LucasArts: Star Wars MMO will be bigger than WoW
by Mike Schramm 
Oct 27th 2008 at 4:00PM
You may have missed this story last week (we wouldn't blame you if you were busy fighting off the living dead), but there was a big announcement in the world of MMO games. BioWare, makers of Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate, and last year's terrific Mass Effect, announced in conjunction with EA and LucasArts that they were going to make their first MMO, set in the same universe as their critically acclaimed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic game. Massively's got tons of news about it if you're interested (and even though we won't see it for years and years, I definitely am).But LucasArts didn't stop there -- years before the game is even scheduled to come out, they're ready to say the game will be bigger than WoW. Now, we get it -- WoW's the 800 lb. gorilla of MMOs, and thus they make the biggest target you'll find. But please, can we see some actual gameplay before the hype machine gets rolling?
If they don't actually release the game until WoW's servers are turned off, then sure, they'll be bigger than WoW, and hey, maybe if BioWare is able to make their game casual and accessible enough (we're looking at you, Mass Effect inventory system), they'll be able to come close to WoW's current peak of almost 11 million players. But LucasArts, let's get the game working before we start bragging about how big it's going to be.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Humor
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
token Oct 27th 2008 4:06PM
oh noes, someone said something about WoW...quick, to the Blog Mobile!
Tasty Oct 27th 2008 4:12PM
Thanks for nearly causing me to eject my coffee halfway accross the room.
I'm going to be stuck with the thought of Mike ripping off his suit to reveal his "Bloggerman" superhero outfit below :(
conker87 Oct 28th 2008 5:41AM
Mike ripping off his shirt.
Images. THEY HAST RETURNED!!! ARGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH.
*thud*
Jamus Oct 27th 2008 4:06PM
I have been wondering about this game. I do not know how they are going to make it fun unless everyone is a Jedi. If everyone is a Jedi, what fun will that be?
Maybe some new species or mechs?
Yeng Oct 27th 2008 4:25PM
Sounds like another attempt to make money on the IP. Who knows if it will be popular or not, but they're banking on getting in on Star War fanbase. If they get up to 11M people, we'll see.
Xtyle Oct 27th 2008 5:10PM
The best part about it, is it doesn't matter. Jedi? No Jedi? It's still Star Wars, therefore, they will will go out like lemmings and give them money and enjoy doing so.
We will play for about 6months when we will then start getting angry at George for making us "buy this crap" but will continue to play the game for about 4-6months more before we finally decide we've had enough. By then, they will announce the first major Expansion or Upgrade to the game. We will hesitantly hang on to the game until the expansion comes out. Why? Well.. because it's new!! Duh! Corndogs! Thought you knew!?! But then will be upset that it didn't live up to the expectation that we've formed from beta testing it.
So.. now that we're 4 years from now, and canceling our subscriptions to SWTOR, we'll be doing the same for the next big MMO.
:) It happened for UO, EQ, SWG,EQ2, WoW, and whatever other MMO you can think of. So long as you have fun in the sick process... it's all good. :)
Naix Oct 27th 2008 5:25PM
HA! By that time wow2 will be out and utterly dominating the MMO market. Lucas your only hope is 2nd or 3rd place.
infection Oct 27th 2008 5:45PM
wait a minute...
i remember playing a star wars mmo some years back.
it was epic fail from the ground up
2 months tops and i was back to playing first person shooters till wow came out. started out as a boring game and then the jedi's came out and i remember throwing the game in the trash can
who makes a game where DANCING levels you up?
wtf....
Nagi Oct 27th 2008 5:50PM
Mandalorians.
I rest my case.
Karatha Oct 27th 2008 5:52PM
But was that game made by Bioware?
PeeWee Oct 27th 2008 5:55PM
"2 months tops and i was back to playing first person shooters till wow came out."
2 months? I gave up before my trial was over -- If fail was a game, it'd be SW:G.
gridwerk Oct 27th 2008 6:08PM
I dont think the Jedi will be OP. Look to the movies for this proof: Boba Fett was able to beat on the Jedi as was Grevious. Most of the other Jedi were killed by the clones and not other Jedi so it shows that technology can beat The Force on occasion. So I bet the classes will be easy to keep even.
I doubt this would knock WoW off its pedestal if it were to launch today but in two years if people continue to grow tired of Blizzards direction with WoW then I can see it taking a chunk like AOC did for a minute and WAR seems to continue to do.
The SWG MMO was a failure because it wasnt, well, good. I like the universe created by the gang that did KotR and had thought at the time I played it that it would make an interesting PVP world. If they do it that way it can be a smashing success. If they follow the SWG model with Jedi being the ultimate griefer role then they'll fail.
Id love to see a technology based MMO that didnt suck. If Blizz made a Universe of Starcraft to replace WoW thast would work so well for me I might stay with the franchise. As it is Im getting tired of swords and arrows, I'd like some lasers and robots for a change cause almost all the MMO's are pretty much swords and arrows up to this point.
Why is that?
Saelorn Oct 27th 2008 8:28PM
@gridwerk
You ask why all of the good MMOs are sword and sorcery fantasy settings.
It's all about consumer base. Ever since Tolkien, "generic fantasy" has been a part of our shared culture. If you've never played a video game before, you know what an orc, elf, and dwarf are. There is no "generic sci-fi" setting, so it's harder to get into and the experience is less universal. You can create a character and get into the game right away, without worrying about the difference between alien species A and why they want to kill the race of cyborg spacemen B.
This actually comes back to bit WoW in a couple of places. Most people, without caring too much about the lore, see motorcycles and gyrocopters as out of place, even though they fit perfectly in the setting (because WoW isn't quite your typical fantasy setting).
jbodar Oct 27th 2008 9:29PM
@Jamus
In the original Knights of the Old Republic games, there were more Jedi and Sith Lords running around, but they were wiping each other out -- well, actually the Sith were killing off the Jedi and each other. In KOTOR 1 you got to go to a Sith Academy, either "for real" or undercover. So having a ton of Jedi around would not be as jarring as during the Empire time period.
Also much of the technology of the Old Republic was lost after the Empire took over. This technology was the devs way of letting regular soldiers take on Jedi/Sith. Energy shields for example could absorb lightsaber damage, and melee weapons used special materials that could block a lightsaber. A bit of deus ex machina, but it worked. So you have battle droids, soldiers, bounty hunters and other characters who can "hang" with the Force-attuned. So I don't think it will be too hard to balance Jedi. Otherwise, yeah it would be a problem like in Star Wars: Galaxies.
Let's not for get the classic: HK-47 on "How to kill a Jedi"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPeI4mX8Nus
Metal Geario 360 Oct 28th 2008 2:20PM
Star Wars fanboys aside,
Any type of Star Wars MMO is failure/ mediocrity waiting to happen. Comparing Biowares single player RPG, to an MMO is silly.
StarWars as a whole does not have enough "classes" to make a reliable or interesting MMO. The "races' are endless but, besides jedi, the game is pretty much a shooter. Sorry to say it, but how many "made up" blaster rifles are going to make the game interesting, if your not of the Jedi ilk...
Soda Oct 27th 2008 4:07PM
There a ton of people who were very disappointed in star wars galaxy.
KOTOR is an amazing series.
From what they have released in the past, based solely on that, I would wager this game will be huge.
benicrystal Oct 27th 2008 4:58PM
Okay bud, "alot of people were very disappointed in star wars galaxy"
So you must have joined after the shot the games arms, legs, head and kidneys to bits. AKA New Game Enhancements.
Pre NGE and Combat Upgrade ( CU ) Star Wars Galaxies was, by far, the best MMO of all time. I'm not bashing WoW, they were following SWG closely behind on my list, but when the revamped the game so people with but a twentieth of a brain of a 3 year old could play it, WoW easily passed it on my list.
But sadly, they can't remake SWG, but they can sure as hell expand with a new Star Wars MMO considering the gaming and MMO technology we are implementing into MMOs today.
While I disagree with LucasArts taking on Blizzard by blatantly saying their game will be better than WoW without gameplay, mostly because it reminds me of the hated kid on the playground who brags about his 200 inch TV that his daddy the Prime Minister bought, well, let's say it wouldn't surprise me if it was better than WoW in some aspects.
Sadly, I'm certain they won't be up and running at the same time, so we can most definetely, hopefully smoothly, transition from one MMO to another if Blizzard's next-gen Massive Multiplayer doesn't live up to its predecessor, which would shock me.
benicrystal Oct 27th 2008 5:08PM
Thankfully, I'm certain they won't be up and running at the same time*
they*, etc etc
Randolyn Oct 27th 2008 5:20PM
I played SWG at release, and I'm sorry, but that game was beyond horrible.
"Planets" that were nothing more than endless stretches of nothing, more than half of the class combinations were unplayable, the healing system was atrociously unfun, if you wanted to do anything you had to sit on the ground and pull fluid out of the ground for hours on end.
And, the game's biggest crime: a game set in the Star Wars universe that was nothing more than a farming simulation. With aliens.
joh Oct 27th 2008 4:07PM
They've already been working on it for years, so I really don't believe it will be "years" more before it's released.