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EA: 1.5 million The Old Republic beta tester applicants can't be wrong
ThomasN7
87.18.7.148Member CommonPosts: 6,690
EA is using the Helen logic with Star Wars: The Old Republic, it seems. If 30 Helens agree on something, it has to be truth, right?
While talking during a Lazard Capital Markets Technology & Media Day presentation (via Gamasutra), EA CFO Eric Brown revealed that near 1.5 million have signed up to beta test Star Wars: The Old Republic, apparently confirming there is significant interest in the title. Hey, maybe these guys and gals just like being included in beta testing? Ever think of that, Mr. Brown?
"It's a great indicator in the interest level in the franchise," Brown said. EA's goal is apparently to grab not only diehard MMO players, but also to expand to a much more broad audience -- and Star Wars fans, of course, though we're sure just having "Star Wars" on the box will do that. "For us it's about creating the right experience for expanding from tier 1 and the tier 2 users to getting people who have never played an MMO before, but are interested in Star Wars, to engage and give it a try," Brown added.
Brown hopes that Star Wars: The Old Republic can gain a user base exceeding 12 million, which he estimates is the current number of MMO players out there -- half of whom are in World of Warcraft. "If we do that, our addressable market is well beyond 12 million people ... into more of a general gamer population, pretty much anyone that has a minimum spec personal computer." Now to get 1.5 million people to agree on what the "minimum spec" is for a PC,
we guess.
Link: http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/17/ea-1-5-million-the-old-republic-beta-tester-applicants-cant-be/
Comments
{mod edit}
I don't get where you got this Hellen thing since he said it just shows how intrested people are. I mean if I published short video of my incomplete movie on youtube and got 15million hits on I think many studios would be intresting to make it. So don't twist words.
Don't believe me ? Click on the original link. This isn't my story it, all I am doing is sharing the news to fans.
12 million subs ? lol EA, wishfull thinking. I do think SWTOR will end up being a major player in the league (let's keep it at 3-4 million, and that is if all things go VERY well)
I love suits in the gaming business.
It's like being at the circus.
Every time a suit opens his mouth to spout something game related, I think 'hey, look, the clowns are coming in!'
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Ah, once again, some fool developer starts talking "WoW-killer" numbers.
I support this game 100%, and I'm looking forward to trying it out, but talking this kinda talk won't get the game ANYWHERE.
Still, thanx for the link!
The numbers was supposed to be surprising?
I mean, we all agreed that SW:TOR would sell well a long time ago
"It has potential"
-Second most used phrase on existence
"It sucks"
-Most used phrase on existence
So long as they also realise that 3/4 won't buy the game because they'll feel offended they don't get in the beta, all is fine.
I seriously hope that Star Wars do not attract more than 1-2 millioin at most, so that the big companies try to do innovative stuff instead of doing these theme park copies.
The "12 million" remark was not saying that they are expecting 12 milliion customers. 12 million just refers to the size of the targeted customer base. In reality, they are trying to target a very large customer base, far exceeding 12 million, but that isn't to say that they are expecting more than 12 million.
Say I design a game that only targets WoW players. If it is true that they have around 12 million players, then my target customer base is made up of about 12 million people. Thats not to say I'm actually expecting 12 million players.
On Biowares end, they want to target the largest variety of customer bases, yielding the largest amount of players.
EA should also note that Star Wars has had a huge fan following for...what...25? 30 years?
Sorry but it's not working EA.
This had me chuckling and so true!
Now if only we could look upon bankers, lawyers, and other powers-that-be-and-are-seriously-screwing-us-over, then the world just might be a better place since no one would have ever take them seriously in the first place.
Ah... one can dream eh?
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.
Not many people are into Scifi. Most of the female WOW players I know really can't be bothered with Star Wars as the lore is not that interesting to them. Maybe 2 mil players will play SWTOR and the other 2 mil went to GW2. Not sure if SWG even have 2 mil when they launched it.
Pardon my English as it is not my 1st language
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf8oVL_V490&feature=related
Sums up everything pretty well lol.
Trust me, it wont if GW2 releases before SW:ToR. People tired of WoW will go to the first one released. The Star Wars name will have the same effect as the Star Trek name...
StarTrek Fanboi:
WTF GUYS, this isn't the Star Trek philiosophy, I quit!
It doesn't involve tolerance of other species OR I can't explore and find new and unique things
StarWars Fanboi:
WTF GUYS, this isn't the Star Wars philosophy, I quit!
I can't manipulate the Senate as a Jedi / I can't attack {planets/this NPC} at will as a Sith. OR The space game sucks. OR There is a lack of explorable areas.
I know can tell you I'm a Star Wars fanboi, and Star Wars with no politics, is not Star Wars. If you cannot become the Dark Lord of the Sith, you are not a Sith, that is not Star Wars. I know for sure I won't buy a Star Wars game that has nothing of the Star Wars ideology. If as Sith I cannot kill another Sith to display my power, why the hell would you bother playing Sith? If the Sith aren't Sith, why the hell are there Jedis?
Wth... 4 SWTOR threads on the main page? Meh, overkill.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
ROFL. Listen, I am going to be one of those that buy SW:TOR. No doubt about it... but using beta applicants to project subs is kind of silly. It's like the company StarVault that used to brag they had 178,000 forum members and that was a good indicator of future growth for the game. They have concurrent users in the mid to low 3 digit range.. so yeah, using the Forum members didn't exactly work in that case. SW:TOR is going to be huge.. there is no doubt. It comes with an enormous pre-built fanbase, but I wouldn't give any more credance to Beta Applicants than I would to Forum Accts...
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
I'm sorry how is it silly? This is practicly industry standard nowdays. I mean I work in software company and we do what we call customer intrest studies where we feed them examples of products we might do. Based on that intrest we calculate would we do it. Besides your logic is totally wrong. Your comparing forum users to beta testers.
Also you guys seriously don't think that they didn't know how many players they are expecting to play BEFORE THEY EVEN STARTED? You think world works so that you get 150million dollar budget with just few papers? This isn't few amateurs from sweden, this is one of the biggest development studios in the world working with one of the biggest distributers in the world.
Oh.. they will know how many players to expect. It's called pre-orders. Not free beta applications of which there may be some guy out there with 1,000 to himself...
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
I don't think this game will top 12 million subs. I have high hopes for the game and will definitely play...probably a long time. However....I am hopeful they will get 4-6 million subs...but who knows for sure.
News Flash:
Age of Conan had 1.8 million beta signups.
Everquest II had roughly 900k beta signups.
Rift had more than 1.5million beta signups.
Darkfall had close to half a million, or more.
Mortal Online had close to 300k+.
I have a couple more betas I know reached more than 250k, but I couldn't find numbers released by a dev or mod. The above numbers are passing numbers that I wrote down from announcements I read when I beta tested the listed particular games.
1.5million beta tester applications for SWTOR is NOTHING, and proves only that there is a decent interest in the title. However, I continue to feel that if they hadn't gone the WoW-CookyCutter graphics theme & Instanceless game world that they'd have more than 3x that number of beta applications.
-Faded
The Theory of Conservative Conservation of Ignorant Stupidity:
Having a different opinion must mean you're a troll.
WAR had 800k, how many still play the game? Seems EA cannot even learn from their OWN past!
From what I've read about EA it more has to do with "suits" making all the decisions about their games rather than the developers who get to choose WHAT content is actually fun. Or, it simply comes down to the fact EA hates shelling out cash to "playtest" their products for the "fun" and replayability factor.
You know what made StarCraft, Diablo 1, Diablo 2, and DAOC some of the BEST games of all time in our game culture? Replayability, FUN factor, DEPTH, you couldn't go down "X" path and get "Y" path more than once or twice....it always changed. More to the point, these games didn't "bleed" into each other. They ALL looked different, NONE of them took elements from the other in order to make themselves less "unique" to save developement costs.
Look at today's upcoming games:
-Diablo III has TOO many World of Warcraft elements that have bled over into it. It's NO LONGER the Diablo franchise we know, and has too many references to WoW (Demon Hunter with dual crossbows, REALLY?!).
-StarCraft II was AGAIN bled into by World of Warcraft with their "muscular" style of art. MASSIVE muscular bodies with HUGE pauldrons (shoulderpads). I DARE you to go back and look @ your StarCraft booklet that came with the original came that had all the concept art. LOOK at how NORMAL they look in many of those concept art pieces. Now, look at StarCraft 1's art in-game. It looks NOTHING like WoW or Warcraft series. Yet, here we are with a dumbed down Art System, a HORRIBLY dumbed down BattleNet 2.0 (one of the largest issues people have with SC2 at). Not to mention the crap match making system. StarCraft 1 remains superior to even THIS iteration of the StarCraft series.
I won't even mention the fact that there's such a LARGE demand for a new Dark Age of Camelot, however the overall risk of Mythic being owned by EA to the content of DAOC II merits that this title NEVER see the light of day to never risk it sullying the DAOC title.
-Faded
The Theory of Conservative Conservation of Ignorant Stupidity:
Having a different opinion must mean you're a troll.
That sort of logic is silly at best. Are the developers trolling us?
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
We all know how well Star Trek Online with it's assumption that because many people like an IP, the game will be hugely popular.
Talking about WAR there aren't ya. It didn't do so well at all with it's wowification