Sep 28, 2011

Posted by in News | 15 Comments

Stephen Reid Clarifies – No Staggered Launch [UPDATED]

While the official Star Wars: The Old Republic community forums were down this morning for scheduled maintenance, BioWare Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid took to Twitter to clear up some erroneous information that appeared on gaming site Shacknews yesterday.

The article reported that BioWare intends to “stagger the release” of the game when it is launched:

BioWare’s long-awaited MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic finally has a solid release date of December 20, but you won’t necessarily get in on that day. The developer has talked about staggering the release, even of online orders, to assure the servers don’t get overcrowded.

However that isn’t correct, as Stephen Reid pointed out earlier today on Twitter. Only the Early Game Access period will have staged entry, and it’s dependent upon when you entered your pre-order code:

@Rockjaw – Anyone who pre-orders will get Early Game Access. We are not staggering access after the release date(s).

@Rockjaw – How much Early Game Access you get will vary – we cannot let in everyone on Day 1 – and that is based on when you redeem pre-order code.

So rest assured that from the launch date forward, there won’t be any sort of staged entry.

To make it clear, if you have a Star Wars: The Old Republic game code in-hand on launch day, you’ll be playing the game. But to assure that, BioWare recommends pre-ordering now since if they reach their internal sales cap number, they’ll discontinue selling the game on Origin.com until they’re ready for more players.

Mr. Reid stated he will be providing further clarification later today when the forums are back online, so if there’s still any confusion, don’t panic! We’ll provide updates in this post as we get them.

[UPDATE] Stephen Reid, as promised, has provided additional clarification on the official SWTOR.com forums:

Shacknews apparently got confused, and they’re confusing you, so allow me to clarify. Nothing has actually changed since we announced pre-order access in July.

Click through for the full read!

Stephen Reid and his adoring fans.

  1. Umm both his statements counteract (the right word is not popping up in my head) each other.

    The first statement is straight forward. The second statement is saying they are staggering.

    • It’s not, Launch day is Launch day, everyone will be playing it, pre-order or not.

      Early release or playing the game before launch day is staggered.

      One is a statement about the release day 12/20/2011, the other is about an unknown date before release they will let pre-orders start playing, up to the release day when everyone does.

    • TheDarkKnight says:

      He is saying that they will not stagger after Launch as in 20th December but they may stagger for early access which is before launch.

    • That new from Shacknews is amazingly defamatory, i hope Bioware take legal procedures against that poor website. I lol’d at “Shacknews has grown to become one of the leading gaming sites on the internet” in their “About” section.

    • I agree that it sounds confusing, however he isn’t contradicting himself. The aren’t staggering after the official launch. They will only be staggering the early access period. When he said day one, he means Dec. 20th.

  2. When will I able to play SWTOR if I dont buy Early Game Access?

  3. Wanted to Comment on general, sorry Chronium.

    BTW Early access staggering, it’s not Release staggering, there’s no counteraction.

  4. The bottom line is if you managed to buy the game one way or another on or before launch date, you will be playing on day 1.

    If you do not buy the game by then, however, and they are “sold out” based on their internal launch numbers, you will have to wait before you can purchase it until they release more.

    • Yeah, I think this is very important for people who have not preprdered the game to realize. The game may go live on Dec. 20th, but that could mean know one new will be playing it. If you haven’t preordered there is a chance you are not getting in at launch.

  5. Well this is kind of disappointing. I wish I had activated sooner >.> I looked into it but was deciding between DD and Reg edition and I bought the reg ed and put in my access code last month. Wish I had known that early access was gonna be based on code entry I would have bought day one or 2. :/

  6. They still say “Limited supply” though. Which you could see as stagering it, if it’s not just a marketing scheme and they seriously do have a cap in mind. When the supply is out you gotta wait till they allow in new peeps.

  7. I would like some clarification if I go into a store on Dec 20th and buy the game can I play it then or would I have to wait?

    • Yes, if you go into a store and buy in on the 20th, you WILL be able to play when you get home.

      However, they are suggesting a pre-order to assure you don’t go to the store with the shelves empty, in which case you would miss out until their server infrastructure is read to handle more.

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