IGNPC: Let's talk about the practical implementation of the upgrade. Why did you guys decide to go live with it when you did?

Dallas Dickinson: We've been testing it for a full month, both internally and on the test center. We were simply not at the point of getting enough feedback from people. A number of things had come out, and we had fixed all of them. It's a tiered thing when you're working on a massively multiplayer game. The number of eyes you have on any system, especially one as fundamentally large as the combat system, that increases the rate at which issues are borough to the surface. We weren't getting enough new issues, so we had to bring it out in front of the community, take some pain (which we have), and get the real issues brought to our attention. That's the process we're going through right now. Issues are reported to us, and we're responding to them as fast as we can, but we had to go live in order for us to see these issues.

IGNPC: Maybe I'm just cynical but the suspicion seems to be that you have a big movie and an expansion coming out soon. It's natural for people to wonder if there's a relationship between those.

Dallas Dickinson: We know that the combat upgrade is something that is really controversial. It's causing both players and us a whole lot pain right now. My response to that, from the opposite of cynical, is, "Do you think we'd be crazy enough to do something that has a potentially negative impact right in front of a huge cash cow?" We're doing something that we think is right for the game at the right time, because this is the way forward for the game. I'd love know how we're trying to capitalize in a cynical way by making this change right now.

Julio Torres: This is something that we've always, since Jump to Lightspeed, wanted to put out on the live servers before anything else was sold or purchased by any of our new users or current users. We fundamentally believe that, for the longevity of this game, the combat we've implemented represents the movies much more effectively. To do it now is right.

We want to do it before anybody actually goes out and plays for the first time or even spends money on adding. We wanted to improve the game before that happens. The timing is skewed, in some sense. People may wonder why we're doing it now, but I think it's the perfect time. It's time to get this out there, and then people can spend more money on the game because they value it or buy it for the first time. They'll get to see the improved, upgraded experience.

Debysue Wolfcale: I just will add that I don't think the timing of this is that odd. We've been talking about this on the forums and with the community since November and December and we said in January and February, hopefully, we'd be doing a beta. We said maybe it'll the end of March or April. The timing of the combat upgrade has been relatively steady. Sure it was pushed out a little bit here and there for testing and development. The timing of the Episode 3 expansion was tied in to the movie. Really, they were two separate things that converged.

IGNPC: Thanks so much for your time today. We really appreciate your answers.