EA assumes all publishing duties for Star Wars: The Old Republic from LucasArts

BioWare co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka announced at an EA Games showcase event in San Francisco this evening that Electronic Arts is assuming all publishing duties for the developer's forthcoming Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic. In a press release, EA stated that "certain publishing, marketing and distribution responsibilities previously designated to LucasArts will shift to EA, so that all publishing, marketing and distribution responsibilities can be centralized for efficiency," something that Muzyka expounded on when we spoke with him.

"There's not going to be any obvious change for gamers," Muzyka said of the immediate implications of the deal, adding that, "It makes things easier for us to have everything under one roof, and that will eventually benefit players." How so? Customer service was one example given. As for the role LucasArts will have in the game's development going forward, Muzyka told Joystiq that the company will still be "very involved" in ensuring that the final experience is 100 percent Star Wars in content and tone.

What Muzyka wouldn't tell us: When we can expect Star Wars: The Old Republic to ship. Canadians, it turns out, are not susceptible to Jedi mind tricks.

Reader Comments (22)

Of course this wont effect gamers, its publishing.. O_o

@Faenix I was thinking the same thing EA is going make DLC out the ass for this and completely milk every player for all their money and it's seriously becoming a tad redundant that the gaming industry is encouraging this. Smh.

@WiteBoiBrown I thought its 2K that is to blame for doing this, with their Mafia 2 and Civ5 DLCs...I guess not huh?

Now Lucas Arts can focus on jedi mindtricking bioware into KOTOR 3!!

The only starwars game I ever liked was Battlefront. So sad that i'll probably never get a new one... Pandemic just had to fail. :[

*Vader*
NOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

@MachDelta

*Damn near everyone*
I got a bad feeling about this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnE8RitIN4s

@MachDelta

http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com

its only "certain" publishing ...they say as long as the game doesnt change im all in :Pcant wait for it :p

Fack off EA. LucasArts FTW.

@ChuckBartowskiX

I think Frack off to both. I don't trust either to have a positive influence on anything.

@ChuckBartowskiX

LucasArts is a pretty sad company these days. It seems to go through dev teams each time it releases a game, which isn't often. Frankly, I have no idea why they decided against farming out development of Star Wars titles completely, as they don't seem up to the task at all. TFU2 is terrible and they haven't released much else recently.

@Grimcicle

Totally Rad?

(Refs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totally_Rad
http://www.flammie.net/vse/things/rad/index.htm )

@ChuckBartowskiX Really?! Remember these are the people who released the mess that was Force Unleashed with a great story but broken game play or the Force Unleashed II with fixed game play but broken story. Or the same people that constantly fire fire fire and then sit on a back catalogue of money making properties. EA aren't all that bad but Lucas Arts have become pure suck. And believe me, I cut my teeth in adventure gaming on their wares. I've bought the monkey island re-releases even if I have finished them both a dozen times over. It makes me very sad to say it but Lucas Arts is not so hot any more.

This is great news. LucasArts quite frankly can't be trusted anymore. I mean sure they made one final ditch effort at quality games and somewhat nailed it but have been pricks about support, firing off developers before the first patch and essentially closing the studio for a length of time which left employed people on unpaid vacation for an undetermined amount of time. They can consult on concepts and peddle their licenses but leave the "work" to be done entirely by a company that has the resources to ensure post launch support.

So EA is better?

I am still bitter about EA shutting down Majestic. Even tho some of us bought the boxed version, and had the entire season.

I strongly dislike EA and most game they make are extremely boring.

@paper They should probably try and get back to their roots by producing older games remade into modern games. I think that could sell well then..

Stuff like Theme Hospital, Need for Speed (I saw a good review about the latest NFS), Syndicate (I thought they are really being remade), Simcity..Well basically most Maxis, Bullfrog, Origin, and Westwood games..

Alot of you might not like EA all that much, but you have to agree, EA knows how to publish a game with their advertising and marketing. Publishing does not mean quality of the game itself, hopefully thats still in the hands of Bioware.

I wonder if this has anything to do with the rumored cost of the game (rumors say between $100 and $300 million, but I'm more inclined to believe the former than the latter). Maybe LucasArts doesn't want to finance the publishing costs of a game that they think won't be able to make them enough money?

Hopefully this doesn't mean KOTOR players (whom I expect to be amongst) will get milked for cash with a constant stream of overpriced DLC. I'd prefer they went the WoW route with free incremental updates and the occasional (every 2 years or so) major expansion.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

EA assumes all publishing duties for Star Wars: The Old Republic from LucasArts

Reader Comments (22)

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 1:33AM Faenix said

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 3:29AM WiteBoiBrown said

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 3:28PM P34nk said

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 1:35AM This Little Man Says His Name Is said

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 1:42AM Revengez said

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 1:46AM MachDelta said

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 2:29AM ShadowXIII said

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 4:25AM xJimmeh said

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 1:55AM Dacx17 said

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 2:01AM ChuckBartowskiX said

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 2:05AM eyeball2452 said

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 2:10AM finnith said

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 2:40AM ShadowXIII said

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 10:35AM commonperson said

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 2:56AM Anticrawl said

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 3:56AM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 3:28AM Dacx17 said

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 9:28AM paper said

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 3:32PM P34nk said

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 10:38AM Aquaryon said

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 11:12AM Padilla7921 said

Posted: Nov 11th 2010 12:18PM Trojan said

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