What happens if "Old Republic" Fails?

[Random Name 4]

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.

 

[ShadowKatt]

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.

 

[Levi93]

if it fails someone will probably buyout bioware.....it could happen.

if they dont bioware goes down the drain.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

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.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

i doubt it will fail, because as stated above, they've got a huge fanbase to draw from. i know a ton of Star Wars fans who have never played an MMO in their lives who are eagerly awaiting it. plus, there's the BioWare fanboys.

however, for the people like me, who are both Star Wars fans, AND BioWare fanboys, not to mention long-time MMO players, this game is (like Obi-Wan Kenobi) my only hope.

 

[Random Name 4]

Not going to happen. The reason that WoW did so well was because of Blizzard's fan base. Warcraft 3 TFT sold roughly 11 million copies, and I was on the WoW forums prior to release telling people how it would do the same. I got all the usual responses. "No way, all those people won't want to pay a monthly fee." Well, here we are all these years later, and WoW at its peak reached roughly 12 million subscribers.

Bioware has a LARGE fan base as well. Maybe not 11 million large, but large enough that TOR will start off strong. If three million people buy the game @ $50 each, then they've already made $150 million. If all of those stay for just one month beyond the free month, that's another $45 million.

This isn't even mentioning the huge cult following that the Star Wars franchise brings with it.

I wouldn't even be worried, but a this has already happened. Star Wars Galaxies completely flopped. It's currently dying a slow death. The budget for that was probably much smaller, so it wasn't as bad.

The point is, it could happen

 

[The Wykydtron]

I don't like MMOs... This conflicts with my "all Bioware games are in the God Realm" philosophy... ERROR ERROR DOES NOT COMPUTE!

 

[Lem0nade Inlay]

ABP didn't have a huge franchise backing it up. It was just a game.

TOR on the other hand has countless games before it, a huge movie cult following and many, many more diehard fans that ABP did before release.

 

[Simulated Eon]

I can't really be bothered about the MMO since I'm a cheap ass that don't want to pay the monthly fee, thus the only MMO I really played is Guild Wars.

OT: Perhaps they will perish but I hope they make an KotoR 3 instead,

 

[Random Name 4]

ABP didn't have a huge franchise backing it up. It was just a game.

TOR on the other hand has countless games before it, a huge movie cult following and many, many more diehard fans that ABP did before release.

I was just using APB as an example of a flop.

 

[lacktheknack]

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.

Didn't Bioware Montreal just open? Working on DA2, I think...

Yeah, it's not gonna bomb. All Bioware has to do is keep its head above water for a year, and I can guarantee it'll turn a big profit.

 

[Souplex]

If it flops Bioware will go out of business, and its members will form a new studio under a new name.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

Not going to happen. The reason that WoW did so well was because of Blizzard's fan base. Warcraft 3 TFT sold roughly 11 million copies, and I was on the WoW forums prior to release telling people how it would do the same. I got all the usual responses. "No way, all those people won't want to pay a monthly fee." Well, here we are all these years later, and WoW at its peak reached roughly 12 million subscribers.

Bioware has a LARGE fan base as well. Maybe not 11 million large, but large enough that TOR will start off strong. If three million people buy the game @ $50 each, then they've already made $150 million. If all of those stay for just one month beyond the free month, that's another $45 million.

This isn't even mentioning the huge cult following that the Star Wars franchise brings with it.

I wouldn't even be worried, but a this has already happened. Star Wars Galaxies completely flopped. It's currently dying a slow death. The budget for that was probably much smaller, so it wasn't as bad.

The point is, it could happen

Galaxies is a poor comparison, though, because it was such an atrociously bad game. at worst, anything Bioware does is decent. so, worst case scenario, mediocre + Star Wars = $$$. best case scenario, very good + Star Wars = EA now owns the world. let's just hope EA really is no longer the evil Empire

 

[lacktheknack]

Not going to happen. The reason that WoW did so well was because of Blizzard's fan base. Warcraft 3 TFT sold roughly 11 million copies, and I was on the WoW forums prior to release telling people how it would do the same. I got all the usual responses. "No way, all those people won't want to pay a monthly fee." Well, here we are all these years later, and WoW at its peak reached roughly 12 million subscribers.

Bioware has a LARGE fan base as well. Maybe not 11 million large, but large enough that TOR will start off strong. If three million people buy the game @ $50 each, then they've already made $150 million. If all of those stay for just one month beyond the free month, that's another $45 million.

This isn't even mentioning the huge cult following that the Star Wars franchise brings with it.

I wouldn't even be worried, but a this has already happened. Star Wars Galaxies completely flopped. It's currently dying a slow death. The budget for that was probably much smaller, so it wasn't as bad.

The point is, it could happen

At least Bioware are bothering to MARKET the game, I found out about Star Wars Galaxies about three weeks after it came out. And couldn't care less.

 

[Staskala]

Nothing will happen. At least nothing that affects us consumers.
Some people will lose money, maybe Bioware's MMO branch gets closed.
Everyone else will move on. The end.

 

[DustyDrB]

It would hurt BioWare but wouldn't be anything they couldn't rebound from. They have too much faith from consumers, and have other profitable franchises (Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and they could always go back to their older franchises).

I don't know how The Old Republic will do, though. Though they do have a great reputation and the Knights of the Old Republic series was well received and profitable, I hear a lot more people who were fans of the series who are dead against it being an MMO. I know I'm not going to give it a go. So it all boils down to how many people are going to move from World of Warcraft (or if not move from, then add TOR to their library) and how many BioWare fans are into MMOs. Maybe I'm just seeing the most vocal detractors (entirely possible), but it just doesn't seem like the average BioWare fan is someone apt to warm to an MMO.

But again, a failure of The Old Republic would have short-term effects, but would blow over pretty quickly. The short-term effects might result in going back to the well in their other franchises, which could be a good thing ("back to what we do best") or bad thing (a shallow cash-in). As long as BioWare can produce games that make a profit, they will be in business. Not an issue.

 

[Futureman]

if it fails than it will add to the long list of empty mmorpgs that world of warcraft has killed

 

[NaMorham]

I hope it does well. I probably wont play it, but it would be nice to see another MMO succeed. Maybe then developers will stop trying to launch with a WoW killer and use some f****ng imagination instead of releasing a stream of games that seem like no more than skinned WoW clones, and then appearing surprised when they do not catch on.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Didn't Bioware Montreal just open? Working on DA2, I think...

Did a quick search and it looks like they are using EA offices in Montreal as well. Edmonton is a bit out of the way, I guess.