Star Wars: The Old Republic Profitable With 500,000 Subs
- Thread starter Tom Goldman
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I've played WoW and half a dozen other MMO's over the past 8 years, and the more I see of this, the more I am liking.I don't care if this ends up being just WoW in space with lightsabres, I'll still be playing it.
It'll be shiny and pretty right out of the box. Enough people will go through about three months for the game to make its money back. But I suspect the heavily-structure, very-limited "rails" on which your adventure is locked will begin to show after that time.Tom Goldman said:
The game is, understandably, a collection of shameless fan-service. "More lightsabers! Smugglers get a Wookiee pal! Epic storyline! Everything and everyone conforms to one of a handful of iconic roles, so you can feel like you're (packed tightly) in the movies!" Of course, that's what most of the Star Wars stuff has been over the past decade, and it's a good business plan.
But it's going to make for a bad MMO. Not a bad game. Just a bad MMO. There's no reason (other than habit) to expect people to pay monthly for a game that, even considering the best presentations, is as rigidly structured as any single-player BioWare game.
I will def. be one of the subscribers, been looking forward to this game for a while. Sith Power!
For this reason I do see it going strong for a couple of years, but 10?Soviet Heavy said:
I doubt that. Console gamers move on a lot more quickly.
However, they can probably also make a good chunk of change by overpricing cheap add-ons like they enjoy doing for their other games.
cant imagine it wouldn't make, exceed, and hold substantially more than 500k peeps for at least 6 months.
At the moment, for me, SW:TOR can't compete with WoW in the one thing that matters. It isn't Mac compatible.
Would I buy and try out SW:TOR? In a heartbeat. But I don't Bootcamp, and Bioware seems to have no interest in the Mac gaming audience for this MMO. Which means my subscription money will have to continue to go to one of the Mac compatible MMOs.
Would I buy and try out SW:TOR? In a heartbeat. But I don't Bootcamp, and Bioware seems to have no interest in the Mac gaming audience for this MMO. Which means my subscription money will have to continue to go to one of the Mac compatible MMOs.
If EA/Bioware learned anything from Warhammer, which shouldn't be that hard to be honest, keeping 500,000 subs for a year should be a done deal.
I have been purposefully avoiding following TOR as the hype-machine really killed Warhammer for me, but the news I've read has been encouraging.
If nothing else it should provide me a reasonably fun Sci-Fi MMO to mess around with till max level. I know EvE is out, but I don't like just being a spaceship and having to game an economy to have fun - I just want a good Sci-Fi MMO damnit!
I have been purposefully avoiding following TOR as the hype-machine really killed Warhammer for me, but the news I've read has been encouraging.
If nothing else it should provide me a reasonably fun Sci-Fi MMO to mess around with till max level. I know EvE is out, but I don't like just being a spaceship and having to game an economy to have fun - I just want a good Sci-Fi MMO damnit!
This X 10. This game has been my most antisapated game since the day it was announced. I LOVED KOTOR, and KOTOR2(dispite it's flaws) and a KOTOR MMO that plays like a stand alone RPG with friends... I tried to keep my expetations low for this game, so i wouldn't be disapointed, but, well, cut sceen after epic cut sceen...Lyri said:
...
Please don't suck...
If that's the number they're aiming at, I'd say they have a good chance of success.
Why?
Theme and market. Bioware games sell millions of copies routinely. Star wars has one of the largest audiences on Earth. Their intersection is probably at least a couple million, and if the game is good enough to keep their interests, it should have no problem maintaining half a million subscribers.
If it's comparable in its base elements (obviously not content, at least not this early) to World of Warcraft, they might have a chance of tearing a nice chunk out of WoW's playerbase - people who like the MMO gameplay, but would prefer a scifi/star wars theme. This would be a real challenge to maintain, however, if the game doesn't release in absolute peak condition.
And considering that EvE Online, an arguably nigh-unapproachable niche game, maintains upwards of 300,000 players, if this game delivers on its promises it should have no problems whatsoever in holding the line.
Why?
Theme and market. Bioware games sell millions of copies routinely. Star wars has one of the largest audiences on Earth. Their intersection is probably at least a couple million, and if the game is good enough to keep their interests, it should have no problem maintaining half a million subscribers.
If it's comparable in its base elements (obviously not content, at least not this early) to World of Warcraft, they might have a chance of tearing a nice chunk out of WoW's playerbase - people who like the MMO gameplay, but would prefer a scifi/star wars theme. This would be a real challenge to maintain, however, if the game doesn't release in absolute peak condition.
And considering that EvE Online, an arguably nigh-unapproachable niche game, maintains upwards of 300,000 players, if this game delivers on its promises it should have no problems whatsoever in holding the line.
Its going to crash so bad a few months after launch. 
EA will probably release subscription statistics before this happens, but will then go silent and we will have to assume everything is ok until proven otherwise.
EA will probably release subscription statistics before this happens, but will then go silent and we will have to assume everything is ok until proven otherwise.
I loved Yahtzee's description of star wars fans. Nothing good has come from the IP except Empire and Kotor1. Everything else has been mediocre or crap.
With the exception of the ones nobody heard of like the Timothy Zhan trilogy, and maybe Dark Empire.
This will crash and burn, there is no room for 2 mainstream subscription MMOs. WoW is more than a game, it is a cultural phenomenon.
With the exception of the ones nobody heard of like the Timothy Zhan trilogy, and maybe Dark Empire.
This will crash and burn, there is no room for 2 mainstream subscription MMOs. WoW is more than a game, it is a cultural phenomenon.
From your mouth to the old ones' ears - as much as I love Bioware (and loved Star Wars a long time ago), it frustrates me to think of all the wasted time, talent, and money (of both players and developers) that have gone into MMOs since the debut of Ultima Online.Sixcess said:
Except that KotOR 1 and 2 both sold well and have a 94 and an 86 on metacritic respectively. So there are Star Wars related games that do well. And Bioware was involved with one of them (and tangentially involved with the other).Th3Ch33s3Cak3 said:
I don't think Star Wars is the kiss of death people sometimes like to say it is.
That said, we'll see how SW:TOR does. I'd love to buy it...but unlike WoW, SW:TOR isn't interested in Mac gamer money.
I have got to be honest, when I heard KotOR was going MMO for it's 3rd iteration I was not happy. I've kept an open mind, but this game is no longer perceived as competing with games that are traditionally role-players. I no longer see a great story, balanced game play, and worlds to explore. I see something that I can only summarize as a VERY pretentious version of World of Warcraft with lightsabers. I'll wait and see how this pans out, but if I'm left comparing this to Guild Wars 2, I just don't see this game winning my precious little MMO time.
Had this been actual KotOR 3 rather than a pretender, I imagine there'd be a ridiculous amount of buzz over it right now.
Had this been actual KotOR 3 rather than a pretender, I imagine there'd be a ridiculous amount of buzz over it right now.
Star Wars + BioWare? Yeah, I think they might just scrape 500k.
Yet you think the biggest nerd IP on the planet, with one of the most popular game developers, is doomed to fail? There is currently no real reason to expect this to crash apart from because you want it to.
I'll also add that critical opinion so far has been hugely positive, especially the latest batch of previews with hands-on time with the Jedi origin stories.
EVE Online has around 400k subscribers, has been going for 7 years, was started by a tiny development team, and didn't have Star Wars attached to it - not bad for a title that's got a rather niche crowd.Sixcess said:
Yet you think the biggest nerd IP on the planet, with one of the most popular game developers, is doomed to fail? There is currently no real reason to expect this to crash apart from because you want it to.
Finally, someone approaching it with a smidgen of logic.omicron1 said:
I'll also add that critical opinion so far has been hugely positive, especially the latest batch of previews with hands-on time with the Jedi origin stories.
