Our friends over at Darth Hater just sent us a breaking news tip that should be of interest to any Star Wars: The Old Republic fan. During today's conference call to William Blair and Company analysts, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello said that "high-scale testing" would be begin at the end of June. He also mentioned that the "release date would be dependent on the results" of the testing phase. BioWare then told Darth Hater that "game testing is ongoing."
UPDATE: Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid has responded to Riccitello's comments on the official forums. "We've recently transitioned into longer-term and larger-scale testing. We have more people testing the game now than ever before," he said, saying they're essentially in closed beta since it's invite-only and limited in size. They're still aiming to launch in 2011. You can read his full post after the jump.
We've been waiting patiently for a concrete release date for quite some time, and it looks like there might be a light at the end of the tunnel. While you wait, be sure to check out everything we learned about Star Wars: The Old Republic at E3.