New updated sub numbers (Official)

[Restepor]

That's good, I would like to see some more people playing.

 

As for all the hate, take it easy. If you don't like it you can leave, just don't tell me that I can't enjoy the game because you didn't.

[Moromillas]

More money coming in means the lights stay on, and more features are considered. Because, well, they can afford to implement them. Yay?

 

Edit/P.S: Podracers, LFG tool, and rail-less space battle (pvp ones too)

Edited March 30, 2012 by Moromillas

[Baxterwolfe]

This predicting the future doesn't say anything. "At current rate we expect..."

 

My bro and I extended our playtime in januari with a GC, which ends 20 march.

 

He already quit, i'm quitting the 20th. And so are many more people on my server.

 

Also can anyone tell me how it's possible the servers were heavy/full all the time during 1st month now all are low/standard even though EA claims there was no drop?

 

 

I agree with you. When i got started back in december and in early january i noticed over half the servers were full, very heavy, or standard but now i see a lot of servers now being light and a very few being standard.

 

I was on telos last night and i saw that there was only 10 people on the republic fleet and less than that on other areas in the game.

 

I also saw a blog yesterday as of april 2 that this game lost a lot of subs and if the numbers are correct this game has about 1 million players left. This really could be the truth because the server numbers has dropped a lot since the middle of march.

[Sirsri]

I agree with you. When i got started back in december and in early january i noticed over half the servers were full, very heavy, or standard but now i see a lot of servers now being light and a very few being standard.

 

I was on telos last night and i saw that there was only 10 people on the republic fleet and less than that on other areas in the game.

 

I also saw a blog yesterday as of april 2 that this game lost a lot of subs and if the numbers are correct this game has about 1 million players left. This really could be the truth because the server numbers has dropped a lot since the middle of march.

 

Playing and paying aren't the same thing, nor is that necessarily a bad thing. Back in december everyone needed to level, grind up gear etc. By now everyone is laid back waiting on 1.2, most people from back then will be leveled, be back at jobs and school etc. Sure, I played like 100 hours the first week, and about 12 last week, but I'm content with that ratio. I'd probably play more if it was a better game and there was more to do that wasn't wasting my time, but generally that trend is what you would expect, lots of people pile on when leveling, a bunch will decide they don't like the game and immediately quit, and then some stick around.

 

The game has a lot less hours being logged per player per day so to speak, that's both obvious and pretty reasonable. The problem arises when people don't feel it's worth their time to keep playing (about half our guild from launch day has concluded this and quit), but usually they'll pay a little bit longer than they are playing, 'in case something changes' or the like.

[Shingara]

I agree with you. When i got started back in december and in early january i noticed over half the servers were full, very heavy, or standard but now i see a lot of servers now being light and a very few being standard.

 

I was on telos last night and i saw that there was only 10 people on the republic fleet and less than that on other areas in the game.

 

I also saw a blog yesterday as of april 2 that this game lost a lot of subs and if the numbers are correct this game has about 1 million players left. This really could be the truth because the server numbers has dropped a lot since the middle of march.

 

The server caps were increased, so the ones that were at very heavy and full are now at heavy and medium, the ones that were standard are now light. it isnt that players have left its that more people can fit on the servers to show the status of the server.

[Kthx]

I also saw a blog yesterday as of april 2 that this game lost a lot of subs and if the numbers are correct this game has about 1 million players left. This really could be the truth because the server numbers has dropped a lot since the middle of march.

 

Link, please.

[Baxterwolfe]

That's good, I would like to see some more people playing.

 

As for all the hate, take it easy. If you don't like it you can leave, just don't tell me that I can't enjoy the game because you didn't.

 

 

I agree that was a great point. In my opinion i would not tell people to just leave because you just might get what you asked for.

 

In other words i love this game and i am still active. Im not worried about low server population because me and my wife group together just to get social points do flash points. I solo through heroic missions and all of the other story missions.

 

I join in and help my wife do her class mission and she helps me do mine and so on. Pvp means nothing to me. Grinding a toon dont faze me either because i just deleated a level 22 bounty hunter and a level 23 sith warrior and restarted 2 new new toons in their place.

[Dayln]

Some of the clueless posts here are pretty funny

 

These games exist because of casual players, without them, all games ( even your beloved WoW ) would fold.

 

So accusing a game ( any game ) of catering to the vast ( and I do mean VAST ) majority of players, is pretty funny.

[Touchbass]

Link, please.

 

There is no way he has a source, I don't think that's true at all, game has to have more then that

[AislingKerrigan]

I think a lot of people are stuck in 3 or 6 month subscriptions. If they don't improve things drastically I think the game will drop off soon.

[Nippon]

So you call a loss of subscriber's "expanding"? Well I have news for you this game is way too casual friendly to have people play for the long run.

 

This game attracts solo players with its "story". Once they try out the different stories and maybe play a few "operations" whats left with them?

 

Don't try to tell me this games operations and pvp have any holding power. Getting geared in record time isn't going to keep subscribers. This game is too damn easy and there is no carrot on the stick incentive to keep playing since you can get geared so fast.

 

Also with rated warzones coming out there will be no gear upgrade for doing well in rated warzones? Really? How is that going to incentivize people to keep pvping over other well known pvp mmos. The game's engine isn't even built for smooth, fluid pvp action.

 

I like the game for it's pve content but it is way too easy and 1.2 won't change the fact that this game has no holding power.

 

Expect subscriptions to go down. They may fluctuate up and down but it won't grow at an enourmous pace.

 

Yeah im sure nobody was geared to the max in WOW, SWG, EVE, AION, AOC, LOTRO.....

AFTER 3 MONTHS....

 

In fact I believe most people couldn't even play those games properly after 3 months of launch, let alone gear in it...

Edited April 4, 2012 by Nippon

[Touchbass]

Yeah im sure nobody was geared to the max in WOW, SWG, EVE, AION, AOC, LOTRO.....

AFTER 3 MONTHS....

 

In fact I believe most people couldn't even play those games properly after 3 months of launch, let alone gear in it...

 

WoW's launch kept me and my 40 man raid guild busy for over an year ... sorry

[Tahana]

WoW's launch kept me and my 40 man raid guild busy for over an year ... sorry

 

So you survived through that buggy mess as well huh?

[Dayln]

You have not lived though a bad launch unless you were in WW2-OL

 

If you were in that launch, you know what you are talking about when it comes to bad launches.

[stem]

Having followed the games development from the start, I leave it having confirmed most people’s initial prediction……. Story and voiceover’s hold little long term value in an MMO.

 

People want content, features, and customization. That might come in time, but it’s pretty obvious which holds a subscription model longer……. and it’s not voices.

[DadadadaBATMAN]

I have news for you: Humans don't have the psychic ability to predict the future, nor do you have the right to tell me what I enjoy.

 

 

Right, but we can follow trends and statistics to estimate growth. Every company in the world does it every single day.

[wyvernmonarch]

15x1.7 = 25.5 million gross income PER MONTH.

 

even assuming bioware was paying a whopping 50% GROSS royalties to lucasarts, they would ahve an income of 12.25 MILLION DOLLARS PER MONTH. whatever the actual figure is its unlikeley to be that high....

 

this is all in addition to whatever income they made from the original game purchase of $50 (can count as only 35 since you get 1 month free) and the additional revenue from collectors edition or such.

 

I feel that the current team of programmers working on SWTOR could be doing a better job with that kind of budget

Edited April 4, 2012 by wyvernmonarch

[Icysunx]

15x1.7 = 25.5 million gross income PER MONTH.

 

even assuming bioware was paying a whopping 50% GROSS royalties to lucasarts, they would ahve an income of 12.25 MILLION DOLLARS PER MONTH

 

I feel that the current team of programmers working on SWTOR could be doing a better job with that kind of budget

 

 

25,000,000 million x .35 percent tax for oridinary income.

 

16,250,000 x.50 for lucas arts

 

8,125,000 divided into paying employees, staff, server operations, etc.

 

Guess it just depends how many staff members they have.

[LrdScorpio]

15x1.7 = 25.5 million gross income PER MONTH.

 

even assuming bioware was paying a whopping 50% GROSS royalties to lucasarts, they would ahve an income of 12.25 MILLION DOLLARS PER MONTH. whatever the actual figure is its unlikeley to be that high....

 

this is all in addition to whatever income they made from the original game purchase of $50 (can count as only 35 since you get 1 month free) and the additional revenue from collectors edition or such.

 

I feel that the current team of programmers working on SWTOR could be doing a better job with that kind of budget

 

I fail to see how this speech relates to the last sentence.

 

As long as the programmers get paid, so the minimum needed to keep the staff, budget has little to do with it post release. Also, keep in mind that all (or most) expenditures pre-release are debts and need to be paid by game sales.

 

Throwing more coders at the game wont make anything better. People who understand coding know this.

 

MMO's are by far the most difficult game to make and nobody has done a 'great' job at release. Every game has had its own batch of serious release problems.

 

This is one of the best releases I have played and I have played almost all of them since Ultima.

[Kurfer]

The similarities (including management/patching/priorities) between this game and Warhammer Online are astounding. I expect SWTOR to see the same results. I do not blame people for calling this game dead now... It has a year tops before its down to three servers and that's being very generous. I expect population/subcriptions to cut in half within a month of 1.2

 

I'm calling it now.

 

Let's wait and see and enjoy the show.

 

I agree 100%

 

This is not a lasting MMO and the development team has to be the worst I have ever seen in my entire history of gaming.

 

These guys are flat out absent and ignorant to the major issues bringing this game down.

 

At what point does this James Ohlen guy get fired for being a clown?

[Khaunshar]

Having followed the games development from the start, I leave it having confirmed most people’s initial prediction……. Story and voiceover’s hold little long term value in an MMO.

 

People want content, features, and customization. That might come in time, but it’s pretty obvious which holds a subscription model longer……. and it’s not voices.

 

While I agree with your point that Voiceover and Story do not help in the longevity department, they sure as hell help a lot in the "purchase and subscribe initially" department. Frankly, I havent seen any MMO in the recent years where people have HAPPILY made so many alts and actually levelled them. Maybe Guild Wars.

 

Also, regarding the second part, I believe you are not just wrong there, but highly biased.

 

If we are looking at what has proven to work to keep people in a game, its neither features (as in, new ideas or minigames, specific gimmicks or functionality) nor customization. Its content, and basically, the "Grind".

 

Virtually ALL MMos in the past years have proven that by far the most efficient way to keep people playing is by feeding them repetitive actions, similar to many facebook games, and a scale on which to advance their characters and ingame assets (like pets etc.). Basically, the achiever/collector drive.

 

Customization only works if connected to a grind (craft/find/quest for unique looks, LONG faction grinds, basically gated content to feel special), Features only work as long as you can "progress" in them.

 

Its about progression, at just the right rate to not make it trivial and fast, but not too slow either. Everything else is window dressing.

 

IMO, the single most effective thing to do in SWTOR right now is to add a second, quite hard, tier of hardmode FPs (basically, turn those FPs you havent used yet into a 2nd tier of HMs, make them hard enough to require full columi sets and upwards, have them reward Rakata-level+ loot but with larger loot tables, so that people run them more often), a 2nd tough tier of raids, and keep building up a progression akin to TBC.

 

I claim that so far, WoW TBC has proven to be the most successful concept in the last 10 years of MMO gaming, since afterwards, nothing could repeat its success, and WoW more or less peaked at TBCs end in terms of subscriber retention/level.

 

MMOs are about the grind, about progression, and about not running out of stuff you chase after. Everything else has, so far, not worked out.

[RoadRash]

When you have players playing EverQuest instead of this game you have failed. EQ is 13yrs old and we have lost most of our members to it. Out of boredom of what SWTOR is at end game.

 

BioWare is just moving to slow on everything from fixing content to adding new content. I really dont have much faith in BioWare at this time. I dont get the feeling they even know what they want end game to be in this game.

 

I believe patch 1.2 might be the final nail if they take this long to add stuff and it comes out with bugs still.

 

The Re-Population looks intriguing and Wildstar looks like it could be fun.

 

Guess I could go play some SWTOR but think I will go do yard work instead.

[Valkirus]

While I agree with your point that Voiceover and Story do not help in the longevity department, they sure as hell help a lot in the "purchase and subscribe initially" department. Frankly, I havent seen any MMO in the recent years where people have HAPPILY made so many alts and actually levelled them. Maybe Guild Wars.

 

Also, regarding the second part, I believe you are not just wrong there, but highly biased.

 

If we are looking at what has proven to work to keep people in a game, its neither features (as in, new ideas or minigames, specific gimmicks or functionality) nor customization. Its content, and basically, the "Grind".

 

Virtually ALL MMos in the past years have proven that by far the most efficient way to keep people playing is by feeding them repetitive actions, similar to many facebook games, and a scale on which to advance their characters and ingame assets (like pets etc.). Basically, the achiever/collector drive.

 

Customization only works if connected to a grind (craft/find/quest for unique looks, LONG faction grinds, basically gated content to feel special), Features only work as long as you can "progress" in them.

 

Its about progression, at just the right rate to not make it trivial and fast, but not too slow either. Everything else is window dressing.

 

IMO, the single most effective thing to do in SWTOR right now is to add a second, quite hard, tier of hardmode FPs (basically, turn those FPs you havent used yet into a 2nd tier of HMs, make them hard enough to require full columi sets and upwards, have them reward Rakata-level+ loot but with larger loot tables, so that people run them more often), a 2nd tough tier of raids, and keep building up a progression akin to TBC.

 

I claim that so far, WoW TBC has proven to be the most successful concept in the last 10 years of MMO gaming, since afterwards, nothing could repeat its success, and WoW more or less peaked at TBCs end in terms of subscriber retention/level.

 

MMOs are about the grind, about progression, and about not running out of stuff you chase after. Everything else has, so far, not worked out.

 

WoW's sub rate peaked in WOTLK and Cata sold more copies than any of thier previous expansions. They did lose a lot of thier subs within a short time after Cata was released and Blizz themselves admitted they made Cata too hard and as a result, are returning to the easier dungeon content which was in WOTLK for thier next expansion. I do agree with a lot of your post however about TOR. They do need a higher tier of thier current end game content for the hardcore players, but at the same time they need a better way for the casual players to experence the end game content it has now.

[Ratham]

I find it funny that EVERY mmo that comes out people hype it up and say its the next "king"... then they say its disappointing.... bad... worst devs they've ever seen... next game will be so much better.

 

I guarantee these same people will do/say the exact same about gw2... secret world.. tera... etc.

 

And for those spouting sub price cuts and f2p within a year, its not happening.

 

People have been calling f2p/shut down for Warhammer "next month" for over 3 years now...

Edited April 4, 2012 by Ratham

[BCBull]

I find it funny that EVERY mmo that comes out people hype it up and say its the next "king"... then they say its disappointing.... bad... worst devs they've ever seen... next game will be so much better.

 

I guarantee these same people will do/say the exact same about gw2... secret world.. tera... etc.

 

And for those spouting sub price cuts and f2p within a year, its not happening.

 

People have been calling f2p/shut down for Warhammer "next month" for over 3 years now...

 

I played WoW for 5 years. Rift for a year. I'm not a game jumper. I am looking for a good game though.