Radiowood Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Oh you have to love this idiocy I wouldn't call being the number two Subscriber based MMO a failure also all this tells us is any problems that TOR now has can be blamed on impatient money grubbing Know nothings that wanted to make quick return on their investment Don't you think laying off a lot of employees and preparing to massively close down servers kind of indicates the subscriber base is declining? They aren't emptying servers with the character transfer program for fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taurusaud Posted June 21, 2012 Author Share Posted June 21, 2012 Don't have to, it's the premise of f2p that I'm arguing against. So it may not be 15/instance.. it could be 15/act/toon. There are so many ways to divvy up f2p, the fact that you want me to point out a specific game that charges per instance is about the weakest counter argument you could possibly offer. I think Bioware has been eyeing F2P for a long time, or atleast designing the game with this in mind. You see how the planets are all separate instances. They could easily charge for additional planets in the future. I'd be willing to pay maybe $20-$25 per planet if Bioware needs the money, either way I'm sure we'll learn more soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zerosaint Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Age of conan offers a monthly subscription to unlock all content of 14.99 a month it also offers you ways to unlock all the content by playing. That wasn't what you asked. We were talking about F2P options and under AoC's F2P system- you pay for dungeons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nighthawked Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Don't you think laying off a lot of employees and preparing to massively close down servers kind of indicates the subscriber base is declining? They aren't emptying servers with the character transfer program for fun. So instead they are supposed to pay for the hardware that can support 220+ servers when they can drop that down to a nice amount? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgelling Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 The stock market likes the prospect of growth way more than the reality of predictable, stagnant sales. EA's stock ran up a lot on the prospect of 2 - 2.5 million subs netting up to $450 million a year in new, recurring revenue. The margins on those digital subscriptions would have been fantastic. They ran the stock up to $8 billion in market cap on the prospect of that and their other digital initiatives being huge hits, and in reality the performance of both has been, well, boring. So the stock market would rather go speculate on another frenzied growth story until that bursts too. The only reason the speculative frenzy might matter to us is if the EA brass decided to slash and burn SWTOR development and hype something else to please investors and save their own jobs - and unfortunately, the huge ginormous layoffs from last month told me - along with EA CEO's comments about how unimportant SWTOR is compared to EA sports - that maybe that's what they're up to. But I'd love to be wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jarjarloves Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 That wasn't what you asked. We were talking about F2P options and under AoC's F2P system- you pay for dungeons. it is what i asked for. See the original post I was responding to was this It will matter when all the content you enjoy for $15/month now costs $15/instance to unlock.. Or when legacy unlocks cost 10-30 bucks a pop based on popularity. It's one thing to support a game you like, it;s another thing all together when you stick you fingers in your ear and start screaming lalalalalalalala when the disturbing trends we've seen in many mmo releases are staring you in the face. who is saying if the game goes F2P you won't be able to pay $15 a month to enjoy all the content. Which as I proved is 100% untrue and there isn't a single F2P model that does what he says. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnkByte Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Can we have SWG back now? You can - http://www.swgemu.com , never played SWG nor this server to know if its decently done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lokivoid Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Give a couple of months and popularity will probably return. Ya people claimed that before the investor call revealing that the subs had dropped 400k in less than two months. MMO's generally do not recover from a drastic subloss. This tends to drive away players who wish to invest time into a game, it also cripples any growth due to bad press / word of mouth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jarjarloves Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Ya people claimed that before the investor call revealing that the subs had dropped 400k in less than two months. MMO's generally do not recover from a drastic subloss. This tends to drive away players who wish to invest time into a game, it also cripples any growth due to bad press / word of mouth. not entirely true some MMOs end up seeing increases in subs during big content patches such as what happend in AoC and WAR. Both saw large increases after a couple of patches. But what usually happens is the companies just stop making content or the content is so completely bug ridden that people keep leaving. BTW both of the games I mentioned still had many game breaking bugs unlike SWTOR. Yes SWTOR still has bugs but nothing that could even come close to compeating with AoC and WARs bugs. Bioware has done a good job on adding quality content. If they do end up adding some type of meaningful space combat then that could see an large increase in subs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgelling Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 You can - http://www.swgemu.com , never played SWG nor this server to know if its decently done. So they killed SWG just in time for this game? I never played SWG and the graphics looked horrible from pics I've seen, but that's awfully convenient timing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkirus Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-06-21-stock-ticker-why-eas-market-valuation-has-crashed?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=us-daily EA losing 50% of it's stock value since the SWTOR launch? Ouch. What implications does this have for everybody's favorite MMO in space (besides Eve)? "Everybody's favorite MMO in space"? A little loose with that I would say. And if it was everybody's, then the stocks would not be so low huh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OstrawaO Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 And those people would have left any new game once they reached endgame and got bored. They're the same people who sat here in the forums or in general chat talking about how great D3 and G2 were going to be, then got bored with D3 after one runthrough, made it through a couple of beta weekends of G2 and started whining, and are now talking about.....Elder Scrolls Online. Since it's always best to overinflate your expectations for a game you can't yet play, then you can talk out your butt all you want about all the cool features it will have that NO OTHER GAME WILL EVER MATCH. Just like they did with SWTOR, then were disappointed that it wasn't the best MMO ever in the history of the world. They are never happy with any game for long, because no game can ever match the expectations they have in their head for said game. I have some friends who follow this pattern, and I just play with them when they're enjoying the high of a new game, and say sayonara when they get bored. They're almost always back for new content patches, despite how "boring" said game is. Because they go through games like disposable tissues, and therefore are always looking for something else to blow their figurative noses on, or wipe their figurative....well, you get the picture. Everyting they're saying with regards to BW was said at one time or another re Sony and EQ1 and EQ2, well before P2P ever came on the scene. Considering how long Warcraft has been kept on life support without P2P, and the dislike LA has for the concept, I think a full P2P scenario is a lot further in the future than the doomsayers would prefer. They so like to make those in six months, six weeks, heck, six days predictions. my words exactly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkirus Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Stocks go up, stocks go down. Oh, and I don't care. I am playing a GAME I have fun with. And if you read the WHOLE article, the entire game industry is suffering. Don't fret, chicken little, the sky is not falling. This is true. Video sales in general have declined across the board and is generally thought to be related to the poor world wide economy. The important thing is, if you are enjoying the game, then none of this should matter. However...BioWare and EA may have different thoughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyoro Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 If BW can give deliver a decent group finder and endgame content/systems then people will hang around. The fuss behind TERA and D3 has died down now so people are looking for something to play again. GW2 won't give this game any trouble and BW still have plenty of time before Pandas releases. Pandas will be cause a lot of people to leave though, so BW better step it up with this new content. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tuscad Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Has the game been released in China yet? I believe it was a month or two ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lobotaru Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 (edited) Actually, we should be worried because we are heading into a second video game crash. It has already happened before in the past and its happening again. What do first person shooters and fighting games have in common with MMOs? They all look and play the same nowadays. We're in the second dark age of computer gaming and its only getting bleaker by the year. Edited June 21, 2012 by lobotaru Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaManoNera Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 This just tells me what I've already known for a while now: investors are incredibly out of touch with the industry. And the consumers suffer for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grubz Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 This game Isn't going F2P anytime soon, It's just alot of smoke a mirrors to stay in the news.AoC cripples on Warhammer limps day to day .Swtor can have 1 server of each playstyle and EA will keep it going till every drop of blood has been drained .Thats what big brother does and will keep on doing.Alot of money has to be recouped and the only way to get is to keep feeding the baby birds.So go play your WoW's ,Dream of SWG to make a return but As long as Lucas Arts gets paid ,EA gets paid, and don't even believe there not getting paid( (Albeit not as much as they would like)but they are getting paid.I like this game ,I like Star Wars and as long as their are fanboys who love it this game will be here ..Or atleast till a new Star Wars MMO graces our presence.SWG lasted Nine years I see no difference in the longevity of this game ..maybe not 9 years but atleast a few till "the New Hotness" comes out". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wutru Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 [insert iraqi information minister here] "everything is fine. swtor is not losing subs." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kunda Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 The next transition, which has already started, is going to be the toughest one the industry has ever faced - the stock market knows it, and until the industry can show itself to be ready to cope with that transition, investors are going to steer well clear of videogame-related stocks. This is the only salient point for me. Blizzard has been an outlier in the industry for over a decade while other publishers, including EA, are trending poorly. The only thing I can really draw from that fact is the below... This just tells me what I've already known for a while now: investors are incredibly out of touch with the industry. And the consumers suffer for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jarjarloves Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 I believe it was a month or two ago. you are wrong it was released in the south pacific as an English game but it has not been released in China or has it been converted to any other languages in that region. It will be a big deal when it actually gets released in China. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnkByte Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 you are wrong it was released in the south pacific as an English game but it has not been released in China or has it been converted to any other languages in that region. It will be a big deal when it actually gets released in China. IF 5Char Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jarjarloves Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 IF 5Char even Warhammer Online got released in China Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADPowah Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 A string of controversial games and decisions along with missing their Q4 guidance and then coming in below analysts 2013's expectations will do that to a stock price. Tying it all to SWTOR is silly, but it definitely wasn't EA's savior. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgelling Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 I feel sorry a mod had to actually just write that, "We know that the topics of micro-transactions, free-to-play and EA stock in relations to the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ is a popular topic right now." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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