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Eleven years later, Star Wars: The Old Republic is finally moving to 64-bit code as part of an ongoing revamp. Star Wars: The Old Republic continues to be a niche but lucrative game for EA and BioWare, continuing to roll out updates and new content at a sporadic pace.
The eighth expansion of The Old Republic was released in February of this year after a two-month delay dedicated to finalizing the game. However, when Legacy of the Sith came out, players were disappointed with its length and the content available. A new operation, the 8- or 16-player version of The Old Republic raid, has been delayed until August, along with a recurring daily zone for the planet Manaan. Thankfully, the year for the MMO looks to be ending on a high note, with the release of Update 7.2 last week, which could contain as much content as the initial expansion launch.
Additionally, The Old Republic has announced that the 64-bit version of the game is available to players on the Public Test Server (PTS). BioWare has made frequent use of PTS in recent years, usually allowing players to log in and test out upcoming features before the official launch. Starting today, the PTS is “open to players who can experience Star Wars: The Old Republic on 64-bit” and will contain “content included in game update 7.2.” Anyone who wants to start their journey through the Old Republic is strongly advised to avoid the PTS until you’ve reached max level and completed most of the existing content at least once.
It’s a significant update to an oft-maligned engine that is believed to be holding back development. Despite significant improvements to character models and cinematic animation that began with 2015’s Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion and have continued gradually since then, The Old Republic finds it particularly difficult to maintain consistent performance when trying to accommodate large groups of players . Moving to 64-bit means “gamers can use more memory and aren’t limited to 4GB per process” and also eases the limitations developers face when it comes to “how much content each area can fit.”
For those who don’t really want to deal with the legion of bugs that may be in the PTS, patch 7.2 “Showdown on Ruhnuk” offers a lot of interesting things for subscribers and those who play for free. Ruhnuk is a new planet introduced in the update, where the next chapter of the story begins, where the Mandalorian civil war comes to a head. PvP has been completely restructured; competitive ranked mode has been removed, the free-to-play limit has been removed, and a seasonal model has been added where players can earn cosmetics, mounts, and titles.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is available for PC.
