GameSpy: Why did you decide to place the game 4,000 years before the current Star Wars era?

Hudson: It was really an ideal period for us, given the nature of the Star Wars timeline. Since space travel has been around for around 30,000 years in the Star Wars universe, a few thousand years of separation from the films is actually quite small. This allowed us to include starships, lightsabers, and the overall "feel" that people loved about the original Star Wars movies. At the same time, it provided enough separation from the established events of the movies to create a truly epic, galaxy-spanning plot, where your character can become the most important person in the galaxy and your decisions decide the fate of the Republic. This would not have been possible within the period of the movies, since the most important characters and storylines are already established.