As we reported three weeks ago, Australians will not be able to purchase The Old Republic at launch, but now BioWare has stated that they will not punish Australian players who import the game through other means — there will be no IP or region block on the game.
What this means, essentially, is that players who have imported a box copy of the game via any overseas online store will be able to play the game without incident.
In a post on The Old Republic community forums, Senior Online Community Manager Stephen Reid stated the following:
– There are no plans to ‘region lock’ or ‘IP block’ players from the game. You may experience some latency issues if you’re not playing in a launch territory.
– Anyone who pre-orders The Old Republic and redeems their pre-order code will be eligible for Early Game Access.
– Those eligible for Early Game Access will be able to download the game client before it starts.
– There will be a period after launch day in which those who have pre-ordered will be able to continue playing before entering their Game Code. More information on this will be made available closer to launch.
– We will accept credit card payments for subscriptions.
Reading between the lines, it looks as though BioWare will be planning local servers in the Oceanic region. If BioWare is specifically warning against “latency” issues before the official launch in other territories, could they be preparing local servers for that official launch?
We will be contacting EA for more information. Stay tuned.
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