Lundli Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Listen , I never ever believed in paid "haters" , My first MMO was UO , never ever have I seen the amount of vitriol towards an inanimate object like seen here against this game and BIO/EA . Theres no question in my mind that there has been a lot money thrown in to destroying the community and discouraging people from playing/re-subbing the game. call me crazy. (I would have, then I had the misfortune of reading this forums) Hmm.. Wasn't there someone actually admitting to have done just that on the AoC forums? *runs off to do some research* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimpleGL Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Actual quotes that are relevant here... the data is actually quite clear: From the Q&A: Q: When we will start to see the effect of the 1.7 million subscribers? What’s the impact of on-going R&D for providing the new content? A: It's still very early. It is hard to extrapolate where those 1.7 million subscribers lead or mean, but it’s a great start. We have huge plans. Lots of end-game content and even expansion packs. It will involve R&D post launch and we took care of some of it pre-launch. It’s a little early to identify what those all will specifically be and what our goals will be. as mentioned, we will be increasing marketing support. Q: Are these 1.7 subscribers paying? A: Active subscribers means anyone paying or in their trial period. Most of those 1.7m are paying at this point. ****** It's pretty clear that they are talking about numbers today, or from a few days ago, if most of the 1.7m are "paying at this point." Quotes are from the EA prepared comments, available here: http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ERTS/1670728299x0x539144/d895626f-e715-4f00-bd50-31bf095027fd/Q3_Script_-_20_2112_1251pm.pdf Q&A from the conference call are transcribed by Darth Hater. They did all the work to pull together the relevant points... I'm just quoting them to stop the rampant nonsense claims by desperate naysayers. Darth Hater's summary (with more details) is available here: http://www.darthhater.com/articles/swtor-news/19915-electronic-arts-q3-fy12-earnings-call this post deserves a +1 or even a +2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kharnis Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 1. Incorrect, they said 500,000 would be enough for it to be, "substantially profitable" in their words. Substantially profitable, breaking even, two very different things. Now, we don't know how long they needed to retain those numbers, but that's what was actually said. 2. Can you please give me a link? I don't doubt you at all, don't take it that way. I'm just curious to see for myself. I'm not necessarily disagreeing with your whole point, I'm just saying that 500k being bare minimum is incorrect. Sorry, but you're the one who's incorrect, I'm afraid. Q: You've previously said you need about a half million subscribers to be profitable, is that still the case? A: At 500,000 subscribers, we'd break even. At a million, we'd be making a profit but nothing worth writing home about. As it scales up from there, we're talking about a nice profit. At this point with the successful launch, we can take the worst case scenarios off the table. From Darth Hater Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimudthesecond Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 I doubt they are on the same league yet. But who knows, maybe in few years. How many people from the west play WoW now? I heard 2 mill left last year... i kno most subs come from asia, best market for mmo's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobTheTeepo Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Sorry, but you're the one who's incorrect, I'm afraid. From Darth Hater http://www.gamespot.com/news/star-wars-the-old-republic-needs-only-500k-subscribers-ea-6297338 Well, that's odd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trublmaker Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Listen , I never ever believed in paid "haters" , My first MMO was UO , never ever have I seen the amount of vitriol towards an inanimate object like seen here against this game and BIO/EA . Theres no question in my mind that there has been a lot money thrown in to destroying the community and discouraging people from playing/re-subbing the game. call me crazy. (I would have, then I had the misfortune of reading this forums) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15869683 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ansultares Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 (edited) Hmm.. Wasn't there someone actually admitting to have done just that on the AoC forums? *runs off to do some research*There was also an obvious developer trolling the forums in support of the game. At least, three years of hindsight suggest that he was obviously a developer, because there was really no logical explanation for him to be so invested in the game otherwise. I've read some really thin arguments in support of this game; so thin that I wonder if the people posting them even played the game. They keep talking about how great the story is; give an example. 70 levels, 50 on one char and 20 on another, produced all of one amusing quest (on Coruscant; try guessing which one). I didn't even finish Act 1 before the cutscenes became repetitive and the choices became obviously meaningless. Edited February 2, 2012 by Ansultares Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jett-Rinn Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 How many people from the west play WoW now? I heard 2 mill left last year... i kno most subs come from asia, best market for mmo's. Around 8 mil Asian players and a little under 2 mil NA and European players.....probably less there should be a Activision investor call soon and most people are predicting Mike Morhiame to say that they are down another million..and then of course say they will be back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knockerz Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 This is good news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustTed Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Hmm.. Wasn't there someone actually admitting to have done just that on the AoC forums? *runs off to do some research* http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15869683 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcburly Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 well bioware as charlie sheen would say: WINNING! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ansultares Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Around 8 mil Asian players and a little under 2 mil NA and European players.....probably less there should be a Activision investor call soon and most people are predicting Mike Morhiame to say that they are down another million..and then of course say they will be back.There's been a floating pop of about 1M MMO gamers who've been wandering from new release to new release, usually stopping back at WoW between releases. I'm getting the impression that SWTOR has drawn heavily from the remaining ~3M NA/EU WoW subscribers; all the haters you see are from that floating 1M, who are looking for the more traditional MMO, and not the generic crap WoW became and SWTOR continued with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forsbacka Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 How many people from the west play WoW now? I heard 2 mill left last year... i kno most subs come from asia, best market for mmo's. Might have left from Asia. But as we dont know the whole story, we can go only with offcial numbers prived by EA and Blizzard and so far WoW and TOR competion is hardly one. Maybe in future though, WoW subs will drop til MoP and after the raise that comes after that they have to maintain as much subs they can till Titan is ready. But so far its been most succesfull game ever in history of gaming any genre moneywise and it made Blizzard one of the biggest game company in the world when merged with acticision. WoW is 7/8 years old so would be suprise if subs wouldnt drop by now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lethality Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Hmm.. Wasn't there someone actually admitting to have done just that on the AoC forums? *runs off to do some research* No, that was me. I was there but wasn't paid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreatEski Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 That's a rather large retention rate. I'm pleased to see that the game is doing well. Now lets hope Bioware can remain worthy of those numbers and maintain the game properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerokTalram Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Electronic Arts Inc. EA -2.39% today announced preliminary financial results for its third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2011. Hey, hope it's true. If they are making that kind of money, they should have plenty of capital to improve it. I'm not hoping the game fails or anything, but 1.7 million subscriptions out of 2 million sales as pretty close to a 100% retention rate which I would find very hard to believe even for the most amazing of games. So 85%=100% does it? I don't know the numbers for other MMO launches but I'm sure 85% retention after the first month is Good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aleryan Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Have to say Im quite enjoying this thread, only 1/3 thru it but I just have to say how delicious the tears are, from the haters...oh how they arw so filling. Yeah, the F2P in 6 months crowd sure look like total morons now, but thats not surprising...also that 'stock analyst' from a couple weeks ago, not looking to hot now, is he? Now, back to reading... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tygranir Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 So 85%=100% does it? I don't know the numbers for other MMO launches but I'm sure 85% retention after the first month is Good. It's unheard of. As far as I know, no other MMO has boasted those numbers after month 1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harower Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 I'm in the group of paid for an extra month past the free one but cancelled subscription. Ive got a counting down active subscription. I don't plan on playing past it but you never know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tygranir Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 I'm in the group of paid for an extra month past the free one but cancelled subscription. Ive got a counting down active subscription. I don't plan on playing past it but you never know. What does this have to do with this thread? EA still got your money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jett-Rinn Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 (edited) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15869683 Yep when I was consulting for SOE they had a company called Viralbuzz shopping them their biggest selling point was they helped Blizzard retain customers through three competitors launches. When you see these make $40.00 a day online ads....most of the time it is working for some type of Astroturfing company. It has been painfully obvious that there is a group like that on these forums...many times however the Mods know about them and they are taken care of...but these companies will buy ten to fifteen subs for every person they have working on a specific account. of course many Trolls still gladly grief a new MMO just for the lulz and they have no problem buying a couple accounts to keep the fun rolling. This is why Arenanet refuses to have official forums; Mile O'Brian Anets CEO will tell you many horror stories about Astroturfers, Disgruntled fans of other games and plain ol Trolls and how they can screw up a vibrant community. As Gabe and Tycho once said: They are among us Edited February 2, 2012 by Jett-Rinn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drewser Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 The stupidity is so strong with this forum.. The REASON SW:TOR made us put in a credit card number before even getting the first month is two-fold.. 1.) To release these incredibly faulty, inflated numbers to appear successful 2.) To purposely "remove" the Unsubscribe button the day before and day of the point when the free month ends, thus scamming thousands of people into simply staying without choice. Take those two things out and we're down to easily 500k.. if not less. Dwindling by the day. LOL! This is great stuff. Let me know when the acid is out of your system and you come back to reality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lethality Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Yep when I was consulting for SOE they had a company called Viralbuzz shopping them their biggest selling point was they helped Blizzard retain customers through three competitors launches. When you see these make $40.00 a day online ads....most of the time it is working for some type of Astroturfing company. It has been painfully obvious that there is a group like that on these forums...many times however the Mods know about them and they are taken care of...but these companies will buy ten to fifteen subs for every person they have working on a specific account. of course many Trolls still gladly grief a new MMO just for the lulz and they have no problem buying a couple accounts to keep the fun rolling. This is why Arenanet refuses to have official forums; Mile O'Brian Anets CEO will tell you many horror stories about Astroturfers, Disgruntled fans of other games and plain ol Trolls and how they can screw up a vibrant community. As Gabe and Tycho once said: They are among us I really, really think the tinfoil hat is a bit too tight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VelJharig Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 For the record, my assertion of a 51% retention rate was way off. He did explicitly state that 2M units were sold; while he didn't say how many active subscriptions there were, he also said explicitly that 1.7M of the 2M units sold have been activated. No... he said explicitly that 2M units were sold to date, and he also said explicitly that there were currently 1.7M active subscriptions. The difference between the 2M and 1.7M was described as: "As John stated, we have sold through two million units of the game since December. We currently have a little over 1.7 million active subscribers. The rest have either not started playing yet or have opted out." That means that more than 1.7M have activated accounts (because some of those have opted out after activating their accounts), but less than 2M have activated accounts because some sold units haven't started playing the game yet. Active subscriptions for the 1.7M figure were defined as: "Active subscribers means anyone paying or in their trial period. Most of those 1.7m are paying at this point." There are two groups not in "active subscribers": 1) purchasers that "opted out" and are no longer in their trial period, nor do they have an active subscription; 2) purchasers that haven't activated their retail sale yet. Those are all considered "the rest" of the sales between 2M and the 1.7M active subscribers. More complete quotes available in my earlier post on this page: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=2421449#post2421449 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nastynas Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 (edited) I refuse to believe this EA Bioware! That's not true! That's impossible! Edited February 2, 2012 by Nastynas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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