During last weekend’s San Diego Comic Con panel for Star Wars: The Old Republic, game Creative Director and Lead Designer James Ohlen of BioWare revealed that the developer is hopeful the upcoming MMO will "last for decades".
Ohlen’s statement came during the panel’s Q&A session, where one attendee asked just how many planets will be available at launch and beyond:
"Well, I can say that we have 19 major worlds. Then we have an indeterminate number of minor worlds. And our goal, obviously this being an online game, that we’re hoping is going to last for decades, we’re going to be, obviously, adding more to the galaxy map as the game progresses. We want to add dozens of worlds. Hundreds eventually. In 2025, we’ll hopefully have 500 worlds."
Another question raised the topic of the game’s massively high expectations and how BioWare is handling them. Executive Producer Rich Vogel replied that meeting those expectations are what has caused the game to be in development for so long.
Here was his full answer:
"Everyone has their different vision of what the game will look like. And expectations are always different from different people. We try to make sure that we match the iconic roles that people want to play in the game and that we try to fill people’s fantasy. That’s what we try to do in this game. People who watch the movies, they want to be Boba Fett, they want to be Han Solo. Well you can be that in our game. That’s what we wanted to try and achieve. And yes, an MMO has lots of systems and is very challenging to create a universe. This is why you think we’ve taken a long time in this game. Well BioWare believes in making something quality. Quality is very important to BioWare’s name. And so we want to make sure that when you enter our game you have the experience and fun that we’ve so strived to achieve."
BioWare also reconfirmed during the panel that The Old Republic will release Holiday 2011 for the PC.
