MGriffith Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 Have sales really dropped off that much already? That is half the player base of the average succesfull MMO. It may be small compared to the initial sales rush, but it is not exactly insignificant. Their sales team has reached through the established channels the people already playing MMOs and who were looking for a new game. They now need to reach the people who might be interested a star wars (MMO) game but who do not follow the standard websites and publications. Thus the product placement in the television programs. They probably are trying to figure out a way to advertise with the clone wars cartoon that will reach a slightly older demographic that usually watches those cartoons. TOR is "one of" the most successful MMO's that you can play? Absolutely. "Most successful MMO through this period in the history of the industry" is a far cry from "one of" however. Well, you have WoW. And then you have SW:TOR if you look at the numbers. Unless of course you take into account the asian (korean and chinese) games which for some reason nobody ever does. There are a few of those that rival WoW. But that is not what they were refering to. After two months SW:TOR has more active subscribers than WoW had after two months. If you look at only the 'western' subscriptions then the numbers of SW:TOR and WoW are not so much different even today. It is too early to tell if the flattening out of the active subscription numbers of SW:TOR in february means that it reached its peak or that the game will continue to grow steadily. Much of that will depend on how succesful marketing is at reaching new players, and how many players will decide to leave for a new shiny. I know I would not want to release a major MMO this year between SW:TOR and Diablo 3. Player loyalty to a game is not what it used to be, but those that are still with the game at this point are more likely than not to remain so for the next several months. Well the first few months is when a new mmo is hottest. So it should do very well for the first few months. While I suspected the subscription numbers were already "settling," to actually read it was surprising. It depends on how you look at it. The number of potential players for a MMO are limited and there are a lot of contenders on the market. Taking 2 million of that pie is an achievement. And the typical MMO is looking at retaining 50pct after 3 months. So if you compare SW:TOR to WoW then it could have been doing better (though you have to keep in mind that the majority of WoWs customers is found in Asia these days, where SW:TOR is not yet available). If you compare it to titles like Rift, AION, EQ2 then it is doing much better than the competition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UmbralSpirit Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 I'm guessing around 2.2mill. The reason is because of the Asian Pasific launch as well as growing over time. What do you think it has right now? Let me answer your question by not answering it, as noone outside of Bioware/Electronic Arts knows the numbers. But one thing i can tell you from experience, the "Official" numbers they give out every now and then are...um how to say that? Prettified? all MMO Publishers do it, they always did, and they always will, you would too in theire shoes because saying "Hey guys we lost 50k subs this month" isnt exactly helpfull nor is it a good PR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Touchbass Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 (edited) Well, you have WoW. And then you have SW:TOR if you look at the numbers. Unless of course you take into account the asian (korean and chinese) games which for some reason nobody ever does. There are a few of those that rival WoW. But that is not what they were refering to. After two months SW:TOR has more active subscribers than WoW had after two months.If you look at only the 'western' subscriptions then the numbers of SW:TOR and WoW are not so much different even today. It is too early to tell if the flattening out of the active subscription numbers of SW:TOR in february means that it reached its peak or that the game will continue to grow steadily. Much of that will depend on how succesful marketing is at reaching new players, and how many players will decide to leave for a new shiny. I know I would not want to release a major MMO this year between SW:TOR and Diablo 3. Player loyalty to a game is not what it used to be, but those that are still with the game at this point are more likely than not to remain so for the next several months. . Context, context, context. EQ had 300k when WoW took to the scene and charged in with just over that. It took along time to build and set-up the market for WoW. WoW kept growing while SWTOR shows signs of shrinking. SWTOR has high retention (which is less than 85% now) because the game is built around 'sucking you in while levelng', which is not a long term success strategy for MMORPGs. It would only make sense that the downward progression of subs start around now that must people have leveled up and the game should level out around 1.2million in the next 3-5 months. Again, this is my prediction and I'm very well aware I could be completely off, just having fun. Edited March 10, 2012 by Touchbass Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemmar Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 (edited) Have sales really dropped off that much already? What kind of perception do you have? Dropped that much? No, it didnt. Selling 100k a month after the launch weeks is a sucess. It means that at this pace the game will gain at least 1 million new players by the end of the year. The game is selling extremely well. Also this game will outsell WoW cataclysm lifetime sales by autumn at this pace. Its selling more than double that game was during the same period of time. *waits for doomsayers to say how WoW is so healthy and SWTOR is so doomed* /popcorn Oh yeah... linky here before you go say i make stuff up: http://www.vgchartz.com/game/31584/star-wars-the-old-republic/Global/ http://www.vgchartz.com/game/38102/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm/Global/ Edited March 10, 2012 by Nemmar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Touchbass Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 (edited) http://www.vgchartz.com/game/6529/world-of-warcraft/ Says only 6.2million sales for original WoW? Am I missing something, I'm working a 12 hour overnight so the pilot may be having a nap Edited March 10, 2012 by Touchbass Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
souloferdrick Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 Its still too early to tell but history is not on BW/EA's side. Given that we got a fairly generic MMO, I wouldn't be putting any money on the subscriber growth meme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadit Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 (edited) http://www.vgchartz.com/game/6529/world-of-warcraft/ Says only 6.2million sales for original WoW? Am I missing something, I'm working a 12 hour overnight so the pilot may be having a nap After all the bickering with wow vanilla and swtor and the fact that swtor compares to the latest iteration of wow not the first, you're now coming with those sale numbers. It's only logical to assume that people still interested in playing the game would shell out the money necessary to have the latest update or so to speak, in your terms, the one that offers the most content. Am i wrong? Edited March 10, 2012 by Shadit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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