Official launch in Australia/New Zealand

I don't think you understand how the internet works.

Step 1: I connect to the server in Sydney. My lousy broadband and the fact that I'm just south of perth gives me a ping of about 50.

Step 2: The proxy server's high speed connection reroutes my messages to to the US.

Step 3: The game server replies are sent back to the proxy via the same high speed connection.

Step 4: The proxy server replies to me. All in under the blink of an eye.

All in all, I get between 50 and 170 ping. Which is better than the current ping of 400 to 600, isn't it?

Even if you're right about it never falling below 170, that's still better than current pings.

It's unacceptable to open Australian servers. The majority of people interested in the game in Australia already have the game. They're already established on US servers and we know for a fact that it's pretty costly to operate Australian MMO servers. There's a reason why there's no AU based WoW servers. There's a reason why Sony closed their Pirates of the Burning Sea AU servers. Too costly.

As I said, even if you're right about 170, I'll take that over the problems locally hosted servers would cause AND 170 is still a lot better then current pings.

Any update on when or if this is still going to happen?

I really hope they don't pull a blizzard on us and say its an "Australian" server but sitting in the USA.

We can confirm that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be launching in Australia and New Zealand in the spring of 2012.

Right now we are targeting March 1st, but that could change as our number one priority is making sure that customers have a great service to play on.

For those of you who may have already imported the game, we will be investigating solutions to allow you to continue to play on a local server once they come online in March.

EDIT: As pointed out, southern hemisphere seasons are reversed! When we say 'Spring' you can substitute 'Q1/Q2 2012'. Apologies for that.