What happens if "Old Republic" Fails?

[bl4ckh4wk64]

If the Old Republic fails, they will realize that they weren't meant to make MMO's, realize that they were made to make single player RPG's, and spend more time and money making Mass Effect 3 even more awesome. There are two separate branches making ME3 and TOR, so if the branch making TOR flops, it won't affect the branch making ME3. It will, however, open up more funds for the branch making ME3.

 

[DustyDrB]

If the Old Republic fails, they will realize that they weren't meant to make MMO's, realize that they were made to make single player RPG's, and spend more time and money making Mass Effect 3 even more awesome. There are two separate branches making ME3 and TOR, so if the branch making TOR flops, it won't affect the branch making ME3. It will, however, open up more funds for the branch making ME3.

chances are Mass Effect 3 will a few months before or after The Old Republic. The latter will have little effect on the former.

 

[mattttherman3]

Even if the game does fail, which it shouldn't, Bioware would not get the axe, and even if they did, they would just make a new studio.

 

[EvilMaggot]

its back to WoW

 

[Redratson]

Hmm part of me says this will fail if I look back on Aion, which blizzard kinda gave a worried look, which was suppose to be the "WoW killer" but barley scratch the surface. I'm a WoW player, flame/troll if you want, and I sorta hope this doesn't fail and will work out, I would like to see a game that manages to survive and thrive.

 

[Stealthygamer]

I've never spent a half-penny on an mmo. but at the rate this is going, i will when this comes out

 

[oplinger]

Bioware is actually two studios. Bioware Edmonton who are responsible for all the previous Bioware games and Bioware Austin who have only worked on this unreleased MMO. Draw your own conclusions.

Bioware are 4 studios. Bioware Mythic, and Bioware Montreal are the ones you left out.

OT: The game won't bomb, not for a while. It may not get a giant following like say...WoW, but it may go strong for a few years, just because it's star wars.

 

[Gahars]

If it bombs, very unlikely considering its Star Wars, made by Bioware, being pushed by EA. It may not reach the 12 million of WoW, but it definitely won't flounder.

Even if it does bomb, I doubt EA would be so quick to sell off Bioware. The Mass Effect series has made them a lot of money, along with Dragon Age and the other games they've made for them. They'd lose money in the long run by getting rid of them.

Unless they decide to pull an Activision and show up to the studios with armed guards and pink slips, I don't EA will abandon Bioware anytime soon.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

another thing that occurs to me: people keep comparing this to WoW, or making the assumption that it will be "teh WoW killar". it won't be. and if they were trying to make it so, it would be doomed to failure. if there's one thing i've learned in my life, it's that the surest way to fail is to focus on what your competitor is doing. acknowledge your competitor, assess their strengths and weaknesses, and apply that knowledge to yourself/business/etc. then forget about them and create your own niche. if it turns out you or your product are actually superior to your competition, maybe eventually they'll go away; but never make that your goal. that's the only way to succeed.

 

[ForrestDeath]

The last flickering light in the galaxy that could possibly defeat the evil WoW empire will be finally snuffed out and all MMORPGERs will be set in the World of Warcraft.

Additionally if it bombs EA will dumb it down after an expansion release.

 

[RatRace123]

Hmm, from what I could gather Bioware might face some problems if it utterly bombs (unlikely because Bioware has a built in fanbase, so achieveing APB levels of failure would be, as I said, extremely unlikely)
If that happens, though Bioware might become smaller, instead of what they're doing right now, producing 3 games at a time, possibly more that we don't know about (DA2, ME3, TOR)
We might go back to 1 every few years, like they were when they were making Mass Effect, Jade Empire and KotOR.

EA probably wouldn't suffer much... so let's just drop that.

Lucasarts, I think might just disappear, they've cut back a lot in the last few years and TOR being a huge flop would probably be enough to put them under.

 

[Bonecrusher]

BioWare has been making games for years, and as we know is rather good at them. To a lot of people they are most known as the makers of KOTOR, possibly the best star wars game ever. And now they are a pawn, being used by EA to make an MMO to take on Activision Blizzard. A lot of people don't like this, and I remain usnure.

But what if it flops? What is the new Star Wars MMO, with a budget rumored to be over 300 million fails and becomes another APB. That would seriously damage EA, but worse, what if it forces the closure of BiowWare? Suddenly I care about this game a lot more.

It will be failure.
And when it becomes failure, it will be turned into free2play game which players make micropurchases, and EA will earn more money with this method.
Profit.

 

[Wolfenbarg]

Normally I don't like to pimp MMOs since the trend has pretty much stated that WoW is a black hole that will suck up the entire consumer base. However, while I don't think this will be a WoW-killer (I'm glad people have ditched that pretense with new MMOs), I think it will draw a lot of new consumers who would have joined WoW as an alternative. It has a very good chance of eating up the new market share.

Besides, WoW is really starting to show its age. When pressed with the alternatives, I think a lot of people will view TOR as a breath of fresh air. I don't think Bioware has anything to worry about.

For reference though, I'm one of those TOR haters that had its crying inner fanboi drowned when Kotor 3 never came to be.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Oh all right then, I'll do it if no one else will:

If you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.

Seriously though it won't force the closure of Bioware proper, just the divison that's making the MMO, add to that that it will probably have a strong start, what with the Bioware fans, MMO fans and Star Wars fans all ready to jump onto it. If it has a strong start, and keeps going for long enough, then either it will gather steam or start dying, but one way or the other it will have looked good for a while.

And also, Bioware have Mass Effect 3 coming out to justify themsleves with, plus that ME2 for the PS3 you see?

If it flopped absolutely they would take a hit, but it wouldn't force closure, and no one would be surprised, because going up against Warcraft at this point is like going up against an angry bear armed with a machine gun. (that's the bear with the machine gun, not you, you have a bottle of tabasco sauce.)

 

[Naheal]

Maybe if it fails they drop the subsciption costs to encourage more buyers and then I buy the game.

...Hmm, suddenly I want this game to bomb.

From my understanding, they were going with a microtransaction model.

 

[Atmos Duality]

If it failed, that would be the end of a lot of jobs at EA and Bioware.
The only real benefit might be that the developers/publishers would finally stop trying to steal the Golden Goose from Blizzard.

 

[Vault101]

I don't think it will fail at launch...though how it goes in the long run we don't know

 

[Vault101]

Maybe if it fails they drop the subsciption costs to encourage more buyers and then I buy the game.

...Hmm, suddenly I want this game to bomb.

From my understanding, they were going with a microtransaction model.

Just curious, how would that work?

 

[Naheal]

Maybe if it fails they drop the subsciption costs to encourage more buyers and then I buy the game.

...Hmm, suddenly I want this game to bomb.

From my understanding, they were going with a microtransaction model.

Just curious, how would that work?

Ever played Guild Wars? Essentially, once you buy the game, it's yours. As they develop additional content, that would cost a little here and there to add such content. Again, once these pieces are bought, they're yours.