We have bad news for you, for you might want to rethink that family Christmas holiday, unless your family likes land-speeders and bounty hunting. Bioware has announced the release date for Star Wars: The Old Republic. It’s right slap-bang before Christmas: December 20th in the North America, and December 22nd in Europe.

I feel a disturbance in the force. As if a million customer support representatives suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. Their Christmas is going to suck because there’s no more turkey, only coffees and mouse clicking.

Each copy comes with a month of free game-time, but if you want to play after that, you’ll need money: it’s $14.99/£8.99/€12.99 per-month. That’s exactly the same pricing structure as World of Warcraft.

Even the bulk costs are identical: a three month subscription comes to $13.99/month (paid as a one-time charge of $41.97/£25.17/€35.97), while a six month subscription costs $12.99 per month (paid as a one-time charge of $77.94/£46.14/€65.94).