Remember a few months back when EA announced that its BioWare developed Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic was going free to play?

Well, the restrictions that will be implemented onto players which plan on playing the free to play model have finally came to light and they’re quite… strict. Don’t get me wrong, there was of course going to be limitations as to what non-paying players would be able to do but this may of taken it a lil’ bit to far as it will severely impact the experience of the player.

Full details on what can and can’t be done can be found below.

Three Flashpoints per week
Three Warzones per week
Three Space Missions per week
The option to buy a weekly premium pass
Inventory expansion and cargo hold restrictions
Field revivals upon death are restricted
Character creation restrictions
Limited quick travel
Restrictions on login wait time

EA and Bioware have built a new state of the art Customer Service Center in Galway, Ireland. With support from the Irish Government, BioWare has created 200 new jobs for people in Ireland. An Taoiseach, Mr. Enda Kenny T.D. Officiates Opening Day.  The new customer service center will be giving 24/7 support for mainly the hugely anticipated MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

The game will be out on December 20, 2011 in North America and December 22, 2011 in the UK.  View the full press release below for more information on the new customer service center and how it ties in with Star Wars: The Old Republic.

GALWAY, Ireland–(BUSINESS WIRE)– BioWare™, a label of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), today announced the opening of a state-of-the-art customer service center in Galway, Ireland. The new facility, BioWare’s first outside of North America, will provide 24/7 support for Star Wars™: The Old Republic^™, the award-winning story-driven massively multiplayer online game from BioWare and LucasArts. BioWare Ireland is recruiting another 200 jobs in preparation for one of the biggest game launches of the year. Star Wars: The Old Republic will be released in North America on December 20, 2011 and in Europe on December 22, 2011.

“MMO launches are complex, and we are determined to set a new standard for a high quality, stable, smooth launch for our fans. Our new BioWare facility and team in Galway is critical to ensuring we deliver on that goal,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, EA Senior Vice President and General Manager of the BioWare Label.

Added Dr. Greg Zeschuk, EA Vice President and General Manager of the BioWare MMO Business Unit, “It’s exciting to bring the Galway community into the BioWare family in support of this high-priority launch. This project wouldn’t have been possible without the strong support from the Irish government and the strong local mix of technology infrastructure and recruitment opportunities.”

Commenting on the announcement, Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD, said, “I very much welcome EA and BioWare’s decision to locate its customer service centre here in Galway and the additional 200 jobs announced today. The Programme for Government highlights the digital game industry as a particular priority area for growth and the presence here of EA, one of the world’s leading interactive games companies, will help enhance our status as a centre for the digital media sector.”

Welcoming the announcement, IDA Ireland CEO Barry O’Leary, said, “The scale of EA’s customer service centre in Galway is a clear endorsement of the skills base in the West of Ireland.”

In addition to the BioWare facility in Galway, EA has a presence in Dublin, Ireland following its recent acquisition of PopCap. BioWare will continue to maintain its studio locations in Edmonton, Montreal, Fairfax (Virginia), Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Austin (Texas).

For recruitment opportunities in Galway, please visit: www.bioware.com/careers. For more information about Star Wars: The Old Republic, pre-order details and special editions, please visit www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com/preorder.

About Star Wars: The Old Republic

Star Wars: The Old Republic has been lauded for breaking new ground in the genre by building on traditional MMO gameplay pillars of combat, exploration and character progression, and adding a fourth pillar to the genre — story. Star Wars: The Old Republic is set thousands of years before the rise of Darth Vader, when the galaxy is in the midst of a cold war. Players will be asked to join forces with either the Galactic Republic or Sith Empire and choose one of eight iconic Star Wars characters: Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Smuggler, Trooper, Bounty Hunter, Imperial Agent, Sith Inquisitor and Sith Warrior. Every player’s story will unfold based on meaningful choices made throughout the game, enabling them to become the hero of their own personal Star Wars saga. Along their journey, players will encounter companion characters with which players can build or break meaningful relationships as they fight at your side. Throughout their adventures, players will be immersed in a vibrant galaxy of planets, engage in heroic battles and experience visceral Star Wars combat.

For more information on Star Wars: The Old Republic, please visit www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com, follow the game on Twitter at http://twitter.com/swtoror “Like” Star Wars: The Old Republic on Facebook at http://facebook.com/starwarstheoldrepublic.

About Lucasfilm Ltd.

Lucasfilm Ltd. is one of the world’s leading film and entertainment companies. Founded by George Lucas in 1971, it is a privately held, fully-integrated entertainment company. In addition to its motion-picture and television production operations, the company’s global activities include Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound, serving the digital needs of the entertainment industry for visual-effects and audio post-production; LucasArts, a leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software worldwide; Lucas Licensing, which manages the global merchandising activities for Lucasfilm’s entertainment properties; Lucasfilm Animation, which is currently producing content for film and television, including Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a CG-animated half-hour television series; and Lucas Online creates Internet-based content for Lucasfilm’s entertainment properties and businesses. Additionally, Lucasfilm Singapore produces digital animated content for film and television, as well as visual effects for feature films and multi-platform games. Lucasfilm’s motion-picture productions include three of the 20 biggest box-office hits of all time and have received 19 Oscars and more than 60 Academy Award nominations. Lucasfilm’s television projects have won 12 Emmy Awards. Lucasfilm Ltd. is headquartered in San Francisco, Calif. LucasArts, a Lucasfilm Ltd. company, is a leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software worldwide for video game console systems, computers and the Internet. Based in San Francisco, Calif., as well as on the Internet at www.lucasarts.com, LucasArts was created in 1982 by George Lucas to provide an interactive element to his vision of a state-of-the-art, multifaceted entertainment company.

About BioWare

The BioWare Label is a division of EA which crafts high quality multiplatform role-playing, MMO and strategy games, focused on emotionally engaging, rich stories with unforgettable characters and vast worlds to discover. Since 1995, BioWare has created some of the world’s most critically acclaimed titles and franchises, including Baldur’s Gate™, Neverwinter Nights™, Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic™, Jade Empire™, Mass Effect™ and Dragon Age™. In 2008, BioWare was acquired by Electronic Arts, a leading global interactive entertainment publisher. In 2011 EA created the BioWare Label, alongside EA Games, EA Sports and EA Play. BioWare currently operates in seven locations across the world, including Edmonton (Alberta, Canada), Montreal (Quebec, Canada), Austin (Texas), Fairfax (Virginia), San Francisco (California), Los Angeles (California) and Galway (Ireland).

For more information on BioWare, visit www.bioware.com, or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/biofeed. To join the millions of fans already registered with the BioWare community, go to http://social.bioware.com.

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) is a global leader in digital interactive entertainment. The Company’s game franchises are offered as both packaged goods products and online services delivered through Internet-connected consoles, personal computers, mobile phones and tablets. EA has more than 100 million registered players and operates in 75 countries.

In fiscal 2011, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.6 billion. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, EA is recognized for critically acclaimed, high-quality blockbuster franchises such as The Sims™, Madden NFL, FIFA Soccer, Need for Speed™, Battlefield, and Mass Effect™. More information about EA is available at http://info.ea.com.

BioWare, Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Jade Empire are trademarks of EA International (Studio and Publishing) Ltd. The Sims and Need for Speed are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. John Madden, NFL and FIFA are the property of their respective owners and used with permission.

LucasArts, the LucasArts logo, STAR WARS and related properties are trademarks in the United States and/or in other countries of Lucasfilm Ltd. and/or its affiliates. © 2011 Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. or Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved. BioWare, Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Jade Empire are trademarks of EA International (Studio and Publishing) Ltd. EA SPORTS, EA, The Sims and Need for Speed are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. John Madden, NFL and FIFA are the property of their respective owners and used with permission.

BioWare’s James Ohlen, project lead on Star Wars: The Old Republic, believes their upcoming MMORPG might be “the biggest online launch in history.” A bold claim indeed, yet who knows, it might just be.

“The thing about a massively multiplayer game is that it’s different from any other game out there, because you have this vast online community all over the world online at the same time, and you have to make sure there’s no way for your game to be hacked,” Ohlen told Gamasurta in an interview, in which he also said that the devs are currently polishing tiny little things such as tutorials and menus and the like.

“You have to have very strong security, your game has to stand up if you have hundreds of players in one zone at the same time. There’s a lot of things that we’ve never had to worry about at BioWare before.

“And the fact is, because of the hype around the game right now, our launch numbers are predicting something really huge, which means we have to be ready for the biggest online launch in history essentially, which has made it really tough. We’ve been running a lot of tests, just making sure we’re going to stand up when we launch.”

BioWare recently announced that Star Wars: The Old Republic, their upcoming MMORPG, will be releasing on December 20 2011– and that is a confirmed release date.

BioWare has released a new video for their upcoming MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic, showing another one of the playable classes in the game, Smuggler, and its progression.

Be warned- if you play TOR as a Smuggler, you will have to rely on your “wit and guile just as much as the blaster at his side.” The description also elaborated that the more your- the Smuggler’s- bounty grows, the higher threat your enemies will pose.

However, as the Smuggler progresses, he/she will gain more skills and “utilize more powerful weapons and armor ” to trounce over his enemies, and, of course, “to survive.”

Other classes for The Old Republic, like Trooper, Bounty Hunter, Jedi, Jedi Consular, and more have also been revealed till now, and more are soon to come. The Old Republic does look pretty good right now, and the analysts believe it’ll be so good, it can sell 3 million within its first year.

BioWare, however, does not want to rush their MMO’s launch. They say they do now want a repeat telecast of what happened to Blizzard with World of Warcraft, with its somewhat spotty launch. The release date of the game, they say, is ‘tied to the beta’.

It will release within this year though, exclusively on the PC.

EA Labels boss Frank Gibeau told CVG that while EA does have a general release window in mind for the upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic (Holiday 2011), the fans’ reaction to the beta, which has seen two million sign-ups till now and will be launching in a couple of days, will be what decides the game’s actual release date.

“We’re driving towards a date, but the very issue you raised is why we’re not announcing a date yet because you want to make sure that these services can last a decade,” Gibeau said.

“It is definitely tied to the beta test feedback that’s ongoing and so far, so good. We feel good about the date that we’re heading towards but you’re right, you could have a Crazy Ivan show up in the September/October beta test and be like, ‘wow, I’ve got to fix that’.”

EA is looking to avoid the technical errors that marred the launch of Blizzard’s MMO, World of Warcraft.

“You’ve got to have a great launch and as more and more user feedback comes in we make those polishing decisions on what we’re going to get right and nail.

“The other thing is, the technology of standing these things up and then getting all the server farms to work together, talk to one another, store character records… it’s extraordinarily complex and so we want a very stable experience.

“We don’t want to happen to us what happened to WoW and a couple of other services where in the first week there were queues trying to get on to the servers, the entire service crashed – we don’t want that to happen. So we need to nail and make sure that it’s up 24/7 and it’s high quality.

“We’re totally focused on quality, so whatever the beta test tells us is what will be the determining variable on when we will hit.”

BioWare announced at PAX over the weekend that they will be starting a beta for Star Wars: The Old Republic starting September 2- this Friday.

BioWare will be emailing random invites to some of those who have registered on the game’s website. Doesn’t matter if you’ve pre-order the game or not- as long as you’re registered, you can get the code.

Star Wars: The Old Republic will release at the end of this year.

Thanks, Massively.