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.

According to reports from Videogame247 and Kotaku, the game development and publishing arm of George Lucas’ LucasArts has laid off between 75-100 staff across all departments, including game designers and programmers. It’s a sad sight for a company that has produced so many bona-fide PC classics in the past, but an interesting side effect for gamers are the rumours being spread by disgruntled LucasArts employees revealing unannounced titles. A post on Kotaku claims that the web site has received emails about a Knights Of The Old Republic MMO being developed in partnership with Bioware, another Lego Indiana Jones and a third Battlefront game. And just to rub salt in LucasArts’ wounds Kotaku also got a message describing the upcoming action game Fracture as “an absolute piece of garbage”. Ouch.