Do you think The Old Republic MMO will be a financial success?

[Zhukov]

Just curious.

I have no interest in buying or playing the game myself, MMORPGs just aren't really my thing. However, I am interested to see how it peforms from a sort of industry spectator perspective.

On the one hand it seems to have a lot going for it. It's touting the Star Wars logo, it's made by Bioware and apparently the pre-orders are racking up like nobody's business.

On the other hand, everything I've seen of the actual game looks... well, looks much like World of Warcraft with the Mass Effect dialogue system stuck on top. I personally love the ME dialogue wheel, but I'm aware that many people don't and, either way, in this case it just seems rather out of place. I'm yet to see anything distinctive enough to gather sufficient long-term subscribers to justify the development cost, which has apparently been huge.

It's been said that the developers are keeping some of the main features under wraps. God only knows why, you'd think they would want to be showing that sort of thing off. However, I'm just not seeing how it will avoid landing on the ever growing pile of high-cost MMOs trampled beneath the WoW behemoth.

Thoughts? Anyone know something I do not in relation to this matter?

 

[AnonymouZero]

i sure hope as hell it will be. nvm that i got the collectors edition. just thought that if i was gonna be interested in any mmo, bioware was gonna be the one to make it. so... ya.

on the other hand, that other mmo looks pretty good (edit for name of said mmo later... when i'm not drunk)

 

[BlackJak007]

Being part of the Star Wars franchise, and the fact that it's being made by Bioware, makes me think that it'll be a good financial success, but not a huge one.

I don't think I'll be buying it until I see some reviews/ communnity feedback. It just doesn't seem to have enough diffrrence to WoW to make me feel like subscribing, especially when I quit WoW a few months ago due to boredom.

 

[juraigamer]

I hope it will be good on both the financial and actual success.

However with the extreme NDA the game has, coupled with the lack of any announcement of their monthly fee and the errors with the preorder system for the game, things aren't looking good...

Guild wars 2 on the other hand, is still looking great, such a unique game and it will probably create ripples in the MMO scene.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

I think it will be a success. There are plenty of MMO fans and plenty of Star War's fans. The question is: Will it kick WoW off it's throne? I doubt it, but I'd like it to.

 

[kasperbbs]

I dont think that it will beat wow, but it should make Bioware some profit. I personally have no interest in this game because its about fucking star wars, gameplay looks slow, i prefer my mmos in a fantasy setting with bows, swords and magic, oh wait.. Its the same thing only with different skins.

 

[Sixcess]

Will it be a success compared to other MMOs that aren't World of Warcraft? Yes.

Will it be a success in EA's eyes? No.

EA have poured far too much time and money into TOR for them to be satisfied with coming a distant second place to WoW, but that's the best case scenario I can see for TOR once it's been out for a few months. They may not want a "WoW Killer", but they will definitely want a "WoW Rival", and they're not going to get it.

 

[yuval152]

Nope,EA probably invested more money than the money that they'll get from the game.

 

[Domehammer]

It might shoot up there for first month or two but subscribers will drop off in great amounts after probably half a year. Plus there gonna lose some people buying it till some videos get on youtube with commentary of it's game play for example instead of buying it when it releases. In about a year it'll probably be behind rift in subscribers but possibly be 4th most popular mmo or lower. I just don't see a positive future ahead for Old republic mainly because of EA.

 

[Smooth Operator]

It will probably cover production cost with the launch hype and not much more after it, the standard MMO turnout.

 

[Nimcha]

Probably. Very hard to predict but all signs seem to be pointing towards it being able to secure a stable enough fanbase for a long time. Which is all you can ask for really.

 

[HellbirdIV]

Yes. It might even come close to World of WarCraft's initial success.

I said initial. As in the first 5-6 million subscribers. Beyond that, I really can't say.

 

[AlternatePFG]

I doubt they'll make a profit off it anytime soon. There is just way too much money put in it, it would have to do really well. Nothing in the gameplay to me seems to stand out, and that's a problem for an MMO. I don't care how damn good your story is, if the gameplay is dull, I'm not going to bother playing an MMO for hours on end just to see the next bit of story. Obviously I'm just speculating, but the news hasn't been exactly promising.

 

[JediMB]

Unlike certain other people, I know I don't have enough information about the quality and quantity of game content to be able to honestly guess on the longevity of the game. All I know is it looks extremely promising from the outside, it's doing insanely well with the pre-orders, it'll be the first MMO I've played in years (except for a few hours of Champions F2P and a Rift trial), and I'm likely to stick around for quite a while due to my Star Wars interest.

 

[IzisviAziria]

It will be a success. EA will make plenty of money off of it. And I'm sure BioWare will end up with some too. The fallout from SWG alone, the years of festering angry fans is enough to fuel a year of high subscription numbers. Add that to the fact that WoW isn't the cool kid anymore (just the popular kid), and you have a good little seat for TOR to sit on.

It will not, however, threaten WoW. Any fallout WoW receives from this will probably be temporary, as well as minor. Honestly, despite the fact that I'll probably purchase first week of release, I don't have much hope for this actually turning out well.

Especially since I'm still bitter about KOTOR3 never existing.

 

[Tragedy's Rebellion]

It will skyrocket for the first 2 months then it will probably die out. From what i could gather the gameplay is shit ;d and no amount of voice acting will change that. EA are going to lose a LOT of money on this project and perhaps it will be a second E.T. game crash. I hope i'm not right, but i'm just being realistic here. If it is the Second Coming then great, but it won't be.