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So will EAware just focus on milking its customers until SWTOR shuts down?
MrJurgens
Member Posts: 47
It's been reported that SWTOR is making HUGE profits ever since the transition to F2P, and if there's lots of profit being made, why is EAware solely focusing on milking its player-base and not making actual content? I actually do like the Cartel Market for allowing us to customize our character easier, but has EAware gone too far? Have you unsubbed or go as far as quit because you feel like EAware doesn't care about its loyal subscribers.
There's still a lack of content, especially on the PvP side of things. Some Operations in PvE weren't scaled to lv. 55, and it seems like the only "endgame content" EAware can come up with is a daily area and/or a FP or two to occupy most of us until they can finally release something major that will only end up growing into tedium in its first month or two out. Look at Arenas. They didn't help the PvP player-base AT ALL. The PvP player-base keeps on dying because EAware doesn't interact with those types of players, and has been shafting them ever since the removal of vanilla Ilum.
No, the "revamped" Ilum does NOT count as focus on PvP'ers. It has PvE missions and mainly caters to PvE'ers. That did not improve WPvP developed by the company whatsoever. Arenas don't count. A majority of the PvP'ers hated them, and competitive PvP has basically died off. Most if not all of the hardcore PvP guilds went inactive, while others completely quit altogether.
Although I'm not a PvE'er, it'll always be as stale as always. No matter how much "story" they put into it, the cutscenes will be spacebarred after the first or second time watching them, and when actually running the quests they happen to be nothing but the same cookie-cutter fetch quests. A majority of players who left SWTOR most likely didn't find that fun.
Personally, it's become nothing but a cash grab to make ends meet everyday. I don't why people fall for such immoral marketing tactics, but it's what's "casualizing" next-gen gaming and ruining it, and making almost no room for hardcore gamers to be cared about. I would think that real content would be coming at a steady pace, and that the PvP player-base would have jumped from its comatose state, but alas, most of the "content" that has come out is gouging the players for customization (both in the CM and by allowing players to change things about their character via CC), the PvP player-base is dying off and most of the major content that is released lacks the ability to engage its players for a long period of time.
So again, if SWTOR is supposedly making HUGE profits ever since the transition to F2P, why is EAware solely focusing on milking its player-base and not making actual content? Has EAware gone too far? Have you unsubbed or go as far as quit because you feel like EAware doesn't care about its loyal subscribers?
Post your 2 credits, and I look forward to a mature discussion. 
Comments
EA is a corporation, whose primary charge is to make the most profit from the least investment.
They will only add content that has a strong likelihood of increasing their revenue/profits significantly above and beyond what it costs to make.
Concerns about the playerbase.... c'mon this is EA you should know better by now.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Its been reported they are making huge profits? Where have you seen this?
I googled "huge profits swtor", and nothing came up. Most recent was from May which claimed revenue was doubled. That may not have been a hard feat to accomplish, and it was back in May. I would suspect there are far fewer players now. Its just a bad game. F2P or not. F2P is about milking your customer base.
Well it seems like F2P player-base is increasing, but the subscriber player-base is decreasing. Subs shot down 75%, and sub reports around May show SWTOR was sitting at just under 500k. It'll definitely spike up due to the release of GS, but there's no doubt in my mind it's much lower than what it was after the release of RotHC.
I say that because it's the players who are, respectfully, defending SWTOR that keep claiming that sub numbers are up and EAware is making "huge profits".
I'd like to get other people's take on it.
It's EA, what do you expect? I would think that the so called huge profits are exaggerated and are not really profits at all but that EA are still recouping the losses they've suffered after making a very expensive failure.
Let's face it, EA are not known for delivering the best game experience now, they are driven by nothing other that profit margins.
Hard to have a mature discussion with an OP so full of vitriol.
I'm not a part of the "SWTOR community" (I played casually at launch) but as an observer, this kind of post does more harm that good for a game, if you indeed want it to succeed.
In addition, I did resub to try out the Galactic Starfighter content and am looking forward to trying it out. So, to connect this with the OP - I paid money and I wasn't a part of that "playebase" so they're clearly getting "Milk" from more places than just those poor content-deprived current SWTOR playerbase.
If in 1982 we played with the current mentality, we would have burned down all the pac man games since the red ghost was clearly OP. Instead we just got better at the game.
It's not a pvp centric game (thankfully), so don't expect them to focus on PvP. Only in certain instances where the workload is considerably less (see the upcoming Galactic Starfighter) will they make PvP their focus.
The PvE crowd is simply much much larger and much more prone to buy stuff for looks and lore etc (in short; Cartel shoppers, which is where EAware's big bucks are being made atm in SWTOR). Imo the upcoming GS stuff is an experiment for them to see if the pvpers will also buy their customization stuff.
As for myself; Im fine with whatever they do. I've been subbed a couple of times, when it suited me. I enjoy the game for what it is; a storydriven alt-centric online rpg which is more fun when played with 1 or more friends (but no more than 3).
I´m preferred status and haven´t put a cent into the game since it went F2P. Got a boatload of cartel coins as previous subscriber, unlocked some stuff and am playing a couple of warzones every now and then.
Do they care about subscribers, nope probably not, they care about doing their thing I guess. Whatever that is.
Do any games even exist that do not have some sort of value added items, above and beyond the purchase of the game itself? Why focus on EA and SWToR for this? Video games are almost based around the idea of getting people to buy more than just the base game.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
They made 100 million in box sales at launch, and made at least 50 million month 2 in subs. Thats 150 million in its first 2 months, not even couting counting continued box sales. The game continued to have over a million subs well after the first month, and at its lowest has had at least just under 500k subscriptions to this day. Lets not forget all of the cash shop money being spent after F2P, where their revenu "dpubled". Im not defending the game one bit, its terrible as an MMO, but do you seriouslly think they have not recouped the initial develpment investment as of yet?
Yes but then EVERY game company is essentially milking its client base until its game shuts down.
No matter how cynical you become, its never enough to keep up - Lily Tomlin
Not perse. They sold quite a few boxes at launch (2 million range is what they said), that's almost half the investment right there.
I think they have made back there money by now..but the initial box sales is not their profit...the might have made half that since they have to sell at a discount to the distributor who marks up and sells it to the retailer..when then sells it to us for $50.
Manufacturer > Distributor > Retailer all three are going to want to make some profit.
Unless you directly buy from EA..then yah that was all profit for them. I imagine taht is why most of the Manufacturers are moving to direct digital downloads.. More money for them.
No matter how cynical you become, its never enough to keep up - Lily Tomlin
Wait, I thought SWTOR had shut down already? I've been reading about it's inevitable and impending demise ever since release, surely, given the genius and insight of forum goers, those predictions must have long since come to pass?
I wonder just how long the internet herd is going to nurse this grudge with endless idiotic vitriol-filled bleats.
Honestly, aren't you people even a little embarrassed by this pathetic ranting? Haven't you figured out that the game will and has gone on, your unhealthy anger notwithstanding?
"...immoral marketing tactics..."
What planet are you from? I guess you can define "immoral" any old way?
Ahnog
Hokey religions are no replacement for a good blaster at your side.
If you really want a laugh, look at the OP's posting history.
This is his weekly SWTOR troll thread.
No matter anyone's opinion on the cash shop model there is still nothing required from it to play the game if you sub. Blowing tons of cash is entirely up to the player.
Also content is being made. I am not a fan of the direction of content lately (arena and a little too much use of the CS for items) but content comes out roughly at the rate promised as of late. My biggest complaint lately is the lack of effort to balance issues well known for many months to over a year.
If people complain about the space combat coming it is because many other complained they wanted it so they go it. If other content was being made then whining about space combat would still be happening. The end result is content is coming out roughly no slower or faster than most other live mmos.
The OP discounts content because he didn't like it. That isn't logical in any way. Content is content. The major issue is the lack of community communication from Bioware. We often do not know what is coming or being worked on until frustrations run high. Current tech limitations and problems likely dominate what content direction they chose to go yet they do not tell us anything and likely flat out lie (marketing spin) when it is released. I know 4v4 arena came out because server pools for pvp are not large enough to handle 8v8 without cross server queue ... but they spun it into something "we wanted". No "we" didn't want it. A few hardcore idiots into brainless death match console style pvp wanted it. The VAST majority wanted what was promised to use ... 8v8 rated, more warzones and more open world pvp.
The reason why Ilum isn't around much is likely technical as well. I for one liked the free for all open world pvp and wish it occurred every month or was around at all times but I am 100% sure why we don't see it often is for reason Bioware ISN'T telling us.
The OP may have frustrations with the game like most of us but saying content doesn't come out or at a timely manner is a flat out lie and he continues to lie on his campaign of butthurt. He is illogical and simply a brat who can't walk away from a game but instead cries about how Bioware pissed in his cornflakes and ruined his life.
You stay sassy!
Hence why i listed multiple revenue sources, and not just physical box sales.
Its silly to think EA has not made money on the game, in addition to recouping their initial development +advratising etc investments.
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