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Reading Between the Lines
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I'm just here to make critical assessments about the game. Don't like it? Don't read it.
EA has said that SWTOR is doing OK and what they have said suggests this is the case. Not great but not a disaster. So subs are not going to be 500k or 600k but nor are they likely to be running at the 75k mark.
There is a simple test you can do using what EA has said. Few very small and reasonable assumptions I will cover.
Step 1: In August EA said that subs were 25% down on what they were before the game went F2P.
So take the number you claim and add 33% to give you the pre-F2P number. 600k today = 800k pre-F2P.
Step 2: in May EA said that average revenue had doubled since pre-F2P.
So take the pre-F2P number from step 1 and double it (see note). So 800k pre-F2P = 1.6M equivalent today.
Step 3: Is the number reasonable. HOLY COW BATMAN 1.6M equivalent subs!
Note: Doubling the number assumes that the average revenue for the first 9 months was twice pre-F2P. It probably dropped but even with zero subscribers and zero cash shop revenue average revenue for the first 9 months would still be 133% of pre-F2P. Doubling the number is the simple HOLY COW test though multiply by about 1.7 or 1.8 will probably be closer.
Bottomline: the number - whatever it is - has to match everything that EA have said. There is even more they have said as well and from it something around 200k core subs with F2P revenue on top seems to work. Not spectacular not a disaster but - as EA have said - OK. So before you make ridiculous claims: try the simple check.
enjoy!
It's called throwing a tantrum. Dressing it up doesn't make it look better.
Exactly, if the game had 250k or more subs they would be touting in in the EA earnings report. I remember every report since SWTOR came out, the questions of it's earnings, every meeting SWTOR was discussed less and less as the game lost subs and started earning less and less. Now they don't even discuss the game at all.
If it were turning a profit, it would be mentioned. It's doing so bad, they don't bother talking about it anymore. Console games are about all that is reported now.
You can bet they'd be bragging from the rooftop if SWTOR was doing any good at all. Think about it, do you see old snake oil salesman James Ohlen out there bragging about how awesome their game is still, and how many subs they have? What they have coming up the pipeline, content-wise?
See Gabe Amatangelo, Daniel Erickson, George Zoeller...Oh wait, they're gone.....That's right if the game were doing so well, they'd still be there too.....
After seeing how Warhammer was handled and cobbled together and released, I should have known they'd do just as poorly with SWTOR. I won't ever buy another product from EA again.
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
Wow some are still predicting tors closure. I remember on their forums at launch people were predicting it would last a year. Here we are over two years in the game is still moving along with new content about every 4-6 weeks.
I love over how some get to tor is closing
so you take the square root of box sales / that by PI (3.141592) / that by how many players they think tor has x by 2 - 50%+ how many people were on fleet 20 months ago the last time they played = tor closing . It's just getting absurd you can't go to any gaming site and not run into these math majors.
EA milks failed mmo's to the last drop. It will gimp on like Warhammer did and suffer the same fate.
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
Gimp along? Not really sure 3rd or 4th or 5th in population (depending on which calculation you use) = gimping along. Hey STO will close some day, lotro will close some day, vanguard will close some day, age of Conan will close some day, swg will....sorry already closed, ffxiv will close (a 2nd time) someday etc etc . even wow will close one day. What makes Swtor so fascinating that some still try to predict the closing every year?[quote]Originally posted by JeroKane
[b][quote] Originally posted by Hatefull [quote]Originally posted by JeroKane [b][quote] Originally posted by Hatefull [b][quote][/b] Why not let people decide for themselves? Is there a video game company out there that doesn't care about money? [/quote][/b] Yes, there is. If you mean the only reason they makes game sis to make money, then yes there are plenty of game companies that don't care about money. They need money to make a great game, but they won't compromise their vision for funding. Go take a loko at Star Citizen, The Repopulation, two triple A titles coming out that are crowd funded (for the most part) and being developed by independent developers. So, there is hope! Not for SWTOR, but for other games![/quote]You already answered it yourself. Crowd funding. And you really think Chris Roberts doesn't do it for the profit? You really THAT naive? Come on now! The only difference here is, that With Crowd Funding he can do whatever he wants with no deadlines. Compared to the rest of the publically registered Game studios that have to deal With stakeholders and set deadlines. In the end they all still have a bottomline! To make Money! Don't go kid yourself. PS. I am backer of Star Citizen myself. So you know.[/quote][/b] I disagree with you. Being a backer does not mean you have read what Chris has to say or followed his career. I am not kidding myself nor anyone else I am going by what he has written. Does he want to get paid? sure! is he making this game purely to make money? no, he is not. You can keep your little veiled insults to yourself btw, I don't have time for that crap.[/quote]And you keep believing every Word these people say is the truth and continue living in Fairytale land.
I don't have time for this crap either.[/b][/quote]
Then shut up? At least I base my opinions of some sort of fact, you just throw BS out there like it is Gospel. How about you come with some facts and stop throwing tantrums? Show me ANYWHERE Chris has said he is making SC purely for profit. Anywhere.
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.
More like 5th or 6th this year according to MMOdata.net. Which surprised me. They have not yet tabulated data for FFXIV, so that will push SWTOR further down the bench.
I see a lot of people throwing numbers out, I have to see any TRY to back up those numbers with facts.
Again, MMOdata has not put in the numbers for FFXIV so that will push SWTOR a bit further down the bench, but still doing better than they tantrum throwers would have you believe.
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.
People at launch who predicted "F2P in under a year" were laughed at...well...look what happened.
SWTOR is not F2P. you can play the game till 50, but if you dont pay a sub, thats pretty much all you can do. All the people playing at level 55 have a sub or is a prefered player.
So ea listened to their gamers and added 1.7 million players in the process how is that bad? So because they were right now we have to listen to their crazy calculations and predictions that tor is closing every year for the next 5 years or so?
SWTOR is not F2P. you can play the game till 50, but if you dont pay a sub, thats pretty much all you can do. All the people playing at level 55 have a sub or is a prefered player.
Free players can buy the all access or whatever pass to be able to progress beyond 55.
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.
Yes, but you need to pay a sub to play from 50 till 55.
Yes, it is.
This is simply not true. With the ability to make any number of free accounts as you like, saying that there are 1.7 million players is not the same as saying you have 1.7 million subs. Last I saw they themselves have said that they are under 500k subs.
Making multiple subs is one way of getting around their restrictive amount of how many toons you can have on one account.
I didn't say 1.7 million subs. I said players or accounts if you prefer. Either way it brought in a lot of players. The point is trying to calculate how many player using some crazy calculation is absurd and then using that calculation to claim a game is closing is insane.
And the game at it's initial release had way more actual subs than 1.7 million "accounts".....just saying.
Every single mmo to ever exist besides WoW lost players since launch...just sayingOdd because I never played SWG and SWTOR has been by far one of the biggest MMO disappointments to me. As soon as I heard they were using the Hero Engine I knew right then that a ton of possibilities for the game had just been flushed down simply because a crappy gaming engine (at least for MMOs) was going to be used.
I'm honestly not even sure if the type of space experience that I would want in a Star Wars MMO would even be possible due to the Hero Engines limited capabilities. Suffice to say as a Star Wars fan who had never gotten the chance to play SWG I thought SWTOR was going to be my chance for a quality Star Wars MMO and I was pretty bummed out when I discovered that I was wrong.
Smile
Every single mmo since wow?...The only Boxed Retail MMO that I could possibly conceive of that could of had over 1 mill subs to begin with would be the initial release of FF 14...might you like to add to that list?
Notice I said box retail now. And GW2 doesn't count as a sub based game..it's Buy to Play.
Come on really? sorry wasn't clear...every mmo loses players not every mmo had a million players. They all sell tons of box sales and players leave because of a number of reasons . Swtor was not immune to this.Try RIFT when it first launched. Most subscription based MMOs start out with a huge population (if they are somewhat okay MMOs or in SWTOR's case are based on a well known IP) and then the population lowers to the loyal players who enjoy the game enough to stay for the long haul.
Smile