Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Release Date is Stupid

Phil Owen from GameFront certainly chose a strong title for his editorial on why he considers the choice of release date for BioWare’s ambitious MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic a bad one, in which he argues that December may actually be a bad period for a game’s release period, especially a new MMO. Here’s a sampling:

No matter the reason, it’s become standard for every fall AAA event title to release before Thanksgiving, and so it’s weird to see one break the trend. Of course, we can’t forget one big exception that could be what is providing EA a reason for choosing a December date: World of Warcraft Cataclysm.

Of course, the difference between SWTOR and Cataclysm is that Cataclysm was pretty much an obligatory purchase for those who were already playing WoW while SWTOR is a new IP, for all intents and purposes. They are both MMOs, though, and you have to think Cataclysm’s December 7 release made EA think it would be OK to put SWTOR out in December.

And, of course, they remembered that the white collar folks who make up SWTOR’s target audience will be off work for the holidays. And so I guess that’s why they decided to go full speed ahead with that launch date.

That’s a good thought, guys, but it doesn’t work in practice. Do you know why people get to take off work for the holidays? Because they’re traveling. Take the average GameFront writer. For the most part, we don’t live near our families. For the holidays, we hop on a plane and fly halfway across the country, leaving our PCs and game consoles behind.

(Oh s t, I got a copy of SWTOR for Christmas! I sure wish I could play it.) I guarantee that’s what Christmas morning is going to be like for many of us.