In October 2008, Bioware, a label of Electronic Arts, announced that Star Wars: The Old Republic, an MMO-RPG, was a go. Having more story than all of their other games combined, Bioware have been hard at work for years in an attempt to make The Old Republic a game that Star Wars fans can be proud of. But now, the long wait is finally over, because early access to The Old Republic starts on this day, December 13th.

Gamers who pre-ordered their copy of The Old Republic will be given the opportunity to gain early access to the globally acclaimed title anywhere between 12pm GMT today, up to the 19th December, the day before retail release.

The early access plan is for managing server volumes at a rate that Bioware can efficiently handle. Players will access the game in waves, thus ensuring the servers run at optimal speeds. Due to the fact that a large portion of players are still yet to download and pre-load their copy of The Old Republic, it would be the ultimate nightmare for the Bioware maintenance team if everybody was given access to the game at exactly the same time.

You may be one of the lucky people amongst the millions who got to test drive The Old Republic in its beta stages a few weeks ago, which only made the wait for release day more agonising for most. There are many who remain sceptical about The Old Republic’s mechanics, longevity and future content, but no doubt everybody is still at least a bit excited for the day they get their hands on their access key.

Players who pre-ordered The Old Republic can retrieve their code by following this link.

May the force be with you.

Jay.