Further confirmation of the rumored microtransaction-based fee structure for SWTOR was recently posted on Electronic Arts' careers page.  In the listing for the Customer Service Director position at Bioware Austin, one of the key qualifications is to have "online gaming with micro transaction experise."  It looks like this is just more proof that the upcoming Star Wars MMO will be at least partially microtransaction-based.  It remains to be seen what the fee structure for this highly anticipated game will be and whether it will be fully or just partially microtransaction-based, but as a major Star Wars geek, I still can't wait to play it.

Ryan discussed the possibility of EA's upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic being microtransaction-based in his 1-900-THE-FRCE article posted back in December.  Here are the key points from his writeup:

According to EA CEO John Riccitiello, the Old Republic publisher is considering a microtransaction-based model for the upcoming Star Wars MMO, though no further specifics were given. Based on what I've seen of The Old Republic's colorful, somewhat cartoony art style, I've had a sneaking suspicion that they were going more casual than the usual MMO, and an incremental pricing model like this would support such a theory. EA PR has since chalked up these quotes as a “misunderstanding,” though I'm not sure how one misinterprets a quote like this.

Other initiatives we've announced, for example [the] Star Wars online MMO, are mid-session games which are microtransaction-based. You'll be hearing more about those in the February [conference] call.