It has been three years since it was first announced, but Bioware’s highly anticipated massively multiplayer online roleplaying game, The Old Republic, finally has a release date. It will be out on the 20^th December this year for the US, and two days later for European territories, barely making it in time for the lucrative Christmas market.

The announcement was made by BioWare co-founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk during their keynote address at the 2011 Eurogamer Expo in London, which ran from 22^nd September to 25^th September. Speaking to a packed room of press and fans at the expo, Muzyka acknowledged the weight of the moment and the patience of the fans.

“This is an incredible moment for everyone at BioWare and our partners at LucasArts who have dedicated their lives to build this extraordinary game. We appreciate the patience from the millions of fans who have been waiting for the game’s release,” he said. According to the game’s official site, each copy of Star Wars: The Old Republic will come with thirty days of subscription time, after which players will have the option to continue playing with one of three monthly subscription fees:

• 1 Month Subscription: $14.99 (R120) per month
• 3 Month Subscription: $13.99 (R112) per month (one-time charge of R336)
• 6 Month Subscription: $12.99  (R104) per month (one-time charge of (R624)

According to an interview with James Ohlen, the Old Republic’s project lead, on Gamasutra, the company is readying itself for the “biggest online launch in history.”

“The thing about a massively multiplayer game is that it's different from any other game out there, because you have this vast online community all over the world online at the same time, and you have to make sure there's no way for your game to be hacked. You have to have very strong security, your game has to stand up if you have hundreds of players in one zone at the same time. There's a lot of things that we've never had to worry about at BioWare before,” explained Ohlen in the interview.

The game will be set three hundred years after the events of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic game and thus more than 3500 years before the events of the movies. If the video below is anything to go by, it may just provide enough of a reason to look at one of the tantalizing gaming notebooks we’ve seen emerge of late from MSI, Razer or Alienware.