Electronic Arts has announced that, in just a little over a month, sales of Star Wars: The Old Republic topped 2 million units, that’s a lot of SWTOR credits!

CEO John Riccitiello said that “We are pleased to report a strong holiday quarter driven by Battlefield 3, FIFA12 and a strong showing by our digital games and services. Star Wars: The Old Republic is developing a committed community of players with more than 1.7 million active subscribers and growing.”

EA, which lavished more moolah on SWTOR than on any game in its 30-year history, also dismissed reports of mass migrations from the game. Wait times to get on the servers –considerable in the beginning—had suddenly dropped, leading to speculation that players were leaving the game en masse.

Not so, EA insists. They were able to double the number of people they could support per server, letting more folks play, quest, and stock up on SWTOR gold. CFO Eric Brown added that “Star Wars has been an incredibly successful launch.”

(Those not interested in further stock news may skip to the next item or go back to vanquishing Flesh Raiders and saving up SWTOR gold.)

EA reported sales that are much better than forecasted for the December 2011 quarter, narrowing its fiscal losses in Q3. It reported a loss of $205 million (62 cents a share), compared to last year’s loss of $322 million (97 cents a share).

“We recorded our highest operating cash flow in 31 quarters and grew segment share in both Europe and North America,” said Brown. “Third quarter non-GAAP digital revenue grew 79 per cent year-over year, and we achieved our goal of generating over $1 billion in non-GAAP digital revenue on a trailing-12-month basis.”

EA also sold 11 million units of Battlefield 3, released during the holiday season.

What it all means: SWTOR is EA’s cash cow/ golden goose (pick your animal metaphor of choice) and I’ll bet an XS Freighter full of the best SWTOR credits they’ll do what they can to keep us happy and playing!

——

SWTOR Guild Summit

When you were a kid, did you ever get those cool party invites to birthday parties and stuff? Well, here’s a cool grownup version:

What: the first ever SWTOR Guild Summit

When: March 4-6 2012

Where: the DoubleTree Hotel, Austin, TX

Activities:

-discuss the state of the game with the developers from BioWare Austin

-participate in Q&A sessions with developers, roundtable feedback discussions

-get a preview of some upcoming game features

According to Bioware:

“The goal of the summit is to facilitate an open discussion between guild leaders and the game design team. This event will provide an opportunity for attendees to voice their feedback directly to the teams responsible for the design of Star Wars: The Old Republic, hear the team’s thoughts and reasons behind design decisions, and discuss the current direction of the game.”

There’s still space left in this by-invitation-only event, so interested Guild Leaders (or an OIC) who are interested should submit an application. Applications will be accepted until February 10^th.

If selected, bring real $$ in addition to your SWTOR gold; you will have to pay for your own travel, food and lodging.

Also, although guild leaders from around the world are invited, the summit will be conducted entirely in Galactic Basic Standard, ie, English.

After a bit of a delay, the first major patch for SWTOR, Patch 1.1.0, Rise of the Rakghouls has been released.  It includes a new level 50 Flashpoint, ‘Kaon Under Siege’ for play in Normal and Hard Mode.

‘Kaon Under Siege’ takes place in Kaon in the Tion Hegemony. Rakghoul plague has decimated the population (killing most but turning some into grotesque monsters), leaving a small group of survivors that have miraculously been able to fend off the attacking Rackghouls. Your goal/ mission is to rescue the survivors with three Imperial or Republic allies and get to the bottom of the Rakghoul plague.

“Operation: Karagga’s Palace, part II” is an expansion of the earlier operation wherein you test your mettle against Karagga’s army of bounty hunters and Battle Droids. Victory will get you powerful weapons and armor; even better rewards (more SWTOR Credits!) await those who play in Hard Mode.

Major issues with Patch 1.1.0 led to the quick subsequent release of Patch 1.1.0a, which corrected bugs that had players up in arms. Exploitative farming of turrets is no longer possible; they are now immune to damage. Players clamoring for a mass rollback of Valor will be disappointed, though, as no such rollback will be enacted. However, accounts that seemingly exploited the bug will be monitored/investigated for possible Valor adjustments or account actions. Also, those who were frustrated by PvP on Ilum can rejoice now that players can no longer “camp” on the opposing faction’s base.

Game Director James Ohlen said that their priorities continue to be “bug fixing, balance changes and exploit-proofing.”

—-

1.1.0a Patch Notes – 1/19/2012

• Fixed an issue that caused assigned loot bags in Karagga’s Palace to distribute items with class inappropriate stats.
• Players can no longer enter the opposing faction’s safe base area, thus preventing players from continually “camping” the other faction’s base.
• Turrets inside faction bases were not intended to be destroyed and are now immune to damage.
• The population cap for instances of Ilum has been reduced to improve performance.
• Implemented optimizations to improve performance on Ilum.
• Loading screens no longer appear when other players spawn nearby.

—–

Next time we’ll discuss what’s coming up on SWTOR — new content and game systems, expanded Legacy system, UI customization, information on new Warzones and Flashpoints

Do you have burning questions you’d like answered in Star Wars: the Old Republic?

Well then prepare for a fun inquisition because this December 28 SWTOR community manager Stephen Reid will be hosting the Ask Me Anything (AMA) Q&A on social media site Reddit.com.

All topics should be fair game during the Q&A, so don’t hesitate to badger Mr. Reid about the lack of midi-chlorian love or what fancy items we can expect to purchase with SWTOR Credits in future patches.

Here’s the official announcement for your guidance:

Hey /r/swtor – I hope everyone has had a great time with the game so far. We’re excited to announce a really great opportunity here for everyone: Stephen Reid, the Community Manager for Star War: The Old Republic, known to many of you as @rockjaw, has agreed to do an AMA here in /r/swtor!

The format is simple: Ask Mr. Reid a question and he will do his best to respond to as many as possible within his area of expertise; he is not a game designer but still has many interesting things to share about the game.

Look for Stephen’s post in the announcement section here on Wednesday, December 28th at 2pm CST and submit your questions then. This will be a typical AMA so submit questions in the comments on his post and he’ll answer as many as humanly possible.

This is a great opportunity /r/swtor, and it’s thanks to you all being an awesome community that it’s possible. Thanks everyone!

Date: This Wednesday, December 28th

Time: 2pm CST/1pm EST/12pm PST/20 GMT)

Questions posted here will be removed. Please wait for the AMA this Wednesday.

Less than a week after its super successful launch, Star Wars the Old Republic is getting ready to roll out with more content.

Creative director James Ohlen revealed that in January BioWare will introduce an additional Flashpoint dungeon and will triple the size of a current Operation raid, Karagga’s Palace.

The still-unnamed new Flashpoint “involves a plague that could have significant repercussions across the galaxy” and “takes place on a brand new world and involves some pretty epic battles.”

Meanwhile, the expanded Operation “takes the existing Karagga’s palace scenario and more than triples its size.” It will also feature three new boss monsters, “some pretty epic set pieces” and a larger SWTOR Credits haul with each finished run.

BioWare threw in a screenshot of the last boss which a TorWars reader has pointed out looks like a Hutt commanding a destructive droid!

Star Wars the Old Republic voice actors have been praised for bringing questing and mission running to a whole higher dimension, but they’re no slouches either in enticing millions of television viewers!

BioWare and company have crafted, in our opinion, one of the most compellingly chilling TV ads for an MMO. In just 30 seconds and with the help of a sultry voiceover, it managed to convince me to roll a Bounty Hunter.

The beginning stretch – where four classes utter their singular purpose in the game – is a master class on how to make the most uninterested Joe to sit up, Google search what “SWTOR” is all about, and go purchasing a game box as if his SWTOR Credits depended on it.

Another great thing about this SWTOR TV spot, aside from its brilliant pacing and editing, is it has zero references to World of Warcraft. Compare this to RIFT’s co-opting of “the Horde” and potshots of “We’re not in Azeroth anymore” seen below:

RIFT ads have a mysterious fantasy quality to them, but it’s fantastic to see that SWTOR doesn’t feel the need to piggyback on the popularity of the Blizzard title.

The SWTOR ad is confident and hits the right emotional cords, proving to us that that there’s always an extra bit of magic when a great marketing team is let loose on an insanely popular IP.

To say there are long queues in the newly opened Star Wars the Old Republic servers would be an understatement.

Humongously long is a more apt description, so BioWare is capping server populations to shorten the wait and get everyone playing ASAP.

It’s not unusual for BioWare to implement this kind of workaround for the SWTOR launch day rush. Other previous games like RIFT and DCUO have done so to ensure player loads are spread out more evenly.

Senior online community manager Stephen Reid said the population caps will be a temporary workaround, and that they are working hard to accommodate those who want to join their buddies on already packed servers.

“We’re monitoring all of our servers around the clock, and we’re raising server population caps where required. However, to ensure our long-term goals of server stability and healthy populations, we do not want to raise population caps too rapidly,” Mr. Reid said in a forum post.

“We want incoming players to populate lower population servers. At the same time, higher population servers will not be ‘locked’ because we want to allow people to join a server to play with their friends if they wish to,” he added.

What Servers to Avoid

Mr. Reid is now dissuading players from stuffing themselves into close-to-capacity servers, if they do not want to wait in long queues. These servers include:

US-based servers

• The Harbinger – US West Coast – PvE
• The Swiftsure – US West Coast – PvP
• The Fatman – US East Coast – PvP

EU-based servers

• Bloodworthy – EU English – PvP
• Frostclaw – EU English – PvE
• Legions of Lettow – EU English – PvP
• The Red Eclipse – EU English – PvE
• Tomb of Freedom Nadd – EU English – PvP
• Darth Revan’s Mask – EU German – PvP
• Darth Traya – EU German – PvP
• Jar’Kai Sword – EU German – PvP
• Hrakert Rift – EU French – PvP

Mr. Reid makes it clear that developers “do not expect queues to alleviate on these servers for the foreseeable future.” This means those itching for minimum downtime to earn maximum SWTOR credits should consider settling in less populated but more conveniently playable servers.

Star Wars the Old Republic is raring to launch, but it wouldn’t hurt to read through these final pit stop reminders from BioWare, just so you don’t find yourself fumbling and fuming on release day.

Know the maintenance downtimes. Two dates to remember:

• December 20 launch day – Game servers and SWTOR.com offline from 6PM CST (4PM PST/7PM EST/12AM GMT/1AM CET) to 11PM CST (8PM PST/12AM EST/5AM GMT/6AM CET).

• December 22 end of “grace period” – Game servers and SWTOR.com offline from 2AM CST (12AM PST/3AM EST/8AM GMT/9AM CET) to unspecified time.

Keep “wait rage” in check. December 20 will be one of the biggest worldwide launches of any MMO in history. Savor that for a minute. You’re part of a record-breaking number of gamers supporting a game five years and 150-200 million dollars in the making. (ET bonus tip: Bust out an iPhone/3DS/PSP distraction when you begin envying early entrants who are probably racking up SWTOR credits while you stare at a queue screen.)

Avoid creating characters in Full servers. Doing so is akin to pulling teeth. It will be a painful experience, so those with Early Game Access are encouraged to roll a toon now to see if there is still room for their young Sith or Jedi, and change servers if there is none. (Bonus tip: TorStatus.Net helps you spot the Full servers at once.)

Don’t lose your game code. You will need to enter the game code to activate your 30 days of game time, and additional digital items for SWTOR Collector’s Edition and Digital Deluxe pre-order buyers.

via [TorWars.com]

While it’s sort of meta for us to report on awards given out by our fellow news site MMORPG.com, it nevertheless warms our heart to see the hardworking RIFT and ambitious Star Wars the Old Republic get full nods from the industry.

“Rift had an incredibly smooth launch, a stellar sales record, and oh yeah… it actually was good too.  Like, really good,” MMORPG.com said in its awards announcement.

“On top of a complete and polished piece of MMORPG goodness, Trion has continually improved the game and added heaps of content in the nine months since it was birthed in a manner heretofore unheard of in the industry.  It may have some stiff competition in 2012, but there’s no doubt for us: Rift is the game of 2011,” it added for good measure to appease dissidents.

Of course SWTOR and Guild Wars 2 weren’t far behind from the podium stand, with both nabbing a shared spot as Most Anticipated. MMORPG.com gamely explains that even though SWTOR may have been dominating coverage everywhere and set to launch tomorrow, “eleven days of service doesn’t exactly cut it” for GoTY eligibility.

Still, it’s a fair bet of SWTOR credits that the sci-fi opus will be the contender to beat in 2012, should Guild Wars 2 fail to amass the same hype and critical back patting.

Here’s the full list of awardees:

• Game of the Year: RIFT (Winner), Eve Online (Runner-up)

• Most Anticipated: SWTOR and GW2 (Co-winners), TERA (RU)

• Most Innovative: DC Universe Online (W), Final Fantasy XIV (RU)

• Rising Star: Secret World (W), Glitch (RU)

• Best Hybrid MMO: League of Legends (W), World of Tanks (RU)

They’re finally here!

Star Wars the Old Republic Collector’s Edition game boxes are being sent out by Amazon and other retailers, and fans who received theirs ahead of time are already flooding the internet with unboxing videos.

Swedish fan and YouTube user TENGILL showed us the main contents of the SWTOR CE as advertised in the game pre-orders, with a loveable accent and rundown of items.

Here are the items you’ll find in a SWTOR CE in order of unboxing:

- Hardcover journal with gold print accents and lore annotations by Satele Shan. Lots of concept art drawings.

- Soundtrack CD with a hard paper case with embossed print.

- Star Wars galaxy map poster with a list of a dozen-plus playable planets.

- Key authenticator, which offers the same account protection benefits and easy-to-use functionality of a WoW Authenticator. Regardless if you’re buying a SWTOR CE or not, this is one of the first peripherals you should consider purchasing.

- Registration and game DVDs, complete with quick start installation and keyboard guides.

- And the piece de resistance, a Darth Malgus statue that measures about a foot high and comes with two attachable components — a dark lightsaber and an engraved heavy base for stability.

These will also unlock the digital items that come with the SWTOR Collector’s Edition, specifically the Droid Mouse companion pet and access to the digital VIP store where you can buy special virtual items (probably with a mix of real life cash and SWTOR credits currency).

Did the video make you salivate enough to make you grab one in time for the launch day or will you be sticking to the cheaper and more utilitarian Digital and Standard editions?

While Star Wars the Old Republic continues to suck in gamers like a black hole, in the corner of the universe know as Aion, a free-to-play nova will soon be born.

By February 2012, Aion EU servers will convert to a three-tiered freemium model, which is becoming popular to an increasing number of niche MMOs like DC Universe Online and Lord of the Rings Online, to name a few.

Here’s the announcement trailer heralding the transition:

NCSoft has partnered with veteran free-to-play publisher Gameforge to deliver additional features that come with a more cash shop-oriented game, such as the pay-to-access personal store and an unlimited supply of aether and essences.

A new Aion Free-to-Play microsite has been set up that gives the lowdown on the new subscription-optional structure. Stateside fans believe that should the EU model prove successful, then the US servers are all but assured to go free to play as well.

What Will Change?

Fans worried that this will lead to stringent play restrictions that will force them to subscribe anyway should take heart in NCSoft’s promise that “apart from slight changes that we have made to the interface, such as integrating the in-game shop and displaying additional information in regards to the free-to-play system, no changes to the core gameplay have been made.”

But Aion Kinah will be restricted on free accounts, NCSoft said, to prevent bot abuse.

Developers also assembled a detailed FAQ that seeks to assuage fears of the unknown like whether Legions will be reset (no they won’t) or if several classes will be pay-walled (no all will be playable to free members).

Aion US fans, are you excited to get a similar free-to-play change? Or are you dreading it?