Lucasarts and Bioware have confirmed what has been suspected for some time: they’re developing a Star Wars-themed MMO. They’ve named it Star Wars: The Old Republic, which isn’t much of a stretch from Bioware’s last foray into the Star Wars universe with the RPG Knights Of The Old Republic. In fact, founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka joked about the size of the game, saying that “Internally, we’re making KotOR 3 through 10.”

The Old Republic is set thousands of years before the time of the Star Wars films, players can be a Jedi, Sith or other character and Bioware claims that this is the first truly story-driven MMO. To date, there’s only been one other Star Wars MMO - Star Wars Galaxies, though Sony can probably expect a sizeable migration from their SWG player base once The Old Republic is released a year or two from now. Check it out here.

Both Mass Effect PC and Spore are to use SecuROM as copy protection for the retail versions. The controversial anti-piracy software requires an internet connection to connect to an EA server and verify every ten days. Derek French, technical producer at Bioware clarified the news,

“An internet connection is not required to install, just to activate the first time, and every ten days after. You can be completely connectionless for nine days and encounter no problems playing Mass Effect. And you don’t need the disk in the drive to play.”

While PC security and privacy issues aren’t at stake here, this will obviously pose a problem for those that haven’t got round the clock internet access and It also flies in the face of EA’s claim that Spore can be played as an offline game.