Bioware has now annouced the oppened up the Star Wars: The Old Republic for pre-order, and has given us details about what the different editions will look like.

Let’s take a look at what each edition offers, shall we?

The Standard Edition (physical and digital), will include the standard 30 days of game time. If you pre-order, however, you will also get the “Color Stone”, which will change your blaster bolt and lightsaber color.

The Digital Deluxe Edition will include the afformentioned game time and color stone, and will also include:

  • Flare Gun – Fire a dramatic and inspiring flare high into the air.
  • Training Droid – A small but advanced training droid to hover at your side for combat assistance.
  • HoloDancer – Portable entertainment system to project your own holographic dance.
  • Holocam – Keep visual records of you in-game adventures as you travel the Star Wars galaxy.
  • STAP - The STAP is a sleek and unique in-game vehicle you will acquire during your journeys.

The Collector’s Edition will include all of the above, and an impressive array of both in-game and real world items for you to enjoy.

In-game:

  • Flare Gun
  • Training Droid
  • Holodancer
  • HoloCam
  • STAP
  • Exclusive Mouse Droid - A little Mouse Droid to join your adventures.
  • Exclusive Collector’s Edition Store - Unique in-game vendor with a dunamic assortment of items available only to purchasers of the Collector’s Edition.
In the box:
  • Exclusive Gentle Giant Darth Malgus statue
  • Game disks collectible metal case
  • The Journal of Master Gnost-Dural as annotated by Satele Shan
  • The Old Republic galaxy map
  • Custom Security Authentication Key
  • Music of Star Wars: The Old Republic CD
  • High-quality Collector’s Edition box

I’m really excited by the offerings in the collector’s edition, and I know that what I’ll be getting. I’ve always been a fan of soundtrack CDs in game, but that’s pretty standard far, as is the map, special case for the disks and the “high-quality box.”

What really impresses me is that they are deciding to include an authenticator off the bat. As we all know, hacking has been a problem in WoW for a long time, and the addition of the authenticator has helped to combat that problem. Other MMOs such as RIFT have also taken up the authenticator banner, and it seems to be working well for them. Bioware obviously understand that not only will there be a huge hacking issue at launch, with the buzz surrounding this game growing to a fever pitch as we get closer and closer to release, but that player will be clamouring for authenticators from day one. Had Bioware chosen not to have authenticators available at launch, I can only imagine the forum threads and twitter outcries that would have started when the inevitable hacking began.

The addition of the statue is also a big draw for me. I’ve always liked the figures that games have included, to the point where a listener of the podcast even sent me an Ultima Online collector’s edition that still had the figure in it! P.S. Thanks Luke!

Also include in the announcement of the pre-order packages was a new trailer, which takes aspects of previous trailers, and re-purposes them as a general game trailer.

A great offering out of the gates Bioware, and I can’t wait to see all of you in-game!