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EA results: SWTOR a sub based game?
gervaise1
Member EpicPosts: 6,919
No specific mention of SWTOR in EA's results - haven't seen the transcript of the conference call which may add a little. However in the slide presentation the SWTOR graphic was shown in the subscription category and not as a F2P.
Battlefield 3 with 2.9M subs seems to be doing OK though - weren't sub based games dead ......
Oh well if only for those pesky stock options EA would have made more ....
Comments
SWTOR was just a farse in their analysis. What EA really wan't to sell to investors is that people who use their "F2P" freemium gamegram style equates to more customers. Which, if they didn't say is true, isn't true.
Smoke and mirrors are what this investor call is all about. Smoke and mirrors.
I think it's amusing that investors believe whatever they are told.
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
people pay to play bf3?
Well, investors don't necessarily know what they are investing in.They just invest by sheer numbers.
They job of people creating those calls is to make numbers looking good. By all means. And judging on how investors fall for it so often they are very, very good at their job.
I don't think investors care that much about TOR anymore. It's not like it'll become extremely successful all of a sudden. It's probably not draining EA's budget much anymore, so they can focus on their successful titles and put failures aside.
Comment from EA CFO Blake Jorgensen.
Extra content and free-to-play contributed $185 million, up 50% led by FIFA and Madden
Ultimate Team and Star Wars: The Old Republic. These revenues relate to businesses on
PC or consoles, where consumers pay for additional digital content -- including virtual
characters, map packs and micro-transactions associated with browser based games or
MMO’s – like Star Wars. As a reminder, on November 15th we launched our free-to-play
option for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Very early indications have been positive and we
are pleased with the initial results but it is too early to know how successful this will be in the
long term.
Subscriptions, advertising, and other digital revenue contributed $79 million, growing 18%
over the same period last year. The current year includes a full quarter of Star Wars
subscriptions, but it was offset by a decline in other licensing digital revenue.
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
Now why are you bringing positive news in what is clearly another TOR bashing thread? What's wrong with you ?
I want to hear more about investors from those whose biggest investment was a video game.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
It's uplifting, that's why. EA isn't in the doghouse yet ... oh snap nevermind.
Although, they need 500k subscribers to break even .. or 7.5 million (90+ million per year).
EA fell short. They had to lump all their successful games together once again. $185 million for FIFA, Ultimate Madden, and SWTOR.
EA lumped SWTOR with the success of other games in previous quarters too. SWTOR isn't making money if they have to do that. FIFA had a big backlash in 2012 (invisible players, cashshop issues). BBC Videos if requested, but there were a lot of complaints from EA customers last year.
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
My understanding of this was that the 189 million wasn't revenue for boxes sold of the games (or discs for the consoles) but only for the dlc concent of the 3 games. But that seems like a pretty damn large number for dlc for 3 games.
LOL remember last reporting? They did not mention SWTOR at all. In this one they mention it several times in a positive way. For me, it's a positive sign... but as my profile motto says... you won't convince anybody otherwise who does not want to believe it.
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
I remember it. EA lumped their top games along with SWTOR and called it a success. 3 months ago.
And EA called it a success today too, while lumping SWTOR with other games (FIFA + Madden).. There isn't anything joyful about that. Telling every investor that SWTOR brought $185 million, when combined with 2 other top EA games, FIFA and Ultimate Madden .. that is a COMPLETE SHAM!
Why can't EA just report SWTOR as it's performing (??). No, EA has to hide SWTOR's failures, and include SWTOR with FIFA / Madden then combine the 3 and say it's a success.
WTF.
The EA investor call was a big laugh .. because those who invest have no idea how or what their money in being spent on.
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
How many paid extra content for Madden and FIFA were released in last 3 months? because 185 millions contribute just to extra content and F2P - it is not cost of the purchasing these games.
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
Something to think about, when pondering how SWTOR compares to other games. EA numbers look big, but SWTOR numbers are small. EA isn't justified with their quarterly statement. They simply aren't, put it that way.
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
/shrug... subs equal just over half of the total playerbase of MMORPGs in the West, and over 80% of the *paying* playerbase.
The only people saying they are 'dead' are industry shills and the kool aid drinkers that parrot them because they are too cheap to pay into the hobby they (presumbly) enjoy.
That is good news for FIFA then. It was released over 4 months ago and stlll 2nd in the UK All formats chart, and that is at full price not DLC
http://www.shopto.net/news/41777/Latest-Charts-we-Jan-27-
Star Trek Online - Best Free MMORPG of 2012
Except when it's out of context.
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
That means it's not included in this amount as this is exclusively for extra content and F2P
Not sell of game
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
I had a blast playing SWTOR, right up until I lost all access to my account when the F2P conversion hit. Completely locked out as if my account never existed. Went to customer service for account recovery and the info they gave me was the same as I already had, still didn't work. They said they had no reason as to why I couldn't access my account. I asked them to just cancel my account and they told me I would have to do that via my account page...that I couldn't access. Had to stop payment in order to get the account cancelled.
sorry for completely off topic rant
I just wanted to jump on the copy and paste bandwagon and be like the cool kids
There. Just wanted to make that statement more accurate.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
I haven't listened to the earnings call yet, but this quote is from EA's prepared statements:
"As a reminder, on November 15th we launched our free-to-play option for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Very early indications have been positive and we are pleased with the initial results but it is too early to know how successful this will be in the long term."
SWTOR wasn't mentioned much, and when it was, EA wasn't exacly doing cartwheels and singing Edelweiss.
As a whole, they (EA) lost money again, but not as much as people expected. They blamed a lull in console game sales due to people wanting a next gen console and they blamed the recesion for an overall decrease in sales across the board.
They also put MoH in the ground, and don't seem to have much on the horizon.
They did say FIFA, FIFA, FIFA, and FIFA.
As to the recesion, technically it's over and I'm guessing the shareholders are getting tired about hearing about it 5 years later.
Yep on a GAAP basis EA lost money again - a real pain when you have to allow for things like court liability payments and stock bonuses in your results. What do you mean they happen every year? They are different one-off payments I tell you
More seriously: $185M in digital revenue of which over $100M was for FIFA. So at best $85M for everything else including Madden (grew again EA said) and - from previous results - tihings like PopCap (as was), Sims Social, Battlefield 3 (the DLC stuff talked about in previous quarters NOT the premium subscription revenue to be recognised in the non-GAAP results in Q4) and a host of other stuff.
Of course SWTOR subs won't be in this number either so the only thing one really has to go on is the "started OK but to soon to tell" comment.
My opinion - and that is all it is - is that this is a fairly downbeat statement and not really positive. If January's numbers had been better good I think the message would have been more encouraging e.g. to early to say but started well and is growing. With the focus on cost control - head count, marketing, pay etc. - I think the going will be very tough. As hinted at by the SWTOR team previously: if Markeb doesn't pay for itself then ...
(Haven't seen the transcript of the questions and answers yet.)
Seems a lot more positive than the last call which only said SWTOR had between 500k and 1 m subbs. They must have some hope for SWTOR with them hiring again for programers. At least they aren't obsessed with the above 500k subbs any more with the Cartel Market items been sold.
Cheers,
BadOrb.
PSO 4 years , EQOA 4 months , PSU 7 years , SWTOR launch ongoing , PSO2 SEA launch ongoing , Destiny 360 launch ongoing.
"SWG was not fun. Let it go buddy." quote from iiNoSkillzii 10/18/13
The original propoganda pixie dust villain :[]
Hey, I was the guy who talked about the new programers being hired.
That said, it does make one wonder what EA will do if, to use their terms, in the long run, the Cartel Shop does not turn out to be succesful.
Personally, I think the game needs content and optimization. I know Makeb is coming, but it needs content on a more rapid basis after that to be sustainable, even if they are getting more revenue per subscriber.
The FTP switch is a bit of a ruse. The FTP population is starting to wander off, be it attrition ot greener pastures in new FTPesque games (Terra, TSW, Path of Exile), but they were never much of a concern monetarily. The question is how many subs remain, and how much they drop in the cash shop.
If you peel away the FTP players, the game is kind of a niche, but a big niche. My dim view of certain corporate and design decisions aside, it would be nice if the players of the only SW IP MMO could keep playing in a universe they love. (And hopefully get a better product then they have been getting to this point.)
As a former stock analyst, I can say with some certainty some truths about conference calls:
1) If it is going well, the company will make a big deal about it.
2) If it is not going well, they hedge and say things like "too early to tell".
Trust me, if the F2P model was doing very well, it would have been highlighted. Furthermore, you can't really read into the fact that they mentioned it this time but not last time. The key is that they have to comment on the switch to F2P, and saying something like it's too early to tell translates into "not doing well" to a savy wall street investor. When you combine it with how bad console game sales have been lately as people switch to mobile, it's a really tough business.
Finally, it is true that with some subs and reduced staff they can make it profitable, which is good for current subs since the game isn't likely to close in the near future. However, they will never make the $$ needed to recoup their investment.