Are Bioware making a mistake by not allowing SWTOR to be released in Australia?

[Alumatine]

I'm talking about Asia. WoW was not released there for a while.

Eh, this is true I guess... maybe I'm just angry that people in "The Kingdom of Belgium" get a cooler name than us and get to play SWTOR.

 

[AyaReiko]

Sorry to say, but I don't think so. World of Warcraft was not released in many, much more populated countries until a good long while after its NA release. Sometimes the cost to potential benefit ratio just doesn't make sense. Chances are it will find its way there eventually, though.

Exactly how unpopulated do you think Australia is? The game is being released in Hungry and Poland yet not Australia? What about Belgium... Blegium isn't even technically a country. -.-

Furthermore WoW had a US and EU release date, Australia was included in the EU release date... not excluded outright.

I'm talking about Asia. WoW was not released there for a while.

I think the only place left for WoW to conquer is Japan and various dirt-poor states in Africa, and I'll bet Africa will get conquered soon enough.

- - - -

They're probably focusing on 2 of the 3 core markets to iron things out (and make sure it actually sells) before expanding globally. The current vg market "Crown Jewel" is N. America, meanwhile Europe is rising fast, so all global releases will go to those two markets first. The third core market is Japan, who is sinking like a stone due to its notorious xenophobic nature. I wouldn't be surprised if someone else ousts them as a core market in the very near future.

 

[infohippie]

Don't worry about it. When they do eventually release in Australia, we'll have skipped the server queues from what will be a heavily over-populated launch, and we'll have had time to see whether it turns out to be any good after the initial rush of enthusiasm.

On the other hand, this is symptomatic of a larger problem - the fact that we Aussies often miss out on things online because services get released only in America and Europe, or games get released world wide but servers only get put in America and Europe so we have to put up with massive ping times that others don't. It'd be nice to see, for once, a company actually put a couple servers in Australia, at least one on the east coast and one on the west coast, so we can game without all the horrendous lag we normally see. For a lot of games, 600ms to 800ms is pretty much standard ping time from Oz.

So I'm not too concerned about TOR, but I am pretty pissed off about the general treatment Australia gets from publishers.

 

[Mr Thin]

"Oh, what's that? It's exclusive to Origins? Piss off, I don't need another digital store, I'll just get a physical copy."

*shuffle shuffle sssshh*

Hear that? It's the sound of my money slipping through their fingers.

 

[Alumatine]

On the other hand, this is symptomatic of a larger problem - the fact that we Aussies often miss out on things online because services get released only in America and Europe, or games get released world wide but servers only get put in America and Europe so we have to put up with massive ping times that others don't. It'd be nice to see, for once, a company actually put a couple servers in Australia, at least one on the east coast and one on the west coast, so we can game without all the horrendous lag we normally see. For a lot of games, 600ms to 800ms is pretty much standard ping time from Oz.

I just found out the answer is: Yes.

The question was: Can you idolise someones views after reading a single forum post?

I agree with this 100%. Australia seems to be forgotten by most publishers. I always feel like we're some sort of backwater country and the fact is that we're simply not.

 

[Hagi]

It sucks big time but I can kinda understand where they're coming from.

They do need quality servers that are reasonably close. And while European countries can all connect to servers in London (or any European country) while the USA connects to the nearest coast (East or West) that isn't really an option for Australia.

I don't know what the costs for setting up a server hub are but I could understand first getting the EU and US launches right and working and once that's settled and it's clear it's not a 'fail' launch then set up shop in Australia and the rest of the world.

In the end the US and EU are the biggest market shares. Western MMOs, with the exception of WoW, don't really get huge successes in Eastern Asia. And Australia just isn't that densely populated, especially not with MMOers.

 

[Hungry Donner]

It's probably logistics. Thing is, brick and mortar stores still contribute a lot to the sales of games, and if they went digital only or discounted for the digital version, the stores can threaten to stop carrying that game or the whole publisher library (hence why you see prices being the same on Steam versions as the retails).

I understand why they do it, and I agree that this is a big factor in this situation, but man is it short-sighted on the store's part. At the moment we're seeing a number of online distribution platforms coming on line and soon many publishers will be confident enough with online sales to stop giving in to the stores' demands - and then those stores will be up a creek without a paddle (or at best running to catch up).

I suppose Australia's download limits will limit this a bit, but on the other hand Australian gamers are far more upset about price discrepancies.

 

[godofallu]

Is it because of servers or ratings?

I suppose either way the decision was the right one. Personally I can't stand the idea of remaking a game in order to dumb it down and make it more child/Australian friendly.

 

[Alumatine]

I think we've already established that ratings are not the problems. The other fact of the ratings argument is that people outside of Australia tend not to understand the entire situation. Our ratings system is nothing like "AUSTRALIA CAN'T HAVE VIOLENT GAMES!" nor is it anything close to that. The problem is partially that our attorney general is an idiot and has too much power. Also that not all games go through the process of being blocked or even properly reviewed before rating etc. There is quite a bit that goes into this argument but this isn't the thread for it.

As far as download limits go. Most Australian Gamers have at least a 100-200GB download limit nowadays which is enough to cope with a full game download every few days.

 

[skitzin]

In the end the US and EU are the biggest market shares. Western MMOs, with the exception of WoW, don't really get huge successes in Eastern Asia. And Australia just isn't that densely populated, especially not with MMOers.

Well considering that basically ever other company who has made an MMO has taken the time and effort to get it approved and shipped to us here in Australia (eg. WoW, Rift, Guild Wars etc) means that clearly we are a sufficiently large enough market that's worth the investment.

Otherwise why would other companies bother if it was little to no return from it? So sorry but no I don't accept this as a valid excuse regarding limited distribution.

 

[Flailing Escapist]

Bioware doesn't make mistakes. They may lose money but they never, ever make mistakes.

Spoiler

[sub]captcha = you first..... Hmmmmm[/sub]

 

[Continuity]

Yep, EA are doing their best to screw this one up royally, just look at the insane pre-order details.

Its like EA are trying their hardest to put themselves out of business. To be quite frank I'm a gnats whisker from a personal boycott of all EA games.

 

[Hagi]

In the end the US and EU are the biggest market shares. Western MMOs, with the exception of WoW, don't really get huge successes in Eastern Asia. And Australia just isn't that densely populated, especially not with MMOers.

Well considering that basically ever other company who has made an MMO has taken the time and effort to get it approved and shipped to us here in Australia (eg. WoW, Rift, Guild Wars etc) means that clearly we are a sufficiently large enough market that's worth the investment.

Otherwise why would other companies bother if it was little to no return from it? So sorry but no I don't accept this as a valid excuse regarding limited distribution.

Australia has a population of 22 million. Compared to 500 million for North America and 700 million in Europe.

There's just not so many people there, even if the proportion of Australians that play MMOs is extremely high then you're still far below NA and EU.

As I said, it's a sucky move. But Europe and North America have the potential to generate near a million subscribers, Australia won't ever generate that sort of numbers.

And seeing the large amount of MMOs that performed way below expected I can understand them focussing on the markets that are guaranteed to have at least the population to fill 1-2 servers in a worst-case scenario compared to a market that in the worst case has to be closed.

There's many MMOs with server numbers for the EU and NA in the single digits, these MMOs wouldn't be able to sustain a healthy Australian server.

As long as they plan on opening up shop in Australia after the EU and NA launches have been handled successfully I can understand the move, if they never set up shot then I don't understand where they're coming from either.

 

[manythings]

Yet how does it benefit them to even block digital copies? Surely the infrastructure for digital downloading almost world wide is already there. They don't need to worry about region locking for PC gamers in terms of hardware. I'm beginning to think they just don't like our cool plastic money...

Did they block it or is the system just too much trouble to deal with? I'd prefer to have some kind of source info explaining exactly what is happening. I seriously doubt it's as simple as them thinking you all suck.

 

[A-D.]

Actually the reason most Companies refuse to release bigger MMO Titles in Australia is not because of the Rating System, granted it may play a part in it, but cutting some stuff or doing a localized version is not entirely impossible.

The biggest Reason as to why they dont is Cost. Hosting servers, alot of them to run the Game costs alot of Money, more so than anywhere else. Basicly you can blame your Internet Providers for retarded Costs and the like. Thats why for most Companies it doesnt have any value, the cost to run them outweighs the income they might make from it. Which is why most dont bother, or at best Australian Players will have to play on different Servers, i.e. Asia or the US, whichever is closest and has the best Ping.

Its really just a business decision rather than any trouble with the rating system or not putting any value on the australian gamers. If Servers, or Serverfarms were much more affordable, coupled with flatrate broadband internet without limits, yeah you can bet your Ass you'd have every MMO getting at least 2 or 3 Servers down under.

 

[Craazhy]

Spoiler

[sub]captcha = you first..... Hmmmmm[/sub]

Hilarious, like literally laugh out loud hilarious, and I don't laugh a whole lot.


Anyways, as a player all cozy up in my epicenter of convenience and carefree games-release-about-when-they-should-'cept-for-those-three-games-from-Nintendo-but-whatever-cause-I-probably-wasn't-gonna-play-them-anyways environment Boston MA, maybe BioWare figured people like me wouldn't give a fuck about people on the other side of the planet. I'm not a Republican, BioWare. This upsets me. If I lived in Aussie, I'd be ripshit.

And even thinking about it purely from a self-centered point of view, I would still actually want Aussie and Asia to have simultaneous access because if they don't that doesn't render the full potential of the gaming community that would be available to interact with within the game world. Now I have to run dungeons with Canadians (I love you, LRR) what kinda shit is that? The only thing they're gonna talk about is how terrible they are at Stanley Cup-winning and I would be forced to wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment and then that buzzkills the immersion of the Star Wars universe.

YOU SEE WHAT'S HAPPENING BIOWARE?! YOU'RE CAUSING INTERNATIONAL FRICTION! WWIII WILL BE ON YOUR HANDS!

 

[Vault101]

wait...WHHHHHAAAAT???

ok not that I REALLY wanted ot play the thing, I'm not a fan of MMO's but...but its just unthinkable that we wouldnt get such a huge(ish) title. we get everythign else..hell they even changed the "morphine" in fallout 3 for us....

they even editied left 4 dead 2 for us.....

In the end the US and EU are the biggest market shares. Western MMOs, with the exception of WoW, don't really get huge successes in Eastern Asia. And Australia just isn't that densely populated, especially not with MMOers.

Well considering that basically ever other company who has made an MMO has taken the time and effort to get it approved and shipped to us here in Australia (eg. WoW, Rift, Guild Wars etc) means that clearly we are a sufficiently large enough market that's worth the investment.

Otherwise why would other companies bother if it was little to no return from it? So sorry but no I don't accept this as a valid excuse regarding limited distribution.

Australia has a population of 22 million. Compared to 500 million for North America and 700 million in Europe.

There's just not so many people there, even if the proportion of Australians that play MMOs is extremely high then you're still far below NA and EU.

As I said, it's a sucky move. But Europe and North America have the potential to generate near a million subscribers, Australia won't ever generate that sort of numbers.

And seeing the large amount of MMOs that performed way below expected I can understand them focussing on the markets that are guaranteed to have at least the population to fill 1-2 servers in a worst-case scenario compared to a market that in the worst case has to be closed.

There's many MMOs with server numbers for the EU and NA in the single digits, these MMOs wouldn't be able to sustain a healthy Australian server.

As long as they plan on opening up shop in Australia after the EU and NA launches have been handled successfully I can understand the move, if they never set up shot then I don't understand where they're coming from either.

what about digital copies of the game? or is it more about having servrs or somthing?

 

[tomenater42]

Are you serious there not bringing it to australia?! I followed this game when it first was announced and to hear this is like just being stabbed in the heart. So to answer your question yes it is a terrible terrible mistake that bioware has made. Looks like mass effect 3 is the last biowhare game ill ever buy.

 

[ResonanceSD]

It's probably logistics. Thing is, brick and mortar stores still contribute a lot to the sales of games, and if they went digital only or discounted for the digital version, the stores can threaten to stop carrying that game or the whole publisher library (hence why you see prices being the same on Steam versions as the retails).

Coupled that with the download limit restrictions due to the internet providers in Australia, and with how big the game probably will be... it'll blow everyone's monthly allowance by 5 times or something.

You're right, my pathetic, Australian 500GB a month of ADSL2+ will not be able to handle the awesomeness that is TOR. Oh wait...