ devs to agree o move

Not just moving studios, but they’re asking the devs to move from Texas to Virginia, unless they’ve got some sort of remote set-up.

[Kristallia]

1 hour ago, wombatjake said:

Sadly, I can't think of a single MMO that changed developers and became more successful or got better after the change. Can any one else think of one? Sure could use the confidence facade until the truth emerges down the road lol. Come on... any one? Please?! 

One game that got much more active development after such merge I can think of is LOTRO, but I am not as familiar with that game as I am with SWTOR, but that game is now again getting quite big updates again even this day.

If im not mistaken, that game has changed studios 2 times.

[jedimasterjac]

5 minutes ago, Kristallia said:

One game that got much more active development after such merge I can think of is LOTRO, but I am not as familiar with that game as I am with SWTOR, but that game is now again getting quite big updates again even this day.

Sort of true, but the cost of development is significantly lower. 
 

Broadsword is not a AAA studio. They’re a small, independent studio that thus far has done nothing but maintain ancient MMOs. 
 

The cost of voice acting (which is pretty much required) alone is likely incredibly prohibitive. 
 

They have much, much less money than a first-party studio. And, though EA will invest some money, even less investment than currently. So the likelihood of any revitalization or even continuing the current (inadequate) course is virtually nil. 
 

Standing Stone is itself quite small, but it has twice the developers and four times the annual revenue of Broadsword. More importantly, they’re, again, working on much smaller MMOs. 
 

None of these games compare to the size and complexity of SWTOR.

Edited June 7, 2023 by jedimasterjac

[Kristallia]

1 minute ago, jedimasterjac said:

Sort of true, but the cost of development is significantly lower. 
 

Broadsword is not a AAA studio. They’re a small, independent studio that thus far has done nothing but maintain ancient MMOs. 
 

The cost of voice acting (which is pretty much required) alone is likely incredibly prohibitive. 
 

They have much, much less money than a first-party studio. And, though EA will invest some money, even less investment than currently. So the likelihood of any revitalization or even continuing the current (inadequate) course is virtually nil. 

Yeah, you are totally right! I would assume we continue to see lot of these new dialogues where we dont see the chatbox and our characters dont talk, and many of the npc's we will be talking with are aliens speaking some alient language, bit like how we had during covid thing when getting voice actors was bit troubling.

However as far as I know, many (or atleast some) of the current devs of that studio has worked on SWTOR during its early days, and that combined to more than half of current team moving to that studio, I would say there is high chance that the new team can be quite competent. Of course time will tell, but I stay hopeful!

You are right for sure that they can have way less money but if you try to see positive thing about that, it will also mean that SWTOR is rather big and important project for them as it is easily biggest game they have ever had, so you would assume they would really try to do the best with the resources they have as possible, as SWTOR would not be just a side project for them.

[jedimasterjac]

5 minutes ago, Kristallia said:

However as far as I know, many (or atleast some) of the current devs of that studio has worked on SWTOR during its early days,

Kinda? I’m only aware of one person, who was at Mythic Entertainment and he then became part of the MMO team when Mythic and BioWare merged to make such a team in 2009. He’s the president of Broadsword. 
 

But he also just co-founded a new studio that’s currently working on a survival game that’s going through a round of funding as of last month. 
 

tl;dr - I think the statement about him being a swtor dev is PR more than anything. I haven’t been able to find anything about his actual work on the game, and I would be shocked if he has any intent of actually developing it. 
 

I’d love to be wrong though. I feel like I’ve tried my best to be optimistic about the course of the game for a long, long time. And this just feels pretty devastating. I can’t imagine how the devs must feel. 

Edited June 7, 2023 by jedimasterjac

[Advocatis]

Does anyone have an idea of the transfer timeline?  I’d guess not, since the transaction hasn’t been negotiated yet.  The announcement just says they are talking with Broadsword, not that an agreement has been reached.

On the bright side, there will be an opening niche for someone else to make a new Star Wars themed MMO without having to deal with SWTOR directly.

[Kristallia]

12 minutes ago, jedimasterjac said:

tl;dr - I think the statement about him being a swtor dev is PR more than anything. I haven’t been able to find anything about his actual work on the game, and I would be shocked if he has any intent of actually developing it. 

That could be true too!

I guess it depends on which game he sees to be more important and has more potential, that new survival RPG or SWTOR.

But even if there would be no devs currently in that new company that are familiar with SWTOR, the majority of current devs that moves to that studio is still much better than nothing, as the new studio does not have to start from scratch with game totally unfamiliar to them.

[Kristallia]

5 minutes ago, Advocatis said:

Does anyone have an idea of the transfer timeline?  I’d guess not, since the transaction hasn’t been negotiated yet.  The announcement just says they are talking with Broadsword, not that an agreement has been reached.

On the bright side, there will be an opening niche for someone else to make a new Star Wars themed MMO without having to deal with SWTOR directly.

The IGN article I did read about said "According to sources familiar with the matter, Broadsword and EA have signed a letter of intent, with the deal expected to be finalized as soon as this month." so I guess the timeline is rather quick if that info is correct.

Edited June 7, 2023 by Kristallia

[Traceguy]

Can Broadsword patch the bugs in the bug section that are being neglected?

[Traceguy]

14 minutes ago, Advocatis said:

On the bright side, there will be an opening niche for someone else to make a new Star Wars themed MMO without having to deal with SWTOR directly.

Star Wars is still an IP owned by Disney, and EA still holds publishing rights for games. I don't see how taking SWTOR away from Bioware means random companies can make Star Wars MMOs now.

[Traceguy]

4 hours ago, GeneralGyro said:

good thing the 1-50 stories are the only ones i enjoy if the game does go into undeath

Everything up to Ziost (Pre KOTFE Chapter 1) is great. And it's all I need. I hardly push any of my characters past Ziost anymore because it's pretty much a complete reboot of the story.

[meddani]

9 minutes ago, Traceguy said:

Everything up to Ziost (Pre KOTFE Chapter 1) is great. And it's all I need. I hardly push any of my characters past Ziost anymore because it's pretty much a complete reboot of the story.

this. launche until 3.x was great, everything after that was not...

[jedimasterjac]

19 minutes ago, Traceguy said:

I don't see how taking SWTOR away from Bioware means random companies can make Star Wars MMOs now.

I’m genuinely amazed at how people seem to find every way imaginable to completely misunderstand how licensing agreements work. 

[mentalmackem]

15 minutes ago, jedimasterjac said:

I’m genuinely amazed at how people seem to find every way imaginable to completely misunderstand how licensing agreements work. 

Licensing means nothing if Lucasfilm won't allow 2 star wars game to compete, which they wont and never have, reason why SWG closed when this opened.

[jedimasterjac]

11 minutes ago, mentalmackem said:

Licensing means nothing if Lucasfilm won't allow 2 star wars game to compete, which they wont and never have, reason why SWG closed when this opened.

They’d happily invest in a new MMO/live service game if they thought it was worthwhile. SWTOR has a small playerbase. Very little market share. Relatively little name recognition, especially for the Star Wars IP. 

 

And, you know, it’s 12 years old. 

[Toraak]

58 minutes ago, Traceguy said:

Star Wars is still an IP owned by Disney, and EA still holds publishing rights for games. I don't see how taking SWTOR away from Bioware means random companies can make Star Wars MMOs now.

EA won't have the exclusive rights to SW games after this year, so other companies could in theory make an MMO, but in truth I wouldn't expect that. The MMO industry has been flooded over the last decade, and not many have truly been successful compared tot he cost it requires to create and sustain one.

Edited June 7, 2023 by Toraak

[krackcommando]

12 hours ago, Ollmich said:

All these seasons, conquests, events and other systems have always been fluff aimed at keeping us busy between meaningful story updates, regardless of the size and quality of these updates.

as much as I enjoyed the 1.x story lines, I have to say that every single xpack was a content disappointment for me, specifically for the lack of content. although doling out story in tiny tidbits at a time that started with the Eternal Empire stuff (while giving us no new content just recycled hamster wheels for end game "content") was really frustrating. lack of end game pve in this game is what turned me into a pvp player. 😄

[OlBuzzard]

5 hours ago, TrixxieTriss said:

That was my first thought also. Because I have around 17,000 cartel coins sitting there. I’m guessing I should spend those so I don’t lose them 🤷🏻‍♀️

Same!  And about 15 billion to burn.  I guess the economy will finally get fixed!  (As the whole game goes down in flames)!!

MAYDAY!!!  MAYDAY!!!  MAYDAY!!

[Vandicus]

1 hour ago, mentalmackem said:

Licensing means nothing if Lucasfilm won't allow 2 star wars game to compete, which they wont and never have, reason why SWG closed when this opened.

That's not why SWG closed, there was another Star Wars MMO aimed at kids running at the same time as SWTOR for a while. SWG closed because of not making money.

Any new MMO for Disney would be in the new Star Wars canon anyways. The damage to the franchise means licensing Star Wars should be a fair bit cheaper now, but also means the Star Wars license is less attractive. 

[KeithKanneg]

Whoa whoa everyone... I was hoping me telling you about the upcoming releases would help you understand this is a new beginning, not the end.

We have more stories, modernizations, and MMO content already being planned out beyond 7.4.  While details are being discussed and finalized behind the scenes, let's not spin this into incorrect theories.  I am asking you to hang tight and we'll follow up later with more details when we can.

-Keith

[CrazyScruffy]

Thank you Keith for popping back in. But sadly we cannot take your word for it. We cannot take it on BioWare's word or EA's word. The track record is not there. This feels more like damage control, I imagine a lot of cancelled subs have scared some people and they don't want to lose any money until they can't spin it no more

[Traceguy]

5 minutes ago, KeithKanneg said:

Whoa whoa everyone... I was hoping me telling you about the upcoming releases would help you understand this is a new beginning, not the end.

We have more stories, modernizations, and MMO content already being planned out beyond 7.4.  While details are being discussed and finalized behind the scenes, let's not spin this into incorrect theories.  I am asking you to hang tight and we'll follow up later with more details when we can.

-Keith

For once, Bioware has gotten involved with the community. I thank you for this response Keith 

Edited June 7, 2023 by Traceguy

[NeoBlakkrstal]

4 minutes ago, KeithKanneg said:

Whoa whoa everyone... I was hoping me telling you about the upcoming releases would help you understand this is a new beginning, not the end.

We have more stories, modernizations, and MMO content already being planned out beyond 7.4.  While details are being discussed and finalized behind the scenes, let's not spin this into incorrect theories.  I am asking you to hang tight and we'll follow up later with more details when we can.

-Keith

Sounds good, but you will forgive us if we are reticent to believe everything that EAware tells us. We got a protracted "Year of celebration." Trickled out story updates, and a change from what had been a very fleshed out, unique for it's genre' fully voiced MMO to a KotOR style Generic story arc. Track record has not been good. We are hopeful that things will be ok going forward, but we are not optimistic. I am hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.

[YodaUnrea]

5 minutes ago, CrazyScruffy said:

Thank you Keith for popping back in. But sadly we cannot take your word for it. We cannot take it on BioWare's word or EA's word. The track record is not there. This feels more like damage control, I imagine a lot of cancelled subs have scared some people and they don't want to lose any money until they can't spin it no more

yeah prety much, i agree with you.

[narrator_jack]

7 minutes ago, KeithKanneg said:

Whoa whoa everyone... I was hoping me telling you about the upcoming releases would help you understand this is a new beginning, not the end.

We have more stories, modernizations, and MMO content already being planned out beyond 7.4.  While details are being discussed and finalized behind the scenes, let's not spin this into incorrect theories.  I am asking you to hang tight and we'll follow up later with more details when we can.

-Keith

Thank you for keeping us in the loop for once