Blend Games : KOTOR online confirmed

From a Blend Games article :

You may remember that Lucas Arts and BioWare launched a co-branded website in October and announced they were making an "interactive entertainment product" together. Well, it turns out it's not just any interactive entertainment product - it's a massive multiplayer online game based on the Knights of the Old Republic single player RPG's.

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello confirmed the much-rumored KOTOR MMO in an interview with Portfolio.com at E3 yesterday. He also said the project would be "quite possibly the most anticipated game, full stop, for the industry at the point when we get closer to telling you about it." It's hard to argue with that point given how huge of a franchise Star Wars is. The built-in fan base gives it a good chance of grabbing a lot of customers who haven't even played an MMO before.

Plus there's already been a Star Wars MMO, Star Wars Galaxies, which BioWare and Lucas Arts can use as a sort of case study when they're determining how certain aspects of the Star Wars mythos will translate into gameplay. The biggest issue, something Galaxies struggled with, is determining who's going to be allowed to be Jedi and how powerful will they be compared to non-Force sensitive characters in this game. The KOTOR series was set during the Old Republic when the Jedi were all over the damn place. However, most of them get killed by the Sith between the first and second games in the series. Assuming they set the MMO after the second game, maybe they'll have the Jedi Order in a state of rebuilding. It's safe to say they'll let someone play a Jedi because lightsabers are just too damn cool to only be wielded by NPC's. Maybe they'll screw with everyone's heads by making Jedi the designated healing/buffing class like Paladins in World of Warcraft.

Even though I was a big fan of the first two KOTOR games, I'm still not sure what I think about the idea of a KOTOR MMO. A single player RPG is a completely different experience than an MMO. Part of the appeal of the single player KOTOR games was that I felt like I was starring in my own little Star Wars movie. The biggest strength was its central storyline, which is the very thing MMO's tend to push off into the background in favor of grinding. My tune will likely change once I get some actual details on the game and BioWare's done enough to earn the benefit of the doubt but right now I just keep imagining a Jedi Master sending his Padawan off into the woods to kill 10 boars and bring back their snouts.

> Source

EA confirms new Star Wars MMO

Electronic Arts chief executive John Riccitiello :

"We've got two of the most compelling MMOs in the industry in development," said Riccitiello. The first title, based on the Warhammer property, will launch soon. "And the one that people are dying for us to talk to them about -- in partnership with Lucas, coming out of BioWare, which is, I think, quite possibly the most anticipated game, full stop, for the industry at the point when we get closer to telling you about it."

Does Riccitiello mean the oft rumored Knights of the Old Republic Online? "Yes," he said.

> Source : EA to Play in Knights of the Old Republic

LucasFilm Files New Star Wars Trademarks

From a Kotaku article :

The house that Lucas built has filed for a handful of new trademarks, all Star Wars related, all potentially new names for the oft-rumored Knights of the Old Republic 3, the one that continues to pop up as a new BioWare developed MMO. LucasFilm recently filed trademark applications for Star Wars The Old Republic, The Old Republic, Star Wars Sagas and Star Wars Legends, all of are described as "video game software" and "entertainment services provided on-line by means of global and local area networks."

While that certainly sounds like a new Star Wars MMO and it all matches up nicely with what we've heard from former LucasArts employees, we'll call it rumor for now.

> Source

LucasFilms registers "Star Wars The Old Republic" mark

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Bioware Austin MMO slated for 2010 or 2011

From a TVG article

EA has seemingly admitted involvement in BioWare's mystery MMO project (now strongly believed to be a KOTOR 3 MMO), which suggests that both LucasArts and EA will pool their efforts in publishing the highly anticipated MMO project from the Austin, Texas based developer.

At a recent stock conference with investors, EA's CEO John Riccitello was referring to a list of 15 new intellectual properties in the publisher's pipeline when he let this slip:

"It's giving us strong new entries in online. For example, we're funding the MMO in Austin, which is helping us a lot." He went on to state that the MMO is slated for fiscal 2010/11 (i.e. between April 1st 2010 and March 31st 2011).

We've done a lot of head scratching and can't think of any other MMO projects that he might be referring to in Austin, or any other EA studios in that part of Texas other than BioWare.

It's now becoming one of the worst kept secrets in gaming that BioWare's MMO project is based on the Knights of the Old Republic universe. When over 100 hundred LucasArts staff were made redundant earlier this month, whistle blowers leaked a number of unannounced projects under the LucasArts umbrella, one of which was a KOTOR 3 MMO under development at BioWare.

LucasArts, EA, and BioWare all working on a KOTOR MMO together - who'da thunk it?

Former LucasArts employee : KOTOR 3 will be a MMO

From a Kotaku article :

One former employee has told us not only how he was immediately sacked after six years of service, but how wide-ranging the layoffs appear to be, and the impact they'll supposedly have on many of Lucasart's upcoming projects. Some of them as-yet-unannounced. Projects like KOTOR 3, a Wii Star Wars title and the non-Lego Indiana Jones game.

[...]

Some of the titles they report Lucasarts apparently have in this stacked pipeline, whether as publisher or developer, include:

- KOTOR 3 (They say it's an MMO: most likely a joint project between Lucasarts and BioWare)
- Battlefront 3 (which we've already heard about)
- "The Official Indiana Jones" game (probably this one)
- "another LEGO game based on the Indy universe"
- "a lightsaber game for the wii (sorry, no lightsaber peripherals)"

Related : LucasArts Leak Shows KOTOR 3 As MMO News

Rumor over the rumor : KOTOR MMO cancelled ?

From a Kotaku article :

We've continued to receive e-mails throughout the day from folks who it seems are now formerly in the employ of Lucasarts, telling us this and that about the circumstances behind their departure from the company. But few are as revealing as one we were sent earlier this evening. One former employee has told us not only how he was immediately sacked after six years of service, but how wide-ranging the layoffs appear to be, and the impact they'll supposedly have on many of Lucasart's upcoming projects. Some of them as-yet-unannounced. Projects like KOTOR 3, a Wii Star Wars title and the non-Lego Indiana Jones game.

The source tells us that the sackings are spread across the company, and involve (as we were told earlier) everyone from testers to head producers. They also re-iterate earlier reports that the number of staff affected is around 100, and that the cull actually began on Wednesday, and continued through into Thursday.

Most interesting, however, is the information they provide on how the layoffs leave the company severely short-staffed as they approach a packed development schedule, one which it appears may be increasingly outsourced. Some of the titles they report Lucasarts apparently have in this stacked pipeline, whether as publisher or developer, include:

- KOTOR 3 (They say it's an MMO: most likely a joint project between Lucasarts and BioWare)
- Battlefront 3 (which we've already heard about)
- "The Official Indiana Jones" game (probably this one)
- "another LEGO game based on the Indy universe"
- "a lightsaber game for the wii (sorry, no lightsaber peripherals)"

Two internally-developed games apparently far enough along to be unaffected by the sackings are The Force Unleashed (which they say has already "passed approval with SCEA and is ready to ship") and Fracture, which they say is described by team members as "an absolute piece of garbage".

As the testimony of a freshly-sacked employee, take that appraisal of Fracture with a grain of salt. And as the testimony of a freshly-sacked employee, don't expect Lucasarts or BioWare to go commenting on things like KOTOR3 or a Wii lightsaber game anytime soon. But it's certainly further food for thought.

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