SWTOR launch day questions answered

The community team at BioWare told us that we would know when the train was coming, but it came crashing through our house when half of us were still sleeping. As we reported earlier, Star Wars: The Old Republic set its launch day for December 20th for North America and December 22nd for Europe. All the fans exhaled in relief, then promptly started asking more questions.

First off, the Australian and New Zealand launch dates have not been set, and BioWare cannot commit to a launch day yet for that region. However, back in August, Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid posted on the official forums that "There are no plans to 'region lock' or 'IP block' players from the game. You may experience some latency issues if you're not playing in a launch territory." This still holds true today.

To prevent signup issues on launch day, log-ins will be throttled. However, pre-order customers will still gain early access to the game. Senior Community Coordinator Allison Berryman reported on the official forum: "The beginning of Early Game Access will depend on a number of factors, including results from our Game Testing Program and Pre-Orders, but there will be multiple days of access."

Lastly, in case you missed it earlier, BioWare did announce the subscription costs. It comes as no surprise to most MMO gamers that the first month is free with the purchase of the game. After that it's $14.99 per month (£8.99 or €12.99), $41.97 for 3 months (£25.17 or €35.97), or $77.94 for six months (£46.14 or €65.94). There have been no lifetime subscription announcements as of yet, but we will let you know if we hear anything.