I always thought that Empire Strikes Back was the only one that was worth a damn.

As for the hype, I haven't noticed it, but I don't follow gaming sites and as someone else said SWTOR isn't on my radar. Gaming companies working on such large and ambitious games have to do a pretty tough balancing act. You know that it can take a long time to develop a game like this, and that you might miss the release date by weeks, months, and sometimes years. But you also need time to develop some momentum for the release, because if initial sales are weak your game might be dead before people realize that it's fun to play.

So you have to generate buzz early and often, knowing that if it takes longer than expected to release it, you might wind up either driving up expectations (and players feel let down even if it's a good game) or you drag it out too long and people lose interest. Getting the timing right is less of an art and more a stroke of luck.