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Release Date Announced at EuroGamer Expo

BREAKING NEWS: BioWare announced December 20, 2011 for US and December 22 for EU as release date for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

To all of our Old Republic fans:

In 2008, along with our partners at LucasArts, we took to the stage to announce the development of the long-rumored BioWare massively multiplayer game set in the Star Wars universe. Over the past few years, we’ve pulled back the curtain and shown you why Star Wars: The Old Republic is the groundbreaking story-driven MMO you’ve always wanted, and how this game will change the MMO genre forever. We’ve given you a peek behind the scenes each week, showing you what it takes to create the largest MMO in development. Our team has traveled the world to give fans a chance to experience the game first-hand, and you’ve created an active pre-launch community larger than we’ve ever seen. Our Game Testing program has been a huge success, and thanks to you we have been able to achieve the BioWare level of quality our fans have come to expect in all of our games.

Today, the wait is truly over for a release date, at least.

It is our pleasure to finally announce to you that Star Wars: The Old Republic will launch on December 20, 2011 in North America, and in Europe on December 22, 2011. This is an incredible moment for everyone at BioWare and our partners at LucasArts who have dedicated the past few years to build this extraordinary game. We appreciate the patience from the millions of fans who have been waiting for the game’s release. When we launch this groundbreaking MMO this holiday, we hope you agree that it will have been worth the wait.

May the Force be with you,
Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk
Co-founders, BioWare

Visit the Star Wars: The Old Republic website for the official announcement.

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18 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.. Part Deuce

Put on your tin foil hat folks – you’re in for a looooong ride!

<Begins to sing slurring>

18 bottles of beer on the wall.. 18 bottles of beer.. Take one down, pass it around.. 17 bottles of beer on the wall!

<Ends singing>

We are just over halfway through 2011 and we officially have 18 Friday’s left in the year for BioWare to release information on Star Wars: The Old Republic.  This is my “speculation” into what we may see in some of these Friday Updates and I don’t believe we will be using all 18…

September 2 - PAX Recap (Convention Video(s) of Fans & Booth, Huttball, Eternity Vault, Open World PvP, etc.) & Details on Beta Weekends
September 9 - Smuggler, Imperial Agent OR Sith Inquisitor Armor Progression Video (SR Already confirmed Jedi Consular was not next) (3 of 4 Remaining)
September 16 - Fan Friday | Studio Insider
September 23 - EUROGAMER EXPO Reveals (Smuggler, Imperial Agent, Jedi Consular OR Sith Inquisitor Armor Progression Video, EU Beta Weekends Start, Guild Phase 2 Begins*)  (2 of 4 Remaining)
September 30 - Fan Friday | US & EU Beta Weekends Restart
October 7 - Imperial Agent, Jedi Consular OR Sith Inquisitor Armor Progression Video  (2 of 4 Remaining)
October 14 - New York Comic Con Reveals (Release Date, Last HoloNet tab “Legacy System”**)
October 21 - Fan Friday | Studio Insider
October 28 - Smuggler, Imperial Agent, Jedi Consular OR Sith Inquisitor Armor Progression Video (Last Video), Early Access Details & Announcement of Beta Weekends Ending Oct. 30th
November 4 - Developers Blog/Dispatch: Advanced Class Tree’s, Website Update: Advanced Class Skill Tree “Calculators” & Guild Phase 3 Begins
Tuesday, November 8 - Early Access Begins!***
Tuesday, November 15- Star Wars: The Old Republic is Released!

Updated 09/23/2011:

• Moved  ”Website Update: Advanced Class Skill Tree “Calculators”" from Oct 21st to Nov 4th.
• Replaced Developers Blog on Sep. 30th with Fan Friday | US & EU Beta Weekends Restart.
• Moved Early Access Details from Oct 14th to Oct 28th.
• Moved “Guild Phase 3 Begins” from Oct. 28th to Nov. 4th.
• Moved “Announcement of Beta Weekends Ending Oct. 23rd” from Oct. 14th to Oct. 28th and changed the end date from the 23rd to 30th.

*Guild Phase 2 could likely happen the week before with the Fan Friday | Studio Insider OR on Wednesday (September 21) before the EUROGAMER EXPO. (Am I good or what!)
**The  ”rumored” Legacy system could likely be included in a content patch after the release of the software as hinted at the Sunday PAX Panel by Daniel Erickson when saying they were already working on the first content patch.
***A 7-day staggered release would allow for approximately 250K people per day for a total of 1.75m pre-orders.  If there are more than 2m pre-orders Early Access could be extended additional days +/- delaying the retail release to November 22. 

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27 Bottles of Beer on the wall….

Put on your tin foil hat folks – you’re in for a looooong ride!

<Begins to sing slurring>

27 bottles of beer on the wall.. 27 bottles of beer.. Take one down, pass it around.. 26 bottles of beer on the wall!

<Ends singing>

We are just over halfway through 2011 and we officially have 27 Friday’s left in the year for BioWare to release information on Star Wars: The Old Republic.  This is my “speculation” into what we may see in some of these Friday Updates and I don’t believe we will be using all 27…

Update 07/01/11: After reviewing all of the past trailers we are actually missing quite a few “Armor” Progression Trailers and of course the Jedi Consular class trailer.  I have updated my list below to compensate for these missing trailers.

July 1 - Jedi Consular Class Update (Actual: Bounty Hunter Character (Armor) Progression)
July 8 –  Developers Blog (A Path to Success: Maps, and their Making) ✔
July 15 – Fan Friday | Studio Insider (w/ Audio Q/A) ✔
July 22 – San Diego Comic Con Reveals (Reveals: Jedi Consular Class Update/Trailer, (Remaining) Crew Skills, War Zone – VoidStar, (Low) Pre-Order, Box & Collector’s Edition details)
July 29 – San Diego Comic Con Recap & Jedi Consular Armor Progression
August 5 – Developers Blog
August 12 – Fan Friday | Studio Insider
August 19 – GamesCon Reveals (Reveals: “Train Horn” AKA Countdown to release date announcement for PAX, Last HoloNet Tab Revealed (speculated Legacy system) & Guild HQ Phase 2)
August 26 – PAX Reveals (Major Reveals: Release Date, Sith Inquisitor Armor Progression)
September 2 – GamesCon & PAX Recap | Expanded Game Testing Details Revealed via Pre-Orders
September 9 - Developers Blog (Character Creation) | Removal of the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) for Game Testers
September 16 - Fan Friday | Studio Insider (Guild HQ Phase 3*)
September 23 – EUROGAMER EXPO Reveals (Reveals: Imperial Agent Armor Progression, Smuggler Armor Progression, Head Start Details**, Server Lists & Website Update: Advanced Class Skill Tree “Calculators”)
Tuesday, September 27 – Star Wars: The Old Republic is Released!

*Guild Phase 3 could likely happen the Wednesday (September 21) before the EUROGAMER EXPO.
**Depending on the number of days they will be offering a Head Start the details could come earlier in the week

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Tin Foil: Release Date Speculation

Revised: June 23, 2011

The million dollar (or 80 million dollar) question looming over Star Wars: The Old Republic is – What is the Release Date?

BioWare announced last year that Spring 2011 was their “target time frame” for the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic. I firmly believe this was not the first “target time frame”, but it definitely was the first announced by BioWare. During the first quarter of this year BioWare changed their target time frame to 2011 and then during the most recent Electronic Arts 4Q Earnings (Source: Darthhater.com) call they (and BioWare) announced that the new target was Q2 FY12 or Q3 FY12 with a slight chance that it could slip into CY 2012. That is the official information as it stands now. Star Wars: The Old Republic will release sometime between July 1 and December 31, 2011.

Now it is time to put on your Tin Foil Hat!

BioWare recently updated their Events page on the official Star Wars: The Old Republic website with the conventions they will be attending this year which include major shows such as Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), San Diego Comic Con, GamesCon and Penny Arcade Expo (PAX).  There are several other smaller conventions they will be attending as well that can be seen on the Events page.  Using the powers of the Tin Foil Hat I anticipate an official release date of September 27, 2011. Find out how I come to this conclusion…

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Release Date Window Moved After July 1st?

Today Eirc Brown:, CFO of Electronic Arts, spoke at the Lazard Capital Markets Technology & Media Conference. The topic of Star Wars: The Old Republic was once again brought up and one of the many interesting things said by Brown was, “So we said it’s going to launch sometime in calendar, but not within Fiscal 11. So that basically pens down between you know, April 1st and December 31st of this calendar year. It’s also reasonable to infer that it’s not in our Q1 guidance. We gave Q1 Fiscal 11, Fiscal 12 non gap revenue guidance, minus 39 minus 44 cents and I think it’s not unreasonable to infer that it’s not included in that 90 day period.”

This indicates that the game most likely won’t release before the 1st of July.

Brown also talks about moving from a closed beta, to a semi-closed beta and then eventually to an open beta and then says that EA will talk more about Star Wars at E3, which takes place June 7-9th. Working transcription follows after the jump. We will be adding more as it comes in.