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In a phone appraisal, “and while I wouldn’t say our reputations were at stake, I think we have a lot to prove.”
Edmonton is home to both Zeschuk and BioWare, but he was in the brand’s Austin studio, where The Old Republic was developed, helping with the last-minute preparations for the competition’s release. “One of the tricks to online and service-based proprietorship is that you actually test and prove it,” Zeschuk said.
His certitude comes from the fact that the game has come out of months of beta testing, during which no notable issues were identified and many smaller problems were fixed. “Will every celibate person think it’s the best MMO ever? Probably not,” Zeschuk said. “At the end of the day this is the biggest deviation in the world. Everyone knows it. There’s definitely a fan base there.”
The idea of developing an MMO came about around six years ago, Zeschuk explained. He and compeer BioWare cofounder Ray Muzyka had been wanting to explore that genre and agreed to a partnership with retired-equity fund Elevation Partners in 2005 to help funds a studio in Austin. (EA would acquire the group in 2007.) There were a number of other properties, including 2002 transmit Neverwinter Nights, in the mix. They decided on Star Wars.
Source: Straight.com