SWTOR has been a powerhouse of money making for many years, last 2 years it was in the top 5 subscription MMO titles along with wow and Tera (yes f2p games with optional subs are still counted).
SWTOR has been a powerhouse of money making for many years, last 2 years it was in the top 5 subscription MMO titles along with wow and Tera (yes f2p games with optional subs are still counted).
Yea, it makes a ton of money. You can tell from the very small amount of people you will ever see in the game that most of them spend a lot of money on the game. Everyone is riding mounts and wearing cosmetics from lootboxes. All of trade chat is people selling items from lootboxes. Tour strongholds and you will see plenty of decorations from lootboxes as well.
A lot of money is being spent in the cash shop. Considering it is the only 'content' they seem to consistently update and/or care about I am glad people get some use out of it.
But is it really an accomplishment to be in the top 5. I mean you said yourself that Tera is in that list; I actually forgot that game even existed.
SWTOR has been a powerhouse of money making for many years, last 2 years it was in the top 5 subscription MMO titles along with wow and Tera (yes f2p games with optional subs are still counted).
Yea, it makes a ton of money. You can tell from the very small amount of people you will ever see in the game that most of them spend a lot of money on the game. Everyone is riding mounts and wearing cosmetics from lootboxes. All of trade chat is people selling items from lootboxes. Tour strongholds and you will see plenty of decorations from lootboxes as well.
A lot of money is being spent in the cash shop. Considering it is the only 'content' they seem to consistently update and/or care about I am glad people get some use out of it.
But is it really an accomplishment to be in the top 5. I mean you said yourself that Tera is in that list; I actually forgot that game even existed.
• In Q3, STAR WARS™: The Old Republic grew to its highest subscriber level in nearly three years.
Indeed. And as others have said "what a surprise - not!".
Looking back nearly 3 years:
Rise of the Hutt Cartel launched in April 2013 which - people may recall - EA priced at $20 or free to subscribers; subscribing to get RotHC + cartel coins etc. rather than buying it was the obvious deal in town. And EA announced subs of nearly 500k.
So probably safe to say that whatever high water mark subs have hit was lower than this.
I tried KOTFE during this period and I just can't believe this. I played all the major expansions and KOTFE was the deadest I've ever seen SWTOR.
I would see 50 people on the station usually. Single digits when in my ship. Single digits on the vast majority of planets. Single digits in the KOTFE story instances. I don't remember if you can see other player numbers in stronghold or not, but if so I wasn't impressed.
I just kept asking myself where the players were, I still have no idea. I'm so confused by this because what I saw when I played during this period was a game that was dead. Are all the subs just rolling alts and playing more stories? Maybe a lot of people are running dungeons? I already know how big the PvP crowd in that game is so I know that wasn't it. Maybe there is a daily quest area at the end that I didn't get to?
I have no idea, I find this really hard to believe; somebody tell me where in the game all these players are and what they are doing because I saw a ghost town. . .
Well did you happen to check what instance you was in on fleet? Everytime I am on fleet either rub or emp side there is anywhere from 100 to 200 people the only times I see under 100 is when I am in a second instance.
SWTOR has been a powerhouse of money making for many years, last 2 years it was in the top 5 subscription MMO titles along with wow and Tera (yes f2p games with optional subs are still counted).
Doubtful. EA said c. 15 months ago that it's f2p revenue would have been $60M higher if it had not been for declines in (primarily) Sim City Online and SWTOR. So SWTOR activity clearly fell away - and post launch and with no films etc. to drive it that was no more of a surprise than this news.
Yeah sorry I just find it too hard to believe. While I can't speak for other servers. JC's pop during prime time hours or weekends. Does not reflect what is being said.
In War - Victory. In Peace - Vigilance. In Death - Sacrifice.
I'm not a huge fan of the direction Swtor went with it being basically a solo mmo with some multiplayer features. Yet, I've always said Swtor only did one thing right and that was the story (including companions). They were never going to be able to completely change the game to improve it after launch, like they needed to, with a smaller budget and staff.
So it is what it is, a Star Wars game set in the very popular Kotor era with an interesting story, not much else. I played it for 2 weeks to see the first 9 chapters of the new expansion, and I'll play briefly for the final 10 chapters when they are all released.
Haxus Council Member 21 year MMO veteran PvP Raid Leader Lover of The Witcher & CD Projekt Red
Yeah sorry I just find it too hard to believe. While I can't speak for other servers. JC's pop during prime time hours or weekends. Does not reflect what is being said.
You could easily be right..
You are talking about overall population; EA are talking about subscribers - a sub-set of the total population.
It is entirely possible that the population could be at its lowest level for nearly 3 years - we don't know btw I'm just saying.
Entirely possible however given that there is a new SW game - SW BF - on the block. "Slicker" in so many ways, ties to the new film and EA reported very good numbers for it. Arguably more of an mmo than SWTOR to boot!
SWTOR has been a powerhouse of money making for many years, last 2 years it was in the top 5 subscription MMO titles along with wow and Tera (yes f2p games with optional subs are still counted).
Yea, it makes a ton of money. You can tell from the very small amount of people you will ever see in the game that most of them spend a lot of money on the game. Everyone is riding mounts and wearing cosmetics from lootboxes. All of trade chat is people selling items from lootboxes. Tour strongholds and you will see plenty of decorations from lootboxes as well.
A lot of money is being spent in the cash shop. Considering it is the only 'content' they seem to consistently update and/or care about I am glad people get some use out of it.
But is it really an accomplishment to be in the top 5. I mean you said yourself that Tera is in that list; I actually forgot that game even existed.
Popped in, didn't see people, and popped out?
"Groundhog day" methods of determining healthy game populations generally lead to inaccurate assumptions about how many people really play the game.
SWTOR has been a powerhouse of money making for many years, last 2 years it was in the top 5 subscription MMO titles along with wow and Tera (yes f2p games with optional subs are still counted).
Doubtful. EA said c. 15 months ago that it's f2p revenue would have been $60M higher if it had not been for declines in (primarily) Sim City Online and SWTOR. So SWTOR activity clearly fell away - and post launch and with no films etc. to drive it that was no more of a surprise than this news.
In 2014 SWTOR made 163 million dollars. There are only a handful of titles that make that kind of money, Tera and WoW are the others and I think the last few are all ancient titles line L1.
If profits were down in 2015 it's because they were sky high in the previous year, they went way up again with the new expansion and film now though obviously.
SWTOR is a massive MMO in terms of profits, whether you like the most profitable games or not is irrelevant to the facts of it. I hate clash of clans, it still made over 1 billion dollars last year.
This disclosure is sooooooooooooooo way out in left field it might as well not even be posted.
There is so much that goes into accounting books and moving numbers around and MOST importantly trying to portray a thriving business to investors and stock holders.
NOTHING in the article is factual,it is NON AUDITED information and based solely on conjecture.I would absolutely 100% NEVER expect EA to announce a fail they would always manipulate the numbers as best they can without breaking the law and illegal accounting practices.
They COULD simply post the REAL numbers,the REAL books,with ALL expenses but they choose not to for obvious reasons.There can be such high costs with this operation as big as it is that they could easily be making no profits at all from some of these games,including SWTOR.
keypoints NON audited information
NON-GAAF generally accepted accounting practices again VAGUE assumptions.They use this because they like to make excuses that things change all the time and that some bad numbers might not be a TRUE measure of how well a developer or game is doing.However the REAL truth is they want it to APPEAR like it is doing better than it really is.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
SWTOR has been a powerhouse of money making for many years, last 2 years it was in the top 5 subscription MMO titles along with wow and Tera (yes f2p games with optional subs are still counted).
Duh. When they FORCE you to sub for content and then say, "Sub numbers are at an all time high", it really sounds very conceded. Especially after doing a transition to free to play.
I just find it pointless to sub to an offline rpg.
Because that is exactly what SWTOR has become. An offline rpg with a monthly sub and cash shop.
I don't hang out in fleet waiting for queues to pop. Sometimes I'll head to fleet if I feel like slumming it, but I rarely "need" to go there. Mostly I'm out in the worlds playing.
And yes, I'm still subbed.
I just subbed last week. I've seen good populations so far. I haven't even touched expansion level content yet. I'm still on Nar Shadda.
There's no doubt that the release of Force Awakens and their new expansion boosted subscription numbers. I still have to doubt this though. If their subscriptions numbers were really this high, their servers would all be full with queues. It's just not happening.
Don't forget they switched to mega servers long ago, back when the server merges happened. Those things have quite a capacity now when it comes to player numbers.
Yeah, but that still doesn't change the fact that their most populated server doesn't go past 200 concurrent players during peak times.
There's no doubt that the release of Force Awakens and their new expansion boosted subscription numbers. I still have to doubt this though. If their subscriptions numbers were really this high, their servers would all be full with queues. It's just not happening.
Don't forget they switched to mega servers long ago, back when the server merges happened. Those things have quite a capacity now when it comes to player numbers.
Yeah, but that still doesn't change the fact that their most populated server doesn't go past 200 concurrent players during peak times.
What? Are we still talking about SWTOR? That doesn't sound right at all... I am temporarily subscribed (I am going to let it drop) because I got the 20 dollars for 2 months +Cartel coins deal they had around Christmas. I saw 50 people on Makeb and 170 on the Imp fleet just yesterday... going to go double check.
Edit: 176 on imperial fleet in Shadowlands right now. I think that may have been a typo of '2000' which seems about right in my experience.
There's no doubt that the release of Force Awakens and their new expansion boosted subscription numbers. I still have to doubt this though. If their subscriptions numbers were really this high, their servers would all be full with queues. It's just not happening.
Don't forget they switched to mega servers long ago, back when the server merges happened. Those things have quite a capacity now when it comes to player numbers.
Yeah, but that still doesn't change the fact that their most populated server doesn't go past 200 concurrent players during peak times.
What? Are we still talking about SWTOR? That doesn't sound right at all... I am temporarily subscribed (I am going to let it drop) because I got the 20 dollars for 2 months +Cartel coins deal they had around Christmas. I saw 50 people on Makeb and 170 on the Imp fleet just yesterday... going to go double check.
Edit: 176 on imperial fleet in Shadowlands right now. I think that may have been a typo of '2000' which seems about right in my experience.
Now he's just plain old trolling. Usually when you do a search per planet, it gives back the message of only showing the first hundred results. There are easily thousands of players online during peak hours.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
I am a day 1 subscriber, the game has come a long way after switching to the hybrid model.
However, i believe that it is a good stretch away from reaching it's true potential. A number of bigger or smaller issues and nuisances are present many of them since launch. And Bioware's approach to some aspects doesn't make things easier. Like the companion God mode to mega nerf fiasco.
Still, imho it is one of the best theme park mmo's on the market and the future looks bright.
imo swtor needs new repeatable content. Not even sure what, but FP's are getting stale imo. I dont do Operation, well.... Rarely do Operations. KotFE didn't even launch with a new daily area, not to mention new FP's or Operations. I realy expected some of the chapters to come as FP's with a story intro and outro, but no.
Worst part for me with KotFE is levelling for me has lost it's apeal. It's just not the same with companions that strong, levelsync and no trinity FP's while levelling. Endgame was never my favorite part of SWTOR, so all this crazy speedlevelling is just not important for me.
Yeah not to surprising when you A: have a new SW movie out and B: you have to subscribe to get any of the new content. I wonder if we'll get an article on the upsurge of chimichanga sales once the new Deadpool movie comes out?
Simply this, mainly the fact that they do not sell the new expansion separately, for the full experience of the Fallen Empire have to have a sub. Tried to get it without a sub and there is no place to buy it like Hutt Cartel or Shadows of Revan. I was gone for a little over a year and Fallen Empire drew me back in.
I'm subscribed since summer, movie just bosted my wish to play lightsaber classes. Original Swtor to me is still best game ever along with nearly all Wow releases. I'm happy with this mini expansions to Swtor but personally would prefer to pay 60€ for expansion that would be worth in content to original release.
I am a day 1 subscriber, the game has come a long way after switching to the hybrid model.
However, i believe that it is a good stretch away from reaching it's true potential. A number of bigger or smaller issues and nuisances are present many of them since launch. And Bioware's approach to some aspects doesn't make things easier. Like the companion God mode to mega nerf fiasco.
Still, imho it is one of the best theme park mmo's on the market and the future looks bright.
As someone who plays SWTOR on and off since launch, can you please elaborate on the companion mega nerf? From my perspective companions are rather nice. Every comp can heal so you can play around solo. Encounters are easy enough and the companion manages to outheal a lot of the incoming damage. I even switch them to dps sometimes. Sure I play a guardian and am a bit more tanky than other classes but I don't usually play in Soresu. Also my Juggernaut is spec in Vengeance and i still get healed properly :O
I am a day 1 subscriber, the game has come a long way after switching to the hybrid model.
However, i believe that it is a good stretch away from reaching it's true potential. A number of bigger or smaller issues and nuisances are present many of them since launch. And Bioware's approach to some aspects doesn't make things easier. Like the companion God mode to mega nerf fiasco.
Still, imho it is one of the best theme park mmo's on the market and the future looks bright.
As someone who plays SWTOR on and off since launch, can you please elaborate on the companion mega nerf? From my perspective companions are rather nice. Every comp can heal so you can play around solo. Encounters are easy enough and the companion manages to outheal a lot of the incoming damage. I even switch them to dps sometimes. Sure I play a guardian and am a bit more tanky than other classes but I don't usually play in Soresu. Also my Juggernaut is spec in Vengeance and i still get healed properly :O
Companions weren't nerfed, they just don't get equipment bonuses any more, now their effectiveness is decided by how much influence you have with them, so its worth investing in boosting those influence levels, i think it makes more sense myself, but if you ignore the influence thing, then the companions are a bit weak, it really does make that much difference, on the other hand if you do work on improving influence then you can pretty much choose whatever play style you want, as they can tank or heal or even just dps pretty well, its a good system imo and i like it, the crafting however, i just can't be bothered with any more, thats the downside of the changes for me, i did have a lot of maxed out crafters that meant i didn't have to buy mods but just make them myself, now, they are virtually useless, and rather than start over i just abandoned crafting altogether. So good points and bad points, still subbed, will probably remain subbed for some time, see how things go.
Comments
A lot of money is being spent in the cash shop. Considering it is the only 'content' they seem to consistently update and/or care about I am glad people get some use out of it.
But is it really an accomplishment to be in the top 5. I mean you said yourself that Tera is in that list; I actually forgot that game even existed.
Indeed. And as others have said "what a surprise - not!".
Looking back nearly 3 years:
Rise of the Hutt Cartel launched in April 2013 which - people may recall - EA priced at $20 or free to subscribers; subscribing to get RotHC + cartel coins etc. rather than buying it was the obvious deal in town. And EA announced subs of nearly 500k.
So probably safe to say that whatever high water mark subs have hit was lower than this.
Clearly a shot in the arm for the game though.
Well did you happen to check what instance you was in on fleet? Everytime I am on fleet either rub or emp side there is anywhere from 100 to 200 people the only times I see under 100 is when I am in a second instance.
In War - Victory.
In Peace - Vigilance.
In Death - Sacrifice.
So it is what it is, a Star Wars game set in the very popular Kotor era with an interesting story, not much else. I played it for 2 weeks to see the first 9 chapters of the new expansion, and I'll play briefly for the final 10 chapters when they are all released.
21 year MMO veteran
PvP Raid Leader
Lover of The Witcher & CD Projekt Red
You could easily be right..
You are talking about overall population; EA are talking about subscribers - a sub-set of the total population.
It is entirely possible that the population could be at its lowest level for nearly 3 years - we don't know btw I'm just saying.
Entirely possible however given that there is a new SW game - SW BF - on the block. "Slicker" in so many ways, ties to the new film and EA reported very good numbers for it. Arguably more of an mmo than SWTOR to boot!
Which we all know is where devs of SWTOR and WoW would shiver of doing that.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
"Groundhog day" methods of determining healthy game populations generally lead to inaccurate assumptions about how many people really play the game.
If profits were down in 2015 it's because they were sky high in the previous year, they went way up again with the new expansion and film now though obviously.
SWTOR is a massive MMO in terms of profits, whether you like the most profitable games or not is irrelevant to the facts of it. I hate clash of clans, it still made over 1 billion dollars last year.
There is so much that goes into accounting books and moving numbers around and MOST importantly trying to portray a thriving business to investors and stock holders.
NOTHING in the article is factual,it is NON AUDITED information and based solely on conjecture.I would absolutely 100% NEVER expect EA to announce a fail they would always manipulate the numbers as best they can without breaking the law and illegal accounting practices.
They COULD simply post the REAL numbers,the REAL books,with ALL expenses but they choose not to for obvious reasons.There can be such high costs with this operation as big as it is that they could easily be making no profits at all from some of these games,including SWTOR.
keypoints NON audited information
NON-GAAF generally accepted accounting practices again VAGUE assumptions.They use this because they like to make excuses that things change all the time and that some bad numbers might not be a TRUE measure of how well a developer or game is doing.However the REAL truth is they want it to APPEAR like it is doing better than it really is.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I just find it pointless to sub to an offline rpg.
Because that is exactly what SWTOR has become. An offline rpg with a monthly sub and cash shop.
I've seen good populations so far.
I haven't even touched expansion level content yet. I'm still on Nar Shadda.
Edit: 176 on imperial fleet in Shadowlands right now. I think that may have been a typo of '2000' which seems about right in my experience.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
However, i believe that it is a good stretch away from reaching it's true potential. A number of bigger or smaller issues and nuisances are present many of them since launch. And Bioware's approach to some aspects doesn't make things easier. Like the companion God mode to mega nerf fiasco.
Still, imho it is one of the best theme park mmo's on the market and the future looks bright.
Worst part for me with KotFE is levelling for me has lost it's apeal. It's just not the same with companions that strong, levelsync and no trinity FP's while levelling. Endgame was never my favorite part of SWTOR, so all this crazy speedlevelling is just not important for me.
Simply this, mainly the fact that they do not sell the new expansion separately, for the full experience of the Fallen Empire have to have a sub. Tried to get it without a sub and there is no place to buy it like Hutt Cartel or Shadows of Revan. I was gone for a little over a year and Fallen Empire drew me back in.