Collector's Edition Boxed Set
A sound that can be heard around the gaming world: pre-ordering starts, Ray Muzyka talks release window, beta testing weekends in September. Most importantly, pre-ordering will get you early game access. How early? That depends on when you pre-order — first come, first served. Don’t delay!
Pre-order info, narrowing release window, beta testing weekends after the jump
Star Wars: The Old Republic will come in three flavors: Collector’s Edition, Digital Deluxe, and Standard. More details on each set and pre-order information here.
Other exciting news includes an EA press release in which Ray Muzyka talks about a Holiday 2011 release. “We are targeting Star Wars: The Old Republic to be one of the biggest launches of holiday 2011,” he said. This effectively narrows the release window to the last two or three months of 2011, so don’t expect SWTOR before the late fall.
In the same release, BioWare also announced that in September they will have Beta Test Weekends. “These weekend play sessions will be open to selected players worldwide and create an opportunity for fans to get a sneak peek of the epic stories, worlds, quests, battles and characters in the game,” BioWare says. These weekends will be open to those who have registered for testing.
Dang I woke up at 8 to get ready for work and noticed on my RSS feed that you could preorder now! So I went to the site and they were already sold out of the collectors edition! I wasn’t going to spend that much anyways but it is good to know that there is going to be a lot of people playing this game 🙂
“This effectively narrows the release window to the last two or three months of 2011.”
So this effectively leaves Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and all the other countries not on “the list” out in the cold until 2012. Very unamused Bioware.
I just wanted to jump on and point out that the major “TOR news” sites (such as Darth Hater) seem to have (so far) ignored the fact that half the community over on the site exploded in a backlash of fury over this news. This was supposed to be one of the happiest days of the year for TOR fans, and instead it turned out to be one of the bitterest for many in the community.
While I myself have already dealt with my anger, it still hurts that, as usual, Aussies are being passed over as second-class consumers, with practically no explanation, and no fuss from the fan-sites. This was a big deal, it’d be nice if someone recognised it.
As to Bioware, I hope they plan to assuage some of the pain that has resulted from this decision, and I’d be interested in hearing CRR’s thoughts on how they might do so. Do you gals/guys think it’s likely that Bioware will provide true localisation, with local servers for areas like Oceania, who have been left out of initial release?
Again, my purpose is not to rage, but to try and get more of the community talking about an issue which has genuinely hurt a sizeable portion of the community.
Sincerely, Flamegear.
Amazon is out of Collectors Editions too, and last night GameStop said they’d probably run out today as well. A lot of fun stuff in there, but seriously, $150 is a lot. Preordered the basic and registered on SWTOR.com for my color stone. We’ll see what comes of that.
There is a way for those in the disenfranchised hemisphere to legally play with no TOS even bumped up against.
Many Bothan brain cells were killed to bring me this concept:
So my idea relies on a few moving parts, not the least of the need of a person to rely on within the current release areas.
A friend of yours buys the game and installs on a very, very strong PC (not their primary playing rig) and that person creates a log-in and account. Then the person in the DMZ (de-merriment zone) uses one of many RDC programs to remote take over the machine and play the game. now .. it would be slower yes, it would be a hassle yes, and the nuanced controls might be a bit off. BUT you would be playing 🙂
You can still get the game and play it if you’re outside those areas. You’ll experience lag and other effects of being so far away from the servers, but you can do it, I think.
For those mentioning Amazon, I suggest you go to toroz.com.au and listen to their latest podcast (Flashpoint) for a more accurate look at the issue overall, including that option.
@flamegear thanks for pointing me in the direction of toroz.com.au’s Flashpoint podcast. I listened to their discussion to get their take on BioWare’s decision to exclude Australia, Asia, and lots of other countries from the pre-order phase. It really kind of seemed that BioWare was unprepared to answer the obvious questions that would come out of this revelation, and that was almost a bigger source of frustration than the news that so many parts of the world would be excluded from the pre-order phase.
@ Kathy – No worries. It was really cool to hear you mention toroz on the cast. 😉 I’m always happy to promote awareness of the Oceanic community, and on this particular issue I was simply hoping to facilitate (informed) discussion & conversation.
For me personally, after the initial flash of anger and hurt (about 20 minutes) my biggest frustration was definitely the lack of yellow text appearing on the forums in the first 48 hours.
Personally I have decided to wait for the local launch. I plan on playing with several friends, and I’m still holding out a glimmer of hope for local servers. (Also I don’t see why I should have to jump through so many hoops. I can wait.)
Take care of yourself Kathy. Keep up the good work on the podcast.
(Flamegear returns to hibernation. Posting on forums is exhausting.)