So how is the game doing in today?

[Joonyj]

I actually started play this game last Thursday and I already a subscriber. To my surprise, I saw a lot negativity on Internet when I just searching the game, something like this game lost so many players and it will going down ~~~~~

But all the negativity ended like July 2012 and I can't find latest news about how is swtor doing;so please someone tell me how this game doing( I love this game so much

[TheBBP]

I actually started play this game last Thursday and I already a subscriber. To my surprise, I saw a lot negativity on Internet when I just searching the game, something like this game lost so many players and it will going down ~~~~~

But all the negativity ended like July 2012 and I can't find latest news about how is swtor doing;so please someone tell me how this game doing( I love this game so much

 

The game is growing in subs slowly and is doing OK. Keep on enjoying it.

[SNCommand]

The amount of subscribers have seemed to have stabilized around what I would guess below but close to 500k, but they have apparently seen huge profits from the cartel market, new content is close to release and there's more on the way

 

I would say it's doing rather good, it's not the next MMO powerhouse and a game that will change the MMO landscape, but it has enough success and potential to become a major player

[TheNahash]

The amount of subscribers have seemed to have stabilized around what I would guess below but close to 500k

 

any sources for that number?

[Infernixx]

Yeah, pay no attention to the doom and gloomers. The game is doing just fine. I myself am a new subscriber and I haven't touched my old MMO since picking TOR up.

[Nydus]

I actually started play this game last Thursday and I already a subscriber. To my surprise, I saw a lot negativity on Internet when I just searching the game, something like this game lost so many players and it will going down ~~~~~

But all the negativity ended like July 2012 and I can't find latest news about how is swtor doing;so please someone tell me how this game doing( I love this game so much

 

Having been around since December 2011, I can say that the marked decline of the game seemed to hit in March of 2012 and ended in August of 2012, just around the announcement of the Free-To-Play. They seemed to have lost some 1 million plays in this time frame.

 

I note that some people are asking for subscriber numbers here, I'd like these numbers too but with the free-to-play dynamic honestly this is not sufficient to make a full determination. We need to see what the overall profitability is of the game now (compared to March-August) to assess if it is doing *well* or *better*.

 

All I can say is that the game is busier than it was in August, I have hardly any trouble finding groups or getting into WarZones, I note that the entry worlds continue to have high populations. This is a sign that people are still giving the game a *go*.

 

- Arcada

Edited March 4, 2013 by Nydus

[AbsolutGrndZero]

The game set records for pre-sales, higher than any MMO in history. Fact is, not everyone who buys an MMO stays with it after the first free month. So, when you had record sales, that means record quits too. Players saw the numbers out of context and screamed DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!and they were wrong. They continue to scream DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!! and they continue to be wrong.

 

Overall, the game is doing well for a game that isn't that other MMO that has been #1 for years. Keep enjoying the game, and ignore the doomsayers.

Edited March 4, 2013 by AbsolutGrndZero

[Nydus]

Overall, the game is doing well for a game that isn't that other MMO that has been #1 for years. Keep enjoying the game, and ignore the doomsayers.

 

The game is doing badly onto people who use WoW as a benchmark. Compared to every single other MMO I've played (some of them are still around after years and years), this game has superior subscription numbers.

 

It is all about the comparison.

 

Oh, and the resources put into the game. That is fair.

 

- Arcada

[chuixupu]

Also you will find people (probably the same people) making the same claims about WoW bleeding subs and dying despite that they have millions upon millions of subs.

[thendrix]

I began playing in March of 2012, at that point most of the entry worlds were already barren as many players had already powered to the level 50 cap to find a general lack of endgame polish. This was a result akin to many MMOs that launch before they are ready.

 

In fact for all of you WoW fans, WoW was delayed an additional 2 years after they realized they need to make a litany of changes. However, the first year of WoW was rather tumultuous with a rather undeveloped end game experience. Blizzard took the time to bolster and make that portion of the game more robust.

 

SWTOR came at a time that many gamers already expected this type of consideration, so as more updates and attempted fixes rolled out in spring and summer of 2012, the subs became rather disillusioned. The improvements made this fall with F2P and continued rigor in updates has brought new life to the game. Entry level planets are full of new players, as well as other players who see value in creating additional toons.

 

I expect that the expansion will finally bring a more stable SWTOR to the MMO forefront. BW appears to have learned from many of their mistakes, and the new level 55 endgame will hopefully amount to what the endgame experience should have been at launch. But, we will have to wait and see.

 

Either way it is incredibly nice to have a more consistent player base now. There were times before server merges that I was 1 of 5 people on the fleet, and q times for PVP were an hour sometimes with no hope of PVE groups. Now with a more consistent player base, content is more readily available to get involved in which should keep most players happy. Only time will tell, but I think SWTOR is here to stay for a while. Especially since there does not seem to be any MMOs coming in the near future that could "kill" WoW or SWTOR. The MMOs gaming industry is becoming more and more niche, and it will still be quite a while until we see a revolutionary MMO type IMO. However, you never know.

[DarthTHC]

Anyone telling you the game is growing in subs is assuming at best. However, the server populations have stabilized and seem to be increasing (slightly) over time, so it seems to be increasing its player-base at least.

 

The developers are producing content again, not just Cartel Market stuff, so that's a good sign.

 

Follow it up with the developers recently listening to a huge player complaint, fixing it quickly, and communicating humbly about it, and things are looking pretty bright, I'd say.

[CoolSprog]

Im going to respond to this because i think if you ask this question on the SWTOR forum your going to get a level of bias, people here like the game and therefore will not say the game is or was ever bad.

 

I've recently returned to see how the game has changed, i played the closed BETA and the first 3 months of release before i quit along with literally millions of other people.

 

The fact is upon release the game was very buggy, it became apparent the vast majority of the budget was spent on voice acting and animating every quest, and that the game was quite simply released at least, 3 months early.

 

Having BETA tested before release Eve Online, Rift, WoW, and Guild Wars, i can honestly say that the BETA sparked unprecedented interest in the game because the BETA was stable, and with the short duration of the open BETA, people were quite literally seeing the best the game had to offer.

 

Upon release the game was unreliably buggy to the point where in 3 months i successfully completed 2 instances (i did them daily) without some horrendous bug stopping me continuing.

 

The lack of response by EA/Bioware, non-existent customer support and the constant patch updates claiming bugs were fixed that were not (Remember the daily PVP quest not registering a win? Apparently fixed 3 times in the notes but not?).

 

Now before people say it was new and it was buggy its just a fact that the game was more buggy than any other MMO i've ever played on release by a country mile.

 

It wasn't all SWTOR's fault, though, the hype was through the roof and no game would ever live up to it, losing an incredible amount of subs was inevitable.

 

My opinion after coming back is the game has improved, its more stable less buggy, the LFG tool means there is easier to participate end game content avail and not everyone looks identical due to lack of modding any more.

 

On the bad side some of my biggest vices are still there, like a complete inability to monitor procs and buff stacks without staring at your buff bar by your portrait, no dual spec (i know they kinda made that easier but i think a dual spec would allow you to get more out of your char, and resolve queue issues late at night) (Dual spec is opinion though), and ofc the ability delay is still there, its been made less of an issue by changing the way spells work with animations coming second now but still, its there.

 

Overall its a good game, i'd say more of a casual MMO, and the graphics + aesthetic has been nailed,.

 

I'll just end by saying the reason many people consider the game to have been a failed effort is because they without a doubt lost more subs than they could have expected and the playerbase continued to decline at an insane rate of speed, didn't help that the game was slammed by many reviewers but like i said, it was released to early and a good start is everything in the MMO scene.

[Knockerz]

Also you will find people (probably the same people) making the same claims about WoW bleeding subs and dying despite that they have millions upon millions of subs.

 

Wow does not have 10 million players. Half those are chinese players that pay by the hour. Blizzard over estimates their total subscribers based on their definition of a subscriber. However, it is a fact that Blizzard has been in the red each quarter with respect to subscribers except for the quarter in which they launch the panda expansion since cataclysm. Their profits have taken a hit overall due this loss of subscriptions. Wow isn't dying, but it is losing subscribers each quarter. It will take a few more years before wow becomes a liability for Blizzard in terms of making a profit.

 

As for swtor, didn't release any numbers, but base on the last quarterly report indicated that EA is satisfied with the current performance of f2p model. However, the quarterly report also indicated that long term effect of f2p model were still in question as in like f2p will perform equally as well in like half to a year from now. I guess we have to wait and see how the f2p performance in the long term. At moment swtor is doing fairly well with the f2p model.

 

I like to add to the poster above, that every new mmorpg has a rough start. Even wow had a rough start cause I was around when wow first launch and people were calling it cartooning game and that it was very grindy. Wow didn't see huge subscription base increase until later year or two later, towards the end of vanilla wow. However, huge increase occured in bc, which was couple years after vanilla wow. Thus, swtor initial year is standard in mmorpg industry. There was some key features missing at launch, but most can agree the game in it's current state is polish. Had swtor been released this last December it might have held onto players better than what it did when it first launched. That's why some people have stated on this forum that the game doesn't feel like beta any more.

Edited March 5, 2013 by Knockerz

[TalkingDinosaur]

I actually started play this game last Thursday and I already a subscriber. To my surprise, I saw a lot negativity on Internet when I just searching the game, something like this game lost so many players and it will going down ~~~~~

But all the negativity ended like July 2012 and I can't find latest news about how is swtor doing;so please someone tell me how this game doing( I love this game so much

For some reason /v/ is hell bent on making this game look like the worst possible thing. While I dare not dive into their sticky, pony filled archives, I really do not understand why they despise BioWare so much.

[Spartanik]

any sources for that number?

 

From my experience by playing end game content, there are alot of subs playing arround.

Otherwise exact numbers only Bioware knows.

Edited March 5, 2013 by Spartanik

[Genghistwelve]

The February 2013 issue of Edge Magazine, had this to say in ranking Bioware the World's #28th Greatest Videogame Developer:

"...the loss of 400,000 Old Republic subscribers and the departure of its founders, 2012 was a dramatic year for the RPG specialist..."

 

And of course, we have at least one industry game tracker placing sales of The Old Republic ("boxes" not subs, which doesn't quite mean all that much except perhaps as upper bound) at:

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/31584/star-wars-the-old-republic/ 2.55M units sold worldwide.