New York ( CNN ) -- A long time ago , by technology standards , in this very galaxy , the founders of video game developer BioWare received a phone call . It was from Simon Jeffery , then the president of George Lucas ' LucasArts . In the early 2000s , BioWare happened to be looking for its next big adventure when Jeffery proposed they work on the first-ever `` Star Wars '' role-playing game . BioWare jumped at the opportunity , and it led to a pair of the most celebrated `` Star Wars '' console games , called `` Knights of the Old Republic . '' On Tuesday , the studio released `` Star Wars : The Old Republic , '' the latest and most ambitious product of this so-far decade-long partnership . In this sprawling , much-anticipated computer game , millions of Jedi Knights , bounty hunters and other familiar warriors from the movies can roam and battle on their home planets , and then hop in spaceships to travel the galaxy . The `` Old Republic '' games are set thousands of years before the events in the movies , when Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader battled for galactic dominion . At the partnership 's inception , LucasArts gave BioWare the option to create games with characters from the films or set during another time , said Ray Muzyka , a BioWare founder who is now the general manager of its various studios . Executives chose the latter so that the BioWare team could exercise its own creativity . The creative juices flooded for `` The Old Republic , '' which has planets full of monsters and gems , and about 1,000 actors reading 260,000 lines of dialogue for characters in the game . To build this massively multiplayer online game , BioWare has been hiring industry veterans to work at its Austin , Texas , studio over the past few years . `` It 's kind of like building a whole bunch of [ console games ] and then building an Xbox Live service , '' Muzyka said . `` This is definitely the biggest game that BioWare has ever built . '' It is also the biggest that Electronic Arts , the U.S. game publishing giant , has ever funded , analysts have said . EA has spent between $ 100 million and $ 300 million , according to analysts ' estimates reported in Reuters . EA acquired BioWare in 2007 , when work on `` The Old Republic '' was already under way . The project , and the trust BioWare had earned from LucasArts , played a role , Muzyka said in an interview here after ringing the Nasdaq opening bell on Tuesday , flanked by people dressed in Stormtrooper and Wookie costumes . Still , LucasArts reviews all of BioWare 's concepts and designs , and occasionally overrules them , Muzyka said . Around the time of the EA acquisition , Activision Blizzard 's massively multiplayer online game , `` World of Warcraft , '' was skyrocketing in popularity , while Sony 's `` Star Wars Galaxies '' faltered , leaving an opening for its replacement . ( EA published `` Galaxies '' in Japan , but the game 's worldwide servers were shut down for good a week ago . ) In addition to the initial $ 60 price tag , `` The Old Republic '' costs $ 15 per month , same as `` World of Warcraft . '' ( The price goes down a dollar or two when committing to longer subscriptions . ) The game companies justify these fees by citing the expenses of Internet server upkeep , and of delivering new missions and items on a regular basis . This idea of constantly updating a game , even years after its debut , is new for BioWare because it has never made a game of this type before . The team has implemented a suite of data-analytics services so that it can review how people play and then tailor updates , Muzyka said . BioWare will need to stay attentive to players ' demands over time . A few people who started playing weeks ago during the beta period have already reached the maximum level of 50 . BioWare is not concerned that its gargantuan product has already been defeated . There are always some sleepless diehards , and developers can not pay attention only to them , BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk said in an interview . Already , BioWare execs have begun discussing new features they plan to add for teams and player battles , which may be released in quarterly updates , according to Muzyka . Execs are eager because BioWare has been preparing for this type of game for more than a decade . `` We thought about doing this back in the early years of BioWare , '' said Muzyka , who started the studio with Zeschuk in 1995 . `` We wanted to have all of the best-of-breed features of any MMO out there . '' `` The Old Republic '' passed the first test at launch . The servers remained steady under the initial surge . But will the Force stay with them ?
BioWare says `` The Old Republic '' is the biggest game it 's ever built . The `` Star Wars '' game has 260,000 lines of dialogue . Studio heads are already mulling over which new items they 'll add .