EA is well aware of the fact that luring players to a paid MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) is not an easy task in the presence of World of WarCraft. Knowing that, EA decided to allocate the largest budget in its history to the development of its upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO.
"It is the largest R&D project EA has ever undertaken in terms of total dollars that we expect to spend bringing the title to market," said chief financial officer Eric Brown at Janney Capital Markets' 2010 Consumer Conference.
EA believes that such a huge investment is justified by all the factors favoring the game's success.
"In the past, for MMOs, the type of fiction that has resonated most broadly is fiction based on swords and knights and sorcery, et cetera," Brown explained. "Star Wars is analogous to that -- instead of the swords, you have the lightsabers; instead of the knights you have the Jedi -- we think it's a fiction that does very well, we think it's a fiction that spans the decades."
"We think it has very broad appeal," he added.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is being developed by BioWare, the development studio behind hit RPGs such as Mass Effect and Dragon Age. EA expects the game to launch sometime in the vicinity of March 2011, but refuses to pen down a specific release window before it reaches the desired quality.
