PurpleCliff Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Over the past couple of months I've noticed that all of the retailers who had SWTOR 60 day game time cards are selling out and unlisting the item in their catalogues. I don't know if this is just in Australia or in the US as well? And so... why is it happening? Are they going to be replaced with Cartel Coin cards, or has BioWare given up in the retail market? An explanation of some sort would be much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshlaBoga Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 There was a store in Vancouver that thought F2P meant 100% free with adds being the revenue, like youtube. It's possible that they think "SWTOR is F2P, which means no sub, therefore no time cards." If so, EA really should contact all the major retailers and explain that the game is never going F2P, but has gone FREEMIUM. Lying has backfired on EA (not for the first time). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElitehunterDS Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 explain that the game is never going F2P, but has gone FREEMIUM. Lying has backfired on EA (not for the first time). /facepalm read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-to-play Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrandMike Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 /facepalm read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-to-play And....which part of "SWTOR is NOT F2P" you dont understand rofl Its just glorified free trial. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckoneful Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 /facepalm read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-to-play http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemium Pretty sure, sadly, SWTOR falls closer to that than your link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshlaBoga Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemium Pretty sure, sadly, SWTOR falls closer to that than your link. Exactly! Here's a quote from the Freemium page "but a premium is charged for advanced features, functionality." So SWTOR hasn't gone F2P, it's gone freemium. SWTOR IS NOT F2P. SWTOR IS FREEMIUM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digimanbyte_ID Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 /facepalm read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-to-play The free-to-play model appears to solve both these problems, by providing a game that requires relatively low system requirements and no cost, and consequently provides a highly accessible experience funded by advertising and micropayments for extra content. Yeah like the additions in cartel market unlocks and packs? $15 dollars for the lot and gift card of cartel cash, yeah no way there are businesses that have ever done that at all, ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slipfeed Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Time cards weren't exactly selling like hotcakes before the free to play launch. For most stores continuing to stock them is going to translate into a long term investment, and with the press this game gets as a business owner I would be hard pressed to bring that product out as an asset in a cost benefit analysis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fornix Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 In the Netherlands availability is also reducing, and additionally, more and more stores which do still sell them are increasing the prices. I mean, come on bol.com. 35.99 Eur for a 60 day timecard? You serious? I'm currently ordering my timecards from UK retailers, they're still selling for good prices equalling to about 10~11 Eur / month. Once they bail out the collection of timecard boxes for SWTOR will stop growing I guess, as CC will practically remain the only option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrandMike Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Time cards weren't exactly selling like hotcakes before the free to play launch. The state of that hasnt improved much. Since most of players...play for free Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltadt Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 went down to my local EB games today and no game time cards for the old republic. they were sold out so maybe someone picked up the last of them. the guy did say though they have a lot of world of warcraft game time cards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vian Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 I had to try 3 JB HiFis to get a time-card to give as a present and got one of the last 2 in the store. It seems like a really odd time for BW/EA to let the numbers get so low, with gift-giving and spare-time-having season upon us. I mean, I'm sure they would like everyone to provide credit card details, but it's only smart to offer an alternative for those who can't, or aren't inclined to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NummSaul Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 In the Netherlands availability is also reducing, and additionally, more and more stores which do still sell them are increasing the prices. I mean, come on bol.com. 35.99 Eur for a 60 day timecard? You serious? I'm currently ordering my timecards from UK retailers, they're still selling for good prices equalling to about 10~11 Eur / month. Once they bail out the collection of timecard boxes for SWTOR will stop growing I guess, as CC will practically remain the only option. Hm i have the same problem, the bol.com prices are ridiculous Nice to see a fellow dutchman on the forums though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkSkkull Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 I've only just started to sub and I don't like using my credit card, but I can't understand it surely there are more than just a few of us who want to use time cards and not online transactions. Found some at Jb hi fi, but they only have 5 and it takes me two hours to travel there, I've tried Gamesmen.com.au and have searched the net but by god it's getting annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andryah Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 Over the past couple of months I've noticed that all of the retailers who had SWTOR 60 day game time cards are selling out and unlisting the item in their catalogues. I don't know if this is just in Australia or in the US as well? And so... why is it happening? Are they going to be replaced with Cartel Coin cards, or has BioWare given up in the retail market? An explanation of some sort would be much appreciated. They are readily available in merchant stores in the US. Big store chains like Target. So no.. they are not delisting. Keep in mind.. Australia could not populate three old first generation small servers. So I'm not surprised if stores don't stock the game time cards to be honest. Can't you just order them from Amazon.com? They sell at a discount.. currently $22.94. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FriendReferral Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 (edited) "Freemium" is just a word vocal defenders of almost any game like to use (not calling you a Biodrone or anything like that, Ashla! ) to embellish the term "Free-to-Play". When this game announced it'd go F2P a little more than a month before its one year anniversary, this game reached failure of epic proportions. The only reason why this game is still living is because of the Cartel Market, and that's just really sad. Edited October 10, 2013 by FriendReferral Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andryah Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 (edited) "Freemium" is just a word vocal defenders of almost any game like to use (not calling you a Biodrone or anything like that, Ashla! ) to embellish the term "Free-to-Play". Complete nonsense. The term Freemium has been used for years for software and media products. And in it's classic definition and use, it applies to this MMOs current business model. If you do not subscribe (or pay for unlocks with CCs) you have access to a constrained version compared to subs. The constrained version if free.. the rest you must pay to access. When this game announced it'd go F2P a little more than a month before its one year anniversary, this game reached failure at epic proportions. Opinion.. presented as fact. Edited October 10, 2013 by Andryah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarmaForce Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 This thread is almost a year old. go pick apart something else you vulture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FriendReferral Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 Complete nonsense. The term Freemium has been used for years for software and media products. And in it's classic definition and use, it applies to this MMOs current business model. If you do not subscribe (or pay for unlocks with CCs) you have access to a constrained version compared to subs. The constrained version if free.. the rest you must pay to access. Thank you for proving my point, Andryah. They too use the term "freemium" to try and embellish the model and to justify the implementation of a cash shop to milk the player-base to keep the game running. Opinion.. presented as fact. Unfortunately the 75%+ of the player-base that left at launch agree with me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FriendReferral Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 This thread is almost a year old. go pick apart something else you vulture. OMG LOL I didn't even realize this thread was several months old. I can't believe I was helping a necromancer. My bad! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satelerevan Posted April 19, 2014 Share Posted April 19, 2014 (edited) Over the past couple of months I've noticed that all of the retailers who had SWTOR 60 day game time cards are selling out and unlisting the item in their catalogues. I don't know if this is just in Australia or in the US as well? And so... why is it happening? Are they going to be replaced with Cartel Coin cards, or has BioWare given up in the retail market? An explanation of some sort would be much appreciated. From the feedback given, and I was talking with EB Games in length about this through someone I know who worked for them. There has been a large portion of unsatisfied retailers and customers who revolted against Bioware/EA about the recent changes to SWTOR as of late. To put this out there, its really caused a backlash on Bioware and EA overall. Here's what I've heard and know. Companies like EB Games, JB Hi-fi and others were annoyed and dissatisfied about what Bioware had done to the Star Wars the Old Republic franchise based on several reasons. A good example was the protest and dissatisfaction for when the first group of server merging happened and then when the Asian/Pacific Servers were shut down this had caused another backlash where both customers and retailers had started withdrawing their support for the game and franchise. If the situation got beyond that, imagine what would happen to the Mass Effect franchise as well. Its a real shame to see how this has happened but what Bioware needs to work with right now is the current volume of its customers and improve the game with a better outcome of turnaround with more events, more new content and regularly improving the franchise while eliminating the ongoing features (coughs... dare I say it - glitches) in the game. Furthermore server stability is one thing but there are a lot of things out there right now that has forced Bioware/EA to be in a sticky situation, to be fair us customers would have loved to have more flexibility in acquiring a game time card from whichever store that would support it but for reasons as per above. I think that summaries why its been led to this. I believe that the SWTOR Game Time Card and its SWTOR collectable items such as the SWTOR Keyboard, Mouse or Headset should be still made available online for purchase under a mutual agreement. I did recall Amazon did have Game time cards for SWTOR at one point but I wouldn't know if they still do it today. For me, I prefer to pay things over the counter rather than paying it via online. Bioware in all seriousness maybe you guys need to rethink on the marketing strategy of how you want your customers to feel comfortable with being able to play your games online. If you let other companies like EB Games, JB Hifi and others ruin your game sales. Find alternatives measures, we don't want excuses. We want something to be there for us. The other option I'd like to see is buy a game time card online and send it as a gift to your friend. Edited April 19, 2014 by Satelerevan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ren_simp Posted April 19, 2014 Share Posted April 19, 2014 Get a prepaid visa and sub Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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