E3 2008: EA CEO confirms KOTOR MMO

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Jul 17, 2008 2:08 pm PT

John Riccitiello tells Conde Nast Portfolio that BioWare's mystery massively multiplayer project is a third installment in the Star Wars series.

Ever since it was announced in 2006, BioWare's massively multiplayer role-playing game has been shrouded in mystery. Though the Canadian developer opened a satellite studio in Austin, Texas, just to develop it, its cofounders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk maintained an iron wall of silence. However, Electronic Arts knew enough about the title to help convince the company to buy BioWare/Pandemic for $860 million last year.

Today, as E3 2008 wound down, the fog hanging around BioWare's MMORPG appears to have dissipated. Less than 72 hours after presiding over EA's own press event--where the project was nowhere to be found--CEO John Riccitiello almost casually revealed the MMORPG in question is a sequel of sorts to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

"We've got two of the most compelling MMOs in the industry in development," Riccitiello told Conde Nast Portfolio magazine. "The first title, based on the Warhammer property, will launch soon. And the one that people are dying for us to talk to them about in partnership with Lucas [Arts is] coming out of BioWare, which is, I think, quite possibly the most anticipated game, full stop, for the industry." When contacted by GameSpot, BioWare reps declined to comment further.

BioWare's first Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic game was released in 2003 for the original Xbox and PC, and was named the year's top RPG by GameSpot. An Obsidian Entertainment-developed sequel was released in 2004 and 2005 on the same two respective platforms. Both critically acclaimed games are set several thousand years before the events of the Star Wars films, and cast players as adventurers who eventually become powerful Jedi Knights.

Currently, the Knights of the Old Republic MMORPG is set for release sometime in 2009. Once it launches, it is unclear what will happen to LucasArts' current massively multiplayer title, the Sony Online Entertainment-developed Star Wars Galaxies.

902 Comments

  • candoitagain

    Posted Mar 15, 2009 7:32 pm PT

    I absolutely hate MMOs with a passion. But I do love KOTOR, Bioware, and the star wars universe. I have no idea if I am going to play this... But I am pretty sure I can't miss it if it is really well done and has significant single player content. Even if you play that content online a bit like what happened with Diablo2... But pretty please, forget about fetch and kill everything quests. Give us some originality and humorous NPCs like in KOTOR.

    But here's a fair deal. Make it so I can power farm/grind Jar Jars instead of WoW's pigs and I will buy this!

  • dannyatkinson

    Posted Feb 28, 2009 11:42 am PT

    A third KOTOR with Darth Bane would be a thousand times better. I will never buy another MMO. I hate the stupid things.

  • Zoomer30

    Posted Feb 22, 2009 7:31 pm PT

    SOE messed up SWG and they will mess this up as well. They need to learn from their mistakes. I hear they expect to have about 3M subs within a year of release?! I guess inflation even happens when making asinine predictions about how well an MMORPG will do. They thought they would get about a million subs in SWG a year after release.....never happend. Wont happen here either.

  • DavePaton

    Posted Feb 16, 2009 4:47 pm PT

    Star Wars: The Old Republic.
    Not Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic III
    Its Not The Third Kotor In A Sense.
    Its Just An Online Version Of It.... And The MMO Battle Style Stinks.
    I Know Kool Effects Of The Sabers Dueling Together May Look Awesome But Thats Not How I Play Most Of My Mmos. How Can I Tank If I Can Stand Back Or Try To Dodge Hits Then Tank.... I Better Be Able To Do Some Real MMO Styled Fighting Like In WoW. WOW Sucks So This Better Pwn Its Ass.... LONG LIVE STAR WARS AND MMOS.... DARKFALL Will oWn AlL.

  • jonathon187

    Posted Oct 20, 2008 1:48 am PT

    Oh and guild wars doesn't charge monthly fees instead they have 50 expansions and pay for extra slots, and content and blah blah, so in the end there getting there money just the same as everyone else, duh.

  • jonathon187

    Posted Oct 20, 2008 1:45 am PT

    The standard is monthly if u expect something else, your simply gonna be disappointed, 15$ a month is chump change spend more than that on lunch, I'm sorry if there are some that are financially....broke A$$ or young, best thing for u get a job loser, if your young same answer get off your fat A$$ and get a job loser, anyways hope it rocks looking forward to it peace.

  • sawyerg13

    Posted Oct 19, 2008 4:30 pm PT

    Id so play this if it was one time pay and not monthly i played ffxi and Star wars KOTOR and if they combine the 2 in a sense meaning hav9ng kick @$$ cutscenes and still keeping good single player and clooseness with other real ppl itll be a definate buy 4 sure

  • Turkeysoup1

    Posted Oct 14, 2008 9:38 pm PT

    People do realize they can easily keep a single player story in the game even if it is a mmo right? Look at FFXI and the storyline and cutscenes. It can be done and done well.

    I hope there is a monthly fee.

  • Shadow_Fire41

    Posted Oct 14, 2008 5:18 pm PT

    it would be nice if it was like guild wars in the no pay to play ****. that isn't likely, but it would be nice, oh well, im happy with Warhammer online, and as much as i love Star Wars and KotoR, im gonna pass if theres a monthly fee.

  • 1357900

    Posted Oct 14, 2008 3:54 pm PT

    I'm a little worried about them ignoring the single-player, for the MMO(the part that will continually make them money). Also the price/expense of this worries me...

  • Red_Jester

    Posted Oct 14, 2008 2:26 pm PT

    Guild Wars has proven that you can make a great MMO and not charge a monthly fee. Hopefully this game will take notice of the GW system and give us an awesome Star Wars experience without a monthly fee.

    Guild Wars is not an MMO.

  • snaggleoooo

    Posted Oct 11, 2008 3:07 pm PT

    Guild Wars has proven that you can make a great MMO and not charge a monthly fee. Hopefully this game will take notice of the GW system and give us an awesome Star Wars experience without a monthly fee.

  • spy_hellscream

    Posted Oct 11, 2008 8:07 am PT

    "LordImperius Posted: I want a KOTOR 3 and I want it to be sometime during Darth Bane's time. But atleast KOTOR 3 that doesnt require me to go online to play."

    Yeah what the heck, all of the games all focus on one spot in the star wars timeline, branch out a little bit for crying out loud, I would kill for a Darth Bane game like Kotor. He would dominate.

  • chefbabyryan

    Posted Oct 10, 2008 9:07 pm PT

    BOOOOOOO MMO. I loved the first 2 games too but I hate MMOs man thats disappointing

  • darth_mage

    Posted Oct 7, 2008 12:05 pm PT

    I would way prefer an rpg to an mmo. Changing the type of game part way through a series is just annoying in the extreme. What was strong about the first game was the story, it had a start a mystery a revelation and more importantly a conclusion, you can't have that in an mmo, you have to keep telling the story which is what I don't like. As nice as it would be to have a new KOTOR game it would have to blow me away story-wise and visually and have plenty of solo content for me to even consider buying it. I'm just waiting on the 21st now to find out for sure.

  • LordImperius

    Posted Oct 4, 2008 4:32 pm PT

    I want a KOTOR 3 and I want it to be sometime during Darth Bane's time. But atleast KOTOR 3 that doesnt require me to go online to play.

  • towelie123

    Posted Sep 20, 2008 11:13 pm PT

    kotor was a pretty awsome as a single player game.
    lucas art may try to get more of our money.
    if they pull it off,make an awsome story and great battle system....ill give them my hard owned money.
    i loved all the star wars games thats been out thats not liked to the actual saga.

  • nathan1274

    Posted Sep 20, 2008 1:30 pm PT

    Say what you want, for some one that follows the exapnded universe expansively and have played the KOTOR games, have read the Dark horse KOTOR stories. This game will be the "Be all end all." Why. Jedi's and Sith baby Jedi's and Sith. Add a Million users a war not only between Sith and Jedi but Sith and Sith, plus support casts(bounty hunters, mandalorians etc etc). I'll be upgrading the video card you best believe. Like the live action Transformers movie and Robotech....I been waitin years for this!

  • unkleprev

    Posted Sep 16, 2008 10:30 am PT

    all of you who doubt this game are morons. KOTOR was one of the best RPGs ever. Not only was the customization incredible, but you got to create your own jedi or sith from scratch. Thats exactly what the MMO will be like, only there will be a war going on between Jedi and Sith players. Sure, Bioware has to come up with some crazy back story, but other than that, completing quests for better lightsaber pieces and robes, along with PvP lightsaber combat will be amazing. What's funny is that you will all see that this game will surpass all MMOs in quality. WOW is beat as hell, and the traditional PvE doesnt seem to be that fun anymore. Warhammer will shed a little light on MMOs because the fact you can level and get better gear with PvP. KOTOR will be the epitome of both, causing hundreds of players to join their colleagues in lightsaber combat; plus more due to the incredible background of the Star Wars Universe and ongoing Sith vs. Jedi wars. PERIOD

  • Ashkan_pyro

    Posted Sep 12, 2008 12:07 pm PT

    com-on people everyone knows that not only star wars fans but everyone want's another kotor ,the problem is they are not paying attention to what people want at all

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