As you know, we’ve reported here many times that Star Wars: The Old Republic is currently conducting beta tests of their MMO in anticipation of their now assured holiday release date. And while they have been slowly inviting people, they have kept it to a minimum to insure a good ramp up. So when a strange email concerning the beta showed up in the inbox of their newsletter subscribers, confusion and anger raged supreme until Bioware realized the mistake they’d made.
It seems that an email that was meant for current beta testers, and not possible invites, was sent by EA and Bioware asking them how they were getting along in the testing and requesting any feedback that they would like to share. This created a lot of confusion as you can imagine for those receiving the letter. They thought they’d been invited, but never got the mail to tell them so. That they had been missing out all this time. Since the invitation process is ongoing, it seemed logical and worrisome.
Anger and panic filled the forums as thousands were trying to figure out what was going on. Many felt as though they were slighted or that the company was toying with them. In fact, there were so many comments flying around the bulletin board that it actually crashed their system.
Bioware took a while to grasp the situation and come up with an explanation, which made people fume even more. They also managed to get their forums back up. But in the end, they sent out an email that said that they apologized that the letter was sent out to the wrong group of people, that it was official, and that the error did not affect anyone’s chances at a future invite before opening.
It’s doubtful that the blooper will have a significant impact on sales when it’s released in December 20, 2011, but we are sure that EA and Bioware weren’t very happy with the employee that made the mistake. Hopefully they’ll let him or her keep their job. The good news in all of this I guess is that at least people know that they still have a chance for early access which should give some hope.
