Subs down 25%

[Dezzi]

The free month is NOT included!!! it has been stated many times already.

 

On page 7 of the report, they state that "as of the end of April" the number of subscribers is 1.3 million. Given this, the 1.3 million figure most certainly includes a portion of free months--albeit a small portion.

Edited May 11, 2012 by Dezzi

[Squatdog_nz]

EA shills are hilarious.

 

You mean this fact here that they do count their trial accounts as an active account (from your own post):

"World of Warcraft subscribers are defined to include: (2) those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access,

 

LMFAO!!!!

 

That month of access is included when you BUY THE GAME , not from playing on a free trial account.

 

 

The free month is NOT included!!! it has been stated many times already.

 

The month's free gametime IS included, along with trial accounts and other promotional gametime:

 

"Through the end of the quarter, approximately 2.4 million units have sold through. In our last

call we indicated that we had 1.7 million active subscribers, and as of the end of April we now

have 1.3 million, with a substantial portion of the decrease due to casual and trial players

cycling out of the subscriber base, driving up the overall percentage of paying subscribers.

We have already launched a number of initiatives designed to grow subscriptions."

Edited May 11, 2012 by Squatdog_nz

[terminova]

All games already have a lot of problems...

 

I was referring to one that isn't found in the code-base of the game.

 

But I fixed that for you.

[WrecklessMEDIC]

The difference is that WoW continued to get better and better after release, that's why it grew exponentially. SWTOR has steadily continued to get WORSE, hence why they are bleeding subscriptions.

 

SWTOR is only 5 months old. And in those 5 months it has only gotten better and better. How do you figure it's gotten worse? That makes no sense... Lol. The future of SWTOR 7 years from now will only be exponentially better than it is today.

 

Discounting a game so early in its infancy only shows how little patience gamers have today. If you don't like SWTOR now, then you never will. But for the hundreds of thousands of us who love it, we can't wait to see what they have in store for the future. We aren't going anywhere.

[terminova]

The scary thing for BW is that all those players who received their free month due to legacy roll out, are still counted towards the subscription base. Out of the 1.3 million players remaining, how many of those do you think were above legacy level 7? Of those, how many will not be renewing? I think Q2 will be the worst to date for EA/BW

 

You do realize that the profits for EA are not based on a single game, right?

[PepinoCantador]

Why do some many people who hate a game spend so much time on its forums? I could see if there were some constructive feedback being left to attempt to improve the game so that they might rejoin the community in the future, but what compels someone to spend their own free time contributing nothing but negativity?

 

Like the people in the WoW forums, holy crap. If you judged that game off of its forums, you'd fully believe that everyone who has ever played it, hates it.

 

I'm sure someone would say all of their negativity is feedback intended to voice displeasure, but since every adult knows that nonconstructive feedback is ignored, that's hardly a reasonable position to take.

[RicoFrost]

Originally Posted by TheLightningLord

The difference is that WoW continued to get better and better after release, that's why it grew exponentially. SWTOR has steadily continued to get WORSE, hence why they are bleeding subscriptions.

Vanilla = pretty good

BC = Dam AWESOME

Warth = Good

CATA = not so good (2 million people left the game) Cata was not "getting" better it was a letdown for a lot of people.

[CrunkShizzle]

Vanilla = pretty good

BC = Dam AWESOME

Warth = Good

CATA = not so good (2 million people left the game) Cata was not "getting" better it was a letdown for a lot of people.

 

yeah,cata was a steaming pile of garbage.and i guess blizzard just felt the need to not make the expansion after cataclysm good.thank you pandas and pokemon mini games,but i think ill be playing mmos with the big boys,not the little kids

[Sanxxx]

SWTOR is only 5 months old. And in those 5 months it has only gotten better and better. How do you figure it's gotten worse? That makes no sense... Lol. The future of SWTOR 7 years from now will only be exponentially better than it is today.

 

Discounting a game so early in its infancy only shows how little patience gamers have today. If you don't like SWTOR now, then you never will. But for the hundreds of thousands of us who love it, we can't wait to see what they have in store for the future. We aren't going anywhere.

 

'better and better' is very subjective, many obviously disagree. Similarly to suggest SWTOR will be exponentially better 7 years from now would suggest a WOW subscription trend (not necessarily numbers) which at the moment is not happening, despite the devs initial intent to take on WOW. Without significant change/improvement current trends suggest that it will end up becoming a barely profitable niche game inside 12-18 months, all that can change of course if the devs deliver.

 

Gamers have much more choice these days and can afford to be fickle.

 

Saying if you don't like it now you never will doesn't gel with it becoming exponentially better, if it becomes better people will stay , others will buy and some may return.

[Goretzu]

For what it's worth, I laughed. It was a good impression.

 

But speaking of that statement, where IS someone from Bioware to explain it to us. Did Mr. Erickson simply have bad intel, or was he actually deceiving us?

 

That just doesn't sit well with me.

 

 

"Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."

 

(I can't believe they don't have an Obi-wan emoticon )

Edited May 11, 2012 by Goretzu

[JeramieCrowe]

You do realize that the profits for EA are not based on a single game, right?

 

Nope, they're not.

 

(To everyone else) Just where EA specifically said that TOR is "very profitable". And knowing EA, if it wasn't, they wouldn't have used the word "very", judging by all their previous reports and conference calls. And don't tell me they had to for spending 200 million+ on development when they spent 200 million+ on BF3 marketing ALONE.

 

Anyone who thinks EA is worried about TOR when they didn't spend as much on developing TOR as they did on just marketing for BF3 has their head in the sand and are just wanting to hate just to hate because it's the "new cool".

Edited May 11, 2012 by JeramieCrowe

[Sanxxx]

Nope, they're not.

 

(To everyone else) Just where EA specifically said that TOR is "very profitable". And knowing EA, if it wasn't, they wouldn't have used the word "very", judging by all their previous reports and conference calls. And don't tell me they had to for spending 200 million+ on development when they spent 200 million+ on BF3 marketing ALONE.

 

Anyone who thinks EA is worried about TOR when they didn't spend as much on developing TOR as they did on just marketing for BF3 has their head in the sand and are just wanting to hate just to hate because it's the "new cool".

 

I think EA are as worried about SWTOR relative to its importance in their portfolio, they have downplayed it considerably from their original intentions to take on WOW. However if at 31st Mar it is very profitable then I'm sure they were very happy at that time.

Edited May 11, 2012 by Sanxxx

[Wayshuba]

Nope, they're not.

 

(To everyone else) Just where EA specifically said that TOR is "very profitable". And knowing EA, if it wasn't, they wouldn't have used the word "very", judging by all their previous reports and conference calls. And don't tell me they had to for spending 200 million+ on development when they spent 200 million+ on BF3 marketing ALONE.

 

Anyone who thinks EA is worried about TOR when they didn't spend as much on developing TOR as they did on just marketing for BF3 has their head in the sand and are just wanting to hate just to hate because it's the "new cool".

 

Two things:

 

1.) EA did not say TOR was 'very' profitable. That was not what was said at all. They did say, however, that it was profitable but only in the single million digits.

 

2.) They did NOT spend 200 million on marketing BF3. There last quarterly they mentioned that BF3 fell short of goals and they spent somewhere around $60M marketing it. That is a far cry from $200M.

 

3.) I have seen $200M-$300M constantly thrown around the internet as the cost that went into developing this game. All I have ever seen in reference to this was it was EAs largest investment in a title. Nowhere have I ever seen a comment from EA on the actual costs of development of the SWTOR title. Just a bunch of estimates and speculation of what they probably spent.

[JeramieCrowe]

Two things:

 

1.) EA did not say TOR was 'very' profitable. That was not what was said at all. They did say, however, that it was profitable but only in the single million digits.

 

Look on page 7. They're exact words are "very profitable", and even that subs have reached expectations.

 

2.) They did NOT spend 200 million on marketing BF3. There last quarterly they mentioned that BF3 fell short of goals and they spent somewhere around $60M marketing it. That is a far cry from $200M.

 

Yep, 200 million. But hey, if they didn't spend that, good on them.

 

3.) I have seen $200M-$300M constantly thrown around the internet as the cost that went into developing this game. All I have ever seen in reference to this was it was EAs largest investment in a title. Nowhere have I ever seen a comment from EA on the actual costs of development of the SWTOR title. Just a bunch of estimates and speculation of what they probably spent.

 

Well, BioWare has stated that it WASN'T the 300 million that EA Louse claimed.

[Tiaa]

Well, BioWare has stated that it WASN'T the 300 million that EA Louse claimed.

 

No. They didn't.

 

And they didn't state ANYTHING about it other than dodging the question.

 

Also, with EA Louse, it's funny how people just ignore the fact he wasn't really concerned with SWTOR.

 

He just said one or two lines about it and talked about his troubles with EA/Mythic/Warhammer.

Edited May 11, 2012 by Tiaa

[JeramieCrowe]

No. They didn't.

 

And they didn't state ANYTHING about it other than dodging the question.

 

Also, with EA Louse, it's funny how people just ignore the fact he wasn't really concerned with SWTOR.

 

He just said one or two lines about it and talked about his troubles with EA/Mythic.

 

The Docs said that he was "ill-informed".

[kmufc]

EA Louse was right after all.

[Tiaa]

The Docs said that he was "ill-informed".

 

They asked Bioware about EA Louse:

 

This is what they said:

 

 

"We're disappointed in the sense of someone having that unfortunate perspective," said Zeschuk. -

 

"It was sad to read that kind of stuff," added Muzyka. "We just won a top 100 employers award for BioWare. We invest a lot in quality of the workplace. It's really important to us. We take it seriously.

 

"The BioWare Mythic team is part of the BioWare group. I know the people that work there. They care. They feel the same way that the other leaders across BioWare and EA feel.

 

"That kind of stuff... We don't respond to rumours and speculation by people that are ill-informed. We're committed to quality in the workplace."

 

Instead of answering if it was true or not.

 

They never denied it or confirmed it.

 

They started talking about how great their workplace was.

 

Because they only acknowledge how EA Louse felt about the work place. Not the cost of SWTOR.

 

Talking around the subject, like they usually do.

 

 

Edit: Also, I'd like to point out that everytime someone questions what Bioware does, they are always quick to say, "WELL WE GOT ALL THESE AWARDS SO LIKE WE DO NO WRONG!"

Edited May 11, 2012 by Tiaa

[Tenceriker]

They asked Bioware about EA Louse:

 

This is what they said:

 

 

 

Instead of answering if it was true or not.

 

They never denied it or confirmed it.

 

They started talking about how great their workplace was.

 

Because they only acknowledge how EA Louse felt about the work place. Not the cost of SWTOR.

 

Talking around the subject, like they usually do.

 

 

Edit: Also, I'd like to point out that everytime someone questions what Bioware does, they are always quick to say, "WELL WE GOT ALL THESE AWARDS SO LIKE WE DO NO WRONG!"

 

Well it's not like any of their recent work says anything good about them. So they have to revert to taling about trophies of the past. Back when they made the games people loved.

[JeramieCrowe]

They asked Bioware about EA Louse:

 

This is what they said:

 

 

 

Instead of answering if it was true or not.

 

They never denied it or confirmed it.

 

They started talking about how great their workplace was.

 

Because they only acknowledge how EA Louse felt about the work place. Not the cost of SWTOR.

 

Talking around the subject, like they usually do.

 

 

Edit: Also, I'd like to point out that everytime someone questions what Bioware does, they are always quick to say, "WELL WE GOT ALL THESE AWARDS SO LIKE WE DO NO WRONG!"

 

*shrugs*

 

Take it however you want. All I know is that if you told someone that I did something, then I responded with, "You're ill-informed" then that usually means that you're, y'know, ill-informed.

 

Would I really need to spell it out and say Y-O-U-A-R-E-W-R-O-N-G-I-D-I-D-N-O-T-D-O-T-H-A-T before you get it?

[Angedechu]

Who know what is the most staggering ?

 

More people love WOW to the point of ordering the one year sub than people play TOR.

 

(Annual Pass : 1.5 million)

[Tiaa]

*shrugs*

 

Take it however you want. All I know is that if you told someone that I did something, then I responded with, "You're ill-informed" then that usually means that you're, y'know, ill-informed.

 

Would I really need to spell it out and say Y-O-U-A-R-E-W-R-O-N-G-I-D-I-D-N-O-T-D-O-T-H-A-T before you get it?

 

I think people are "ill informed" on how EA works:

 

Thanks for the… many… links. (If mine is the only blog you read, the blog in question is here.)

 

As practically everyone knows, I have a binding contract that says I cannot talk about What Really Happened to me. [My lawyer reminds me: It says right here that what really happened was that we mutually agreed to separate, and every time that I've been asked since then, I have said we mutually agreed to separate.] I also cannot say anything about EA, anyone still working at EA, or any product now or ever developed by EA that might be “disparaging.” The only thing I can say, as a matter of fact, is that the contract exists.

 

I am retaining some anonymity here because I have no illusions about what the consequences would be for my family if I was explicit. However, I also feel no impetus to shy away from sharing our story, because I know that it is too common to stick out among those of the thousands of engineers, artists, and designers that EA employs.

 

Electronic Arts Stages Protest of Dante's Inferno at E3

 

I'll leave it at that.

Edited May 11, 2012 by Tiaa

[NasherUK]

Who know what is the most staggering ?

 

More people love WOW to the point of ordering the one year sub than people play TOR.

 

(Annual Pass : 1.5 million)

 

People only paid for a year sub because they got diablo 3 with it for free, along with access to the beta...

 

Many of those people don't actually play wow any more, but because their accounts are still "active" for a year they count them as active players

 

Anyway. The problem with big companies like EA is they only care about profits, they only make games based on ideas they know work instead of coming up with something new. People expected new and amazing things for TOR but it feels like Bioware was held back because EA didn't want to take ANY risks. But it's now backfired.

Edited May 11, 2012 by NasherUK

[Teabaker]

Lol tiaa

 

 

xD

[Tiaa]

Lol tiaa

 

 

xD

 

Quite famous on reddit aren't I?