Dec 7, 2011

Posted by in News | 39 Comments

[UPDATED] Early Game Access STARTS On December 13th! Game Client Now Available For Download!

The moment is here! Well, actually it’s the moment before the moment, but an important moment none the less! Which moment am I talking about? It’s time to download the game client, of course!

BioWare announced that the retail game client is available for download to those who have already redeemed their pre-order code:

To ensure that players can get into the game as quickly as possible when their Early Game Access begins, we are now allowing everyone who has redeemed a Pre-Order Code at our Code Redemption Center to pre-load the game to their computer.

Even bigger news, it’s been revealed that Early Game Access STARTS on December 13th! That means, in just 6 days from now, some of is will officially be playing TOR!

@Rockjaw: Early Game Access *starts* on December 13th. Emails will be sent on the day you get access.

In order to begin downloading, you simply need to log into your account on SWTOR.com as you normally would. Then, proceed to the “Pre-Order” which will contain a link to download the retail client (provided you have entered your pre-order code, of course!)

Also, the new Early Game Access detail page provides an overview of the process, as well as instructions for players who were in the pre-launch guild program to find out what server they’ve been assigned to:

Are you a guild member through the Pre-Launch Guild Program?
Just prior to Early Game Access, you will be able to log in to swtor.com and visit the Guilds Headquarters to see if your guild was assigned a server and to play with them. You’ll also see a flag next to a server name in-game if your guild is on that server. Visit the Guild FAQ for more details.

What are you waiting for folks, this is what we trained for! Get downloading! Oh, and while you do that, Stephen Reid would prefer it very much if you read the Early Game Access FAQ. :)



  1. Paul Stiles says:

    it doesnt say EGA starts on the 13th, it says they will being sending the emails out on the 13th. False hopes!

    • Paul Stiles says:

      nevermind

    • Dude seriously? Calm down and go read it again. It clearly states ega starts the 13 and also that it lasts for 7 days. Yes it says they start sending out emails the 13th, because it explains that you only get an email on the day you can log in. So if you get an email on the 13th you can log in.

  2. Here we go!

  3. hahah so I ended up being right with my 7 day guess. :D

  4. ScytheNoire says:

    Wait, what? Dec 13th? Ah man, now I have to get my new Sith Empire PC Build (Google it) up even sooner than expected.

  5. Wow, two days earlier than expected. It’s like someone at Bioware hates my bank account and wants to destroy my work week next week…

    Talk about golden troubles! It’s hard to believe that after 3+ years of officially waiting for the game, we’re less than a week away! :D

  6. I have the beta client, so I could patch the game trough it. But I’ll download the official client just in case. We got time, right? :)

  7. Official Pre-Order FAQ was updated. No “grace period.” Servers will come down around midnight-ish of Dec. 19th briefly, then come back up for official launch. Guess that will give me time to take a break and get some sleep before my copy is delivered the next day. Too bad about no grace period. That seemed like a real pro move on their part.

    Unless, of course, certain rumors prove true and the game ships a few days early for early delivery.

    • Early Game Access* will begin on December 13th at 7:00AM EST, 2011 and ends on December 19th, 2011 at 10:01PM EST. During this time, we will be emailing invitations to join Early Game Access based on the order in which you redeemed your Pre-Order Code. Pre-load the game client now, so you’re ready to play when your Early Game Access invitation arrives. Note that download time can vary and may take awhile

      That’s a copy and paste from my email… Times and dates included!

  8. Lady Republic says:

    Exciting news!

    I wonder – since they provide instructions about checking on the official site to see where your guild will be located, if they will still be sending out email as well or if it’ll be on the players to track down their guild’s server location.

  9. Apparently you can check when you EGA starts under “my account”. Mine is kida jacked though since it says 11/02 lol.

    • Lady Republic says:

      Mine as well. Ah well, I’ll keep hoping for Tues am, I did our pre-orders pretty early on the 21st. From the airport on the way to vacation, no less! Bless those smartphones.

    • That’s not your status for EGA. SR commented on it and said it’s just the date that they “flipped the switch” allowing all accounts to patch the game. Basically, it means nothing to us.

  10. ugh! my last final was Wednesday night. *shakes fist* do you want me to fail my class Bioware :) at least I didn’t get my preorder card until the 28th… so maybe I wont miss too much play time.

    Does anyone else have a problem were they periodically get locked out from logging into the website/launcher? It’s happened to me twice in the last week for no apparent reason (first attempt lockout). Should I be worried that someone is trying to access my account?

    • I believe it’s just their servers getting slammed with people logging in. Hopefully it will be resolved by the overhaul to the forums (which I’m hoping is part of a larger server upgrade or clean up).

  11. I see that there will be no “grace period” for entering your “Product Registration Code” from the copy of the game that you ordered. Presently Amazon.com is telling me that my copy will be sent on Dec 21st, due to arrive sometime between Jan 4 and Jan 17 (I live in New Zealand). So I get to play for a few days, then will have to wait for DHL to deliver before continuing.
    Can’t say that I’m happy about that.

    • This comment scared me to the point of sending an email to the retail I ordered from. This is my only Christmas present… well other than the computer I built to play it :)

      No grace period + late delivery = sad panda

      • I think there will be a lot of other ‘sad pandas’ out there Eric.

      • Nepenthesy says:

        This goes beyond the “sad panda” category, bucketloads of people preordered CE (and other editions) knowing and believing there will be a grace period. It’s a bad move from EA/BW to retract their initial promises and remove the grace period only a week before EGA.

        Of course they know thousands of these preorders will double-up to second digital copies just to get the code early enough, which translates into an evil sales move to inflate orders at the expenses of people that already preordered. They don’t realize the cost of such an uncoyly backstab already is emerging as the whole community is in an uproar. Bad rep is a critical wound for MMOs.

        • The “whole community” is not in an “uproar.” Some people are upset and they are very vocal about it. I do feel it was a bad faith move to announce “no grace period” one week before the early access begins. If they have been silent about it for months and finally gave an answer, that would have been one thing.

          But we were specifically told by developers months ago that there would be one. I think it’s foolish of EA/Bioware to make this move. Sure, it will prevent some potential abuse of people playing a game they’re not playing for. But that would pale in comparison to the amount of good will it would engender.

          • Nepenthesy says:

            I generalized a tad, yes, but that doesn’t change the fact the whole incident came off as an insult to all those that faithfully preordered (via main channels advertised on their preorder pages moreover) and won’t be getting in on launch. Either poorly planned or plain capitalistically mischievous way. The goods (cutting off potential abusers) in no way, shape or form counterbalances the bad this move has caused.

            And by “uproar” I wouldn’t back off from my statement, the flow of negative feedback after the announcement (btw cunningly covered nicely only in the FAQ until people noticed) on the forums has reached explosive levels. This does qualify as an uproar, no qualms about it. Hundreds of posts in a matter of minutes isn’t really “some people being vocal”.

            p.s.: I didn’t get caught in the mess, but I very much symphatize with everyone that did.

  12. Lazybuddha says:

    I hope they give out server lists for Rp-PVP people

  13. Still no release date for Australia, and everyone else gets access in 5 days. So lame!!!!!!!!!!!! :(

  14. AbstractQuantum says:

    I think the biggest surprise is going to be when they get all 2 million pre-orders into the early access on the 13th and 14th. :-D *crosses his lightsabers*

  15. In the few months I have been following this game I have never been more thrilled with a new annoucnment then this one :D. This means for all those late pre-orderers (me included) that we will be able to play a little bit earlier (Heck maybe even 15th of December ?) To all those who will be able to play on the 13th of December, congratulations and good luck.

  16. My only issue with Bioware’s release plans are the lack of the grace period. Without the grace period, they need to at least allow retailers to ship out their boxes early so that people will have them on the 20th or before preferably. You can download the game anyway, so its not like they are worried about “leaking” or something. This would prevent the nerd rage that is occuring. The only posts so far are that they are working with retailers. I (in my inexperience) would figure that all they have to do is say, “hey, you can ship on the 15th”, but there may be other issues that naturally I do not know of.

    • They’re sending out the boxes that are pre-ordered, at least I got mine today :P

      • If that is the case, this situation won’t be bad. I ordered my CE from Amazon and it has yet to ship. If it ships out by the next week I should have it since I have release day delivery, which I would assume is overnight. But I will wait and see. I’m not happy with the whole situation, but at least i’ll get some sleep the night of the 19th now.

      • Scrane, may I ask where you ordered from and what country you’re in? Thanks.

  17. Does this mean we have to uninstall our beta client to download the retailed version? My beta client updated to a version telling me the my account isn’t active =/ so does that mean my beta became a retail?

    • If you played the beta on or after the Thanksgiving weekend, then you do not need to reinstall the client from scratch. If the last time you played was before that, then you do.

      But, there was a suggestion that if you want to clean up your game folder and potentially eliminate gigabytes of old files, you may want to uninstall and re-download anyway. That’s what I did!

    • There are numerous threads and articles on here about this subject. It depends on when your beta client was from, etc. It sounds like you’re ok though. The retail client gives the inactive account message.

  18. It’s not really complaining when news about the launch has been all over the place. It’s fairly understandable to be bit frustrated, when it seems no one involved has clear answer, not Bioware, not Orgins, not EA, not any of the retailers. If they are releasing the game ‘physical copies; over seas on the 15th I really don’t see why they aren’t extending the same to the US customers. Since billing and time doesn’t start until the 20th, how dose it really effect things.

    The only two things I can think of is a. They using this and early access to further meter in the number of people. (If that’s the case they will never tell us so, and it’s pretty shady to say the least.)
    b.Their system is not set up to deal with both early access start times and the fact someone would have put in a game code. Could be a conflict, and there will be people that whine, if they don’t get game access if they but in game code and still don’t have access because their ticket to enter early access hasn’t rolled over yet.
    Another thought is c. They are totally lost on what they are doing here. And that is bad first impression to make to a potential 10 plus year customer.

    There have been several examples of this going the long way round to solve problems that have much easier ways of doing it. Frankly that has be a bit worried.

    Get the physical copies out early to everyone, and have short grace period. Short as in instead of 12:01am on the 20th, set it until 11:59pm on the 20th. This would give people time to pick up their physical copies. This would also shift the focus back on having fun with the launch day, rather then am I going to get cut off from the games biggest day because Bioware, EA, and others couldn’t get their act together.

    PS Don’t rail Stephen Reid to hard, poor guy is just the messenger…I don’t envy his job currently.

  19. WilliamMcL says:

    I downloaded the client it says on the email. It only took about 5 minutes so its clearly not all i need to install. Anyone know were i can find this or when i will be sent the full client so i can install it before early game access. Please respond thanks

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