Star Wars: The Old Republic

Star Wars: The Old Republic is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by BioWare Austin and published by Electronic Arts. It launched for Windows on 20 December 2011, setting its original class stories more than 3,600 years before the films. The game places the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire in a renewed cold war after the Treaty of Coruscant, while eight playable class campaigns provide distinct opening narratives. Republic players begin as a Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Trooper, or Smuggler; Imperial players choose Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, Bounty Hunter, or Imperial Agent. Each class originally had a fully voiced story, dialogue choices with light- and dark-side alignment consequences, companions, romance options, and a personal starship. The Imperial Agent story, for example, starts with Cipher Nine infiltrating Hutt operations on Hutta, while the Jedi Knight campaign confronts the Emperor’s plans and concludes with the assault on the Imperial throne world of Dromund Kaas. Players steadily progressed through planets including Tython, Korriban, Ord Mantell, Hutta, Coruscant, Dromund Kaas, Balmorra, Taris, Hoth, Belsavis, Voss, Corellia, Ilum, and later the Black Hole daily area. Group content included Flashpoints such as The Esseles, Black Talon, Taral V, Boarding Party, Directive 7, and The False Emperor, plus Operations including Eternity Vault, Karagga’s Palace, Explosive Conflict, Scum and Villainy, and Terror From Beyond. Electronic Arts converted SWTOR to a free-to-play model in November 2012, retaining optional subscriptions and the Cartel Market. Its first digital expansion, Rise of the Hutt Cartel, arrived in 2013 and added Makeb, level-cap progression, and the conflict with the Hutt Cartel. Shadow of Revan (2014) sent characters to Rishi and Yavin 4. Knights of the Fallen Empire (2015) shifted emphasis toward a serialized personal saga: the player becomes the “Outlander,” forms an Alliance on Odessen, and opposes the Eternal Empire ruled by Valkorion’s children Arcann and Vaylin. Knights of the Eternal Throne followed in 2016. Later updates returned to Republic–Empire warfare. Onslaught (2019) introduced Onderon and Mek-Sha and allowed players to align with or sabotage their original faction. Legacy of the Sith, released in 2022, added the Elom storyline, Combat Styles, and the Manaan daily area. BioWare announced in 2023 that development operations would move to Broadsword Online Games, whose team continues to release SWTOR updates. The game’s cinematic presentation relied on extensive voice acting, a defining launch feature that distinguished its class quests from the quest-text conventions used by many contemporary MMOs.