After a long and grueling summer, TOR Universe is back. Or, I’m back. Chris was always here. Anyways…I spent the summer watching a lot of what was going on with TOR and more importantly, trying to determine what exactly was going to be the next week’s news. I missed out on publishing articles about a ton of comics as well as some other things, but what I’ve constantly been trying to determine is what the actual release date will turn out to be.

First and foremost, we look at the fact that they are going to be showing a true demo of the game at PAX. That’s legit. I have to ask myself, “If they are showing a demo, how much do they have done?” If they show a ton of different aspects of the game, I feel firmly that the game is close to a beta testing release. Whether this is true or not, though, is entirely up to speculation hence the title of the article. So, I call release date being in the very beginning of 2010.

To back this up, we look at the fact that on Amazon.com, there is an actual game listing there. The only reason I can think of this being there is that BioWare is getting ready to start announcing things and Amazon wants to be the first one to start getting the pre-orders. More importantly, though, is the fact that Amazon had a listing of the game once before, but for whatever reason, BioWare wanted it taken off. I wonder…

Then there are people that suggest that it will be released in March. That may be a better guess because it gives four more months than what I am suggesting and more time for marketing once the game’s release date has been announced. The Amazon.com listing could still be legit, or more daring, a release date’s release date. In other words, perhaps January 1st is when the release date will be announced. Now I’m getting ahead of myself.

According to swtor-welten.de:

A reliable source in contact with Lucas Arts, has claimed that the game is planned for October 2010

This is obviously a scary idea because that means the game won’t be released for an entire extra year. Who wants to wait that long to play TOR? I sure as heck don’t. Will I be angry? Nah. A bit disappointed. Perhaps. In the end, the fundamental question we have to ask ourselves is:

What information is there to back up a potential release date? I have to stick with the Amazon.com and my own speculation. I can’t trust someone who says they claim to know someone in Lucas Arts. These people that work for companies have to keep extra quiet. They can’t release information.

We’ll have to wait and see, though. My guess is first quarter 2010. Any other guesses?