EA released a new financial report yesterday detailing the company's financial results for the fourth fiscal quarter which ended on March 31st, 2011. The report appears positive for EA investors, but it's the details in the gaming news that will have gamers drooling. The launch window for Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) is confirmed in the document to be the second half of the 2012 fiscal year; this means that the game could be released as late as March of next year. Fansite Darth Hater also sat in on an investor call and learned a few interesting things that they've added to a new Live Blog. Most notably, SWTOR will be a digital service using a subscription model and that it's also possible that the game will not launch before January 2012.

Analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush has estimated that the game has cost EA roughly $80 million to develop and will likely cost another $20 million for manufacturing, marketing and distribution. But Pachter believes that the MMORPG will pay off and contribute roughly $150 million to EA 2012 fiscal year.

Also in the listings for EA's Q4 releases are the recently delayed Mass Effect 3, which is the epic conclusion of the Commander Shepard saga. But one interesting bit of information associated with its listing in EA's table is that Mass Effect 3 will also be supported for handheld and mobile devices.

The 38 Studios project Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is also scheduled for a Q4 release. The action combat RPG is a prelude to the coming MMORPG under development by Curt Schilling's team of all-star developers and written by best-selling fantasy author legend R.A. Salvatore currently codenamed Project Copernicus.

Sources:

DarthHater

Massively

EA Financial Report

Gamasutra SWTOR Analyst