New updated sub numbers (Official)

[Kesica]

My server is doing fine,

 

 

I have 50s on both sides and for now the population isnt declining.

 

 

 

Now that could change but for now future looks bright

[corbanite]

almost 1.7m active subs.. sweet. nice to see more active subbers. there's wasn't 1.7 million active subbers back at start of feb. there was more than .85 million but less than 1.7 million is what we were told. Active subbers have risen.

 

I think the retention rate is no longer 85% but I do think sub rate is climbing.

 

Now a good showing with 1.2 would be some nice icing.

Edited March 9, 2012 by corbanite

[itekazzawrrlic]

Yes this game doesn't go down because:

 

1) Casuals keep playing because they like the easy mode

2) People just want to play with glowsticks and that's all they care about in an MMO

 

The people who actually came to play a good MMO, have all left or are about to.

 

Good riddance.

[Samborino]

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?

 

Yes that is actually a very easy explanation so dont act so smug. Here is a link to a transcript of the q3 fy12 ea conferance call.

 

 

http://www.darthhater.com/articles/swtor-news/19915-electronic-arts-q3-fy12-earnings-call

 

 

In that conferance call they go on to explain exactly what you are talking about.

 

"I want to take a second to correct the reports which speculated that a lack of congestion was a sign of slow participation. Shortly after launch, we doubled the efficiency of each server, allowing us to handle twice as many players and remove the waiting lines. The lack of congestion is a function of great engineering."

 

 

They did make a mistake IMO though, what they did is a day after launch when many of the servers where full they added many more servers (close to 100 i think) as a quick fix. Then a few weeks later they doubled the maximum server population. Suddenly any new subscribers wont go to fill up the new less populated servers they will go to the standard and heavy servers. Now because of this they will probably have to merge a few servers, i understand why they needed to go with the quick fix to prevent really long queue's its just unfortunate it played out that way.

 

Basically though a full server with a long queue at launch would have turned into a standard server. So any servers that are standard now are servers that if they had kept the max populations the same would have been full with queue's.

[Samborino]

Subscribtion's have already gone down. A loss of 300,000 subscriber's isn't going down?

 

that's like 15% of the subscriptions since they last released their numbers. I never wanted the game to fail but after being lied to by bioware and their failure to deliver what they promised I have grown bitter.

 

85% retention rate after the first 3 months is absolutely HUGE for an mmo. Most mmo's have mass exodus after month 1 (far more than 15%).

 

85% retention is extremely good in this day and age, where mmo players are as fickle as the wind.

[Randytravis]

85% retention rate after the first 3 months is absolutely HUGE for an mmo. Most mmo's have mass exodus after month 1 (far more than 15%).

 

85% retention is extremely good in this day and age, where mmo players are as fickle as the wind.

 

Yeah totally agree. 1.2 imo is looking nice too. Will be interesting to see the class changes in 1.2when thay are released. Lots of things in the pipeline beyond that too look forward to too.

[Newsinz]

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?

 

lol Many more on your server meaning what a handful? Give me a break you people and your fictitious numbers. " *eyeroll* "

[Goretzu]

85% retention rate after the first 3 months is absolutely HUGE for an mmo. Most mmo's have mass exodus after month 1 (far more than 15%).

 

85% retention is extremely good in this day and age, where mmo players are as fickle as the wind.

 

 

It is also is misleading.

 

 

There's no way we're currently at 85% retention with people averaging 4+ hours a day game-play.

 

There seems to be an awful lot of people still with an active sub (assuming those sub figures are correct) that simply aren't playing (and by aren't playing I mean are averaging less than 1 hour a day).

 

 

 

The retention rate of people I came to SWTOR with is about 10-15% at the moment playing at all-wise..... however it's possible they still have subs open showing an 85% retention, but given that the literally aren't playing (at all) that number has got to come down to the 10-15% eventually.

 

Which is what I wonder if we're seeing globally (not 10-15% definitely, but still way, way lower than 85% are playing regularly).

 

 

If not then Bioware has literally found the MMO Goose that lays the Golden egg - an MMO that people don't play, but still pay a sub for!

Edited March 9, 2012 by Goretzu

[FezzikVIzzini]

Yet another totally pointless post regarding subscriptions.

 

If you still play the game then good for you and I hope that you have a nice time. However, there is no need for these types of posts as they achieve nothing. Or do you need to have to try and validate your decision to carry on playing the game ?

 

I got bored of the game and unsubbed. I'm not paying for something I stopped playing. I don't however need to keep posting or replying to these kinds of threads to convince myself that I am cleverer than those who still play.

 

If you like the game then carry on playing. If not then quit. But stop boring us with pointless speculation.

 

And before some smarty pants asks why I am posting here when I have quit its because I still have an interest in the game and like to check up on its progress. And besides that it's actually quite fun to read and reply to posts.

Edited March 9, 2012 by FezzikVIzzini

[Cancrizans]

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.

 

 

 

So what I get from this post is you CONSCIOUSLY accept and engage in a scenario that you know is using the "carrot and stick" thing to motivate you, and if you don't have that you can't find another reason to like a game?

 

Man that is one sad statement.

[Cancrizans]

Yet another totally pointless post regarding subscriptions.

 

If you still play the game then good for you and I hope that you have a nice time. However, there is no need for these types of posts as they achieve nothing. Or do you need to have to try and validate your decision to carry on playing the game ?

 

I got bored of the game and unsubbed. I'm not paying for something I stopped playing. I don't however need to keep posting or replying to these kinds of threads to convince myself that I am cleverer than those who still play.

 

If you like the game then carry on playing. If not then quit. But stop boring us with pointless speculation.

 

And before some smarty pants asks why I am posting here when I have quit its because I still have an interest in the game and like to check up on its progress. And besides that it's actually quite fun to read and reply to posts.

 

What achieved nothing is the countless negative posts people like you made attacking a brand new game, which only served to create a lousy forum experience for people interested in learning about the game.

 

BTW you can only post here if you have an active account.

[Mephismo]

Yes this game doesn't go down because:

 

1) Casuals keep playing because they like the easy mode

2) People just want to play with glowsticks and that's all they care about in an MMO

 

The people who actually came to play a good MMO, have all left or are about to.

 

Made me lol:D

[Sparklehorse]

If you quit why are you still here trolling the forums? Maybe you need a life? ... I know when I quit something I don't look back.

 

It's human nature, particularly in the male of the species.

 

We all know a guy (or have been the guy) that dumps a girl and then sees her on another guys arm and suddenly goes insane with jealousy.

 

It's the, "if I can't have you and be happy, nobody else can either," syndrome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On second thought....forgot my audience...disregard everything I just typed.

[WereMops]

It is also is misleading.

 

 

There's no way we're currently at 85% retention with people averaging 4+ hours a day game-play.

 

There seems to be an awful lot of people still with an active sub (assuming those sub figures are correct) that simply aren't playing (and by aren't playing I mean are averaging less than 1 hour a day).

 

 

 

The retention rate of people I came to SWTOR with is about 10-15% at the moment playing at all-wise..... however it's possible they still have subs open showing an 85% retention, but given that the literally aren't playing (at all) that number has got to come down to the 10-15% eventually.

 

Which is what I wonder if we're seeing globally (not 10-15% definitely, but still way, way lower than 85% are playing regularly).

 

 

If not then Bioware has literally found the MMO Goose that lays the Golden egg - an MMO that people don't play, but still pay a sub for!

 

Well, some simple math (unless I overlook something) would say that you might be wrong about your assumptions.

 

1.7 million players (active subscriptions)

 

average 4 hours a day (24/4 = 8)

 

1700000/8 = 212500 (this would be the number of people who would be playing on average any hour of the day globally across all servers), although due to timezones and pek times the number would most probably be closer to 350k at peaks (more on weekends) and less than 100k at lowest.

 

there's currently 173 servers globally according to torstatus.net

212500/173 = 1228,32 (this would be the average number of people online at the same time on both factions per server).

 

1228,32/2 = 614,16 (this would be the average number of players online per faction per server online at the same time, on my primary server there's atleast double that number online for about 6 hours most evenings/nights and atleast triple on weekends)

 

Some servers will have a lower number of players online on average and some will have alot higher but on average I'd say that the numbers seems to hold (on average, not everyday but averaged over let's say a week over all the servers totalled).

 

Btw, even if a player would have an average playtime of less than 1 hour per day they'd still be active subscribers and playing, as long as their average playtime is above 0 hours they count, whether you think they do or not, you see there's this thing that's called real life (family/friends/works etc) that some people make more time for and only/mostly play in big "time chunks" during weekends/day offs.

Edited March 9, 2012 by WereMops

[FezzikVIzzini]

What achieved nothing is the countless negative posts people like you made attacking a brand new game, which only served to create a lousy forum experience for people interested in learning about the game.

 

BTW you can only post here if you have an active account.

 

And here we have a prime example of the type of person I mentioned.

 

1) Where in my post was I attacking the game (or in any other posts I have made for that matter ?)

 

2) When you cancel your subscription there is the small matter of the remaining time left on your account until money would have been taken for another month. My subscription ran (on a credit card) until the 12th of this month. So presumably you are so naieve that you think that as soon as you click the cancel account button your account becomes inactive.

 

I suggest you READ peoples posts or get a grown up to explain them next time you reply.

Edited March 9, 2012 by FezzikVIzzini

[Randytravis]

Yet another totally pointless post regarding subscriptions.

 

If you still play the game then good for you and I hope that you have a nice time. However, there is no need for these types of posts as they achieve nothing. Or do you need to have to try and validate your decision to carry on playing the game ?

 

I got bored of the game and unsubbed. I'm not paying for something I stopped playing. I don't however need to keep posting or replying to these kinds of threads to convince myself that I am cleverer than those who still play.

 

If you like the game then carry on playing. If not then quit. But stop boring us with pointless speculation.

 

And before some smarty pants asks why I am posting here when I have quit its because I still have an interest in the game and like to check up on its progress. And besides that it's actually quite fun to read and reply to posts.

 

Or you like to come on these forums and occasionly post with your negative attitude because you Got bord? This particular thread with the op using a article of subscrition numbers is prob the most accurate sub base of the game to date. Yes it could be completely wrong and yes there have been allot of threads made about sub numbers but atleast there is some source of possible accuracy in the article, and players of all mmo's are interested in that. Not too mention also that is that if this source is correct i'm sure allot of players who enjoy the game who use these forums get sick and tired off seeing doomsaying, un-constructive nagtivity and immature trolling/whiners, like seeing evidence that peoples fickle opions are aload of tosh.

 

Edit: to your other post, no you didnt bag out the game, however your attitude was rather negative and brought nothing to the conversation apart from implying that what people are discussing is pointless.

Edited March 9, 2012 by Randytravis

[Devlonir]

Well, some simple math (unless I overlook something) would say that you might be wrong about your assumptions.

 

1.7 million players (active subscriptions)

 

average 4 hours a day (24/4 = 8)

 

1700000/8 = 212500 (this would be the number of people who would be playing on average any hour of the day globally across all servers), although due to timezones and pek times the number would most probably be closer to 350k at peaks (more on weekends) and less than 100k at lowest.

 

there's currently 173 servers globally according to torstatus.net

212500/173 = 1228,32 (this would be the average number of people online at the same time on both factions per server).

 

1228,32/2 = 614,16 (this would be the average number of players online per faction per server online at the same time, on my primary server there's atleast double that number online for about 6 hours most evenings/nights and atleast triple on weekends)

 

Some servers will have a lower number of players online on average and some will have alot higher but on average I'd say that the numbers seems to hold (on average, not everyday but averaged over let's say a week over all the servers totalled).

 

Btw, even if a player would have an average playtime of less than 1 hour per day they'd still be active subscribers and playing, as long as their average playtime is above 0 hours they count, whether you think they do or not.

 

Yay math!

 

And this kids, is why you pay attention at math in school.. so big numbers don't scare you and make you jump to the wrong conclusions.

 

Awesome to see that the amounts the mention would only require 600 people to be online on each faction at the same time to get 1.7 million subscribers with 4 hour average playtime. If you count average fleet numbers together with all other planets and zones (including warzones, flashpoints, ship, space battle areas, etc..) even a standard server has 600 people average easilly. People get too focused on seeing a number of 'just' 50 to 100 on Fleet, while they at the same time disregard the average number of 20-30 for each faction being on every other planet or zone (including warzones and flashpoints and spaceships) just because they are only interested in PVP and finding a flashpoint group.

 

Don't forget this simple fact: If you spend 10 minutes in queue for a 10 minute PVP match, you still only spend half your time on Fleet. If you spend 30 minutes looking for a 1 hour flashpoint run (which is very fast) you spend only 1/3rd of your time on fleet. And that is for people that hang out on fleet 'all the time'. The levellers often don't even come to fleet except for 5 minutes to put stuff on the GTN.

 

Just saying..

[Vecke]

Not sure why all the dissecting is necessary. 1.7 million three months after launch is pretty good numbers for an MMO in today's market. Possibly second in the industry (although I admit that's just a guess). Bioware stated in an interview on IGN that their goal is to be a "leader in the industry." Not the leader, but a leader. And they said their metric for that was to have around a million subs. Looks like they're doing it so far.

 

That said, am I weird because I've never wished a video game would fail? If I don't like a game, I move on and don't think about it again unless someone asks how I liked it. I was horribly disappointed with WoW. Tried it, hated certain aspects of it (art style, etc), and quit. Since then, I've never been to a WoW forum talking about how awful it is. I'm sure it's a very good game... just not for me.

[Malefactor]

Not sure why all the dissecting is necessary. 1.7 million three months after launch is pretty good numbers for an MMO in today's market. Possibly second in the industry (although I admit that's just a guess). Bioware stated in an interview on IGN that their goal is to be a "leader in the industry." Not the leader, but a leader. And they said their metric for that was to have around a million subs. Looks like they're doing it so far.

 

That said, am I weird because I've never wished a video game would fail? If I don't like a game, I move on and don't think about it again unless someone asks how I liked it. I was horribly disappointed with WoW. Tried it, hated certain aspects of it (art style, etc), and quit. Since then, I've never been to a WoW forum talking about how awful it is. I'm sure it's a very good game... just not for me.

 

Weird? No.

 

A mature, rational and reasonable person would be more apt than weird.

[lokivoid]

Don't know why I bother since I know how some people will spin this and call it a conspiracy because obviously there isn't a third party agency that signs off on these to make sure they're accurate /sarcasm

 

But here you go:

 

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-03-08-star-wars-the-old-republic-sitting-at-nearly-1-7-million-paid-subscribers

 

As of March 1st the game is still at 1.7 million subs now with the vast majority beyond the first month.

 

By the end of June the game is estimated to have 2 million active subs if it continues expanding at this rate.

 

When you consider the game was launched in NA/Europe and recently asia. The asia launch would of stablized the quarters subscription numbers. So lets take the three localizations and say its divided evenly (and its not) That is only 566k per locatialization. 1.7m may sound like a lot but keep in mind wow had that in the first four months of release in the NA localization alone.

 

Thus numbers only have value if there per localization, and they wont release that information openly (as it generally scares off shareholders).

[Khincaid]

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?

 

Here's a thought for you. Maybe, just maybe.... they raised/removed the population caps!

Gasp! Then all of a sudden you have standard instead of heavy because there's more room on the server! Gosh, that was hard to figure out.

 

I am however not saying that's the case, but it's one explanation that was extremely easy to work out without being a brain surgeon.

 

I really don't understand people posting here if they don't like the game. Geez, move on, life's too short. If I ever get tired of this game, you can be sure i'm not going to hunch over my keyboard raging at the masses with no more chance of effecting change than a potato.

 

But good luck to the haters I guess?

[Rimca]

I guess they are in for a big surprise, in the coming 3 month.

 

How many actually have a subscription and are not playing the game ? pls rise your hand

 

So many hands, and oh! yes, the patch 1.2 is not the patch you are waiting for, you'll see.

 

but you can gain affection with your droid, nice, even amazing.

Edited March 9, 2012 by Rimca

[FezzikVIzzini]

Or you like to come on these forums and occasionly post with your negative attitude because you Got bord? This particular thread with the op using a article of subscrition numbers is prob the most accurate sub base of the game to date. Yes it could be completely wrong and yes there have been allot of threads made about sub numbers but atleast there is some source of possible accuracy in the article, and players of all mmo's are interested in that. Not too mention also that is that if this source is correct i'm sure allot of players who enjoy the game who use these forums get sick and tired off seeing doomsaying, un-constructive nagtivity and immature trolling/whiners, like seeing evidence that peoples fickle opions are aload of tosh.

 

Edit: to your other post, no you didnt bag out the game, however your attitude was rather negative and brought nothing to the conversation apart from implying that what people are discussing is pointless.

 

Firstly I was not being negative. If you bothered to read I was merely stating that IMHO sub numbers are completely irrelevant. The only people who know for sure are BW/EA. Please let me know how all this speculation makes any difference to the game. I was merely trying to get across the point that a lot of people seem to need evidence to validate their decision to either play or stop playing the game.

 

I won't use the Fa....y term to describe you as that is just as derogatory and childish as calling people whiners. However, it really seems to me that people like you should stop equating "negative" posts as being an attack on you - ie the "I love the game therefore anyone who disagrees with my opinion must be attacking me personally because if their point is true then I must be stupid".

 

On any game forum there are obviously going to be more negative posts than positive ones. That will be true until someone releases a game that it totally perfect and needs no feedback. I look forward to that day.

 

And btw, I was not implying that this topic was pointless - I stated that I thought it WAS pointless.

 

Have a nice play.

[Devlonir]

When you consider the game was launched in NA/Europe and recently asia. The asia launch would of stablized the quarters subscription numbers. So lets take the three localizations and say its divided evenly (and its not) That is only 566k per locatialization. 1.7m may sound like a lot but keep in mind wow had that in the first four months of release in the NA localization alone.

 

Thus numbers only have value if there per localization, and they wont release that information openly (as it generally scares off shareholders).

 

i call lies. Proove that WoW had 1.7 million subscribers in NA alone after 4 months of being live or the entire point you make is irrelivant.

 

Also, the localizations are clearly not even, as it is shown in number of servers:

NA has nearly double the amount of EU servers and Asia-Pacific only has 3 servers total.

 

Hence: You lie and twist numbers to your own reality. Hence, your point is invalid and not worth a penny nor 2 cents.

[Wrzaskun]

EA does not receive the full retail price of the game. They might get half that. It's more $60MM in box sales, another ~$51MM for two months of subs.

 

That's ~$111MM gross, and obviously doesn't include infrastructure, marketing, or the cost of current/ future development.

 

Was about to mention that. Don't forget other stuff. If you use a credit card for montlhy payment, they pay roughly 2% to the cc company like visa or whoever. Might not be much out of 15 bucks, but multiply by a million and it starts to make a difference. There are also taxes and they differ from country to country.

 

Box? Shipping costs, middleman interest aside from what you mentioned.

 

Not a fanboi or a hater. Just curious how the financial aspect around this game develops.