Both Bioware games – Mass Effect 3 and maybe Star Wars: The Old Republic have been pushed back to the backburner of early next year, EA revealed today at its quarterly financial conference call.
Mass Effect 3 will avoid the holiday release season and opt for release within “the first three months of 2012.” It was originally slated for released this year. Additionally, while EA expected to release The Old Republic in Q2 or Q3 of FY12, it has recently come out that the “end of our guidance range assumes the outside possibility of a January launch. We assume that Star Wars: The Old Republic ships in the calendar year, but our guidance range accounts for a range of ship dates within the fiscal year.”
While we fully anticipate launching Star Wars: The Old Republic in Q2 or Q3, the low end of our guidance range assumes the outside possibility of a January launch.
The Old Republic is planned for release as a digital service, subscription based, and is refusing to lock down a release date so that it won’t “tip off the competition.” (coughActivisionBlizzardcough)
