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Sure, the news of Star Wars: The Old Republic was kept a secret (kinda) for a few years, and during that time we really heard nothing of the game itself. Yet here we are now getting a steady stream of useful information on a game that is not even predicted to launch this year. This week we have two examples of this from the team at BioWare: a look at the art style of the game, and an entertaining blog entry from Principal Lead Animator Mark How.

In the blog entry, How explains a bit about how enthusiastic the animation team is for getting every lightsaber battle exactly right. He reflects on how powerful the toys were to him as a child and how the work they will do with TOR can be 10,000 times better than anything we could imagine back then.

BioWare sure has been busy with The Old Republic lately, as we can see from an impressive amount of new concept art and screenshots released by the company late yesterday. With eight new images in each category, this reinforces our speculation that this game might just be a little further along than we're led to believe.

In the concept art gallery, some samples include a detailed Republic Troop Transport, a Jedi Lightsaber, Sith Blaster Rifles, a Wraid and more. In the screenshots gallery, we see some amazing shots of Droids, Sand of Korriban, a Tython village and more. Check out both galleries linked below with new and old images, and check out BioWare's main site for more information on each piece.

In a recent article on Gamasutra, Cowen Group analyst Doug Creutz discussed EA's disappointing performance of late, blaming the software giant's "inability to develop hit core-gamer console titles". This has led to him significantly lowering his estimates for their 2009 earnings. The analyst's reportings are fairly doom-and-gloom, but he did mention A New Hope for the company: Star Wars: The Old Republic.

EA acquired BioWare, the developers of SWTOR, back in October last year. Creutz is of the belief that EA has really messed up their console campaign this generation, and SWTOR could be the "best chance" they have to increase profitability -- that is, if it can hold its own against the reigning champ World of Warcraft. We have faith that BioWare will be able to bring out a quality MMO, and you couldn't ask for a better IP. It really all depends on how well the title will have to do to be of any use to EA -- obviously better than Warhammer Online, which did not even earn a mention in the analyst's report.

Who's afraid of the big, bad microtransaction? Me. Count me with the skeptics when it comes to a microtransaction-based business model for Star Wars: The Old Republic. In case you missed the flurry of news surrounding the announcement, Shacknews reported that Star Wars: The Old Republic would use a microtransaction payment model in place of or in addition to a subscription model. After the article's release EA issued a brief response that, "no [official] statements have been made about the Star Wars business model." It's a story that's been covered and critiqued several times already on Massively, but I just can't leave this dead horse unbeaten. I've got to get a few licks in myself.

The Old Republic's latest video footage had some people drooling over the release of the highly anticipated BioWare title, but others, like Tycho from Penny Arcade, weren't too impressed during the latest trailer.

Tycho's comments, while negative, can ring truthful to those who have been following SWTOR since the great announcement back in October. It seems that we keep hearing about this great "story pillar" of the game and how most MMOs don't contain an intense storyline, but veterans of Asheron's Call's monthly updates or Wrath of the Lich King's new emphasis on story will certainly recall that some games have already put story in as their main pillar.

Of course, Tycho also brings up the fact that it's odd for someone with an infinitely sharp laser beam sword to slash at the same monster multiple times, but we think you get the idea. Check out all of Tycho's comments in his Penny Arcade blog post and make your own decisions on what you think of the first gameplay footage.

Winner: The shutdown of Tabula Rasa (writeup by Shawn Schuster)

This year's Biggest Surprise goes to the news that Tabula Rasa is closing for good in February of 2009. Some might think this was no surprise at all, considering the exodus of players over the past year, and the recent news of Richard Garriott leaving NCsoft to pursue other interests. We chose it because of the vivid community still surrounding it, with the actual finality of a closure a surprise to us all.

What makes this an even larger surprise is the fact that the September closure rumors were quickly denied by NCsoft themselves. Recent reports of several new and exciting game features, plus the announcement that players would have a chance to return to Earth in the game made us firmly believe that TR was making a strong comeback. In game, we started to see more players running around in the world, more players in chat and full groups again. The PlanetTR weekly events were filling up like they did in the old days, and we were optimistic.

For whatever reason it was too little, too late for NCsoft. The publisher is not in the market of losing money, and we understand that. Yet if we see another closure of an NCsoft title any time soon, it certainly won't be on our Biggest Surprise list.

Winner: Star Wars: The Old Republic (writeup by Michael Zenke)

If called this you did, strong in the Force are you.

Actually, you probably didn't need to be a Jedi prognosticator to see this coming. Star Wars: The Old Republic is a game that MMO nerds have been awaiting for years. Re-uniting the Star Wars IP with MMO gameplay in a new format, reviving the very popular Knights of the Old Republic setting, SWTOR was a sure-fired win with the Massively staff long before the announcement.

That said, we've been pretty well blown away by every scrap of information BioWare has released to date. The focus on storytelling in the game, the companion concept, the idea of meshing character class and progression experience so closely together ... they all sound like elements we've been waiting for in MMOs for years. We're particularly excited about the idea a branching storyline that allows us to make real decisions in a persistent universe. Even the illusion of decision is so often denied us in MMOs, the tantalizing hope the SWTOR developers hold out is tempting indeed.

And, of course, there's gobs more to like just in what they've already talked about. "Choreographed" combat, a crafting system that actually lets you have fun, the feeling of being an epic hero from level 1 ... it's like a group of forum users got together and made a 'best of' list, then turned it into a design doc.

With the release of the game so far off, at this point we're just hopeful the finished product somewhat resembles the promised feature set. With the boys at BioWare behind the development and industry veterans like Gordon Walton at the helm, we're more hopeful about The Old Republic than almost any other game on the horizon. It's definitely the game we're most looking forward to in 2008, and is likely to keep this spot well into next year.

In a recent interview with GameSpy, BioWare's co-founders (affectionately referred to as The Doctors) explain a bit more about the origins of the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO and what went into its creation process so far.

This interview is full of useful info to any fan of BioWare or their Knights of the Old Republic games, yet one question grabbed our attention more than the others. Considering the fact that the game has been so heavily advertised as big on story, GameSpy asked about the decision to make the game 300 years after KotOR. "Setting the game three centuries after KotOR arose from sitting down and writing out a timeline of events that took place after the fall of Darth Malak, during and after the events of KotOR 2. We had always alluded to a great darkness in Deep Space which Revan had sought to confront after KotOR, and we decided that great darkness would be a massive Sith Empire in exile, biding its time and waiting to come back for vengeance against the Jedi and the Republic."

Check out the full interview for more on the strong player-driven storyline, combat and what MMO BioWare considered making before SWTOR came along.

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	BioWare has finally unveiled Star Wars: The Old Republic, their new MMO! Massively's got you covered on all the details. Check out our comprehensive guide on everything we know so far about the game, or just peruse our screenshot/concept art galleries. Join us in the Galaxy far, far away!

The first video for Star Wars: The Old Republic is out now, and with its release comes the first of many posts and features wherein we look at every possible angle or detail in the new information and try to discern what it could all really mean. So let's take a look at the list we've put together for the very first in-game footage:

• Kel'dor are playable. (possible)
• Bounty Hunter is a player class. (possible)
• Companions fight with you in combat. (confirmed)
• The art style picked by BioWare works much better in motion than in screens. (confirmed)
• BioWare is holding back on a big game feature yet to be revealed. (speculation)
• Combat similar to KOTOR, but much faster-paced and with a lot more "Whoa" attacks and effects. (confirmed/possible)
• Players who go extreme lightside or darkside may not be able to play with each other. (speculation)
• BioWare is totally psyched to be working with LucasArts on making another Star Wars game. (confirmed, like totally)

We're anxiously awaiting the next video so that we may once again devour it with a geeky hunger like no other.

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	BioWare has finally unveiled Star Wars: The Old Republic, their new MMO! Massively's got you covered on all the details. Check out our comprehensive guide on everything we know so far about the game, or just peruse our screenshot/concept art galleries. Join us in the Galaxy far, far away!

As promised yesterday, the first video offering from the Star Wars: The Old Republic team is now available! Though it's only about five minutes, it offers a ton of great insight into what BioWare and LucasArts will be offering with this title. There's no obvious new information, but there are a bunch of subtle hints about what we might expect to see this ambitious MMO experience. Whether mictrotransactional or not, this game is going to be a one-of-a-kind offering for the genre ... and here's your chance to see the first footage!

Click on through below the cut for the first video offering from Star Wars: The Old Republic, and then head over to our quickie feature pulling apart the details of the video.

LucasArts and BioWare have just announced that their first video documentary for Star Wars: The Old Republic will be posted on that game's official website tomorrow, December 12th. There is no mention of an exact time, but you can bet fans of this upcoming mega MMO will be watching intently. Ladies and Gentlemen, man your refresh buttons!

This video is said to show an overview of the game and provide the public with its first look at actual in-game footage. In the meantime, if you'd like to get caught up on the progress of the game, you can check out our SWTOR screenshot gallery linked below, as well as our complete coverage of the game as it stands so far.

Earlier this week, the official announcement went out that BioWare has spent the last two years making Star Wars: The Old Republic aided by the middleware MMO development toolkit HeroEngine. Certainly interesting, but a bit faceless. Why was the respected developer using this toolkit? What are the benefits, and how did HeroEngine get hooked up with SWTOR in the first place?

We had the chance to answer all of these questions by speaking with Neil Harris. Neil is an Executive Vice President for Simutronics, the creators of HeroEngine, and shared with us an overview of their collaboration with BioWare. Join us as we talk about the fateful meeting between Simutronics and Gordon Walton that lead to their collaboration, BioWare's reliance on the software, and some encouraging news for players who may still be looking forward to their demo game Hero's Journey!

In the press release for the announcement, you mention that the product will help developers make games more quickly. Isn't it a given that massively multiplayer games have lengthy development cycles?

Neil: The whole point of building HeroEngine is so that they can work faster. I mean, some teams want to spend five years building a game and with HeroEngine, they'll be able to a lot more and better game in the same amount of time. Other teams want to build a game in a year and they'll be able to build a game of professional, commercial-grade quality using Hero Engine.

The other advantage is, that building this technology is really expensive and time-consuming and it costs a lot to maintain. The more teams you have using HeroEngine, the more cost-effective it is for everyone, because you're spreading the development burden across a lot of different companies. So it really makes sense. There's really a scale economy for the industry to move toward using HeroEngine for development.

It was announced today that BioWare has chosen the HeroEngine from Simutronics to develop Star Wars: The Old Republic. We're already hearing the unasked question: What is the HeroEngine, James, and why should I care?

The name 'HeroEngine' may ring a bell with some Massively readers, as it's often associated with the Hero's Journey MMO. Hero's Journey is a title created by Simutronics that demoes the capabilities of their development platform and tools. The HeroEngine is a collaborative platform that allows for development in real-time, where teams in different locations can build the world while simultaneously playing the game live, with changes that take effect instantaneously. That is to say, no nightly builds are required with the HeroEngine. For us, the players, BioWare's use of the HeroEngine means Star Wars: The Old Republic may come to market sooner.

Update: Shacknews has updated its story to state "no statements have been made about the Star Wars business model," and attributing Mr. Riccitiello's comments to a misunderstanding. For the time being, then, this appears to be unsubstantiated information.

To end a somewhat surprisingly eventful day for the RMT and microtrasaction model, EA has announced that Star Wars: The Old Republic will not be subscription-based. Instead, the title will be gain revenue from a microtransactional model. Shacknews reports this surprising tidbit from a conference call held by the mega-publisher earlier today. Said CEO John Riccitiello, "The Star Wars online MMO [is a] mid-session game, microtransaction-based. You'll be hearing more about those in the February [conference] call." According to the game news site, "Mid-session" is a term that EA uses synonymously with microtransaction-supported titles. This fits effortlessly into EA's portfolio alongside games like Warhammer Online and the DICE title Battlefield Online.

Everything we've seen regarding information on the title had it positioned as a big-budget title, leading us to wondering what kind of game we're going to be dealing with when the game finally launches. There are only a handful of AAA-funding titles based on the free-to-play business model, and none have the cachet of a Star Wars IP. We'll follow this story as it develops.