Please switch the engine now before its too late..

[chuixupu]

I hardly doubt anyone as dps gets raid pops in 10 minites at five am.

 

Well, that IS the one nice thing about the buggy Harbinger, we have all the APAC people at weird time zones.

 

But even in WoW I don't usually get particularly fast pops during the off hours, that's just normal for an MMO.

[TUXs]

OH I am more than happy to help TUX.

 

Read it!

 

Enjoy!

 

http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ERTS/2702028395x0x679051/d5d63fd4-8e1f-442e-9969-5ac3508923d8/EA-Jul-23-2013_Transcript.pdf

 

Site Link: http://investor.ea.com/results.cfm

 

 

Excerpts:

First, extra content and free-to-play contributed $177 million, up 35% over the prior year, led by sustained growth in FIFA Ultimate Team, as well as Star Wars: The Old Republic, and FIFA Online 3. This revenue relates to businesses on – or business on PC or consoles, where consumers can enhance or extend their gaming experience by buying additional digital content.

 

This is their #1 category.

 

And fourth, subscriptions, advertising, and other digital revenue contributed $61 million, down 25% over the same period last year. In the previous year, Star Wars: The Old Republic was a subscription-only based MMO. This year, some of the revenue was recognized in the free-to-play category as we expanded this title to be both a subscription and free-to-play game. If you were to combine all of our extra content free-to-play with subscription, ads, and other, we still saw more than 10% growth over the same period last year.

 

Translation -- Pure sub segment revenue went down 25% year over year but overall they made MORE money year over year. Sub revenue is not just SWTOR. You can see its a hybrid category containing different objective.

 

So.

 

Yeah, FACTS. I use em.

 

(Now someone will spin this negatively and tell us the game is doomed.)

 

And in closing:

<A – Blake Jorgensen – Electronic Arts, Inc.>:

Star Wars continues to do well, and obviously, the mobile business is growing with the growth of the mobile platforms around the globe and we’re benefiting from that. I think we’re pretty consistent in where we think our guidance originally was on the growth there. And if that changes a lot, we’ll let you know about it in future quarters. But right now, I think the general focus should be that the guidance is about the same on digital and on packaged goods going forward.

 

While I appreciate that old link, I failed to see where they stated what YOU claimed...maybe you can find that quote for me?! I can't find it...

 

YOU specifically said "one of EA's strongest titles since the move to F2P."...where was that stated? Where did they say it was one of their strongest games? They said "Star Wars continues to do well", but nowhere do I see what you claimed it said...

[Rafaman]

Well, that IS the one nice thing about the buggy Harbinger, we have all the APAC people at weird time zones.

 

But even in WoW I don't usually get particularly fast pops during the off hours, that's just normal for an MMO.

 

True that. I'm a dps on Harbinger as well. Started a TFB run at 4 am. I was on the fleet looking for a group for... maybe 5 minutes. That is one thing I love about that server. Just about anytime now, when I choose to log in, I'm doing what I logged in to do content wise in a few moments even as a dps. Now... as for the other less spectacular things about Harbinger, Lol! I've learned to deal with them as a trade off.

[Arkerus]

While I appreciate that old link, I failed to see where they stated what YOU claimed...maybe you can find that quote for me?! I can't find it...

 

YOU specifically said "one of EA's strongest titles since the move to F2P."...where was that stated? Where did they say it was one of their strongest games? They said "Star Wars continues to do well", but nowhere do I see what you claimed it said...

 

 

LOL Tux. Keep moving the goalpost after you've been proved wrong. I enjoy but it eventually you'll be right off the field.

 

NO one said that exact phrase. That was mine based on the data. It was not an assumption.

 

Their number one performing sector was "extra content and F2P".

 

Breaking down our digital revenue into its key components highlights the performances of

each business

.... [they break down their top three revenue departments in this section]... led by sustained growth in FIFA Ultimate Team, as well as Star Wars: The Old Republic, and FIFA Online 3. This revenue relates to businesses on – or business on PC or consoles, where consumers can enhance or extend their gaming experience by buying additional digital content.

 

And I said : "one of EA's strongest titles since the move to F2P".

 

So where exactly did I make anything up?

 

Next up...moving the goalposts further away: What are you going to ask me next? "YEAH, BUT CAN YOU PROVE ITS DOING WELL ON MOON BASE ALPHA?"

Edited September 26, 2013 by Arkerus

[TUXs]

LOL Tux. Keep moving the goalpost after you've been proved wrong. I enjoy but it eventually you'll be right off the field.

 

NO one said that exact phrase. That was mine based on the data. It was not an assumption.

 

Their number one performing sector was "extra content and F2P".

 

LED BY: led by sustained growth in FIFA Ultimate Team, as well as Star Wars: The Old Republic, and FIFA Online 3. This revenue relates to businesses on – or business on PC or consoles, where consumers can enhance or extend their gaming experience by buying additional digital content.

 

And I said : "one of EA's strongest titles since the move to F2P".

 

So where exactly did I make anything up?

 

Next up...moving the goalposts further away: What are you going to ask me next? "YEAH, BUT CAN YOU PROVE ITS DOING WELL ON MOON BASE ALPHA?"

 

Moving what? I asked if you could link your statement, you said you could, you tried, but you didn't. No movement.

[Arkerus]

Moving what? I asked if you could link your statement, you said you could, you tried, but you didn't. No movement.

 

I said that! I said that and proved it via investor statements. It was a generalization of SWTOR being in EA's top performing category of revenue. What more do you want? You just don't like being proven wrong publically.

 

How do you expect people to talk? How else do I phrase it? When SWTOR is one of EA's top performing titles (based on the investor statements) I back what I said 100%.

 

Keep pushing the goal post. Where is it now? Nebraska?

[TUXs]

I said that! I said that and proved it via investor statements. It was a generalization of SWTOR being in EA's top performing category of revenue. What more do you want? You just don't like being proven wrong publically.

 

How do you expect people to talk? How else do I phrase it? When SWTOR is one of EA's top performing titles (based on the investor statements) I back what I said 100%.

 

Keep pushing the goal post. Where is now? Nebraska?

 

Same place it started Arkerus...It hasn't moved.

 

The DLC was obviously popular, as it was one of their leading contributors to digital sales...but that's not the same as what you claimed...you said "one of EA's strongest titles since the move to F2P.". One quarter doesn't make that statement true.

[Fantazm]

On the subject........

 

 

It won't change. So stop getting annoyed about it and do something constructive with that energy instead. Maybe about something that you can change.

[Arkerus]

Same place it started Arkerus...It hasn't moved.

 

The DLC was obviously popular, as it was one of their leading contributors to digital sales...but that's not the same as what you claimed...you said "one of EA's strongest titles since the move to F2P.". One quarter doesn't make that statement true.

 

Quarter over quarter buddy.

 

And we'll see how things go when the next statement comes out. But my money is on another very strong performance.

 

I enjoy proving people wrong here. Kind of a hobby of mine.

[FriendReferral]

While I appreciate that old link, I failed to see where they stated what YOU claimed...maybe you can find that quote for me?! I can't find it...

 

YOU specifically said "one of EA's strongest titles since the move to F2P."...where was that stated? Where did they say it was one of their strongest games? They said "Star Wars continues to do well", but nowhere do I see what you claimed it said...

I'm with Tuxxy on this one. That old link only conveyed how SWTOR is doing well.

 

Doing Well ≠ Strongest Project.

 

[DOHboy]

I'm with Tuxxy on this one. That old link only conveyed how SWTOR is doing well.

 

Doing Well ≠ Strongest Project.

 

 

ONE OF their strongest products. And yes, last quarters # shows its one of their top f2p models and also one of their best performing subscription games as well.

 

i.e does well both in f2p AND as a subscription that the combined revenue generated by this game would be significant based on the numbers provided. Subscription + f2p is $242million, granted not ALL be SWTOR but finding it in both categories would suggest a strong correlation for ONE OF their top games.

[Eitetsu]

*insert Faramir image*

 

One does not simply "switch the engine..."

 

Rebuild the entire game world for use in a new engine. All planets, all quests (class, planetary, heroics, companion and MORE!), all FPs, all Ops, all of PvP...it's a much more monumental task than the OP makes it out to be. It's not like you can just cut+paste the game resources onto a new engine and expect it to work.

 

Original development cost was hundreds of millions, correct? To move to a new engine would probably cost 30-40% of whatever the original cost was. Maybe more. Not to mention the cost of deploying this change to servers and clients.

 

You'd be better off playing this MMO till it dies, and hope it did well enough and BW\EA learned enough from it to justify making a new, better one 10-20 years down the road.

[Trevalon]

While the OP's original point is kind of dumb in that it would be near impossible to switch engines at this time, he does have one good point: The hero engine is one of the worst engines out there.

 

If you don't know what the Hero engine is or its history you should google it sometime - you would laugh if it didn't make you cry knowing that Bioware actually used it to make SWTOR...

[Hambunctious]

Ya cuz, ya know, there is nothing far fetched and unrealistic about people leaping 30m across the air, shooting lightning out their fingers, or throwing objects with their minds while using a sword made out of energy in an age of advanced ranged weaponry and space travel...

 

In this setting it's not unrealistic. The stuff EA put in this game is way beyond the realms of the SW universe.

[Andryah]

I'm with Tuxxy on this one. That old link only conveyed how SWTOR is doing well.

 

Doing Well ≠ Strongest Project.

 

 

You guys really cannot read worth bantha drool can you?

 

"One of the strongest".. NOT "the strongest". And when you read the EA statement.. that is exactly the way it reads.

 

Too much desire to whip Bioware guys..... it's clouding your thinking and objectivity.

[Rafaman]

On the subject........

 

 

It won't change. So stop getting annoyed about it and do something constructive with that energy instead. Maybe about something that you can change.

 

There we go ^^.

[CosmicKat]

Quarter over quarter buddy.

 

And we'll see how things go when the next statement comes out. But my money is on another very strong performance.

 

I enjoy proving people wrong here. Kind of a hobby of mine.

 

The statement you quoted is about growth in revenue from online purchases.

 

Your biased interpretation of that is missing two key elements:

 

1) Before the cash shop and the paid expansion there was no way to buy anything for TOR in an online purchase. Hence growing from zero is simple.

 

2) TOR's initial performance was pathetic, roughly 25% of their projections. If that doubled to 50% of their projections... awesome growth, but still terrible performance vs projections.

[chuixupu]

*insert Faramir image*

 

One does not simply "switch the engine..."

 

That's Boromir.

[JamieKirby]

I think the one main thing they should change, which is far more realistic then a engine change, is the changing of the companions, I liked how kotor and kotor 2 did it and how mass effect did it, in those games I could use any companion I wanted, unless it was a companion specific quest of course, I mean I didn't have to have a guy or gal companion tanking or me or healing me, I just picked whoever I wanted and just played the game.

 

In this game however its use this one for faster recovery, use this to kill fast, but take longer to recover or pick this one for virtual immortality, I really don't like that, but that's just me.

 

Overall, when it comes to the game itself, its fun to play and it makes me feel like I wish I enjoyed tanking, then I could travel with my favourite companions instead of just taking Treek since she is far better (performance-wise) then any other companion in the game, I not only am able to go any alignment while questing with no negative reputation with the other companions, unless its while in a full group conversation like on the ship or in major class conversation scenes, I can also use treek as a healer/tank hybrid and it outlives a full tank by far...well so far anyway.

[Eitetsu]

That's Boromir.

 

Damn. You got me. I get all those guys mixed up. My friends and I have an inside joke about Gandalf, Dandalf, Randalf, and Landalf. Haha.

[Thorkir]

I love it when people suggest changing the engine of a game that's currently active.

 

Makes me laugh every time.

[Raansu]

i love it when people suggest changing the engine of a game that's currently active.

 

Makes me laugh every time.

 

ff14arr

[mmjarec]

At least final fantasy admitted it sucked and did something about it. Bioware will do neither

[spectreclees]

I love it when people suggest changing the engine of a game that's currently active.

 

Makes me laugh every time.

 

I personally just want it to be looked at and fixed up. Which is possible while active. We still haven't had any major updates to it. That shadow update doesn't count, because it actually broke them more than fixed them.

[Arkerus]

I'm with Tuxxy on this one. That old link only conveyed how SWTOR is doing well.

 

Doing Well ≠ Strongest Project.

 

 

Maybe you should try reading my post again. Slowly.

 

"ONE OF"

 

not

 

"THE"