Last week EA Games president Frank Gibeau teased the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Not only did he say that the sci-fi massively multiplayer online role-playing game's launch would be the "biggest event of the year," he also stated that the game is "scheduled to launch in the second half of calendar 2011."
While Gibeau seemed confident, some of his fellow executives were less optimistic.
"Although we fully anticipate launching Star Wars: The Old Republic between July and December, the low end of our guidance range assumes the outside possibility of a January quarter launch," said CFO Eric Brown.
Also of note is the fact that EA's fiscal year 2012 release calendar doesn't include Star Wars: The Old Republic...
In his comments, Gibeau wouldn't reveal the MMORPG's exact launch date for two reasons: First, EA doesn't want to "tip off the competition." Second, he said that developer BioWare Austin wanted more data from the game's beta, which EA expects will have 1 million participants.
EA has stated that once released, The Old Republic will only need 500,000 subscribers to be profitable.