E3 2008: EA and BioWare working on a new Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic MMO

Not mentioned at any of the E3 press conferences, we were surprised to see that Portfolio.com had gotten a very interesting admission from EA CEO John Riccitiello, who says EA and developer BioWare are working on a new version of the Star Wars RPG Knights of the Old Republic. To compete with the very successful World of Warcraft massively multiplayer online game, EA plans on adding MMO-like online multiplayer elements to the new Star Wars game. Riccitiello says:

"We've got two of the most compelling MMOs in the industry in development...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."

[NWLB]

I'm thrilled, it is certain to be a Star Wars MMO, but he's gaffed recently in tying it to KOTOR. The trademark filings do not say KOTOR, which makes sense, since it won't be strictly Jedi toons running around. So calling it The Old Republic, as they have filed it is logical. But it also opens the door to this not being based in the same time as the two KOTOR games.

Either way, Sony can start unplugging life support to Star Wars Galaxies, stick a fork in it, turn out the lights, and say good-night Gracie.

[geek_critique]

I'd be interested to know, in light of this, what people think of my idea that Jedi shouldn't be playable in this game... http://geekcritique.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/star-wars-kotor-mmo-heres-how-it-should-play-out/

[boothieuk]

I'm so excited about this news, i honestly started yelling with joy when i heard about this :)

[DakkonA1]

I really, really hope it's only an MMO that ties in to a single-player game. Very few people, comparatively, can make the time commitment to really enjoy and succeed in an MMO.

[xbrando7]

I loved the KOTOR series. I would be thrilled if Bioware and LucasArts made another, but I really wish it had an option of a single player game in addition to the mmo. Im sick of paying subscriptions and configuring my ISP with the games settings. It really is a pain.