We were sadly able to confirm this morning, via EA South Africa’s Ralph Spinks, that there are currently no plans to launch Star Wars: The Old Republic in South Africa.<\/p>\n
We were tipped off earlier this week by a commenter on MyGaming, and subsequently followed up with EA. When asked whether the game will be coming to SA, Spinks said “Unfortunately not at the moment.”<\/p>\n
South Africa, as well as various other regions, including Australia, were first shafted when pre-orders went live last week and only people from select countries were able to pre-order the game from EA’s Orgin store – the exclusive digital distributor for Star Wars: The Old Republic.<\/p>\n
EA explained that limitations were placed on pre-orders in order to guarantee a level of quality of service at launch. “Part of the reason this decision was made was because of the overwhelming demand for The Old Republic,” said Stephen Reid, Senior Online Community Manager for EA.<\/p>\n
“We fully intend to deliver to you an amazing game when we expand our service post-launch, but right now we cannot commit to any timeframe for when that may happen. As soon as we have more information about additional launches in more territories, we’ll let you know. We are committed to delivering Star Wars: The Old Republic to BioWare and Star Wars fans around the world, and to growing a truly global community.”<\/p>\n
So while it is not being ruled out completely, we know that the game will not be available at launch in South Africa, and we can estimate that it is unlikely to get here before the end of the year.<\/p>\n
Does this mean we can’t play the game at all?<\/strong><\/p>\n We have confirmed that at this point, The Old Republic is not planned for release at local retail or on South Africa’s localized online Origin store. This does not, however, mean that it will be impossible to play the game in SA.<\/p>\n Many local gamers have already pre-ordered the game from the UK via the likes of Amazon, and unless EA’s servers block local IP addresses, there should be nothing stopping people from importing and playing the game.<\/p>\n Fortunately, Bioware’s Senior Community Coordinator, Allison Berryman, has stated that EA currently has no plans to block IP addresses.<\/p>\n “Hello everyone. We know that you have questions about this topic, and we hope to have more clarification for you all very soon. Regarding whether the game will block players from some regions by IP address: currently, there is no plan to block players by IP blocking. Playing on servers physically distant from your location might mean you experience some issues with latency.”<\/p>\n