The game is set 3600 years before the movies, where there's an an uneasy truce betwen the Republic and Sith Empire, and there will be a huge emphasis on class-based personal stories. As Erickson describes it, every class has a story that will span from the first level of the game to the last, and none of the stories are the same. For example, if you play a Jedi from the first level to the last, and then a Sith from the first level to the last, you will not see a single repeated class
Riccitiello also said that the company is planning to launch "our major new MMO"--presumably BioWare Austin's Star Wars: The Old Republic--in "spring 2011." It was unclear if he meant calendar year 2011, or EA's 2011 fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2011.