BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO isn’t dead yet. While the developer is moving on from its successful online game, a new studio will be supporting the title for years to come.
Electronic Arts has revealed that BioWare will be replaced as the primary developer of its long-running MMORPG. As the developer moves to full production on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and future Mass Effect games, the MMO will be handled by a different team.
At the time of writing, EA is still looking to put external developer Broadsword Online Games on the title. However, fans have been worried that the popular MMO will be put into “maintenance mode”, a phase where MMOs are supported but don’t receive new major content releases.
In a new forum post, executive producer Keith Kanneg reveals that Star Wars: The Old Republic still has years of content planned for its still-growing audience of avid players. Furthermore, BioWare will still be overseeing new content with some developers being moved onto the new team as well.
When asked if the game would be going into maintenance, Kanneg responded “absolutely not”, immediately shutting down any mention of the game slowing down.
“As I've said before, we are working on future plans including more story and modernisation initiatives for the game,” Kanneg explained. “We've upgraded the game to 64-bit, and are working on moving the servers to the cloud, and there are more content and tech updates on the way.”
Kanneg explained that giving the title to a new third party studio offers certain “creative freedom” that BioWare can’t currently offer to fans. If anything, The Old Republic may receive even more content than before.
“I know that when something like this happens it can bring on feelings of doom and gloom," Kanneg told players. "This isn't the beginning of the end, this truly is a new beginning for us. As you can imagine there are quite a few moving parts right now but we have a lot to talk about in our future."
Despite being 12 years old, BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic is still receiving huge content packs for players. Last year, the Legacy of the Sith expansion brought huge changes to the game, including a raised level cap, new classes, more abilities and new weapons, alongside a brilliant story arc.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is currently available as a free-to-play game on PC. The game has not received a console port at the time of writing, nor is one planned.