The average player probably forgot that MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic still exists, but it’s been chugging along since December 2011, a year before Disney even bought the property from George Lucas. It doesn’t seem likely to sunset anytime soon either, having generated over $1 billion in its lifetime, but it is apparently planning a change in developer. IGN reports that publisher EA is preparing to offload Star Wars: The Old Republic from developer BioWare and change it to third-party developer Broadsword Online Games, which currently maintains Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot.
Broadsword founder Rob Denton was a former BioWare VP who left in 2013 and had worked on The Old Republic, making this a good home for the game. Reportedly more than half of the 70-80-person core development team for TOR is expected to actually move to Broadsword as well, while remaining staff will either find new roles at EA or face potential layoffs. The deal for EA to hand Star Wars: The Old Republic from BioWare to Broadsword Online Games has not been finalized yet, but it is expected to happen this month. If it does happen, EA will continue to be the publisher, and TOR will continue receiving updates as usual.
BioWare then will focus exclusively on its major single-player projects, which include Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and the next Mass Effect.
