Bioware Austin.. damm more Dragons.. or Lightsabers?

[stu]

... jeez... That sounds plausible. My heart is sinking.

[Mosesandstick]

Especially now EA owns bioware? 

[Yegolev]

George Lucas' Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 3: Episode 1: Gungan Invasion

Has a nice ring to it.  Like a cash register.

[UnSub]

George Lucas' Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 3: Episode 1: Gungan Invasion

Has a nice ring to it.  Like a cash register.

If you can kill Gungans, it'll sell.

[tmp]

George Lucas' Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 3: Episode 1: Gungan Invasion

Has a nice ring to it.  Like a cash register.

Wouldn't it be rather "George Lucas' Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 3: Episode 1: Gungan Invasion. Combat Update; the Really, Really Re-mastered Edition"..?

[TripleDES]

Surprised noone has mentioned this:

The MMO that BioWare has had in development for the last couple of years doesn't appear to be one and the same of the LA/BioWare project.

Yeah, well, then I guess it's simply KotOR3 on the Mass Effect engine.

[geldonyetich2]

KoTOR on non-Odyssey engine would be great.  Last I checked, ATI cards still have massive problems with that engine.  I'd like to finish KOTOR 2 one of these days without reverting back to ancient ATI drivers.

(In unrelated news, apparently Kotor is a RL city.)

[Simond]

Dantooine video lag? There's a fix for it by mucking around with an option or two in the KOTOR config file - no driver rollbacks required.

I cannot recall what it is, though. 

[Morat20]

Surprised noone has mentioned this:

The MMO that BioWare has had in development for the last couple of years doesn't appear to be one and the same of the LA/BioWare project.

Yeah, well, then I guess it's simply KotOR3 on the Mass Effect engine.

So likely Xbox360 only? (Mass Effect is 360 only, right? I really haven't been paying attention, since I don't OWN an Xbox360, due to the horrible need to eat and pay mortgage first).

[TripleDES]

So likely Xbox360 only? (Mass Effect is 360 only, right? I really haven't been paying attention, since I don't OWN an Xbox360, due to the horrible need to eat and pay mortgage first).

The game was released Xbox only, doesn't mean the engine is tied to it. That means if Bioware's still interested in doing PC games at all, that aren't being paid for by outsiders.

[Morat20]

So likely Xbox360 only? (Mass Effect is 360 only, right? I really haven't been paying attention, since I don't OWN an Xbox360, due to the horrible need to eat and pay mortgage first).

The game was released Xbox only, doesn't mean the engine is tied to it. That means if Bioware's still interested in doing PC games at all, that aren't being paid for by outsiders.

Well, if they were doing a KOTOR3, I'm fairly certain LucasArts would push for a PC-port. They're pretty firm on wide availability of their shit.

I need to get a 360.

[SnakeCharmer]

Got a spare external hard drive laying around?

You can pick up the Arcade version for 279.99. 

[Morat20]

Got a spare external hard drive laying around?

You can pick up the Arcade version for 279.99. 

If I'm shelling out 280, I'll shell out for the one with the bigger hard drive. Once the purchase size hits a certain point, it's "fuck it, I'll get the best one I can since I'm spending the damn money anyways".

I do need an external hard drive though -- mine ate itself, and took my backup system with it.

I'll probably pick up a 360 sometime in the spring. I've got a car payment that goes away in three months, various home improvements are finally paying for themselves in the form of massively reduced utility bills, and I'll have an old loan gone by March. I'll just make it part of the HD-TV setup I'm getting -- another 300 bucks there won't even be noticeable. :)

[geldonyetich2]

Dantooine video lag? There's a fix for it by mucking around with an option or two in the KOTOR config file - no driver rollbacks required.

I cannot recall what it is, though. 

Found it - I'll give that a shot.

[nurtsi]

According to Firing Squad, they're working on KOTOR 3 and a "new MMO" which don't seem to be the same thing:

http://www.firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=19551

I can't find it myself in the actual PDF, but a lot of folk seem to have concluded that KOTOR 3 is coming.

Scratch that, seems to have been a misinterpretation of the slides.
http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/15720/New-KOTOR-Game-Rumor-Debunked/

[Falwell]

Well, it looks like the cat will soon be officially (as in Bioware announced) out of the bag in the next month. Courtesy of Rock Paper Shotgun..

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/10/03/that-kotor-mmo-big-reveal-soon/

[NiX]

I like how they title it as being KOTOR the MMO, but at the end of the article admit they don't know what will be announced.

[SnakeCharmer]

Gamasutra reporting the announcement on the 21st.

Gamespy shows the invitation.

[schild]

Another company announcing a game way too early in the dev lifecycle. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. I was hoping they'd hole out til it was ready for open beta and then just let it become a massive black hole for gamers.

[Draegan]

What difference does it make if it's announced to early or not?  How is that bad or good?

[Venkman]

Err wuh?

Early announcement means lots of questions you can't answer. That in turn means lots of guesses based on a lot of fanboi/whatever hype. And then no matter what you do, it's far south of whatever crazy expectation has been set by niavete during your inability to say anything because the game isn't done, management/marketing/VC/PR won't let you, etc.

Remember the last time this license was put behind a big name developer and high expectation (at the time anyway) publishing house?

Epic fail no matter how they spin it. Unless it's KOTOR MMO with a fully-fledged single pseudo MMOFPS with Freespace 2 space sim, all done with a Blizzard level of polish by the time they invite the first group of players to closed beta, it'll never live up to whatever pedestal it's put on.

Unless it's Fallout MMO. Then all bets are off 

[SnakeCharmer]

Unless it's KOTOR MMO with a fully-fledged single pseudo MMOFPS with Freespace 2 space sim, all done with a Blizzard level of polish

Sign me up.

[ajax34i]

Jade Empire MMO, martial arts with CoH's enhancement mechanics...  still meh.

Shrug, guess we wait and see what they're up to.

[schild]

You know what, fuckit, I hope they announce it this far out and things change so much that I can bottle and sell fanboi tears.

I'm so tired of PR and Executives calling the shots on shit like this.

It's probably Lucasarts behind this decision though. They shouldn't have even announced the studio yet. >_<

[UnSub]

What difference does it make if it's announced to early or not?  How is that bad or good?

Step 1: Announce title.

Step 2: Fanbois rush the official forum in order to get the low player number that enhances the chance of getting into beta.

Step 3: Every armchair designer in the world pops on to any forum that includes the title in question to post up their half-assed ideas for how the game "should" be, and how it will fail if it is just "WoW in <insert location / costume>". The longer you leave the period between annoucement and launch, the more these threads will be repeated.

Step 4: The developers announce features that they are 95% sure will appear in the final version. The length of time from announcement to launch sees that 95% chance drop in direct proportion.

Step 5: The forum community starts to grate against the wait. For every die-hard fanboi who cries, "Release it when it is done!" there are 10 players who stop posting on the forums and lose interest in the title until launch.

Step 6: The longer the wait, the more info you have to release about the title if you want to maintain interest in it. A long lead time and lots of info releases gives the rest of the industry a chance to catch up on the key features you just announced. I don't know how MMOs out there would protect themselves against KOTORO, but if it launches with a big focus on space combat I'm sure some of the titles in the same genre would consider launching their own space expansions.

Basically, doing a bit launch when all you have is concept art and a half-working game engine is just a recipe for annoying players and developers. If the KOTORO anouncement is "yes, we are developing KOTORO and beta starts tomorrow" then Bioware would be doing it right.

[SnakeCharmer]

If the KOTORO anouncement is "yes, we are developing KOTORO and beta starts tomorrow"

Chance happening?  Slim and none.  With Slim walking out the door.

[UnSub]

If the KOTORO anouncement is "yes, we are developing KOTORO and beta starts tomorrow"

Chance happening?  Slim and none.  With Slim walking out the door.

I know. We are probably looking at an 24 month pre-launch program and at least one delay that will see KOTORO launch in 2011.

[Cyrrex]

And yet, it still gives me a giant fan-boner.

Is the announcement for October 21st?  Seems to me that that is a significant day for LA, but I cannot be bothered to check.  Aren't they releasing a game or two on that day as well for the Wii?  Animated series? 

[SnakeCharmer]

It could possibly just be the announcement of KOTOR 3.  /shrug 

Not necessarily the MMO.

Trying not to get my hopes up.

[Yegolev]

Speaking out of turn, I believe schild's issue is with the wasted impact of Hype. Ideally you would want to wait until nearer open beta to advertise because attention wanes.

[Simond]

If it's a good game, hype is irrelevant. If hype is all it has going for it, it's not a good game.

[Venkman]

You can't get the funding on the backs of just making a good game though, because the people giving you those funds wouldn't really know. So you've got these other metrics like ad buys and media placement and comScores and stuff that tries to help.

Unfortunately, all it does it measure the hype. Because in the end the only way to know it's a good game is to let players in. And then listen to them.

But nobody making this level of investment can afford to wait for that point. So they manufacture security in their decisions through other means.

[UnSub]

Unfortunately, all it does it measure the hype. Because in the end the only way to know it's a good game is to let players in. And then listen to them.

Actually, I think it is having a vision for the game in mind, then tempering it against the requests of your players. No use listening to PvE-orientated players when designing a PvP-orientated game, after all.

[Ghambit]

<6-month old rumor>
Remember, this game has been "playable" for a while now.  It's not like they're spilling the beans on a vaporware title with a few artists renders.  There are CEOs and high-level stockholders running around "x" gamespace having a look see and killing things.

[UnSub]

<6-month old rumor>
Remember, this game has been "playable" for a while now.  It's not like they're spilling the beans on a vaporware title with a few artists renders.  There are CEOs and high-level stockholders running around "x" gamespace having a look see and killing things.

Cryptic claims the same things with ChampO and has promised an April 09 release date for it. Of course, that's in alpha at the moment. If KOTORO (or Star Wars: The Old Republic, which is what I've seen it called elsewhere) launches beta by the end of this year, it could be released Q3 / Q4 next year.

Of course, this is a bit less likely if you see how other MMOs release, but we'll know something within two weeks.