Bioware have announced that they're shrinking the Austin studio responsible for developing The Old Republic. An update on the TOR site says that members of the development team are being let go entirely or moved onto other projects within EA. "We are bidding farewell to some talented, passionate and exceptionally hard-working people who helped make SWTOR a reality," says Bioware co-founder, Greg Zeschuk.
"We still have a very substantial development team working on supporting and growing the game," he adds, "and we feel we are in a strong position, with your continued involvement and feedback, to continue to build Star Wars: The Old Republic as one of the most compelling and successful online experiences in the world today."
"These are very difficult decisions, but it allows us to focus our staff to maintain and grow Star Wars: The Old Republic," said EA in a statement.
A couple of weeks ago we learned that subscription numbers for Star Wars: The Old Republic had dipped to 1.3 million , 23% down on earlier figures. There's still plenty in the pipe for TOR fans to look forward to, though. The upcoming 1.3 update will add some much-requested features like a group finder tool and server transfer support. Hopefully we'll see more new quests, planets and events like the recent Rakghoul infection as TOR continues to mature.
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Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.
