EA: SWTOR is our largest project
Bioware's Star Wars: The Old Republic may or may not live up to its advance billing as a potential World of Warcraft competitor. If it doesn't, it won't be for lack of a budget, according to a statement given by Electronic Arts' chief financial officer Eric Brown yesterday.
While meeting with Wedbush Morgan Securities in New York, Brown characterized the forthcoming Star Wars MMORPG as the "largest ever development project, period, in the history of the company." Brown declined to give specific financial details, but it's clear that EA and Bioware aren't leaving much to chance when it comes to spending money on development.
According to Eurogamer, Brown went on to discuss the estimated costs of bringing Blizzard's World of Warcraft to market back in 2004, and noted that the lifetime development costs likely topped $100 million "to actually ship it and obviously then there's maintenance subsequent to ship and expansion packs."
