Bioware Discusses Star Wars: The Old Republic Testing And Launch Date

In an interview on VG247 with Bioware’s associate producer Cory Butler, the developer revealed the narrative impact of flashpoints on players and the gameplay planned for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Flashpoints in Star Wars: The Old Republic are action-packed, story-driven adventures that put a group of players up against difficult foes in sticky situations. Every Flashpoint begins with an exciting story and contains difficult decisions which have meaningful impact on the challenges you’ll face, the enemies you’ll fight, and the outcome of the flashpoints.

Butler went on to comment on the gamer-assisted test program, noting that both character creation and difficulty balancing have been tweaked as a result of feedback from the community of beta testers.

Those interested in testing The Old Republic need to be a registered member of the Star Wars: The Old Republic community. Once signed up at www.starwarstheoldrepublic.com, they simply need to check the box indicating that they are interested in becoming a tester and follow the instructions provided. To be eligible for possible selection as a game tester you must be 18 years of age or older.

Getting ready for a 2011 launch on the PC, Butler was adamant about the preparations completed for a smooth launch.

[We have been] working on plans and backup plans and backups to the backup plans for quite some time now, so we’re ready to execute all these plans at launch.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Star Wars MMORPG series, released on the Xbox on July 15, 2003, it was a smash hit. The story takes place 4000 years before the Galactic Empire. Darth Malak, a Dark Lord of the Sith and Darth Revan’s former apprentice, has unleashed a Sith armada against the Republic. Malak’s aggression has left the Jedi scattered and vulnerable; many Jedi Knights have fallen in battle and others have sworn allegiance to Malak and Revan.

After selling over 1 million copies, Obsidian Entertainment at the behest of Bioware, then developed a sequel, titled Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. The Sith Lords proceeded to break all expectations with its ground breaking dialog and extreme character customizations.

Now with the upcoming release of Star Wars: The Old Republic, a new tale has been spun, and fans of the series and the genre as a whole are lining up to find any new information that’s available. Sadly as of now, The Old Republic will only be released on the PC. Personally I’d love to see the whole series appear together on both Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles but there’s no word of that just yet. For now, we’ll have to stick to the PC. The game does look fantastic though and knowing Bioware’s track record, I’m sure this will be a must own MMORPG.