Originally posted by Torgrim 1.7 million FTP accounts, that figure is quite interesting to dwell on, don't you think.
Oh wow, I thought it was 1.7 million players, with 500k being subscribers. It's 2.2 million players, with 500k being subscribers. That's a crazy number of players.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Originally posted by Torgrim 1.7 million FTP accounts, that figure is quite interesting to dwell on, don't you think.
Oh wow, I thought it was 1.7 million players, with 500k being subscribers. It's 2.2 million players, with 500k being subscribers. That's a crazy number of players.
Well, the 1.7 doesn't represent active players, just accounts. Its like GW2, it sold 3 mil, but that doesn't mean it has 3 mil players.
Originally posted by Torgrim 1.7 million FTP accounts, that figure is quite interesting to dwell on, don't you think.
Oh wow, I thought it was 1.7 million players, with 500k being subscribers. It's 2.2 million players, with 500k being subscribers. That's a crazy number of players.
As long as EA is happy I'm happy. This means more content updates and perhaps real space battle. Maybe they'll even rethink their position on class story quests.
Looks like EA managed to do the thing, blow out the stones their drones were dwelling under.
Anyone that really believes SWTOR has just under half a million subscribers can call me, I have a bridge to sell.
They told the truth as it's regulated. If they didn't, they'd be in courtroom. But the truth varies, as they can twist the reality as they will. There has been posts in this thread where the possibile and frankly plausible truth has been presented. Of course, it has been trumped by the ealrier mentioned drones, but that doesn't change the truth to way or another.
I don't have any numbers to call, but so what. This game is going to reap the f2p people for a while, but you need to remember one thing. It will be doing so in the niche called MMO-players. Very rare out side.
Bottom line, it will hold for some amount of players and IP-fans a bit longer but once that phase ends they will end up with SW true fans whom would play abacus if it was named star wars.
Didn't mean to cause anyone bad mood, but this game is and has always been so gone. This has been said about The age of Conan, but you can't polish the turd. And in this case there's some deep things to polish.
I enjoy watching the negative nancies squirm at these numbers, and who knows how much cash the cash shop is generating off the f2p and sub players.
Hey, bitter worts, guess what? This game is going to continue on being a success, and you guys will continue to hate. Who wins? You're still on these forums more than a year later complaining about a game you don't play because your lives are empty, good job.
I don't squirm at the numbers, only the people like you who do not get what the numbers mean and think the numbers are great.
These numbers would be great for many other P2P MMOs, but SWTOR needs a whole lot more as EA said that they needed 500K subs to break even. If Vanguard needed that many it would not have survived long, the reason Vanguard suvived many years as P2P is because it did not need many players.
Unless they come up with some awesome new content, then game is just going to continue to drop subs. There is no awesome new content coming as of yet.
You seem to lack basic reading comprehension. The exact quote was posted in this thread:
"At half a million subscribers, the game is substantially profitable, but it's not the kind of thing we would write home about," EA CEO John Riccitiello said in a conference call accompanying EA's third quarter fiscal earnings report Feb 2011.
Now consider they they've reduced their staff since then and that sub are only a PART of the money they are making. The game is doing very well right now.
I enjoy watching the negative nancies squirm at these numbers, and who knows how much cash the cash shop is generating off the f2p and sub players.
Hey, bitter worts, guess what? This game is going to continue on being a success, and you guys will continue to hate. Who wins? You're still on these forums more than a year later complaining about a game you don't play because your lives are empty, good job.
I don't squirm at the numbers, only the people like you who do not get what the numbers mean and think the numbers are great.
These numbers would be great for many other P2P MMOs, but SWTOR needs a whole lot more as EA said that they needed 500K subs to break even. If Vanguard needed that many it would not have survived long, the reason Vanguard suvived many years as P2P is because it did not need many players.
Unless they come up with some awesome new content, then game is just going to continue to drop subs. There is no awesome new content coming as of yet.
You seem to lack basic reading comprehension. The exact quote was posted in this thread:
"At half a million subscribers, the game is substantially profitable, but it's not the kind of thing we would write home about," EA CEO John Riccitiello said in a conference call accompanying EA's third quarter fiscal earnings report Feb 2011.
Now consider they they've reduced their staff since then and that sub are only a PART of the money they are making. The game is doing very well right now.
as stated on 1st Aug 2012, which is a bit more up to date than your statement by JR. Try and keep up! :P
That was before F2P, now their monthly revenue doubled comparing to before F2P thanks to Cartel Market so I am sure they are profitable. Meanwhile WoW lost 1.3 million subscribers in one quarter (3 months) - they are up to 8.3 millions and Blizzard mentionned they are unsure of the future...
Quote from they earning report:
Additionally, during the quarter, Blizzard's World of Warcraft® remained the #1 subscription-based MMORPG in the world with more than eight million subscribers, although the game saw declines of approximately 1.3 million subscribers, mainly from the East, but in the West as well.²"
Kotick added, "While we have had a solid start to the year, we now believe that the risks and uncertainties in the back half of 2013 are more challenging than our earlier view, especially in the holiday quarter. The shift in release dates of competing products, the disappointing launch of the Wii U™, uncertainties regarding next-generation hardware, and subscriber declines in our World of Warcraft business all raise concerns, as do continued challenges in the global economy. For these reasons, we remain cautious. However, our focused and disciplined approach to our business has served us well in the past, and through continued investment and careful management of our costs, we expect to continue delivering shareholder value over the long term as we have for the last 20 years."
I enjoy watching the negative nancies squirm at these numbers, and who knows how much cash the cash shop is generating off the f2p and sub players.
Hey, bitter worts, guess what? This game is going to continue on being a success, and you guys will continue to hate. Who wins? You're still on these forums more than a year later complaining about a game you don't play because your lives are empty, good job.
I don't squirm at the numbers, only the people like you who do not get what the numbers mean and think the numbers are great.
These numbers would be great for many other P2P MMOs, but SWTOR needs a whole lot more as EA said that they needed 500K subs to break even. If Vanguard needed that many it would not have survived long, the reason Vanguard suvived many years as P2P is because it did not need many players.
Unless they come up with some awesome new content, then game is just going to continue to drop subs. There is no awesome new content coming as of yet.
You seem to lack basic reading comprehension. The exact quote was posted in this thread:
"At half a million subscribers, the game is substantially profitable, but it's not the kind of thing we would write home about," EA CEO John Riccitiello said in a conference call accompanying EA's third quarter fiscal earnings report Feb 2011.
Now consider they they've reduced their staff since then and that sub are only a PART of the money they are making. The game is doing very well right now.
as stated on 1st Aug 2012, which is a bit more up to date than your statement by JR. Try and keep up! :P
Break even in terms of what? How much it costs to maintain and develop or break even on its initial budget? The game can be profitable on a monthly basis and still be in the red overall.
In any case, you'll be happy to know that 500k subs are only a part of their revenue so you'll have to spin faster if you want to keep painting the game in a bad light all the time. Keep on fighting the man though! I'm going to go level my Bounty Hunter.
I enjoy watching the negative nancies squirm at these numbers, and who knows how much cash the cash shop is generating off the f2p and sub players.
Hey, bitter worts, guess what? This game is going to continue on being a success, and you guys will continue to hate. Who wins? You're still on these forums more than a year later complaining about a game you don't play because your lives are empty, good job.
I don't squirm at the numbers, only the people like you who do not get what the numbers mean and think the numbers are great.
These numbers would be great for many other P2P MMOs, but SWTOR needs a whole lot more as EA said that they needed 500K subs to break even. If Vanguard needed that many it would not have survived long, the reason Vanguard suvived many years as P2P is because it did not need many players.
Unless they come up with some awesome new content, then game is just going to continue to drop subs. There is no awesome new content coming as of yet.
You seem to lack basic reading comprehension. The exact quote was posted in this thread:
"At half a million subscribers, the game is substantially profitable, but it's not the kind of thing we would write home about," EA CEO John Riccitiello said in a conference call accompanying EA's third quarter fiscal earnings report Feb 2011.
Now consider they they've reduced their staff since then and that sub are only a PART of the money they are making. The game is doing very well right now.
as stated on 1st Aug 2012, which is a bit more up to date than your statement by JR. Try and keep up! :P
That was before F2P, now their monthly revenue doubled comparing to before F2P thanks to Cartel Market so I am sure they are profitable. Meanwhile WoW lost 1.3 million subscribers in one quarter (3 months) - they are up to 8.3 millions and Blizzard mentionned they are unsure of the future...
Quote from they earning report:
Additionally, during the quarter, Blizzard's World of Warcraft® remained the #1 subscription-based MMORPG in the world with more than eight million subscribers, although the game saw declines of approximately 1.3 million subscribers, mainly from the East, but in the West as well.²"
Kotick added, "While we have had a solid start to the year, we now believe that the risks and uncertainties in the back half of 2013 are more challenging than our earlier view, especially in the holiday quarter. The shift in release dates of competing products, the disappointing launch of the Wii U™, uncertainties regarding next-generation hardware, and subscriber declines in our World of Warcraft business all raise concerns, as do continued challenges in the global economy. For these reasons, we remain cautious. However, our focused and disciplined approach to our business has served us well in the past, and through continued investment and careful management of our costs, we expect to continue delivering shareholder value over the long term as we have for the last 20 years."
With F2P it does not need 500K subs as free/preferred players as well as subbers paying in the CM will take up the slack, so that now equates to $7.5 million per month
They said the monthly average has doubled since F2P, but that is from Nov 15th, spanning 5 months. If the first 3 months were high, and the last 2 were lower and lower again, due to subs dropping, or the month when Makeb launch probably had a huge spike in subs and other months rather crap, then it still stands true of what they said, but it masks the drop in subs, and make it sound things are OK. If things were going good, then they would have been more specific, and said subs were on the rise or not included the word "average". Plus why was there no confernce call with numbers in Feb like their was last year? Probably because the figures were not good, and it was people subbing for makeb that made it look good, and hence the reason they delayed its release for this announcement.
I enjoy watching the negative nancies squirm at these numbers, and who knows how much cash the cash shop is generating off the f2p and sub players.
Hey, bitter worts, guess what? This game is going to continue on being a success, and you guys will continue to hate. Who wins? You're still on these forums more than a year later complaining about a game you don't play because your lives are empty, good job.
I don't squirm at the numbers, only the people like you who do not get what the numbers mean and think the numbers are great.
These numbers would be great for many other P2P MMOs, but SWTOR needs a whole lot more as EA said that they needed 500K subs to break even. If Vanguard needed that many it would not have survived long, the reason Vanguard suvived many years as P2P is because it did not need many players.
Unless they come up with some awesome new content, then game is just going to continue to drop subs. There is no awesome new content coming as of yet.
You seem to lack basic reading comprehension. The exact quote was posted in this thread:
"At half a million subscribers, the game is substantially profitable, but it's not the kind of thing we would write home about," EA CEO John Riccitiello said in a conference call accompanying EA's third quarter fiscal earnings report Feb 2011.
Now consider they they've reduced their staff since then and that sub are only a PART of the money they are making. The game is doing very well right now.
as stated on 1st Aug 2012, which is a bit more up to date than your statement by JR. Try and keep up! :P
That was before F2P, now their monthly revenue doubled comparing to before F2P thanks to Cartel Market so I am sure they are profitable. Meanwhile WoW lost 1.3 million subscribers in one quarter (3 months) - they are up to 8.3 millions and Blizzard mentionned they are unsure of the future...
Quote from they earning report:
Additionally, during the quarter, Blizzard's World of Warcraft® remained the #1 subscription-based MMORPG in the world with more than eight million subscribers, although the game saw declines of approximately 1.3 million subscribers, mainly from the East, but in the West as well.²"
Kotick added, "While we have had a solid start to the year, we now believe that the risks and uncertainties in the back half of 2013 are more challenging than our earlier view, especially in the holiday quarter. The shift in release dates of competing products, the disappointing launch of the Wii U™, uncertainties regarding next-generation hardware, and subscriber declines in our World of Warcraft business all raise concerns, as do continued challenges in the global economy. For these reasons, we remain cautious. However, our focused and disciplined approach to our business has served us well in the past, and through continued investment and careful management of our costs, we expect to continue delivering shareholder value over the long term as we have for the last 20 years."
With F2P it does not need 500K subs as free/preferred players as well as subbers paying in the CM will take up the slack, so that now equates to $7.5 million per month
They said the monthly average has doubled since F2P, but that is from Nov 15th, spanning 5 months. If the first 3 months were high, and the last 2 were lower and lower again, due to subs dropping, or the month when Makeb launch probably had a huge spike in subs and other months rather crap, then it still stands true of what they said, but it masks the drop in subs, and make it sound things are OK. If things were going good, then they would have been more specific, and said subs were on the rise or not included the word "average". Plus why was there no confernce call with numbers in Feb like their was last year? Probably because the figures were not good, and it was people subbing for makeb that made it look good, and hence the reason they delayed its release for this announcement.
Everything you just wrote is utter speculation and they were totally correct to jump on your post discussing a statement made before the business model changed. I think ones own opinion about a game sometimes distorts facts from fiction. Why does it bother you so much that the game is actually doing ok for now?
fyi, I'm not playing right now because I'm waiting for some social and immersion improvements, but I think it's ridiculous not to admit to an improvement since this model change.
I really didn't enjoy my time with SWTOR, but it's good to see that so many people are willing to part with such a small amount of money to have access to an MMO for an entire month that they find enjoyable.
If you like it, support it for bloody sake.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
Look at EVE it's been around for years and never had that many subs and it's considered a success.
EVE has about that many subs. I think it's considered a success because of the fact it continues to grow in subscribers, evolve dynamically in gameplay, is not a mainstream MMO genre (themepark) and wasn't pumped out by a mega corporation.
There are two kinds of people in this world. People who pick their nose.. and liars.
Originally posted by DavisFlight Originally posted by baphametOriginally posted by DavisFlightOriginally posted by VlackeGood numbers indeed.
Good numbers? The most expensive MMORPG and the largest marketed one can't even beat EverQuest's old sub numbers? Can't even beat Eve?Not good at all.most people couldn't care less what their development budget was or how much money they spent on marketing (still not as much as wow IIANM)that is just an excuse to discount the people who are playing and enjoying the game.Way more than WoW, plus the license.
I bet EA cares. When they decide to pull the plug because they still haven't made their investment back. An expensive game needs millions to be profitable.
EA wont pull the plug any time soon, they may not be making what they thought but they are making money, there are a lot of subs and people using the cartel market.
its making money even if you think the game sucks, many obviously disagree.
played 2 months with the release. i couldn't go further. i tried it again before a couple of months and i can say its way better than it was a year ago. i wont continue to play because the f2p of EA sucks and i don't want to pay a sub for swtor, but all in all is a very good game anymore (if you play it as a sub player and not as a f2p).
btw if i was to choose between the much hyped b2p gw2 and the ''catastrophic'' subbed swtor then i ll gladly pay a sub
Do you always have to take a swipe at GW2? Get over it already. It's as if you've been wounded emotionally by it.
Swtor's basic concepts/mechanics are still the same, so i don't see how you can say it's better. The only significant changes they've added is the LFG tool, and the adaptive gear system.
I enjoy watching the negative nancies squirm at these numbers, and who knows how much cash the cash shop is generating off the f2p and sub players.
Hey, bitter worts, guess what? This game is going to continue on being a success, and you guys will continue to hate. Who wins? You're still on these forums more than a year later complaining about a game you don't play because your lives are empty, good job.
I don't squirm at the numbers, only the people like you who do not get what the numbers mean and think the numbers are great.
These numbers would be great for many other P2P MMOs, but SWTOR needs a whole lot more as EA said that they needed 500K subs to break even. If Vanguard needed that many it would not have survived long, the reason Vanguard suvived many years as P2P is because it did not need many players.
Unless they come up with some awesome new content, then game is just going to continue to drop subs. There is no awesome new content coming as of yet.
You seem to lack basic reading comprehension. The exact quote was posted in this thread:
"At half a million subscribers, the game is substantially profitable, but it's not the kind of thing we would write home about," EA CEO John Riccitiello said in a conference call accompanying EA's third quarter fiscal earnings report Feb 2011.
Now consider they they've reduced their staff since then and that sub are only a PART of the money they are making. The game is doing very well right now.
as stated on 1st Aug 2012, which is a bit more up to date than your statement by JR. Try and keep up! :P
That was before F2P, now their monthly revenue doubled comparing to before F2P thanks to Cartel Market so I am sure they are profitable. Meanwhile WoW lost 1.3 million subscribers in one quarter (3 months) - they are up to 8.3 millions and Blizzard mentionned they are unsure of the future...
Quote from they earning report:
Additionally, during the quarter, Blizzard's World of Warcraft® remained the #1 subscription-based MMORPG in the world with more than eight million subscribers, although the game saw declines of approximately 1.3 million subscribers, mainly from the East, but in the West as well.²"
Kotick added, "While we have had a solid start to the year, we now believe that the risks and uncertainties in the back half of 2013 are more challenging than our earlier view, especially in the holiday quarter. The shift in release dates of competing products, the disappointing launch of the Wii U™, uncertainties regarding next-generation hardware, and subscriber declines in our World of Warcraft business all raise concerns, as do continued challenges in the global economy. For these reasons, we remain cautious. However, our focused and disciplined approach to our business has served us well in the past, and through continued investment and careful management of our costs, we expect to continue delivering shareholder value over the long term as we have for the last 20 years."
With F2P it does not need 500K subs as free/preferred players as well as subbers paying in the CM will take up the slack, so that now equates to $7.5 million per month
They said the monthly average has doubled since F2P, but that is from Nov 15th, spanning 5 months. If the first 3 months were high, and the last 2 were lower and lower again, due to subs dropping, or the month when Makeb launch probably had a huge spike in subs and other months rather crap, then it still stands true of what they said, but it masks the drop in subs, and make it sound things are OK. If things were going good, then they would have been more specific, and said subs were on the rise or not included the word "average". Plus why was there no confernce call with numbers in Feb like their was last year? Probably because the figures were not good, and it was people subbing for makeb that made it look good, and hence the reason they delayed its release for this announcement.
Everything you just wrote is utter speculation and they were totally correct to jump on your post discussing a statement made before the business model changed. I think ones own opinion about a game sometimes distorts facts from fiction. Why does it bother you so much that the game is actually doing ok for now?
fyi, I'm not playing right now because I'm waiting for some social and immersion improvements, but I think it's ridiculous not to admit to an improvement since this model change.
From what I see the game is not doing OK, because there are no solid facts saying so. It is only a matter of perspective - It is either the way I view it or the way you view it, it can be either. To say that the game is doing OK 100% and is the only perspective, is fiction.
I am not bothered whether the game is doing good, just discussing what EA are actually saying, not what they seem to be saying, because the main thing to remember is that any company will NEVER paint a bad picture, but will always say it in a way that sounds good.
It is the same as when Obi-Wan told Luke that Darth Vader killed Anakin his father in Episode IV. Then we find out that Darth Vader is Anakin in ESB, but says in ROTJ that he did not lie but gave another version of the truth, but Ob-Wan intended to mislead Luke and did not want to say at that stage that Darth Vader was his father.
I do not believe SWTOR is OK, because I have unanswered questions - Why was there no aweome report in Feb? Saying about the monthlly average doubling for starters? Maybe beacuse it was not that good in Feb, but due to Makeb the month surrounding its release about 2 million of about 4 million (2 million or so have accounts before F2P and then 1.7 after F2P) subbed to get the expansion, and for that one month it made the monthly average more than double.
Then there is the fact that they said there were 2 million accounts since F2P in March, but now the other day they say 1.7 million.
Do you not find all these things strange, or just dismiss them and bury your head in the sand, and just accept that SWTOR is doing OK?
From what I see the game is not doing OK, because there are no solid facts saying so. It is only a matter of perspective - It is either the way I view it or the way you view it, it can be either. To say that the game is doing OK 100% and is the only perspective, is fiction.
I am not bothered whether the game is doing good, just discussing what EA are actually saying, not what they seem to be saying, because the main thing to remember is that any company will NEVER paint a bad picture, but will always say it in a way that sounds good.
It is the same as when Obi-Wan told Luke that Darth Vader killed Anakin his father in Episode IV. Then we find out that Darth Vader is Anakin in ESB, but says in ROTJ that he did not lie but gave another version of the truth, but Ob-Wan intended to mislead Luke and did not want to say at that stage that Darth Vader was his father.
I do not believe SWTOR is OK, because I have unanswered questions - Why was there no aweome report in Feb? Saying about the monthlly average doubling for starters? Maybe beacuse it was not that good in Feb, but due to Makeb the month surrounding its release about 2 million of about 4 million (2 million or so have accounts before F2P and then 1.7 after F2P) subbed to get the expansion, and for that one month it made the monthly average more than double.
Then there is the fact that they said there were 2 million accounts since F2P in March, but now the other day they say 1.7 million.
Do you not find all these things strange, or just dismiss them and bury your head in the sand, and just accept that SWTOR is doing OK?
EA has been lying and using "creative math" since beginning, they even admitted it.
Also they do everything they can to pad the numbers, from free months, paid content updates....
Also they do some very creative book keeping, i bet they dont associate SWTOR marketing costs to SWTOR, but in "general marketing" to make numberz look better (just as an example, theres more ofcourse) but in the end, x amount of money has been spent of SWTOR and someone needs to pay for it (not just SWTOR in EAs case)
Originally posted by tintilinic Anyone has anyithing actually....official on SWTOR, since official reports that i have read do NOT mention SWTOR in any way.
Our Star Wars: The Old Republic game is a combination of free-to-play and subscription business models. Both models are performing well. The game has attracted new free-to-play members and total active users are up. We continue to deliver new game updates for the community every 6 weeks, helping drive subscribers and free-to-play consumers to the game.
2.
As you know, last year we took a new approach in Austin by introducing some new pricing models to Star Wars: The Old Republic including a free-to-play model for our fans. Since it was introduced in November, we've added more than 1.7 million new players on the free model to the service, and the number of subscriptions has stabilized at just under 0.5 million. The really interesting thing that's happening inside the service right now is monthly average revenue for the game has more than doubled since we introduced the free-to-play option. And as we look forward, we're going to continually invest in new content for the service for players every 6 weeks or so. We just recently released Rise of the Hutt Cartel as our first major digital expansion, and it's reviewed extremely well, and it's selling very well.
Originally posted by tintilinic Anyone has anyithing actually....official on SWTOR, since official reports that i have read do NOT mention SWTOR in any way.
Our Star Wars: The Old Republic game is a combination of free-to-play and subscription business models. Both models are performing well. The game has attracted new free-to-play members and total active users are up. We continue to deliver new game updates for the community every 6 weeks, helping drive subscribers and free-to-play consumers to the game.
2.
As you know, last year we took a new approach in Austin by introducing some new pricing models to Star Wars: The Old Republic including a free-to-play model for our fans. Since it was introduced in November, we've added more than 1.7 million new players on the free model to the service, and the number of subscriptions has stabilized at just under 0.5 million. The really interesting thing that's happening inside the service right now is monthly average revenue for the game has more than doubled since we introduced the free-to-play option. And as we look forward, we're going to continually invest in new content for the service for players every 6 weeks or so. We just recently released Rise of the Hutt Cartel as our first major digital expansion, and it's reviewed extremely well, and it's selling very well.
a) dobled...from what
b) total active users are up....from what
b) doesnt mention profit...at all
c) "its selling very well" ha ha, numberz? no
And yet again we can see how renaming free content update to paid "major digital expansion" can be used as marketing that you actually make money on. Man, im glad EA isnt operating my other MMO(s).
Originally posted by Torgrim 1.7 million FTP accounts, that figure is quite interesting to dwell on, don't you think.
Oh wow, I thought it was 1.7 million players, with 500k being subscribers. It's 2.2 million players, with 500k being subscribers. That's a crazy number of players.
Well, the 1.7 doesn't represent active players, just accounts. Its like GW2, it sold 3 mil, but that doesn't mean it has 3 mil players.
That are news accounts created after F2P transition, what about accounts of players who stopped to play and came back with F2P, are they counted as new accounts or old? If old, there are more than 1.7 millions F2P accounts.
Comments
Oh wow, I thought it was 1.7 million players, with 500k being subscribers. It's 2.2 million players, with 500k being subscribers. That's a crazy number of players.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Well, the 1.7 doesn't represent active players, just accounts. Its like GW2, it sold 3 mil, but that doesn't mean it has 3 mil players.
yes but this is EA math
just like EA "truth" its not to be trusted
http://kotaku.com/5991077/your-complete-guide-to-the-simcity-disaster
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/04/22/the-power-of-silence-why-the-simcity-story-went-away/
honestly believing anything EA say is like believing a politician snorting cocaine off a hookers arse.
Looks like EA managed to do the thing, blow out the stones their drones were dwelling under.
Anyone that really believes SWTOR has just under half a million subscribers can call me, I have a bridge to sell.
They told the truth as it's regulated. If they didn't, they'd be in courtroom. But the truth varies, as they can twist the reality as they will. There has been posts in this thread where the possibile and frankly plausible truth has been presented. Of course, it has been trumped by the ealrier mentioned drones, but that doesn't change the truth to way or another.
I don't have any numbers to call, but so what. This game is going to reap the f2p people for a while, but you need to remember one thing. It will be doing so in the niche called MMO-players. Very rare out side.
Bottom line, it will hold for some amount of players and IP-fans a bit longer but once that phase ends they will end up with SW true fans whom would play abacus if it was named star wars.
Didn't mean to cause anyone bad mood, but this game is and has always been so gone. This has been said about The age of Conan, but you can't polish the turd. And in this case there's some deep things to polish.
I don't think so:
The President of EA Labels Frank Gibeau said the Star Wars game would still break even so long as it maintained 500,000 subscribers, but admitted that its current performance was "not good enough".
as stated on 1st Aug 2012, which is a bit more up to date than your statement by JR. Try and keep up! :P
Star Trek Online - Best Free MMORPG of 2012
That was before F2P, now their monthly revenue doubled comparing to before F2P thanks to Cartel Market so I am sure they are profitable. Meanwhile WoW lost 1.3 million subscribers in one quarter (3 months) - they are up to 8.3 millions and Blizzard mentionned they are unsure of the future...
Quote from they earning report:
Additionally, during the quarter, Blizzard's World of Warcraft® remained the #1 subscription-based MMORPG in the world with more than eight million subscribers, although the game saw declines of approximately 1.3 million subscribers, mainly from the East, but in the West as well.²"
Kotick added, "While we have had a solid start to the year, we now believe that the risks and uncertainties in the back half of 2013 are more challenging than our earlier view, especially in the holiday quarter. The shift in release dates of competing products, the disappointing launch of the Wii U™, uncertainties regarding next-generation hardware, and subscriber declines in our World of Warcraft business all raise concerns, as do continued challenges in the global economy. For these reasons, we remain cautious. However, our focused and disciplined approach to our business has served us well in the past, and through continued investment and careful management of our costs, we expect to continue delivering shareholder value over the long term as we have for the last 20 years."
Sith Warrior - Story of Hate and Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxKrlwXt7Ao
Imperial Agent - Rise of Cipher Nine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBBj3eJWBvU&feature=youtu.be
Imperial Agent - Hunt for the Eagle Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQqjYYU128E
Break even in terms of what? How much it costs to maintain and develop or break even on its initial budget? The game can be profitable on a monthly basis and still be in the red overall.
In any case, you'll be happy to know that 500k subs are only a part of their revenue so you'll have to spin faster if you want to keep painting the game in a bad light all the time. Keep on fighting the man though! I'm going to go level my Bounty Hunter.
With F2P it does not need 500K subs as free/preferred players as well as subbers paying in the CM will take up the slack, so that now equates to $7.5 million per month
They said the monthly average has doubled since F2P, but that is from Nov 15th, spanning 5 months. If the first 3 months were high, and the last 2 were lower and lower again, due to subs dropping, or the month when Makeb launch probably had a huge spike in subs and other months rather crap, then it still stands true of what they said, but it masks the drop in subs, and make it sound things are OK. If things were going good, then they would have been more specific, and said subs were on the rise or not included the word "average". Plus why was there no confernce call with numbers in Feb like their was last year? Probably because the figures were not good, and it was people subbing for makeb that made it look good, and hence the reason they delayed its release for this announcement.
Star Trek Online - Best Free MMORPG of 2012
Everything you just wrote is utter speculation and they were totally correct to jump on your post discussing a statement made before the business model changed. I think ones own opinion about a game sometimes distorts facts from fiction. Why does it bother you so much that the game is actually doing ok for now?
fyi, I'm not playing right now because I'm waiting for some social and immersion improvements, but I think it's ridiculous not to admit to an improvement since this model change.
There Is Always Hope!
I really didn't enjoy my time with SWTOR, but it's good to see that so many people are willing to part with such a small amount of money to have access to an MMO for an entire month that they find enjoyable.
If you like it, support it for bloody sake.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
EVE has about that many subs. I think it's considered a success because of the fact it continues to grow in subscribers, evolve dynamically in gameplay, is not a mainstream MMO genre (themepark) and wasn't pumped out by a mega corporation.
There are two kinds of people in this world. People who pick their nose.. and liars.
Based upon public record / financial statements, SWTOR is profitable; '500k subs to break even -> F2P meant we doubled our revenue than pre-F2P'.
Whether you know enough about financial disclosure laws to know that EA can't lie about them is another matter.
Good to see SWTOR make money for EA and prove (once again) that F2P is a very viable business model.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
most people couldn't care less what their development budget was or how much money they spent on marketing (still not as much as wow IIANM) that is just an excuse to discount the people who are playing and enjoying the game.
Way more than WoW, plus the license.
I bet EA cares. When they decide to pull the plug because they still haven't made their investment back. An expensive game needs millions to be profitable.
EA wont pull the plug any time soon, they may not be making what they thought but they are making money, there are a lot of subs and people using the cartel market.
its making money even if you think the game sucks, many obviously disagree.
Do you always have to take a swipe at GW2? Get over it already. It's as if you've been wounded emotionally by it.
Swtor's basic concepts/mechanics are still the same, so i don't see how you can say it's better. The only significant changes they've added is the LFG tool, and the adaptive gear system.
From what I see the game is not doing OK, because there are no solid facts saying so. It is only a matter of perspective - It is either the way I view it or the way you view it, it can be either. To say that the game is doing OK 100% and is the only perspective, is fiction.
I am not bothered whether the game is doing good, just discussing what EA are actually saying, not what they seem to be saying, because the main thing to remember is that any company will NEVER paint a bad picture, but will always say it in a way that sounds good.
It is the same as when Obi-Wan told Luke that Darth Vader killed Anakin his father in Episode IV. Then we find out that Darth Vader is Anakin in ESB, but says in ROTJ that he did not lie but gave another version of the truth, but Ob-Wan intended to mislead Luke and did not want to say at that stage that Darth Vader was his father.
I do not believe SWTOR is OK, because I have unanswered questions - Why was there no aweome report in Feb? Saying about the monthlly average doubling for starters? Maybe beacuse it was not that good in Feb, but due to Makeb the month surrounding its release about 2 million of about 4 million (2 million or so have accounts before F2P and then 1.7 after F2P) subbed to get the expansion, and for that one month it made the monthly average more than double.
Then there is the fact that they said there were 2 million accounts since F2P in March, but now the other day they say 1.7 million.
Do you not find all these things strange, or just dismiss them and bury your head in the sand, and just accept that SWTOR is doing OK?
Star Trek Online - Best Free MMORPG of 2012
sure.. if this game needs one thing badly, it's more cutscenes with voiceovers...
Post your official source on SWTOR "doubling" anything.
2nd - doubled from WHAT? Its obvious SWTOR dipped quite low under 500k subs (waves to all fanbois) before extended trial gimmick.
1,7 free accounts? thats dissapointing, i heard some obscure games noone ever heard of claimed >10 million accounts.
EA has been lying and using "creative math" since beginning, they even admitted it.
Also they do everything they can to pad the numbers, from free months, paid content updates....
Also they do some very creative book keeping, i bet they dont associate SWTOR marketing costs to SWTOR, but in "general marketing" to make numberz look better (just as an example, theres more ofcourse) but in the end, x amount of money has been spent of SWTOR and someone needs to pay for it (not just SWTOR in EAs case)
EAs stock doesnt lie.
Transcypt from EA conference call: http://seekingalpha.com/article/1412391-electronic-arts-management-discusses-q4-2013-results-earnings-call-transcript?page=1
Go to Q&A - page 7 for SWTOR info.
Fragments:
1.
Our Star Wars: The Old Republic game is a combination of free-to-play and subscription business models. Both models are performing well. The game has attracted new free-to-play members and total active users are up. We continue to deliver new game updates for the community every 6 weeks, helping drive subscribers and free-to-play consumers to the game.
2.
As you know, last year we took a new approach in Austin by introducing some new pricing models to Star Wars: The Old Republic including a free-to-play model for our fans. Since it was introduced in November, we've added more than 1.7 million new players on the free model to the service, and the number of subscriptions has stabilized at just under 0.5 million. The really interesting thing that's happening inside the service right now is monthly average revenue for the game has more than doubled since we introduced the free-to-play option. And as we look forward, we're going to continually invest in new content for the service for players every 6 weeks or so. We just recently released Rise of the Hutt Cartel as our first major digital expansion, and it's reviewed extremely well, and it's selling very well.
Sith Warrior - Story of Hate and Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxKrlwXt7Ao
Imperial Agent - Rise of Cipher Nine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBBj3eJWBvU&feature=youtu.be
Imperial Agent - Hunt for the Eagle Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQqjYYU128E
All one has to do is look at torstatus.net to realize ea is fudgeing the numbers yet again.
a) dobled...from what
b) total active users are up....from what
b) doesnt mention profit...at all
c) "its selling very well" ha ha, numberz? no
And yet again we can see how renaming free content update to paid "major digital expansion" can be used as marketing that you actually make money on. Man, im glad EA isnt operating my other MMO(s).
That are news accounts created after F2P transition, what about accounts of players who stopped to play and came back with F2P, are they counted as new accounts or old? If old, there are more than 1.7 millions F2P accounts.
Sith Warrior - Story of Hate and Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxKrlwXt7Ao
Imperial Agent - Rise of Cipher Nine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBBj3eJWBvU&feature=youtu.be
Imperial Agent - Hunt for the Eagle Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQqjYYU128E