Back in my birthday post from 2023, I said that "the one thing that seems to be a constant with this game is that nothing is constant; that it's an endless roller-coaster of ups and downs" and 2025 certainly did nothing to disprove that theory. After it had a pretty good year in 2024, 2025 was once again a rather challenging time for Star Wars: The Old Republic, this time because of the 2024-2025 video game voice actor's strike.
While it technically started mid-2024, it wasn't until this year that it really began to impact SWTOR. We were originally told that the new story slated for patch 7.6 at the end of 2024 wasn't quite ready yet to go live on the intended launch date, with no official reason given, but with the promise that it would be released as soon as possible. However, weeks of waiting turned into months, and then the next story update intended for patch 7.7 also couldn't go live for some reason, making it increasingly obvious that the lack of voice acting was what was posing the problem, even if the devs seemingly couldn't comment on it in any official capacity.
I guess nobody really expected the strike to go on for that long - at close to a year in duration it certainly clocked in as one of the longest in the union's history. I sympathise with the voice actors' cause so there are no hard feelings from me on that front, and I also think that the devs at Broadsword did the best that they could under the circumstances.
This ended up turning 2025 into the year of dynamic encounters: while the first batch was launched at the end of 2024, the devs soon ended up giving us more achievements to do those same encounters again, new customisations for Bessi that encouraged us to do them yet again, as well as - eventually - even more planets to do them on.
Shintar the trooper gets another year older. 15 was a good number of shots to put into a grid for a change.
It was all good fun, but I've got to admit that the lack of story definitely put a noticeable damper on my own enthusiasm for the game. In a way that was actually a surprise to me, because while I do love the story and spend a fair amount of time replaying it in all its different permutations, I tend to think that the main reason the game has been so sticky for me has been my guild with whom I run operations every week. I actually still think that's the case, but going 558 days between story updates (the longest content draught of this type in the game's history) really made me realise just how much I still depend on the story as something to get excited about in regards to SWTOR. Dynamic encounters were fun, don't get me wrong - I played and enjoyed them, and I still do, but it's just not the same without having my character chat and go on adventures with her companions every so often.
I look forward to getting the next story update a little bit sooner as well as hearing what the devs have in store for next year.* If the roller-coaster theory holds any water, then 2026 could be a great time for the game again... until we inevitably crash down in 2027 due to some unpredictable fallout related to the EA buyout or whatever. (I definitely hope that doesn't happen - I'm just a bit cynical.) You've got to ride the wave while it lasts.
Previous SWTOR birthday posts:
Happy Birthday, SWTOR!
Happy 2nd Birthday, SWTOR!
Happy Third Birthday, SWTOR!
Happy 4th Birthday, SWTOR!
Five Years of SWTOR
Six Years of SWTOR
Seven Years of SWTOR
Eight Years of SWTOR
Nine Years of SWTOR
Happy 10th Birthday, SWTOR!
Eleven Years of SWTOR
SWTOR Turns Twelve Today
SWTOR Is a Teenager Today
*I drafted this earlier in the week, and then Keith dropped his Executive Producer's Letter for Q4 yesterday, which includes a roadmap for 2026 that promises two more story updates in the first half of the year to wrap up Legacy of the Sith, and 8.0 coming out around the game's fifteenth birthday. Definitely looking promising!
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