Star Wars: The Old Republic pushed back until after spring

EA and BioWare believes the Force is still strong in their upcoming MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic, but perhaps not strong enough at this point to release it before the end of its current fiscal year.  Instead, the publisher confirms it will be pushing back an official launch of The Old Republic until sometime into their next fiscal year starting April 1st.  That means we probably won't be seeing the MMO anytime this Spring, but it should still be due sometime during the 2011 calendar year.

Speaking to investors during a Q&A session, EA CEO John Riccitiello plays down any rumors over how much his company has actually invested into The Old Republic's development thus far, cautioning investors against "gamer blogs":

"Some of them bring a chuckle but they also bring a frustration for those that are being responsible in the management of EA's R&D dollars when they read sort of falsehoods out in the press."

So no, they're not going to say for sure if BioWare is spending more money on The Old Republic thus far than acclaimed Hollywood director James Cameron spent on Avatar.  One thing Riccitiello can share is that The Old Republic only really needs half a million subscribers to be "substantially profitable" for EA.  Of course, EA would rather see a whole lot more subscribers jump aboard the The Old Republic bandwagon, because 500,000 players is "not the sort of thing we would write home about"; they'll need a whole lot more if they want The Old Republic to be even in the running as runner-up to the likes of World of Warcraft.

The Old Republic is going to need "anything north of a million subscribers" if it wants to be anything more than a distant number two. EA would most certainly enjoy the prospects of being the closest threat yet to WoW's gold-studded MMO crown, but they're keeping things realistic for the time being.