The developers of Star Wars: The Old Republic talked in the summer livestream about the upcoming expansion that will be released with version 8.0 for the MMORPG. They have already revealed many of the new features.
What kind of livestream was it? Since the development of SW:TOR was taken over by Broadsword Games, there have been regular livestreams and letters with updates on development. The summer livestream took place on July 30, 2026, and included updates not only on the upcoming version 7.9.1 but also on the major update 8.0 and the associated expansion.
The livestream was hosted by Lead Game Producer Eric Musco and Senior Community Manager “Jackie”.
Here you can see a trailer for the last update of SW:TOR:
A Real Expansion
What content was presented? Although the developers of SW:TOR want to keep some surprises for the release of the expansion, they already mentioned the key points in the livestream.
With the new expansion, a new part of the main story will be introduced. It will presumably take place on the new planet Ryloth, the homeworld of the Twi’lek, where you will also level up to the new maximum level of 85.
After the story, you can expect a new raid called “Children of Nul” that leads you to the Enigma, where you will uncover new areas of Darth Nul’s massive ship and fight against three bosses.
What else was announced? Also new are class changes; Powertech/Frontliner, Marauder/Guardian, and Sorcerer/Sage will receive new abilities that will soon be available on the test server. Overall, every class is expected to learn new abilities at level 83 that replace previous versions.
Another significant change concerns the difficulty level. SW:TOR has undergone a strong transformation since its release in 2011. What started as a challenging endeavor has become quite easy, thanks to good companions.
Rather than splitting the community with a hardcore world, the developers decided to introduce three difficulty levels. With the new expansion, you can choose whether to challenge your character at the current difficulty, set it to “Veteran”, which should correspond to the difficulty on release, or set it to “Master”, which is supposed to be a true challenge.
In line with this, the developers are also slowing down leveling for everyone. Until now, players could follow the main story in SW:TOR up to the current state and reach the maximum level without completing a single side quest. The developers are slowing this down a bit with version 8.0, so players are expected to enter areas less over-leveled.
These were the most important announcements for the new expansion and version 8.0. Which of them do you find the most exciting? Write it in the comments! On the second page, you will find even more changes and details regarding the update. One thing likely won’t receive an update with version 8.0: Star Wars: The Old Republic has something that no other MMORPG offers, but fans complain: Nothing has happened for years.
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