SWTOR’s Executive Producer Keith Kanneg published his letter for Q4 2024, summarizing what Broadsword has released throughout the year, along with a tiny teaser on what’s coming in 2025.
Why Producer Letters Matter
While these Producer Letters may seem pointless to you, as they primarily contain old news, they’re significantly more valuable for people who aren’t playing the game right now and might be looking to return.
They stand out because the information is provided by the person in charge of everyone else and presented in a way that’s a lot more digestible to potential players who aren’t familiar with the current state of the game.
Over time, these producer letters build up as a public record, one that is a lot easier to read than the patch notes if you’re trying to get a sense of the history of the game or what content was released while an individual was confirmed to be working on SWTOR.
SWTOR 2024 in Review
Keith Kanneg, SWTOR’s Executive Producer, began his Q4 2024 Executive Producer Letter by going through the highlights from the most recent game updates from this year, 7.5 “Desperate Defiance” and 7.6 “Galactic Threads”.
Game Update 7.4.1 came with Galactic Seasons 6 “Building a Foundation” featuring the challenging but gorgeous Copero Stronghold and Date Night companion missions, while 7.5 “Desperate Defiance” brough us PvP Season 6 “Great Pirate Hunt”, the Basilisk Prototype Venture, a new seasonal event called the Dantooine Spring Harvest Festival, and Hutta visual modernization.
Game Update 7.5.1 came with Galactic Season 6 “The Greatest Bounty” including the return of DvL bosses and an extended Bounty Contract Event, while 7.6 “Galactic Threads” brought us Dynamic Encounters, Propagator Core XR-53 Lair Boss, PvP Season 7 “Path to Mastery”, the return of Life Day, and more visual modernization to Korriban, Tython, Hoth, Ilum, and character models.
In addition, SWTOR now has official support for Mac computers with M-series chips and MacOS 14 Sonoma. The new Mac Launcher is currently in open beta and available for download at SWTOR.com!
Keith didn’t forget to mention the new Skeleton Crew™-inspired items available for sale on the Cartel Market along with a new subscriber reward that allows you to ride alongside your companion and a minipet.
Broadsword has also pivoted from livestream codes to Twitch Drops, and the current reward is an Amethyst Vulptilla mount, which you can earn by watching 4 hours of SWTOR on drop-enabled channels while logged in to your SWTOR-linked Twitch account.
Finally, Keith listed out all of the existing sales and bundles, of which there are a lot:
- Collection Unlocks are 50% off starting on December 13th
- Character Renames are 90% off from December 10th to December 17th
- Character Appearance Customizations are 90% off from December 10th to January 7th
- Life Day items from prior years on the CM are 25% off from December 10th to January 7th
- All Dyes will continue to be 50% off in purpetuity
- Double XP is active from December 22nd to January 2nd
- Life Day is active from December 10th to January 7th
- The Amethyst Vulptilla mount Twitch Drop is obtainable by watching 4 hours of SWTOR live streams on Twitch from December 10th to January 7th
- The Meirm Cicada mount is free for all players who subscribe or are subscribed between November 29th and January 4th.
- SWTOR 13th Anniversary is active from December 20th to January 3rd, featuring the Best View in SWTOR 2024 Decos
- Master the Fight Bundle: Starbolt Edition is available from November 15th to January 14th
SWTOR in 2025 Predictions
Keith was a bit more coy when it came to details about what’s coming in 2025 beyond saying that 7.6.1 is coming in Q1 of 2025 with Galactic Season 8 with “some content you may not have played in a bit”, and 7.7 after that, “with a new [redacted] coming with some new [redacted]”. He’s also looking forward to Star Wars Celebration 2025.
Yeah, it’s super vague, but we can read between the lines.
Galactic Season 8 will most likely release in March 2025 and involve Uprisings or older, hopefully revamped Conquest events like Relics of the Gree and Rakghoul Resurgence. I would say GSF, but because the mode is no longer actively supported, I highly doubt it.
Game Update 7.7 will likely come in early June, but I have no idea about [redacted]. My best guess is probably either a Flashpoint, Venture, or Companion. I have to think the SAG-AFTRA Voice Actors Strike will be over by then, so we will likely get a larger than usual helping of story content, too.
The mention of Star Wars Celebration stands out the most. We’re heading into a pretty big confluence of Star Wars content, with the following notable occurences:
- Andor Season 2 (April 22nd, 2025)
- Star Wars: Visions Season 3 (2025)
- Ahsoka Season 2 (Late 2025)
- The Mandalorian and Grogu movie (May 22nd, 2026)
While it has yet to be confirmed, an 8.0 expansion is an absolute certainty in my opinion, and Star Wars Celebration is the perfect time for SWTOR to be brought into the Disney fold as part of the official Star Wars canon.
I see SWTOR having a substantial presence at Star Wars Celebration 2025 with a Community Cantina event, the reveal of Game Update 7.7, announcement of the 8.0 expansion, including the addition of Batuu as a new planet in SWTOR for December 2025 or February 2026.
Batuu is the canonical location of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. We now have a large chunk of the assets already in-game from the new Remote Trading Post deco bundle (Disney trash cans, included) and existing Tatooine-style adobes.
Yeah, those white buildings in the back have a slightly different material from the ones on Tatooine, but those yellow stripes and the turret could easily be plucked right outta Anchorhead once they get the modernization treatment.
The visual enhancements and gameplay improvements Broadsword has been making will allow it to be actively and proudly promoted inside Disney parks without it looking dated.
The backlog of modernizations (including DX12) and the 7.0 storyline are right on track to be finished by then, just in time for the expansion. New players will be able to dive into a complete Mandalorian Civil War storyline few months before the release of The Mandalorian and Grogu movie, which could be slated for a same-day release with 8.0.1 or even 8.1.
It’s not the most solid evidence, but we can’t deny that Kathleen Kennedy’s love language is defined by terms like “cross-promotional”, “brand synergy”, and “microtransaction merchandising”. Batuu in SWTOR reeks more of money than her Cented Candles®.
