Star Wars: The Old Republic Xbox 360-bound?

Source: British news site VG247.

What we heard: Microsoft has sent mixed messages about bringing massively multiplayer online role-playing games to the Xbox 360. The announcement that Final Fantasy XI was coming to the console was the centerpiece of its 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference. (The Xbox 360 had been revealed the week before). However, the company quietly killed off its Marvel superhero MMORPG for the console, which developer Cryptic then turned into Champions Online for the PC.

With the console version of Champions Online now canceled, Xbox 360 owners are wondering what the next big MMORPG for the system might be. VG247 appeared to answer that question when it posted what it claimed was European retailer GAME's internal long-term schedule of Xbox 360 releases. Toward the end, the schedule clearly lists Star Wars: The Old Republic as coming to the console sometime in 2011. EA recently pushed back the PC version of the game to a "spring 2011" launch window.

The official story: The listing appeared to back up speculation sparked by comments made by Electronic Arts president Frank Gibeau in 2008. Then, he told Eurogamer that his company was "definitely looking at the opportunity to bring the MMO experience to console, without question."

However, EA subsidiary BioWare, which is developing the game at its Austin studio, quickly shot down the rumor in a post on the official Old Republic forums. "As to why The Old Republic is on that list, we have no idea but to allay any confusion, we should not be on there," said BioWare community manager Sean Dahlberg.

Dahlberg also re-posted his company's official boilerplate regarding the sci-fi MMORPG: "Star Wars: The Old Republic is currently being developed for the personal computer (PC) using the Microsoft Windows operating system. While we recognize that there are other operating systems and platforms available for games today, our development is specific to the personal computer using the Windows operating system at this time."

Bogus or not bogus?: Bogus…for now, anyway.