The Old Republic still has "one of the biggest" dev teams in the industry

Despite lay-offs at BioWare Austin, Star Wars: The Old Republic is still fielding a significant development team.

Speaking to PC Gamer, SWTOR associate lead designer Emmanuel Lusinchi said fans don't have to worry about the job cuts affecting future content plans.

“We have a very large development team still, definitely one of the biggest in the industry, and we have a very complete and detailed plan for the rest of the year," he said.

"The players don’t really care about all that, behind closed curtains, but they want what they’re paying for which is a service with new content, new systems, that’s what they’re asking for and we listen to them. That’s what we mean to deliver.”

For those players who do actually care, Lusinchi noted that it's "quite difficult" to see colleagues and friends suddenly unemployed.

“The MMO is the toughest part of the game industry without a doubt and we live in tough economic times in general, so that’s very unfortunate," he said.

"I doubt it’d be easy in any industry for anyone, but it happens.”

The developer said he thinks BioWare Austin is doing a pretty good job rolling out new content and responding to player feedback, and didn't seem concerned over talk of flagging subscriptions.

“I think we did good. I think the game is really fun. We have subscription numbers that many of our competitors will envy, maybe not all the competitors, but we’re doing good," he said.

"When I look at what is in the plan, in the prototype I get to play every day, some of those things are truly spectacular. Well, I think so. The players will judge.”