BioWare’s latest Star Wars MMO has struggled since its launch, failing to garner the same level of success as its predecessor. Now it appears the Galactic Strongholds expansion won’t see the light of day until August.
Originally set for a June release, Bruce Maclean (senior producer) revealed in a blog post today that the expansion just wouldn’t be far enough along by the early-summer release date. “When playing early builds of Galactic Strongholds it became that clear that our June Early Access date was simply not enough. For this to truly feel like an expansion, it needs to include the full set of features, including those originally coming later in the year.” He said.
The blog post goes on to give a detailed list of all the initial features that were to be included in the original June launch date, PLUS a few additions that the delay will afford them. Here is a quick rundown from the blog:
The Additions…
•Conquest Events: use the power of your Stronghold to dominate these events and earn rewards
•Guild Flagships will now offer expanded functionality for Guilds:
•Provide powerful buffs to Guild members from orbit
•Transport entire groups to your personal coordinates instantaneously
•Compete in Conquest Events to conquer entire planets
•New Stronghold: Tatooine Homestead
•Vehicles, Mounts, Pets, and Companion Characters can be placed as decorations in Strongholds
Combine that with the original feature list…
•3 unique Player Strongholds, one on each Capital World plus the Nar Shaddaa Sky Palace
•2 faction-specific Guild Flagships (Valor-class Cruiser for the Republic and Harrower-class Dreadnaught for the Empire)
•Legacy Stronghold Storage
•Ability to gain Prestige tracked on Prestige Leaderboards
•Hundreds of Decorations to discover and collect
…and the result is an expansion that’s worth waiting for!
According to the new adjusted scheduled from the blog, the team states, “August 19th is Game Update 2.9: Galactic Strongholds Digital Expansion Subscriber Early Access!”