Bioware has been banning accounts for violation of Terms of Service in relation to "speed hacking"

"With Game Update 1.2, new measures were put in place to improve our detection of exploits, particularly in relation to 'speed hacking' and teleport cheats. With the help of this improved detection, we recently took action against hundreds of game accounts. In many cases these accounts were permanently removed from the game after being investigated by our Terms of Service team, who double-check every detected account to ensure fair rulings."

Source: SWTOR Blog

There is an excellent interview with BioWare’s Daniel Erickson posted on PCGamer.com. In the article we learn that SWTOR subscription numbers have not dropped, however concurrent players at peak times have declined. Daniel goes on to state that for this reason server mergers are on the cards, but not a priority. What is a priority is an improved group finder. We do not know if the improved group finder tool will be cross-server. The community is divided on this issue. I however hope for a cross server LFG tool for PvE and PvP as it will make queue times much shorter on smaller population servers.

Bioware released a new video about changes to the legacy system in the upcoming Patch 1.2 for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

BioWare has made an announcement signalling the end of the SWTOR pre-launch guild registration.

"Today we are announcing that the Pre-Launch Guild Program for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ has come to an end. Guilds that have met the prerequisite of having four members redeem their Pre-Order Codes at our Code Redemption Center are now locked for transfer into the game in time for our December 20th launch.

If your guild has qualified for import, you can expect to receive an email at some time over the next several days. This email will give you further details on how to check the status of your guild as well as further details about how to join your guild once you’re in the game. Your email will also tell you which server your guild has been assigned to, so you will know which one to select when Early Game

Access begins. While we will do everything we can to ensure that your Allies and Adversaries are on your server with you, we can’t necessarily guarantee that every guild will see their Allies and Adversaries on their server with them.

We want to thank each and every one of you who took part in the program, and we look forward to seeing you all in the game!"

Official Post Link