Star Wars the Old Republic is being forced to push back their 6.2 update from June to an unknown time due to Covid-19 concerns.
As a company that is so heavily focused on the story in their games, Bioware has always put story first in Star Wars the Old Republic. But in a time when just having people in an office or recording studio is hazardous to their health, concessions have to be made.
The Star Wars the Old Republic developers who are capable of doing so are hard at work, working from home to get all the programming, 3D modeling and all the other things necessary to get the game ready to update, with only a skeleton crew at the office to do the few things they have to physically be there to do in order to ensure things update smoothly. However, Star Wars the Old Republic is heavy on voice acting.
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In a forum post by game director Charles Boyd, he explained that the health and safety of the staff is their top priority. With this in mind, Boyd stated that all in-studio recordings have been suspended, forcing all who are capable to record their dialogue from home and submitting the files to the team. Sadly, not all cast members have the equipment to do so.
And it is this reason that has forced a delay in future content. Update 6.1.2 has been delayed a week, releasing on April 21, and includes class balancing and beginning a double XP event that will last until the end of May.
However, the biggest delay is 6.2. Instead of the previously stated June timeframe, they instead changed the numbering to 6.1.2, since a new 6.X number means a story update. And the biggest reason the team is changing the number is that 6.2 is meant to conclude the Kira and Scourge story that was introduced with the Onslaught update back in October. This means that someone involved in the storyline of this update does not have the required equipment to record their lines, and Boyd did not release this information to the public to ensure the privacy and dignity of this voice actor.
The current target for 6.2 is “late summer/early fall”, and the forum posts have been mostly positive and understanding regarding this. Hopefully, things calm down enough by that time in order for everyone to do their jobs safely.