For the past couple of weeks I've written a lot about SWTOR and their new space feature. Most of it has come from data-mined information. The only official information we have received from BioWare was that teaser video. That's not totally true, there was also an interesting job posting which was looking for temporary game testers for early October. They are to test a new PvP experience, which I can only assume is the space system.
So is this new space system going to be a regular old patch (2.5) or a full blown paid expansion?
My personal opinion is that it will be a patch.
Teaser. When BioWare has released teasers, they have always been for stuff we were going to see in the near future. I would expect an expansion to be farther out than the next patch cycle. I think we knew about Makeb for longer than 6 - 8 weeks ahead of time.
2.5 Patch. So far, we don't officially know anything about the next patch. The video teaser is the only hint we have about upcoming SWTOR content, so I think that means it is coming up next.
Features. As cool as the new space system is shaping up to be, I don't think it is big enough to bill as an expansion. It could turn out to be a single warzone, at least to start out with. There would be no new Story content or level cap adjustments. Those are generally associated with expansions.
Rise of the Hutt Cartel. This one works against my theory of it being a patch. BioWare has started to give out Rise of the Hutt Cartel for free. This behavior might indicate that another expansion is coming up soon. Then again, it might just be a coincidence.
All that being said, they could still sell this content as a mini-expansion. This is the kind of thing I would definitely pay for, even as a subscriber. My personal opinion is that it will be free though, and included in patch 2.5 coming in late November.
Friday, September 20, 2013
SWTOR Space, Patch or Expansion?
