Any massively-multiplayer role-playing fans might find themselves out of luck for Electronic Arts and BioWare’s upcoming adventure, Star Wars: The Old Republic. After BioWare recently released pre-order information on the Limited Edition, and two other versions, a scandal arose surrounding the scoop.
Apparently, according to GameSpy, the publisher and developer of the Star Wars epic hid details regarding the title’s launch. GamSpy’s Mike Sharkey writes, “Not only will the highly anticipated MMO’s launch be limited by numbers, it will also be limited by region, with everyone outside of North America and Europe S.O.L.”
When news of the pre-order’s availability hit the Internet, eager fans frantically clicked over to get their copy in line. However, customers outside North America and Europe soon realized that their chances of play are non-existent. Basically, Star Wars: The Old Republic will not be available at launch for many countries outside NA and EU.
The official forums exploded, with rightful cause. How would you feel if you couldn’t pre-order, let alone play, a game you were extremely excited for?
BioWare heard the fans and released a statement:
“To all of our fans outside of North America and Europe:
Today we’ve announced the pre-order details for the initial launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic, and as you may now know, we’ve taken the difficult but necessary decision to limit our initial launch supply for the game.
BioWare and LucasArts are completely focused on building an exceptional game and an exceptional game service to go with it. We decided to constrain our launch capacity to ensure we deliver a great experience to every player. Part of the reason this decision was made was because of the overwhelming demand for The Old Republic, and we’re humbled by that level of excitement and anticipation. We fully intend to deliver to you an amazing game when we expand our service post-launch, but right now we cannot commit to any timeframe for when that may happen.”
Unfortunate news for many Star Wars fans; fans so devout they gathered a list of 29 European countries that won’t receive The Old Republic at launch:
Ukraine
Slovenia*
Serbia
Bulgaria*
Turkey
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Belarus
Romania*
Montenegro
Moldova
Macedonia
Malta*
Lithuania*
Latvia*
Kazakhstan
Iceland
Georgia
Estonia*
Cyprus*
Croatia
Azerbeijan
Armenia
Andorra
Albania
Slovakia*
And the few tiny ones:
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Monaco
San Marino
*Member states of the European Union
GameSpy states that this list was generated via fans on the official BioWare forums and isn’t an official statement by EA or BioWare itself. However, GameSpy contacted the dynamic duo for confirmation and are currently awaiting reply.
