Do you think The Old Republic MMO will be a financial success?
- Thread starter Zhukov
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Star Wars Galaxies? you mean the one that is shutting down in December leaving it's players agrivated and looking for a new game to play?SmashLovesTitanQuest said:
OT: The only thing that will dethrone WoW will be Blizzards in ability to let it die on their terms, they will keep releasing expansion packs that increase the level cap while adding new races and classes and people will get sick of it, no one will want to make a new character when you have to level to level 120 just to do end game stuff, and the more classes they have the more balancing issues they will have to deal with and it will fall apart.
It almost certainly will end up a great financial success, theres almost no chance it wont. Its made by Bioware, one of the best game developers of all time with practically, if not all, their games they've made have been great. Dragon Age 2 is generally considered their worst game ever made, and it still recieved generally favourable reviews from media, and has sold over 2 million copies.
On top of this its Star Wars, that alone is one of the biggest IP's in the world with a huge fan base. Bioware fans, or Star Wars fans, alone could either make this game a financial success, but both combined, as well as MMO fans looking for something new, and general RPG fans, should be quite large.
Lastly speaking for the actual game itself, its shaping up incredibly well and in previews from media who have played it it has received almost unanimously positive remarks and seems to be being very well received, while also being the one of the most popular and awarded titles at many of the past year(s) gaming conventions.
As for the current following - There are almost 1.5 million accounts on the SWTOR forums. To put that in perspective RIFT received 1 million accounts just days before being released as open beta was announced and people could play it. SWTOR hit 1 million at roughly the same time, with no release date, no open beta, no pre-orders.
Pre-orders have been announced, and in just 5 days it was EA's fasting selling pre-order title in the companies history, and still continues to do so. And we still have no release date or open beta. When a release date is announced the forums will almost certainly have over 2 million accounts, if not 3-4.
Will it 'beat' WoW? Almost certainly not, its just too big of a task. But it will almost be gauranteed to be the definite 2nd, and even if it isnt its almost impossible for it not to be a financial success.
On top of this its Star Wars, that alone is one of the biggest IP's in the world with a huge fan base. Bioware fans, or Star Wars fans, alone could either make this game a financial success, but both combined, as well as MMO fans looking for something new, and general RPG fans, should be quite large.
Lastly speaking for the actual game itself, its shaping up incredibly well and in previews from media who have played it it has received almost unanimously positive remarks and seems to be being very well received, while also being the one of the most popular and awarded titles at many of the past year(s) gaming conventions.
As for the current following - There are almost 1.5 million accounts on the SWTOR forums. To put that in perspective RIFT received 1 million accounts just days before being released as open beta was announced and people could play it. SWTOR hit 1 million at roughly the same time, with no release date, no open beta, no pre-orders.
Pre-orders have been announced, and in just 5 days it was EA's fasting selling pre-order title in the companies history, and still continues to do so. And we still have no release date or open beta. When a release date is announced the forums will almost certainly have over 2 million accounts, if not 3-4.
Will it 'beat' WoW? Almost certainly not, its just too big of a task. But it will almost be gauranteed to be the definite 2nd, and even if it isnt its almost impossible for it not to be a financial success.
Subscription MMOs are going out of fashon... Free to play is the future.
If i were to buy it, it would be for spaceship piloting, but im already playing Black Prophecy witch is free, sweet and awesome looking.
I think its going to fail cause theres quite a lot of quality free MMOs out there.
If i were to buy it, it would be for spaceship piloting, but im already playing Black Prophecy witch is free, sweet and awesome looking.
I think its going to fail cause theres quite a lot of quality free MMOs out there.
I suspect most of the players who've stuck with SWG this long are going to be less than enthusiastic about TOR. Not only can it reasonably be percieved as the final nail in SWG's coffin (would LucasArts have been willing to renew SWG's licence next year if TOR wasn't coming out? Possibly.), but it's shaping up to be everything SWG's hardcore fans hate - a themepark MMO with on rails space flight where everyone can be a Jedi.artanis_neravar said:
eather way I hope it doesnt hurt biowareZhukov said:
so it has the Mass effect Dialoge wheel? do you get a choice of voices?...like saints row 2 style? because for an MMO everyone having the same voice..would just be weird
anyway I dont know the full story but I get the impression it wobt be availible in Aus (that is unless it becomes a HUGE hit)
anyway MMO's arnt my thing
Considering the first impressions we have been hearing, along with the fact that additional content will be slow and expensive to produce because they will need to be constantly paying for studio time, and the origin exclusivity I think it has no chance.
Not to mention the numbers they have talked about needing to make a profit (500,000 players subscribed at the 10 year mark).
Not to mention the numbers they have talked about needing to make a profit (500,000 players subscribed at the 10 year mark).
and the tone of your first post made you come across as a smart ass, I was just responding the same way. But I disagree ToR will stay strong, not as big as WoW but it will stay stong, 200K pre-orders in 5 days and there will places that sold out of the collectors addition pre-order in 3 days. Those seem to hint at ToR being popular enough to lastSmashLovesTitanQuest said:
Fair points, which are actually the reasons I refused to play Galaxies (the Jedi one mostly) If I am playing a Star Wars game I don't want to have to jump through hoops to play as a jediSixcess said:
I used to be pretty amped for SW:TOR, but the more I saw of it, the less I was interested. I doubt I'll buy it straight away, and it'll depend on whether the people I know are playing too before I actually think of buying it at all. Right now, I'm waiting for Dark Millenium and Planetside 2. SW:TOR can bugger right off compared to those two.
However, as Yahtzee says : "The nerd is a tiresomely predictable creature". I'm pretty sure it'll be a solid success (financially... I doubt it'll do much artistically etc., or advance the genre much), but it won't be on the scale of WoW.
I predict a huge nerdgasm launch, the tapering away to a one/two hundred thousand subs relatively quickly (within 6 months), then going onto life-support and being effectively comatose for a couple of years before Bioware pulls the plug.
However, as Yahtzee says : "The nerd is a tiresomely predictable creature". I'm pretty sure it'll be a solid success (financially... I doubt it'll do much artistically etc., or advance the genre much), but it won't be on the scale of WoW.
I predict a huge nerdgasm launch, the tapering away to a one/two hundred thousand subs relatively quickly (within 6 months), then going onto life-support and being effectively comatose for a couple of years before Bioware pulls the plug.
I honestly hope it will be a financial success. And I hope it will be a critical success as well. Bioware, EA and Lucasarts have sunk hundreds of millions into the game already, so if it failed, it could easily sink the entirety of Bioware, or at the very least their Austin, TX division.
I have no doubt they wont take a financial loss on the game, but who can say how much they'll end up making on it. I'm fairly certain they'll make back the development costs just in box sales, and with just a couple million subscriptions per year it will be profitable.
MMOs aren't like AAA games were box sales matter. What matters with an MMO is its ability to retain subscribers after launch. Some of the recent big MMOs like Age of Conan, Aion, and Warhammer have had up to a million accounts by the first month (I know AoC did, and I think the others got close), and I don't think I need to tell you how any of these games are doing.
Considering it cost over 200 millions to make and still have to pay for things like a marketing campaign, preferably huge and hopefully not handled by the same people that did Dante's inferno or Dead Space, it's gonna be an uphill struggle. Also, pay to play systems are going out of style. I think it has a chance, but it'll all depend on how they handle the launch, since I've heard good things about their plans of continued support, and while I have faith in Bioware, they've never done anything like an MMO and EA and Origin are sure to go out of their way to fuck it up. So, to sum up, hell if I know. I at least hope so, and I do think it'll at the very least have a small and dedicated fanbase that will continue to support it for years.
1. Development costs do not stop after launch.Darwins_Folly said:
2. A couple million per year is an incredibly large number. After the initial influx of players from launch, it is incredibly difficult to hold more than a few hundred thousand players in a pay to play MMO (esp with how much F2P is taking over).
Don't assume that because WoW has 12 million that getting a couple million is not an absurd goal.
I'm going to bet it's going to have 500k subs constantly. Whether they will be higher or not, depends upon entirely on EA/Bioware and how they handle things. Hardcore raiders... probably not exactly a game they are looking for as much. Though they did make a nice touch with that nearly every class can be apart of the trinity wheel.