Electronic Arts is going to prevent you from buying Star Wars: The Old Republic at some point--and I'm not talking about the inevitable future where the servers are coming down. EA has confirmed reports out of Gamescom the publisher will be limiting both retail and digital pre-orders of BioWare's Star Wars MMO, in order to control the game's initial rollout.

"We are limiting launch quantities of Star Wars: The Old Republic to ensure players have a smooth and high quality game experience and service at launch," said a company spokesperson over email.

The spokesperson was unwilling to disclose what the cut-off number is for The Old Republic sales, but did confirm its extension into retail.

MMOs have notoriously bad launches, with companies consistently finding themselves unable to handle the first waves of players jumping onto the servers. Early adopters can find themselves without a game to play. MMOs have proven time and time again that you can stress test for months and still not be prepared for the real thing.

A cynic would look at this news and figure it's just a way to generate more headlines, with eventual press releases proclaiming the game being "sold out" or "almost sold out" to help encourage early sales. It'd be nice to be proven wrong.

We don't have a release date for the game yet, however. EA has said it's definitely coming before the end of its fiscal year at the end of next March, but is hoping to release it before the end of the year.

"We’re holding the date for two reasons," said EA Games president Frank Gibeau back in May. "First, we don't want to tip off the competition; second, we want more data from the beta test to guarantee a spectacular experience at launch."

Electronic Arts is going to prevent you from buying Star Wars: The Old Republic at some point--and I'm not talking about the inevitable future where the servers are coming down. EA has confirmed reports out of Gamescom the publisher will be limiting both retail and digital pre-orders of BioWare's Star Wars MMO, in order to control the game's initial rollout.

"We are limiting launch quantities of Star Wars: The Old Republic to ensure players have a smooth and high quality game experience and service at launch," said a company spokesperson over email.

The spokesperson was unwilling to disclose what the cut-off number is for The Old Republic sales, but did confirm its extension into retail.

MMOs have notoriously bad launches, with companies consistently finding themselves unable to handle the first waves of players jumping onto the servers. Early adopters can find themselves without a game to play. MMOs have proven time and time again that you can stress test for months and still not be prepared for the real thing.

A cynic would look at this news and figure it's just a way to generate more headlines, with eventual press releases proclaiming the game being "sold out" or "almost sold out" to help encourage early sales. It'd be nice to be proven wrong.

We don't have a release date for the game yet, however. EA has said it's definitely coming before the end of its fiscal year at the end of next March, but is hoping to release it before the end of the year.

"We’re holding the date for two reasons," said EA Games president Frank Gibeau back in May. "First, we don't want to tip off the competition; second, we want more data from the beta test to guarantee a spectacular experience at launch."

first?

as for the story, I don't think this is such a bad idea. if they're confident their game is good enough to hook people, limiting the amount of customers to ensure a smooth roll-out sounds like a good plan. this is also one of the rare instances of EA refusing to take your money at any opportunity.

uh, this sure seems like a smart decision that could never backfire at all

I totally believe this bs.

Sounds good to me.

Yet another reason not to play SW:TOR at launch.

Here's to wondering how phased potential SWTOR buyers will be by this move...

Makes sense.

Nothing is more off putting than spending the money and having an unplayable game for the first couple weeks.

I still don't understand why this is news, they said this a month ago at Comic-Con.

This game is going to be such a colossal failure oh my god.

This makes complete sense. A highly anticipated game is going to have limited quantities so they make less money on sales then possible if not limited. Or they say the are limiting the sales so those who really want in will pre-order thinking it'll ensure they get in. While they have no intention of limiting but want to boost pre-order numbers to show investors.

Not that I'm jaded gamer or anything either ;)

first?

as for the story, I don't think this is such a bad idea. if they're confident their game is good enough to hook people, limiting the amount of customers to ensure a smooth roll-out sounds like a good plan. this is also one of the rare instances of EA refusing to take your money at any opportunity.

Even with these restrictions in place....the storm at lauchday will take them servers down anyway

OH GOD!!! I have to go preorder my copy now while i still can!

I think this is a terrible idea.

What EA should do is start a closed beta and slowly widen it over a period of time. Then once the servers are stable they should open it up, giving people a trial and then at full launch asking them to pay for the full game.

This seems everything will be for naught for this game...

I pre-ordered a copy when they became available because I'm really, really curious to see how this turns out. Does that mean I might be able to get a copy on release day? What percentage of pre-orders are guaranteed? Is it retailer specific?

Smart idea. If they know their launch servers can handle 2,000,000 users then they'll sell 2,000,000 copies and make it, what, the first smooth MMO launch in history? It never occurred to me that MMO launches are a bit like the airline industry who will sell 300 tickets for a plane that only holds 250 people.

Curious to see how they handle the ramp-up after launch since the buzz will probably be positive following a good launch and even more people will want in

MMOs live and die by their initial launch - the market has proven that you cannot come back from a bad launch time and time again. If the money EA invested in this is as much as people claim, then they're in it for the long run and they can't afford a bad launch.

Seems like a wise move to me. The game is already getting insane preorder numbers - them claiming it to be sold out due to limited initial copies doesn't generate more positive buzz than that.

This is silly. Watch them have launch day catastrophe anyway and screw sales with this silly move.

I think this is a good concept, but I am interested to see how it actually pays off for Bioware and EA in the end.

All of the bad press, complaints, tweets, etc. that go along with some of the more notable horrendous MMO launches (Aion) can be avoided for a game that will unquestionably have far more people looking to get in on day one. In those cases, most people weren't even able to really play for nearly a week or so later due to the ridiculous queues, server-outages, etc. that this seems like a much better approach. They could always lift their digital download cap immediately when they realize that they can now handle more players.

I take it they're going to combine this with a phased digital rollout of pre-loads so the patch, login, and distribution servers aren't going to be crippled when everyone goes to download like StarCraft 2 or whatever was?

I think this is a terrible idea.

What EA should do is start a closed beta and slowly widen it over a period of time. Then once the servers are stable they should open it up, giving people a trial and then at full launch asking them to pay for the full game.

Pre-Ordered! So now I don't care about any of this news.

Dude, im totally going to preorder it now.

There is still no way in hell EA pulls any sort of a profit out of this game. Its so horrendously over budget at this point that there isn't much they can do.

There is still no way in hell EA pulls any sort of a profit out of this game. Its so horrendously over budget at this point that there isn't much they can do.

Anyone that endured the Warhammer Online launch will tell you this is a very good idea. Nothing is more damning than an overcrowded launch. MMO players are fickle as hell, they all jump on the next big thing and a large chunk, however good the game may be, will return to their invested game leaving half empty servers.

There is still no way in hell EA pulls any sort of a profit out of this game. Its so horrendously over budget at this point that there isn't much they can do.

How great would it be if they never hit their pre-order limits? 

This makes complete sense to me. Not only does a limited launch size take the stress off the servers, it also gives the developers time to squash bugs that will arise when you have a massive number of players playing the game. I've heard horror stories from people who have worked on MMO launches that were swamped with bug tickets because their initial player base was so high and, as such, were unable to fix them quickly. 
 
I hope that the gradual launch process works for them. It's an interesting and seemingly viable solution to an all-too-common problem that MMOs face at launch.

dumb. How much money do they have? They should just buy more servers.

This game is going to be such a colossal failure oh my god.

dumb. How much money do they have? They should just buy more servers.

The servers are going to blow up anyway.

Well, at least it seems they have a lot of faith in the game's quality.
 
I mean, if it was crap--and they knew it--then this would be an incredibly dumb move. The "delayed launch" would give a large number of consumers time to really read reviews (both professional and amateur) and, if it was crap, actually not buy it (thereby losing them revenue).
 
So, if that roundabout logic is true (probably? probably not?), then this game won't be gawdawful.

I am going to be that cynic. No company will want to limit themselves from getting more revenue.

This is smart. World of Warcraft didn't come out of the gate strong, but got way better over time to become the juggernaut it is today. MMOs today don't have that luxury because they're competing with World of Warcraft at its most refined. If they don't hit the ground running, they're totally screwed. Server problems, balance issues, bugs, etc. all need to be ironed out quickly without it ruining the game's reputation before it's even a week or two old. Probably the smartest decision EA could've made here.

The servers are going to blow up anyway.

That settles it then, I'm not buying it until I know it's good game, based on other gamer's opinions and even then I'll wait until Bioware have ironed out some of the gameplay kinks in it first

So this is the new pre-order bonus, getting the chance to play the game after it's released? MMO launches can be rocky but I never expected a company as big as EA would actually turn away potential customers because their infrastructure can't support the full launch of their product. Have an open beta, do stress tests, buy servers. Don't turn away customers.

Its probably smart to wait knowing how MMOs can be right after launch especially. But I'm not that smart, so fuck it.

I am going to be that cynic. No company will want to limit themselves from getting more revenue.

I bet $100 that there will still be server problems.

YAY MORE REASON FOR THE HATERS TO HATE!

Ugh... I got my pre-order in and I am going to enjoy the damn game!

I am going to be that cynic. No company will want to limit themselves from getting more revenue.

Sounds to me like a stunt to drive up pre-orders.   Otherwise this is just nonsense.