I don’t know if you can tell or not, but I’m kind of Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) fan. I’m very excited about its 10th anniversary and Legacy Of The Sith expansion that was due to launch on the 14th December. The stars had aligned so that I could play it right at launch, spending all night bleary eyed in front of my PC. Alas, it was not meant to be with Project Director Keith Kanneg announcing today that SWTOR’s Legacy Of The Sith has been delayed until 15th February 2022.
We have made the difficult decision to delay the release of SWTOR’s Legacy of the Sith to February 15, 2022. Like many of you reading this, I personally cannot wait for the launch of our next expansion. I’ve greatly enjoyed my time exploring the depths of Manaan, testing out new story and ability combinations with Combat Styles, and more during internal playtests.
Legacy of the Sith is something the team has been hard at work on for quite a while but as we get ever closer to launch, it is clear that we need a bit more time. We’re focusing additional testing on the many areas we have changed throughout the game to deliver the experience we want, and one that you deserve.
SWTOR Project Director Keith Kanneg in a post on SWTOR.com
Further elaborating in the SWTOR forums, Community Manager Jackie Ko said ”There isn’t any significant bug or single issue that brought this decision about. Ultimately, we want to give the team more time to add polish and to find and fix bugs to ensure we release 7.0 at maximum quality. We also want to do more to include all of you in that process – we’re very excited to have this chance to share more on the PTS, so that we can get your feedback and show you some of the changes that have already been implemented based on your past feedback. As mentioned, the team has been working really hard to create Legacy of the Sith, and they deserve a chance to rest and recharge. Our chosen timeframe will allow the team to take a meaningful holiday break, and still have significant polish time before release.”
COVID has had a major impact on game development, and with so many cases over the last couple of years where workers have shown that crunch time isn’t just in the lead up to big launches anymore, but instead happening all the time in a lot of places, it’s great to see Bioware taking a step back and allowing their staff to rest over the festive period.
It’s also good to see recognition that the game needs a bit more polish. The change to Combat Styles is a huge one, and removing the Renown system to return to a more traditional gearing system would have required a lot of work. I’m happy to see they’re taking the time to get right. Having this new expansion launch for the 10th anniversary of SWTOR would have been amazing, but I’d rather play a great game than celebrate a milestone.
However long it takes I’m still going to be looking forward to the launch of SWTOR’s Legacy Of The Sith. As luck would have it, the 14th of February is a Tuesday (what’s Valentine’s Day?), which means I’ll still be able to play it straight away at launch. Time to bulk order that Red Bull.
