The schedule of EA shouldn't be affected by any possible massive failure of SW:TOR. Which is a very probable outcome.

KotOR would not work as MMO; hence, the whole deal with miles and miles of dialogue lines is a pre-programmed FAIL. Who even reads the damn quest text for the N-th time? Who reads it the first time around!? It is always the same old "Kill Ten Rats" rubbish, anyway.

Star Wars title that has space flight included as an afterthought is a botched concept from the get go, like SW Galaxies, and like SW Galaxies, the space flight has very, very little meaning to the entire game. In SWTOR the space fight portions remind me of old arcade days, flying ahead in the invisible tunnel and shooting rows and rows of enemy fliers. That is half the EPIC FAIL right there.

Whereas the graphics are not that stunning to begin with, my personal biggest beef are the animations. Most figures run around and act as if they had a stick up their rear. Stiff as a board and lovin' every minute of it!!! In SW fights, there is little to no grace, especially if we look at the Jedi/Sith combat.

If this game adopts sandbox elements, then it might add up to something, but as it is, I don't think we'll have a quality gameplay and no decent player driven economy.

Also, as for the subscription fee; next to WoW, there is hardly a game that can still afford itself to persist on the old model, everyone and their dogs are switching to some hybrid form of free-to-play. And they are all doing better afterwards, so the math works. D&D, LOTRO, APB, Champions Online, now Fallen Earth, with Star Trek Online to surely follow at some point. People are slow with giving hard earned cash for more than one sub these days. And with GW2 as being sub-free and rivaling the SWTOR; things are getting even nastier.

To sum it up, for over 300 million dollars developing costs, I am certain right now that SWTOR will prove to be a bubble of even bigger proportions than Age of Conan was. But they will reel in at least half their costs at the very start, then the item shops will come, I guess they will pull even eventually. Also, have in mind that EA is loaded. Like, imagine Ron White's voice - looooaaaadeeeeed! They won't be hurt no matter which way the whole story goes.

Personally, I would wish nothing more than me be proved wrong, that I will enjoy the game with millions of others, and that it will be the greatest thing since sliced bread. However, many years of gaming experience and good familiarity with the industry itself are telling me that SWTOR will be underachiever; the scope of it remains to be determined.