Star Wars: The Old Republic debuts December 20

Sony Online Entertainment's Star Wars: Galaxies officially shuts down December 15, but fans won't have to go without a massively multiplayer online role-playing game set in George Lucas' sci-fi universe for long.

Electronic Arts today confirmed that the BioWare-developed MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic will launch December 20 in North America, and December 22 in Europe. Since June, the publisher has been proclaiming a general 2011 release window for the game.

The publisher has said it will limit the number of Star Wars: The Old Republic copies that will be available at launch through both retail and digital channels to ensure server stability. While EA has already established what the exact number of copies sold will be, it will not be announcing that figure. If and when that sales figure is reached, the publisher plans to cease digital sales through its Origin downloadable storefront while it expands server capacity.

Electronic Arts said in February that The Old Republic would be "substantially profitable" with just 500,000 subscribers, with anything above 1 million monthly users making the game "very profitable." Analysts have pegged the game's opening sales at anywhere from 1 million to 3 million units.

For more on Star Wars: The Old Republic, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.