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EA gives a reason for not announcing SWTOR's release date


Miltiades

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EA CEO Riccitiello said it'd be 'irresponsible [to announce a release date] ... as it would give competitors an opportunity to disrupt the launch':

 

Putting a window out there creates a window of opportunity for our principal competitor to put out an expansion pack or an ad campaign etcetera around out launch window. Bad move at this point in time.

 

Everyone's afraid of the big bad WoW.

 

Source: CVG

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shocktrooperfacepalm.jpg

 

B-b-but wait, wasn't this game supposed to destroy and demolish WOW?

 

TBH, even a vague and encompassing "I don't know" would have been a better answer. But I guess those are the 3 unmentionable words of PR...

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EA CEO Riccitiello said it'd be 'irresponsible [to announce a release date] ... as it would give competitors an opportunity to disrupt the launch':

 

 

 

Everyone's afraid of the big bad WoW.

 

Source: CVG

 

Makes sense, I suppose. If you want to destroy something as big as World of Warcraft, you need the element of surprise.

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I've mentioned a few times that BW should be careful about WoW's expansions, seeing as one of the reasons for both Age of Conan's and Warhammer Online's demises was the release of Wrath of the Lich King so close to their releases.

 

Should I send Bioware an invoice or should I content myself with a "called it"?

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If you do send them an invoice, be sure to add a moral choice at the end,

 

1. Reschedule the game release [Light side]

2. Go ahead with release [Neutral]

3. Destroy Activision-Blizzard's offices, massacre their employees, eat their children and abduct their women [Dark side]

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I've mentioned a few times that BW should be careful about WoW's expansions, seeing as one of the reasons for both Age of Conan's and Warhammer Online's demises was the release of Wrath of the Lich King so close to their releases.
I imagine Blizzard already being done with their next expansion pack and waiting patiently for BW to announce the release date of TOR.
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Yeah, I think they have a good point. However, I'd be willing to bet Blizzard already has an expansion pack to release around TOR release. But if BioWare is clever about it, they can market it with showing people in an office.

 

First guy: Hey Bill I have a task for you.

Second guy walks up: Okay whacha need?

First guy<in a wall of text>: The basement has been overrun with pests. You are the only one who can help us. We need you to take care of the problem for us so we can get the business back on track. Would you be able to complete this task for us?

Accept "kill 10 rats" quest

Decline

 

voiceover: No more wall of text. The first fully voiced MMO. Oh and no more killing 10 rats.

 

They could make it even more funny with the second guy walking up wearing a Warcraftesque clownsuit

 

I mean the one thing Blizzard can't do(quickly) is redo their entire MMO to have voice acting. Though they might be able to release an expansion story that is fully voiced...

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I think it's most likely that they want to release the ad campaign and release date before Blizzard can counter it like they have with other big MMO releases. Blizzard will likely be working like a war machine to kill the competition from TOR as soon as there is a release date. They've done it to other MMO's. Considering that TOR has received so much attention, maybe Blizzard would be right to try to kill it immediately.

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I suppose they could work on another expansion... or something bigger. Doesn't anybody think WoW is getting too old? Especially if paired up with what TOR is planning to deliver? Announcing a sequel could damn well be a killer. But I can see some terrible logistic problems in that.

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I suppose they could work on another expansion... or something bigger. Doesn't anybody think WoW is getting too old? Especially if paired up with what TOR is planning to deliver? Announcing a sequel could damn well be a killer. But I can see some terrible logistic problems in that.

For the last few years Blizzard would have jobs occasionally posted for a 'next gen MMO', which they have confirmed is not in any existing IP. That's also about all they've said, as everything in the job descriptions are perfectly ordinary (the writing oriented jobs used to mention a preference for experience with the horror/fantasy/sci-fi genres, but that's no surprise from Blizzard).

 

Here's a list of jobs under Next Gen MMO on their site (sauce):

Environment Concept Artist, Props

3D Character Weapon and Equipment Artist

3D Character Animator

3D Character Artist

3D Environment Artist, Architecture

Engineering Department Manager

Franchise Development Producer

Lead 3D Environment Artist, Architecture

Producer, Tools

Senior 3D Environment Artist, Architecture

Senior Producer

Senior Software Engineer, Engine

Senior Software Engineer, Gameplay Interfaces

Senior Software Engineer, Server

Senior Software Engineer, Tools

Senior Story Developer

Software Engineer, Build Systems

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Yeah if they are still posting jobs for concept artists, it's at least more than a year out(probably closer to 5 with that list). However an expansion pack could definitely screw things up for TOR. And it really depends on the genre they choose. I mean if it's modern era cops and robbers/superhero, then it's competing against city of heros. But not so much TOR. People left SWG for WoW because of SWG rather than WoW.

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That MMO is still a long way in the future, I'm guessing, so BioWare shouldn't worry about that.

 

Yeah if they are still posting jobs for concept artists, it's at least more than a year out(probably closer to 5 with that list).

I agree that it's probably still a long way out, but for context's sake I think you should know that they were hiring for that MMO well before I quit WoW back in 2009.

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I mean the one thing Blizzard can't do(quickly) is redo their entire MMO to have voice acting. Though they might be able to release an expansion story that is fully voiced...

 

You underestimate the power of Microsoft Sam :doo1:

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