BioWare taking Star Wars MMOG beta apps

BioWare caught some flack from a number of diehard Knights of the Old Republic players when it announced that its next installment in the franchise, Star Wars: The Old Republic, would be a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. To assuage complaints, though, BioWare has said on multiple occasions that SW:TOR would be tantamount to 10 or more sequels to its hit action RPG.

With all of that content, SW:TOR is going to need a healthy pool of testers to work out any number of unforeseen bugs in the code. As a result, BioWare said today that it has begun accepting applications to participate in the game's closed beta testing phase through the game's official Web site. (As of press time, the SW:TOR Web site is unavailable due to heavy traffic.) The EA-owned studio did not indicate when the beta phase would begin, saying only that it would be "an ongoing process."

SW:TOR takes place approximately 300 years after the events of the original game, but some 3,600 years before the events of LucasArts' quintessential films. Players can choose to align themselves with either side of the Force, taking on professions like the Sith Warrior and Bounty Hunter for the Dark Side and the Trooper and Smuggler for the Galactic Republic.

BioWare has yet to place a firm release date on Star Wars: The Old Republic. For more information, check out GameSpot's extensive previous coverage.