TOR is shooting for an oct/nov 2011 release and it will sell like mad and have little worthy competition..
GW2 should release between march to june 2012 It will sell like mad also and likely gain many disgruntled players from TOR as the burnout sets in after 3-6 months..
GW2 with its B2P will keep selling boxes for years to come as a goto/tweener game not even counting the expansion packs, TOR carries with it the heavy duty IP of SWs and is made by the legendary developer bioware..
I believe these 2 games can co-exist and i am going to play them both also i disagree that they are apples and oranges as they are both AAA mmorpgs, the only real difference is one is in a space setting and one is in the fantasy setting, many gamers including myself like both..
Yeah... um...no. I don't agree with the OP and I think this topic is redundant and silly. Both games will have success. Some will play both and play one more than the other but this won't mean the Doom of either game. Lets face it, the fanbase alone will keep the games going even if both are truely bad games. They will at the minimum, have their nich to keep them going. I wouldn't start planning the death of a MMO and saying Anet will have to change the payment model or implode is about where I stopped taking your post seriousely. And to make it sound so black and white where only 2 games are in existence battleing for subs was pretty narrow minded. Good day.
Tor has to rely on people paying £15 a month to continue after box sales, and when I look at the heros in the GW 1 shop and see the stupid prices they are charging for something that does directly affect ingame power I start to wonder if all in subscriptions are actually the better idea. But I have hope and a little faith in both studios to produce a good game, without the need to turn it into a who can pee higher up the wall contest.
Mercenary heroes could be considered to affect in game power, but only barely. They allow you to use one of your characters as a hero. So if you did level up a class to max and give them perfectly upgraded weapons and armor, you'd be able to use one more of that class in a party than you would otherwise (3 ritualists instead of the 2 that are available). Or you could keep going to get 4, 5, etc, if you were willing to devote character slots to the same class as well.
I guess it could make farming easier or something for you if it was desirable to keep stacking the same class. Heroes are generally considered inferior to players so it might not be advantageous at all for the harder content. Also, considering the instanced nature of the game, it can't take away from anybody else's experience.
I think it was just an attempt by ArenaNet to see how much people would pay for what is probably a pretty unique vanity option. In any case, heroes are gone from GW2 so this particular issue won't come up.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it."-Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
Arguing the audience targeting and comparable isn't necessary. The only point that matters here is what amount of financial influx does GW2 need to be "successful" to Anet. There is no question GW2 will sell many box copies, but how many do they need to sell to canabalize the costs of maintaining a full MMORPG with servers, developers, etc?
I anticipate GW2 to do fine in sales and supplement with "advanture packs" a la EQ2 that can be purchased via RMT. Or, they will skip right over the adventure packs and release "expansion packs" 1-2 times years.
While the market is somewhat saturated, both games will do well in initial sales, but TOR has a dependency on sub volume for commercial success - GW2 doesn't.
One look at GW's Cash shop shows that while it doesnt have a dependancy on subs, it will still require people to spend money on an ongoing basis to be viable and successful. They did not contrary to what many people would have you believe simply launch GW and give you everything free. To get the full GW experience from new would have set you back around £120 and that was quite a while back. (£30 GW Prophecies, £30 Nightfall £30 Factions and £30 eye of the north) not to mention buying the addon packs and the mercenaries in the cash shop). Thats just the basic editions by the way, on release day from Game.
Now the fact is they will likely do the same with GW 2 which means ongoing it will still require people to spend money, maybe not the same way as a Subscription game, but it does get a little tiresome that people try to make out that Anet are some kind of saints that are not at all interested in money.
Fact is the will want people to continue to spend after initial box purchases.
Uhhh...on release day? Really? All of those products you mentioned (Prophecies, Nightfall, EotN, Factions) came out significantly AFTER Guild Wars, and can be compared to expansion packs for other MMO's. Do you just "get" all the expansions for WoW (Cata, Burning Crusade...etc.) for "free" when you subscribe? No. You have to buy all of the expansions AND pay for a sub fee.
Sure there ar eextras sold in the cash shop, like the mercenary heroes you mentioned. But really, you don't need to buy them. They offer hardly any advantage, and are more of just a "taste" thing. Having a normal hero that is a warrior is pretty much statistically identical to a mercenary hero that's a warrior.
You pretty much DO get the whole Guild Wars game if you buy all the campaigns and expanions, just like any other MMORPG. There are extras in the cash shop, but they are generally extra things added after release and tend to be vanity-esque items.
It's worth noting that whether you bought Prophecies, Factions or Nightfall (... and you CAN buy them seperately), you were still 'viable and successful'. They never added a higher level cap, or more powerful equipment.
Buying the various Guild Wars gave you more content, but so far as being competitive goes, it wasn't that big of a deal.
... and mercenary heroes were released over 5 years after the beginning of the game, and really just make it SLIGHTLY easier to solo. ... and making the game easier to solo makes sense when the game is getting so old, and more people are interested in just playing by themselves (... and it's not even an MMO, so... yeah. Solo playing through the game isn't so weird)
I think it's reasonably safe to say that both games will do well because of their differing pricing, marketing and genre. It's entirely possible for one person to play both without them interfering with each other or a player's wallet.
Both are fairly niche MMOs and both will have certain competition from other games, but I don't see them competing with each other directly.
Look for competition within their respective genres.
Anarchy Online and Dark Age of Camelot released quite close to each other and, frankly, it was the fact that AO was a SciFi game that saved it due to its' poor launch state. Had both been same genre, it's likely one would have closed shop.
Whereas EQ and AC's subscription bases were both visually impacted by DAoC's launch.
Another good example are games that launched around the same time as WoW or its' expansions in the fantasy genre...May many of them rest in peace, or peices.
Compare that to Eve which has had a steady following for the same amount of time and hasn't ever really seen a truly negative impact from WoW's popularity or subscription base.
There really won't be a scuffle as many folks ARE going to buy both.
Plenty of room for both. Look at how many we have now that are making money and updating just fine. We all have things we prefer. Im not sure ill be trying the two mentioned but i know i will never play TOR. Its not my type of world. I might give GW2 a try though cause it is. THough I was not fond of GW1 but its suppose to be a lot different so im not sure at all yet.
If SWTOR became a success and GW2 failed then we're going to be doomed forever to have to play the WoW model for another 10 years because of SWTOR success. Just like what happened to WoW in 2004 because of its success it proved that WE the players want such games.
For me I hope GW 2 would succeed but I doubt it can even match SWTOR box sales.
Comments
TOR is shooting for an oct/nov 2011 release and it will sell like mad and have little worthy competition..
GW2 should release between march to june 2012 It will sell like mad also and likely gain many disgruntled players from TOR as the burnout sets in after 3-6 months..
GW2 with its B2P will keep selling boxes for years to come as a goto/tweener game not even counting the expansion packs, TOR carries with it the heavy duty IP of SWs and is made by the legendary developer bioware..
I believe these 2 games can co-exist and i am going to play them both also i disagree that they are apples and oranges as they are both AAA mmorpgs, the only real difference is one is in a space setting and one is in the fantasy setting, many gamers including myself like both..
Playing GW2..
Yeah... um...no. I don't agree with the OP and I think this topic is redundant and silly. Both games will have success. Some will play both and play one more than the other but this won't mean the Doom of either game. Lets face it, the fanbase alone will keep the games going even if both are truely bad games. They will at the minimum, have their nich to keep them going. I wouldn't start planning the death of a MMO and saying Anet will have to change the payment model or implode is about where I stopped taking your post seriousely. And to make it sound so black and white where only 2 games are in existence battleing for subs was pretty narrow minded. Good day.
RIP Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan and Paul Gray.
Mercenary heroes could be considered to affect in game power, but only barely. They allow you to use one of your characters as a hero. So if you did level up a class to max and give them perfectly upgraded weapons and armor, you'd be able to use one more of that class in a party than you would otherwise (3 ritualists instead of the 2 that are available). Or you could keep going to get 4, 5, etc, if you were willing to devote character slots to the same class as well.
I guess it could make farming easier or something for you if it was desirable to keep stacking the same class. Heroes are generally considered inferior to players so it might not be advantageous at all for the harder content. Also, considering the instanced nature of the game, it can't take away from anybody else's experience.
I think it was just an attempt by ArenaNet to see how much people would pay for what is probably a pretty unique vanity option. In any case, heroes are gone from GW2 so this particular issue won't come up.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." -Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
Uhhh...on release day? Really? All of those products you mentioned (Prophecies, Nightfall, EotN, Factions) came out significantly AFTER Guild Wars, and can be compared to expansion packs for other MMO's. Do you just "get" all the expansions for WoW (Cata, Burning Crusade...etc.) for "free" when you subscribe? No. You have to buy all of the expansions AND pay for a sub fee.
Sure there ar eextras sold in the cash shop, like the mercenary heroes you mentioned. But really, you don't need to buy them. They offer hardly any advantage, and are more of just a "taste" thing. Having a normal hero that is a warrior is pretty much statistically identical to a mercenary hero that's a warrior.
You pretty much DO get the whole Guild Wars game if you buy all the campaigns and expanions, just like any other MMORPG. There are extras in the cash shop, but they are generally extra things added after release and tend to be vanity-esque items.
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
It's worth noting that whether you bought Prophecies, Factions or Nightfall (... and you CAN buy them seperately), you were still 'viable and successful'. They never added a higher level cap, or more powerful equipment.
Buying the various Guild Wars gave you more content, but so far as being competitive goes, it wasn't that big of a deal.
... and mercenary heroes were released over 5 years after the beginning of the game, and really just make it SLIGHTLY easier to solo. ... and making the game easier to solo makes sense when the game is getting so old, and more people are interested in just playing by themselves (... and it's not even an MMO, so... yeah. Solo playing through the game isn't so weird)
even less if you count the launch of Euro WOW
WoW didnt launch in Europe until Feb 2005 -- 2 months before GW for both USA/EURO
EQ2 fan sites
I think it's reasonably safe to say that both games will do well because of their differing pricing, marketing and genre. It's entirely possible for one person to play both without them interfering with each other or a player's wallet.
Both are fairly niche MMOs and both will have certain competition from other games, but I don't see them competing with each other directly.
Look for competition within their respective genres.
Anarchy Online and Dark Age of Camelot released quite close to each other and, frankly, it was the fact that AO was a SciFi game that saved it due to its' poor launch state. Had both been same genre, it's likely one would have closed shop.
Whereas EQ and AC's subscription bases were both visually impacted by DAoC's launch.
Another good example are games that launched around the same time as WoW or its' expansions in the fantasy genre...May many of them rest in peace, or peices.
Compare that to Eve which has had a steady following for the same amount of time and hasn't ever really seen a truly negative impact from WoW's popularity or subscription base.
There really won't be a scuffle as many folks ARE going to buy both.
Plenty of room for both. Look at how many we have now that are making money and updating just fine. We all have things we prefer. Im not sure ill be trying the two mentioned but i know i will never play TOR. Its not my type of world. I might give GW2 a try though cause it is. THough I was not fond of GW1 but its suppose to be a lot different so im not sure at all yet.
If SWTOR became a success and GW2 failed then we're going to be doomed forever to have to play the WoW model for another 10 years because of SWTOR success. Just like what happened to WoW in 2004 because of its success it proved that WE the players want such games.
For me I hope GW 2 would succeed but I doubt it can even match SWTOR box sales.