Star Wars: The Old Republic succeeded Sony's Star Wars Galaxies as the main Star Wars MMORPG, and Galaxies went permanently offline shortly before The Old Republic was released in December 2011.

The game itself was released to the public on December 20, 2011, and The Old Republic is accompanied by an expansive metaseries of Star Wars multimedia, including a four-book novel series, three comic series ( Threat of Peace, Blood of the Empire, and The Lost Suns), and a number of short stories, as well as additional content.

Developed over the course of more than five years by BioWare Austin and LucasArts at a cost of over $200 million, Star Wars: The Old Republic was first conceived in 2005 as an MMORPG follow-up to BioWare's previous video games, the popular Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, and the game was first announced on October 21, 2008. Star Wars: The Old Republic, simply known as SWTOR or TOR, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that was produced and released by BioWare, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts. Much as the first 'Star Wars' movie in 1977 changed history, its makers hope to create a new gold standard for gaming.' ―Ben Fritz and Alex Pham for the Los Angeles Times, Janu ' Even among its interactive peers, 'The Old Republic' is touted as a leap forward.

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