EA assumes greater Old Republic control

Publisher EA has announced that it has updated the terms of its global publishing agreement with LucasArts that will see it assume extra responsibilities toward the title.

The company will now handle additional publishing, marketing and distribution responsibilities that LucasArts was previously handling. It claims the move has been made so as to centralise operations and improve efficiency.

Due out next year, The Old Republic was thrust into the limelight recently when an anonymous BioWare developer claimed the game was destined for trouble, stating:

The rest of the game is a joke. EA knows it and so does George Lucas. They’re panicking. Old Republic will be one of the greatest failures in the history of MMOs from EA. Probably at the level of the Sims Online. We all know it too.”

Speaking at last week’s London Games Conference, Bigpoint CEO Heiko Hubertz also questioned its market viability.

If you look at Star Wars from EA and BioWare, they estimated a development budget of over $100m,” he told the audience.

This is an online game for many million of subscribers, so the publisher does not understand that a subscription model is not the future. With micro-transactions maybe I see the game having a chance but I don’t think that EA or BioWare will ever be profitable with this game.”