NOW = 1.7 Million Active Subscribers | 3 Months from now = Guess What

[Drewser]

1.7million is not "now" - that was at the end of EA's last fiscal quarter.

 

 

 

 

You don't have a clue what you're talking about. Those are QUARTERLY result conferences. They are *never* about real-time numbers on any type of business. It's the results of the companies success/failure over the last quarter and what they're going to do to improve or continue.

 

100% wrong. By stating the above you are simply making known to all of us that you have never participated on quarterly earnings calls.

Edited February 4, 2012 by Drewser

[Kalfear]

Significantly less no matter how good the comming updates are

 

MMO hoppers made up a huge portion of the launch playerbase along with a bunch of already unhappy SWG veterans that likely won't stick around for this game

 

Ummmm you know the SWGers dont even make up 1% of the current player base

 

so why mention them at all?

 

Your right about the hoppers.

 

That my biggest annoyance with modern developers.

 

We all know these hoppers are going to hop hop hop, regardless of how a game made. Its what they do.

 

Yet if you look at who demands faster, sloppier, easier

 

Its those same hoppers!

 

So basically developers right now design for a group of people that will never show any loyalty or dedication to a franchise no matter how much it panders to them.

 

Program to your long term base devs.

 

PS: (regarding a diff poster) GW2 will not be this industry topping game. GW2 will be GW1 all over again with the same crowd!

 

So can people STOP yakking like GW2 is going to top the charts and lead the genre forward.

 

ITS NOT.

 

Really cant say it any more clear then that!

Want to know why its not, go learn about the actual genre and its history, designs, trends.

GW2 is not ground breaking, not innovative, not anything but a cash grab with a B2P that will go F2P in a year.

[RobHouse]

...all of us that you have never participated on quarterly earnings calls.

 

Mo' money mo' problems... how is EA gonna deal with that huh? HUH?!

[Aquiraj]

He said the majority of 1.7 million were active subscribers.

Nothing more than that.

[Marroc]

ROFL @ "SWG Vets won't stay around for long"

 

You mean all 17 of you?

[Restepor]

It's probably going to stay roughly the same, may go up by .1 or down by .1. I can't really say though.

[Sandriell]

He said the majority of 1.7 million were active subscribers.

Nothing more than that.

 

That's funny, considering the word "majority" doesn't even appear anywhere in the entire report- or the press release.

Edited February 4, 2012 by Sandriell

[SomeDudeIsanub]

ROFL @ "SWG Vets won't stay around for long"

 

You mean all 17 of you?

 

We're very noisy.

[Aquiraj]

That's funny, considering the word "majority" doesn't even appear anywhere in the entire report- or the press release.

 

That's because it's called Marketing.

 

 

The quote from the Quarter call.

 

"The majority of these subscribers are paying customers already."

 

 

Since most are basing the numbers on the call rather than the report (Which ended on Dec 31, 2011) then yes, I'm sure they did have that many subscribers considering we were all on the free month by that criteria.

 

This is the same thing Rift did.

This is the same thing Star Trek did.

Then dropped the purchase price. Swtor dropped the price on Amazon already...

 

A game that is supposedly exploding like this...does not drop the price of the game this early after release.

[WhiskyJax]

That's funny, considering the word "majority" doesn't even appear anywhere in the entire report- or the press release.

 

Really we need to give the numbers a rest because if you go to a yahoo article it quotes one set you go to Darth Hater you get another and if you go to the quarterly and read what

Frank Gibeau says you get :" We currently have a little over 1.7 million active subscribers. The rest have either not started playing yet or have opted out. " which in its self can be spun in any direction depending how much you want t he game to fail

 

One big issue with the numbers is due to how they have the servers set up and even if there were mods available to take a snapshot it would only be a shapshot of either Empire or Republic and not both...

 

 

If a full server =10000 and generally only 20-25% are online at once you end up with 2000-2500 players on a server, divide that by faction and you get 1000-1250, spread that out between ships and stations and planets and those numbers get even smaller...

 

I suppose another way to look at it for those of you who believe the pop is closer to a million max would be to log into Wow (if you play) and divide there server pops by TEN bet that server doesn't look too full now ...

[jarjarloves]

The Old Republic CAN NEVER offer a free 7 day trial period.

In all honesty, this is a single player game. In 7 days, you can pretty much beat a storyline for a quest.

 

This game is going to be going Free To Play when Diablo 3 and Guild Wars cannibalize the market.

 

The utter lack of a decent endgame experience doesn't help customer retention either - people run out of things to do.

 

you misspelled chaos and fire.

 

i love it when people say there is no end game

 

as for no free trail just do what every other mmo does and limit the level you can get to

[Additc]

Then dropped the purchase price. Swtor dropped the price on Amazon already...

 

A game that is supposedly exploding like this...does not drop the price of the game this early after release.

 

EA BioWare or Lucaarts do not controll the price people sell stuff on Amazon. Do you even know what Amazon is?

 

And now a days the prices of games drop fast. Hell most likely the only time your going to pay that full price for a game is for a preorder and the first few weeks after. Even then you can find sales and deals anyway. Especially on Amazon.

[Sandriell]

That's because it's called Marketing.

 

 

The quote from the Quarter call.

 

"The majority of these subscribers are paying customers already."

 

 

Since most are basing the numbers on the call rather than the report (Which ended on Dec 31, 2011) then yes, I'm sure they did have that many subscribers considering we were all on the free month by that criteria.

 

First of all, they cannot lie on earnings reports or press releases. These are governed by very strict laws. Sure, there is going to be some spin to try and make things sound positive, but to imply its all entirely marketing, shows how ignorant you are of the process.

 

Secondly, I'll just ignore the fact the you are ignoring the press release and give you this from the earnings report.

 

"Star Wars®: The Old Republic has generated 1.7 million active subscribers and sold through more than 2 million units in a little over one month."

 

Game released on December 20th... report was on Feb 1st... 40 days later. Hey, look at that, a "little over one month" later.

 

Swtor dropped the price on Amazon already...

 

A game that is supposedly exploding like this...does not drop the price of the game this early after release.

 

Is this the latest troll attempt? A retailer has the game on sale so clearly the price is dropping because the game is failing? EA didn't drop the price, Amazon did. List price is still $59.95. Still costs $59.99 if you buy it from EA.

[AislingKerrigan]

3 months from now it'll probably be over 2 million. With the marketing picking up it'll just keep climbing. This first year will be very much like WoW's first year. I'm already hearing people who aren't die-hard MMO gamers talking about 'that star wars MMO' like it's the next big thing. That and I see commercials for it during major TV shows and I bet they're going to put ads for TOR before each showing of the 3D Star Wars movies in theaters.

[Rohanshot]

3 months from now it'll probably be over 2 million. With the marketing picking up it'll just keep climbing. This first year will be very much like WoW's first year. I'm already hearing people who aren't die-hard MMO gamers talking about 'that star wars MMO' like it's the next big thing. That and I see commercials for it during major TV shows and I bet they're going to put ads for TOR before each showing of the 3D Star Wars movies in theaters.

 

I'm honestly wondering something. What commercials are exactly on TV about SWTOR? I have yet to see one other than a TV spot. Could you put some links?

[AislingKerrigan]

I'm honestly wondering something. What commercials are exactly on TV about SWTOR? I have yet to see one other than a TV spot. Could you put some links?

 

I've seen this one during shows on FOX and even once during a football game:

 

Only difference is there was also a short ad about Episode I 3D being in theater.

 

edit: It also played during FOX's 'Touch' which had over 19 million viewers. That's some SERIOUS marketing on EA's part.

Edited February 4, 2012 by AislingKerrigan

[Drewser]

I'm honestly wondering something. What commercials are exactly on TV about SWTOR? I have yet to see one other than a TV spot. Could you put some links?

 

I saw one and it was this:

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/swtheoldrepublic?v=FXGrXDlAhlc&feature=pyv&ad=20366037572&kw=star%20wars%20the%20old%20republic

[Gules]

I have no idea where it will be in a year, but I'll throw out a guess of 700K. They can squawk all they want about 1.7 million subs, but those people aren't playing. I knew 11 people who started at launch, plus myself. I'm the only one who subbed for a second month. The servers have about 1/4 to 1/3 the numbers they had 3 weeks ago- unless the counts provided in the UI are lying, but I don't think so...you can run around Nar Shaada or Tatooine or anywhere else you want and see almost no one, even during prime time. Numbers can lie, eyes really don't.

 

I'm pretty sure they expect a huge drop, and it's why they didn't offer a couple weeks of open beta. The game is too easy, and too repetitive. They need to get some hi-res textures out stat, because the 3D modelling is pretty good, but the crayon-drawn textures make the game look 8 years old. EQ2 and LOTRO are OLD games, and both are far superior graphically to SWTOR. It's not everything, but it's a big part of the initial impression.

 

The biggest mistake when it comes to retention is that they didn't make an MMO. They made a single player game where you need a group once in a very great while, and that isn't what most MMO players want. SWTOR won't die, but it won't threaten WoW (or even LOTRO), and it's a gigantic disappointment in most ways to a very large number of people. We expected filet mignon, and got a slab of fried Spam on a paper plate.

[dividedconker]

1.7 million active subs....Whatever anyone's opinions of this game are, good or bad, time will definitely tell.

 

As a trader, my advice would be to 'short' this one for the mid to long term.

[dividedconker]

We expected filet mignon, and got a slab of fried Spam on a paper plate.

 

In its defence I find a fried Spam sandwhich is a great hangover sponge, but yes you're right, I wouldn't order it in a restaurant..... (to extend the metaphor sightly).

[Kuhboose]

I just discovered the website Guild Wars 2 Guru and went through all the information the guys collected from Guild Wars 2 so far. In terms of features and how cool those features are, I think GW2 tops SW: TOR in every way. This game has potential, but damn GW2 will be launching with **** load of features when compared to what this game launched with. Kind of scary when compared to this game, feature wise. Bioware need to step it up. That's just what I think.

 

Well if you go back and read what the devs were promising at launch, the list was quite extensive compared to what they launched with. Sadly for Guild Wars 2, they will open the doors with a big bang, but as quick as people burn through the games, even if this was a story driven mmo meant to enjoy the story, people will clear all Guild Wars 2 has to offer relatively soon.

 

Bioware played it smart and as long as they push out new content every month or so, then realistically, they have a better chance of holding their numbers high as it is. The aesthetics of Guild Wars 2 doesn't look appeasing to me anyways, another fantasy driven based mmo which will probably have horrible dialogue and more then you can count "go kill x creatures or you get nothing" quests then I could stomach.

[AislingKerrigan]

GW2 isn't a direct competition for TOR. It's the kind of game you can play at the same time or take a break from TOR and come back. GW1 was a huge success but it's impact on WoW and other MMOs was minimal. In fact ArenaNet welcomes players to buy their game, play it for a bit, then leave and return to their MMO, then come back later when there's a new expansion.

 

No subscription = no demand to keep players with them

[Bone_Machine]

I tried really hard to like this game but I'm pretty much done with it already due to experiencing operations that can be face rolled in 2-3 hours and all the boring, 3 button pvp I can handle so here's my prediction.

 

<1.5 Million within 3 months.

 

<1 Million after Diablo 3 release.

 

<500k after MoP release.

 

I'm expecting Swtor to use the "Freemium" (god I hate that word) business model within 18 months. Re-rolling is not a viable alternative to meaningful endgame content. I may return in the future so I hope it doesn't come to that but I cannot justify spending any more of my money to beta test Bioware's game for them.

Edited February 4, 2012 by Bone_Machine

[crazysam]

I believe it can only grow! More and more poeple are getting bored of that other major MMO and they are losing more subs everyday! Hopefully they will come to TOR rather than GW2 wich is seriously overhyped.

[AislingKerrigan]

I tried really hard to like this game but I'm pretty much done with it already due to experiencing operations that can be face rolled in 2-3 hours and all the boring, 3 button pvp I can handle so here's my prediction.

 

<1.5 Million within 3 months.

 

<1 Million after Diablo 3 release.

 

<500k after MoP release.

 

I'm expecting Swtor to use the "Freemium" (god I hate that word) business model within 18 months. Re-rolling is not a viable alternative to meaningful endgame content.

 

I'm in the Diablo 3 beta. Fun game - but it won't have as much impact on TOR as people think. And it will have no appeal to the Bioware fans and people interested in an RPG-story driven game. That and it's all but confirmed that the game won't even make a Q1 release.