EA is hoping to strike gold with their Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic.  We’ve already seen their admission that it’s the biggest game they’ve ever worked on and it’s clear they believe in BioWare (which they should, given the success of Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2), but now an analyst from Sterne Agee claims that the higher-ups at EA have a good feeling about tackling the MMO market.  According to his report, “….management has high hopes for this and believes 2M+ subs is possible.”

He does note that they only need 1 million to break even, but naturally the company is hoping to do more than cover their investment, especially when you consider the ridiculous success Blizzard Entertainment has had with World of Warcraft and its subsequent expansions.

Personally, I think they’re aiming a little low – aren’t there at least 2 million people out there that will buy anything that has the phrase “Star Wars” printed somewhere on it?

Massively multiplayer online games are all the rage now that World of Warcraft has shown developers that they can be profitable with the right formula, so it’s no surprise to see so many genres adapting elements from them in the hopes of cashing in on some of that long-term player cash.  Even EA seems to have caught the bug with their new Need for Speed World, which is apparently WoW in cars.

The media was able to catch up with producer Marc de Vellis at a press event, and besides calling the game the “biggest Need for Speed arena ever,” he gave up a few other details about the PC exclusive.

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There are two things I remember about NBA Jam for the Super Nintendo:  the first is that I was very bad at it, and the second is the ridiculous voiceover work.  While I’m excited to see the second part return and I hope for a change to the first, I can’t help but notice that the game looks relatively unimpressive for a next-gen title – I don’t see much progress from the 16-bit era in this trailer.  Then again, I suppose it is a Wii exclusive.

Hit the jump and see for yourself.

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With Medal of Honor developer EA hoping for a successful reboot of the series a la Modern Warfare, it’s no surprise that their trailer focuses on ultra-realistic violence and over the top action sequences.

I’m sort of curious to see where our threshold for these types of game lies; I feel like we have enough war to go around right now and I can’t imagine gamers will want to keep reliving the same environments and tactics.  At some point, I imagine we’ll have to go back to killing Nazis.

Trailer after the jump, but I think you’ll agree with me when I say we’ve seen this game before.

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We saw Activision’s pretty great advertisement for Modern Warfare 2’s upcoming DLC map pack, in which we were promised a cure for “Mapathy.”  Now EA has tried to do their competitors one better by announcing free DLC for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 with the blog title “How to avoid ‘mapathy’ without paying”:

“VIP members will be able to expand on the deep and ever changing sandbox experience, which in itself provides near endless hours of entertainment, by having new content to keep things fresh. It also plays a vital part in making sure you, the players get proper value for the money you’ve invested in Battlefield: Bad Company 2. This is why these map packs are available at no extra cost, contradicting the industry standard and what our direct competitors are doing.”

Oh snap!  You got that Activision!?  EA is done messing around!  So why don’t you take your 25 million players and….roll around in all that money….or something.  Yeah.

Holy crap.  EA has gone on the record and stated that its Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO is the biggest project the publisher has ever worked on.  EA’s Chief Banker (cool job) Eric Brown described the game as the “largest ever development project, period, in the history of the company.”

That’s pretty huge considering the history of EA and the franchises it carries.  Brown said the average game runs about $30m but an MMO costs “significantly more” and pointed to the roughly $100m investment Blizzard Entertainment made to launch World of Warcraft:  “That’s lifetime [research and development] to actually ship it and obviously then there’s maintenance subsequent to ship and expansion packs.”

Supposedly the first real challenger to WoW, SWTOR is coming in spring of 2011.  However, as always in the case of MMOs, you probably shouldn’t clear your calendar until you’re holding the game in your hands.

EA and Crytek’s new shooter has a couple of new screenshots up for you to drool over.  Check out the second shot after the break, and I’d recommend you start working on that second mortgage if you’re planning on buying a computer that can run this thing.

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