Kthx Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 You get the feeling that the Suits are keeping the Devs from implementing what really needs to be done ASAP like forced server merges... And the incentives for the "suits" to do this would be...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kthx Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 (edited) Would you rather the company invest that money in something that will yield you the greatest return or something with a niche market? SWTOR has sold 1.7 million copies. The Sims 3 has sold TEN MILLION COPIES. Madden, overtime, has sold 85 MILLION COPIES. If it was YOUR MONEY, where would you want them to focus? The MMO money is not in box sales. The money is in recurring subscriptions. SWTOR's subcriptions is akin to selling one million games every month. Edited May 16, 2012 by Kthx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monave Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 If it was YOUR MONEY, where would you want them to focus? Tiger Woods??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monave Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 And the incentives for the "suits" to do this would be...? Bottom line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogozhi Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Bottom line. Cost money to transfer servers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alericus Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 I gotta agree...now what needs to happen is gamers need to stop running out enmass and switching to every new shiny toy and then dropping it for the next shiny toy. Basically EA knows how to handle the market, the subscribers do it to themselves.."Fix this or Im moving to the next thing"(read some posts on these forums to see this exact statement)...so they dont subs leave they make a new thing, it gets bought and on and on and on.,,from one hit wonders to cell phones to computers, the consumer has created this market...Im not sure if EA is too blame or we as consumers should slap ourselves upside the head...Ask yourself this..how many games online, console and MMO have you tried and bought and dropped in the last 5 years? The fact there was such a drop in SWTOR subs is a sign to EA this product didnt sell, why dump more money into a losing proposition....I will say that its a shame but all the ADD basement dwelling nerd-gins created this market...so this is how it will go until consumers change their behavior. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celebrus Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 True, but once players buy Madden they aren't bringing EA any additional revenue until the next Madden title comes out. Once people buy The Sims they aren't bringing EA any more money until the next expansion / DLC pack that they happen to want comes out. TOR players are paying 15 bucks a month, every month... that's a lot more revenue potential per customer than any non-MMO game has, even after operating costs are factored in. This really isn't true, with game modes like Ultimate Team (a microtransaction based game mode) and other forms of microtransactions, Madden is actually becoming a product that will sell itself more than once to some gamers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kthx Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 (edited) Bottom line. Cost money to transfer servers? "Suits" don't care about costs, they care about profit. Without subcriptions, there is no revenue; without revenue, there are no profits. So I ask again, why would "suits" be stopping the devs from implementing transfers and/or mergers. [Answer: They are not.] Edited May 16, 2012 by Kthx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Costello Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Lot of truth to what was said in the article. Its hard to see what Bioware are going to do to get people back into game, So far they seem more intent on weekend passes than addressing the paying customers, maybe they don't know what they are going to do? I can see it going down the route of WAR where you get the first 10 levels free before long so we don't have to constantly see weekend pass gimic. Give people a game they are happy to pay to play and you don't need to keep trying to lure people in with a free weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monave Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 "Suits" don't care about costs, they care about profit. Without subcriptions, there is no revenue; without revenue, there are no profits. So I ask again, why would "suits" be stopping the devs from implementing transfers and/or mergers. [Answer: They are not.] Who says they care about costs? If they feel that the cost-to-benefit ratio does not warrant a action they simply will not do it. Bottom line. Their cost-to-benefit analysis may be incorrect but that is what they will base decisions on. As you state, all they are concerned about is PROFIT so they will do whatever they THINK is most profitable even though it may be a fatal mistake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deewe Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 I just read that and I'm not sure that was the right thing to say publicly. Looks like another corporate suit with no touch on reality making decisions. Who would say something like that with the amount of continuous revenue generation this game can provide? Just dumb... Could be: Behind the scenes of Star Wars: The Old Republic: throwing people at the problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nytak Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 I gotta agree...now what needs to happen is gamers need to stop running out enmass and switching to every new shiny toy and then dropping it for the next shiny toy. Basically EA knows how to handle the market, the subscribers do it to themselves.."Fix this or Im moving to the next thing"(read some posts on these forums to see this exact statement)...so they dont subs leave they make a new thing, it gets bought and on and on and on.,,from one hit wonders to cell phones to computers, the consumer has created this market...Im not sure if EA is too blame or we as consumers should slap ourselves upside the head...Ask yourself this..how many games online, console and MMO have you tried and bought and dropped in the last 5 years? The fact there was such a drop in SWTOR subs is a sign to EA this product didnt sell, why dump more money into a losing proposition....I will say that its a shame but all the ADD basement dwelling nerd-gins created this market...so this is how it will go until consumers change their behavior. New games come out all the time. Gamers, well, we like to game. In the last 5 years I have purchased and tried quite a few mmo and single player games, and I have dropped quite a few. However, there are some select titles which have gotten my attention (and $$) for extended periods of time.. WoW FFXI FFXIV EVE What do these titles offer that SWTOR is lacking? For me, it's how the developers interact w/ their customers. EVE and FFXIV are probably the two best examples of this out there right now. XIVs launch IMO was quite possibly one of the worst ever. The game that was delivered to market was the single most dissapointing purchase of my gaming career.. Yet, 2 years later, I am subscribed, and actively playing. Why? Because SE owned up to their mistakes and made the steps necessary to correct them, and involved the playerbase in every single step of the way. And get this.. I can log on to XIV now, at any time of the day, any day of the week and find more people to do things with than I can weekend prime time on my TOR server. No, it's not my fault, or any other gamers fault. Sorry, I don't buy that one bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enkenon Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 I really hope they fix the game. I still have 3 months of sub left but I rarely log on only to log out in a few minutes.Between the bugs and my empty server I'm lost. If the game is already loosing subs and given what it would take to make people come back and even new players to join the game you don't need an insight to see where this is going. Ofc the game won't shut down or anything like that. it will keep on deteriorating and in a few years from now it will be on maintenance mode with only a few servers on. And really why should EA invest more money to really fix SWTOR when they can make a lot more money from the Sims? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noodlehaus Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Diablo 3 live, another nail on the coffin. The sad thing here is realizing that the amount of love EA is showing swtor is not the same amount of love that Blizz is showing WoW. In fact, it's terrible compared to every other gaming company out there who's main revenue source is an MMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmtvaroha Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 ...now what needs to happen is gamers need to stop running out enmass and switching to every new shiny toy and then dropping it for the next shiny toy. ...so this is how it will go until consumers change their behavior. Interesting take on the situation, but I think you're way off base. It would appear that you're suggesting players continue to pay a subscription fee for a game they're not enjoying. Why would I do that? We make suggestions and maybe some changes are made, but if a game isn't fun I see no reason to waste my time or money on it. The reason I've played several games over the years was to enjoy them for as long as they held my interest. It's not fickle to move on when you become bored. It's an example of the free market working as intended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nytak Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Look at it this way.. You pay $15/month to play this game (maybe less if you buy in 3/6 month chunks). Well.. What does that money go to? Right now, more if it goes to the development of Madden Football and The Sims than goes to TOR. Why? Because you pay EA $15/month to play TOR. EA distributes their income as they deem necessary. Thread lock in 3.. 2.. 1.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogozhi Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Look at it this way.. You pay $15/month to play this game (maybe less if you buy in 3/6 month chunks). Well.. What does that money go to? Right now, more if it goes to the development of Madden Football and The Sims than goes to TOR. Why? Because you pay EA $15/month to play TOR. EA distributes their income as they deem necessary. Thread lock in 3.. 2.. 1.. Yes. Because if they say Madden and the Sims are a top priority that means EVERYTHING ELSE GETS NO MONEY AT ALL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nytak Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Yes. Because if they say Madden and the Sims are a top priority that means EVERYTHING ELSE GETS NO MONEY AT ALL. Way not to read what i said. You pay EA $15 a month to play tor. Of that, maybe 1/3 of it actually goes toward the development of tor now, most likely less. But hey, continue to type in all caps because that makes you sound so intelligent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimori Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 (edited) The op-ed author missed the context of the first quote: "The Old Republic is in EA’s top 10 franchises in terms of profitability, “but it’s not in our top five”. “So it’s a business contributor, while important, is not as important as Medal of Honor or Battlefield or FIFA or Madden or The Sims or SimCity, but it’s more important than Tiger Woods PGA Golf.” “So while I understand there’s an enormous amount of interest, I don’t know that it warrants as much as what we’re seeing right now. But we love the franchise, we’re going to grow the franchise and just like we want to see Tiger Woods Golf grow or SSX grow, or Madden for that matter, we’re going to drive this one for growth.” The "interest" he's referring to is not interest from the gaming community, it's interest from investors. What he's essentially saying is that investors are focusing too much on TOR when it comes to evaluating the PPS value of EA's stock. The titles he mentions are titles that going to sell a number of boxes or digital downloads, probably in the 4-6 million copies range, and they're titles that can have easily have a bunch of DLC to them for even more revenue. Sure, TOR might bring in $15m every month, but the operating costs are going to be significantly higher for that title than all of those other titles. I bet a pretty hefty chunk out of every dollar earned goes towards a Lucasarts licensing fee too. That being said, I do agree with the overall tone of the op-ed piece. Like the news cycle, the MMO cycle is becoming increasingly shorter as time elapses in the genre. People often underestimate the emotional attachment with older titles/characters too. It's far easier to walk away from a game that may be more polished out of the box after 60 days than it is to walk away from a character(s) and relationships you've built up over the course of several years. Sure the content may be stale, but there's a reason why people look back on older titles with such fondness--emotional investment. TOR started strong, stumbled, and has yet to recover. Unfortunately, it may never fully recover. Personally, I feel a lot of the blame can be tied back to the decision to go with the Hero Engine and we're stuck with it until the servers go offline. Edited May 16, 2012 by Nimori Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbkrbk Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 (edited) Yes. Because if they say Madden and the Sims are a top priority that means EVERYTHING ELSE GETS NO MONEY AT ALL. That's not what he's saying. He's saying that not all of the revenue generated from SWTOR (not including profit and overhead, I'm talking about BUDGETS) is being put back into SWTOR, which, IMO, is quite infuriating. Edited May 16, 2012 by rbkrbk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbkrbk Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 BTW, I'm making this my new Signature. Thank you OP, I didn't even know about this until you pointed it out. "The Old Republic is in EA’s top 10 franchises in terms of profitability, “but it’s not in our top five”. “So it’s a business contributor, while important, is not as important as Medal of Honor or Battlefield or FIFA or Madden or The Sims or SimCity, but it’s more important than Tiger Woods PGA Golf.” “So while I understand there’s an enormous amount of interest, I don’t know that it warrants as much as what we’re seeing right now. But we love the franchise, we’re going to grow the franchise and just like we want to see Tiger Woods Golf grow or SSX grow, or Madden for that matter, we’re going to drive this one for growth.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dyvid Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 EA is to Bioware as Activision is to Blizzard, well except Bioware actually makes and releases games more than once every 10 years lol. P.S. **** FANBOIS LAWL!!!!! Sorry trolls but I beat you to it lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noodlehaus Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 EA is to Bioware as Activision is to Blizzard, well except Bioware actually makes and releases games more than once every 10 years lol. P.S. **** FANBOIS LAWL!!!!! Sorry trolls but I beat you to it lol it's easy to release crappy games every now and then. shoot as many bullets as you can and hope some of them hit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teenki Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 EA is to Bioware as Activision is to Blizzard, well except Bioware actually makes and releases games more than once every 10 years lol. P.S. **** FANBOIS LAWL!!!!! Sorry trolls but I beat you to it lol Yup, you beat everyone to being a troll alright. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MELROSER Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Everything i mean pritty much everything EA go's near dies or is just simply treated like a cash cow with no respect for the player base look at battleforge for expample card based game you need to purchase boosters to get the good cards ok i understand that but the pricees for points was insain and updates where some times over a year comming customer service never responded EVER! EA is the scurge of mmos they treat all mmos like a 1 player offline game once the game is realsed they wash there hands of further invesment except to try bleed the game for every penny they are truely a awfull company Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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