Some users are reporting that queue wait times to log into Star Wars: The Old Republic are as long as 2 hours, especially if they're on a European server which are a lot more crowded.
BioWare has been letting users in at staged 'waves', hoping to avoid a server clog. 30 or 45 minutes can be common place during peak hours. The studio is "taking this matter seriously".
The Star Wars MMO doesn't officially swing open the doors until tomorrow, December 20th. Early access is given to those pre-ordering and also depends on when they did it.
"In order to ensure that the service would be smooth and stable, we staged how we brought people into the Early Game Access program, adding people in waves. As you know, there are a lot of folks who want to play the game right now and we want to make sure they have lots of people to play with," posted BioWare's Jeff Hickman.
"Balancing this with figuring out when to bring new servers online to help alleviate the size of the queues is part art and part science. On one hand, you do not want people to wait too long – on the other hand, you want to make sure that people have a dynamic, engaging community to play with for long after launch."
"Either way, we have one clear objective – to make sure folks have fun," he continued.
"While we can’t promise that there won’t ever be queues, we can promise you that we are taking this matter seriously and constantly reviewing them to make sure that they are manageable and reasonable." Hopefully EA plans to switch on a good number more servers to cope with the demand. I've been in queues myself during the early access period.
Have you been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, video gamer?