Star Wars: The Old Republic Dev Reassures Fans MMO Not Going Into 'Maintenance Mode'

ign.com:

BioWare has reassured Star Wars: The Old Republic players that the game isn't going into "maintenance mode" despite its shift to a third-party developer.

Executive producer Keith Kanneg took to The Old Republic's forums to provide an update on the long-running MMORPG's move to Broadsword Online Games, saying that, for players, "not much is changing at all."

In response to the question, "is the game going into maintenance mode?", a common ask among The Old Republic's player-base, Kanneg said: "Absolutely not.

"As I’ve said before, we are working on future plans including more story and modernization initiatives for the game. We’ve upgraded the game to 64-bit, and are working on moving the servers to the cloud, and there are more content and tech updates on the way.

"Moving to a third-party studio would allow us a lot of creative freedom, and we're very much looking forward to the opportunities that will be open to us."

Kanneg added that he understands how something like this "can bring on feelings of doom and gloom" but insisted "this isn't the beginning of the end" but truly "a new beginning".

IGN revealed on June 6 that The Old Republic's development would shift from BioWare to Broadsword alongside "more than half" of the development team. Those remaining will have the opportunity to look for other positions within publisher EA but may face lay-offs.

IGN gave The Old Republic a 9/10 review at launch, though the game soon switched to a free-to-play model following a significant subscriber drop-off. It's since gone on to be incredibly successful for EA, having achieved nearly $1 billion in lifetime revenue as of 2019.

Star Wars fans are otherwise looking to the Old Republic time period, for the first time in Canon, through a