Mrdann Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 You guys are not looking at this pragmatically. EA loves SWTOR now. It makes a lot of money, and has been profitable. They were new to the MMO game and they made their way through rough times with a successful product. Now they have a chance to leverage that market knowledge. They have a very successful and resurgent franchise with Star Wars. They have a very accurate prediction of sales and sub rates using current rates, so it would be easy to find a budget that would work. It certainly won't be 200m again, but they wouldn't really need that much either based on what they have learned. I would assume this would be planned for ~2 years out. EA knows that SWTOR's revenue will begin to decline as it ages. They will slow that decline with updates and expansions, but it will decline. EA will not want to let that market share just dwindle away. The only thing that would stop them from making SWTOR 2 is if Disney has other plans for the MMO market with regard to the Star Wars license. is that right? then tell me something if this game has done so well then why is it still operating at a loss with a skeleton crew on board? look at the joke that was SOR compared to the original game. i wouldn't even call rishi and yavin 4 planets that are on the same scale as tattooine or alderaan. they are no bigger then daily zones. this game would have been just as big as wow if they would have had an extra year in development and didn't blow their HUGE budget on voice acting that was NOT NEEDED for every single mission..... they even got RID of the mission cut-scenes in SOR because it costs too much money and takes too much development time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandicus Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 is that right? then tell me something if this game has done so well then why is it still operating at a loss with a skeleton crew on board? look at the joke that was SOR compared to the original game. i wouldn't even call rishi and yavin 4 planets that are on the same scale as tattooine or alderaan. they are no bigger then daily zones. this game would have been just as big as wow if they would have had an extra year in development and didn't blow their HUGE budget on voice acting that was NOT NEEDED for every single mission..... they even got RID of the mission cut-scenes in SOR because it costs too much money and takes too much development time. The game doesn't operate at a loss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoom_VI Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 I don't disagree that they have great plans for SWTOR. My point is that they need to start work on the next SW MMO now so it will be ready while the iron is hot. I don't think you understand how MMOs work. MMOs are what are known as "perpetual games" they are designed to (in a ideal circumstance) run forever. They are not games that are designed to end, they are games designed to keep people playing for as long as possible where playtime is measured in years. Sequels are for linear play-to-end-and-done games, not for perpetual games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FerkWork Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 If they are planning a sequel, I hope Kephess is a playable Class Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leaveshill Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 La la la . I agree that it's unlikely as SWTOR is not demanding a lot of resources. Maybe if we're lucky, tho. It's OK to hope! As you said, it's cruising until it falls of the cliff. Let's hope it falls of in a few years and that they have a plan B (SWTOR 2), hue hue. After all; Without our dreams, what are we? La la . The story in WOW isn't something you pay attention to. It's not "serious"; so to speak. They have god damn Rambo in a basement, and your mission is to get him so that he'll get a tank and attack orcs. That's what WOW is. A big troll. The missions aren't like SWTOR. SWTOR has a deep story with persons. Wow does not. It has some words that you or I could've done just as well. SWTOR is written by professionals, it could've been a movie or a book. WOW is just a joke in terms of story telling. Look at it and tell me it's not a joke? I've enjoyed it and I*ll enjoy it again, but it's no "real story" there. It's no reason to do anything. What I meant isn't that it's LITERALLY no story in WOW. What I meant is, the story isn't a story. It's not there for you to look at it, it's there for the sake of being there. You'll do quests on Taris, speaking with a number of people, some of them being extremelly well personalized. Darth Gravus and Thana, alone, have more personality than all the NPCS in wow. And a story cannot exist without proper personalization. Wow doesn't care as they don't want to go that path. If they go that path, then they'll fail miserably. Their story, from Warcraft even, is nothing but mediocre and they have no chance at making a "class act". SWTOR has a class act story, as do other games. ESO for instance has a decent story. WOW has none. They have some random words written poorely, a few important characters that say like a few lines and no personalization whatsoever. That's their secret. A story with meaning cannot exist forever. A game with no story can, as you're there for the sake of the game. I play SWTOR for it's story, I played WOW for it's pvp and community. Which game has I played most? Wow by far. Maybe ten times as much, even. And I'll probably try it out again, long after I stop using SWTOR. Look at the SWTOR story. It's 8 stories, split into a number of stories, and every planet has two planetary questlines (expect the starter and capital worlds), a number of "dungeons" which make sense. Then it's the two new expansions, which aren't as good as the original but they're fine. Wow - has nothing that's connected. They have a number of different, random monsters and villains running around. That's the difference. Sure, they add a few random quests that's sort of connected through horrible writing and storytelling, but that's not counted as a story. The story in Wow would be realistcally rated at 1/10 or something. It's extremely weak. And that's Wow's strenght, as you're allowing their horrible story to be ignored and look at their strong sides. SWTOR has to be strong in every area, something WOW has never tried, and which is Wow's strong suit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nivek_Sivad Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 If you are so wise can you enlighten me? You're asking for a BETTER graphics system than we already have(Debated to be one of the best), and say it needs a sequel because it's 3 years old. Look at WoW, it's like what, nine or ten years old now? It's running on an engine from 2005 and it's doing better than we are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHAVEDKILLER Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 :cool:Lolololololololololololololololololololololololololl.can i have some of what your smoking,,,,,most be really good chronic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Transcendent Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 (edited) You're the one not looking at this pragmatically... EA considers a game like FIFA, Madden or CoD a success because they sell millions of copies on launch day and make millions more on 'tweaks' to rosters that they sell during the season, or they sell a few DLC map packs for CoD. The games are heavily recycled, relabeled and released as a "NEW" game ONE year later...repeating the entire cycle. SWTOR is a TINY TINY fish for EA. Blizzard doesn't have a Madden or FIFA to fall back on, so for them, W0W is their bread winner...not even close for SWTOR and EA. SWTOR doesn't even cover bonuses I bet. Well if they hadn't let a majority of the dev team go after launch, and had bothered to use a decent game engine in the first place. Perhaps they would have gone down the road that a future Star Wars game is about to for another developer in the EA household (one that communicates with players on a much more regular basis I'll add). I.E. lots of DLC and chances at extra money. But no, they f***** it up royally. You would have thought they would learn from previous ventures, but the upper echelons of management seem to be clueless and grasping at straws a lot of the time. Edited February 23, 2015 by Transcendent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy_Puppy Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 I'm sorry OP.. but graphics? SWTOR's graphics are fine. Clipping issues on armor aside over all they are clean, crisp and detailed. Now if you want to say the world is stagnate, such as npc not roaming and such ill agree with. Now I'm not sure if its the engine there using or not but that would be my biggest gripe as far as presentation of the game world. SWTOR would be perfect for random world events like Republic commandos storming a section of the base and having the npc's get in a big fur ball where the players can jump in to help. Or a empire walker attack on a out post etc. Can they do this I do not know. Not sure if there if hero engine can do those things on the fly. Do they need a whole new engine though... not really if they can modify the current one to do more tricks. World of Warcraft has dated graphics and just now after a decade for a face lift. SWTOR's graphics over all are good. It's the limited game engine that I would be more concerned with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pagy Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 They didn't build the original engine from scratch. They bought it. They wouldn't build this one either. They have access to several cutting edge graphic engines right now. Though, 2 years is on the low side and includes some rather unlikely assumptions like they already have a handle on most of the preliminary production work....dude its never going to happen. they cant even produce patches at this point. it would make absolutely no sense to invest in development on that scale to what...keep what it already has? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalfear Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 SW:TOR will be around for years yet Eventually there will be another Star Wars MMORPG, as the upside is just to appealing for Disney not to. But I doubt it will be in The Old Republic time line. This was our kick at the can for that time line and EA screwed that portion up majorly But as I said, SW:TOR will be alive and well for at least 7 more years (probably longer) before you see or hear of next incarnation of a Star Wars based MMORPG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TUXs Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 ...dude its never going to happen. they cant even produce patches at this point. it would make absolutely no sense to invest in development on that scale to what...keep what it already has? No kidding. I'm with ya Pagy...it'll never happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pagy Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Well if they hadn't let a majority of the dev team go after launch, and had bothered to use a decent game engine in the first place. Perhaps they would have gone down the road that a future Star Wars game is about to for another developer in the EA household (one that communicates with players on a much more regular basis I'll add). I.E. lots of DLC and chances at extra money. But no, they f***** it up royally. You would have thought they would learn from previous ventures, but the upper echelons of management seem to be clueless and grasping at straws a lot of the time.you make it sound like the decision to reduce staff wasnt a result of the game not maintaining a playerbase after launch. the same thing happens to all mmos post-wow. they all have grand ideas until someone looks at the operating budget and the revenues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jojomagro Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Finally, someone with a rational response! Gamer's tend to be an emotionally driven bunch and business is business. I pretty much agree with you, and I guess when I said SWTOR 2 what I meant was "Another Star Wars MMO by Bioware" I think 5 years might miss the boat. I am hoping that EA has had this in their 5 to 10 year plan for a couple years now. I think it is likely we will see a rash of new Star Wars themed games announced this year for release over the next 24 months, including a new MMO. BF 3 plox Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TUXs Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 BF 3 plox Agreed! That's the other reason there's no new SW MMO in the works...BF3 is going to do more in sales in 1 week, than all the Star Wars MMOs have made combined. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jojomagro Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 (edited) Agreed! That's the other reason there's no new SW MMO in the works...BF3 is going to do more in sales in 1 week, than all the Star Wars MMOs have made combined. agreed, FPS market is massive. FPS are where I was born and raised. It'll be nice to get Star wars and that back together. Edited February 23, 2015 by Jojomagro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandicus Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Agreed! That's the other reason there's no new SW MMO in the works...BF3 is going to do more in sales in 1 week, than all the Star Wars MMOs have made combined. Given Battlefront 2's sales figures, that's extremely unlikely. SWTOR's sales were higher than Battlefront 2 combined sales across all platforms. To approximate SWTOR's revenue to date, assuming a $60 price tag, Battlefront 3 would need over 10 million in sales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DreadtechSavant Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 SW;TOR 2, maybe in time but not this year as they have given out there road map for 2015. Yes there will be things not listed there but something on that scale would have been mentioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aries_cz Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 (edited) Given Battlefront 2's sales figures, that's extremely unlikely. SWTOR's sales were higher than Battlefront 2 combined sales across all platforms. To approximate SWTOR's revenue to date, assuming a $60 price tag, Battlefront 3 would need over 10 million in sales. 2005 was a very different year than 2011 in gaming world. Edited February 23, 2015 by Aries_cz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TUXs Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Given Battlefront 2's sales figures, that's extremely unlikely. SWTOR's sales were higher than Battlefront 2 combined sales across all platforms. To approximate SWTOR's revenue to date, assuming a $60 price tag, Battlefront 3 would need over 10 million in sales. LOL! Welcome to 2015. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rashadk Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Those big fish take a set percentage of investment and provide a stable return. That is business. But it doesn't mean that EA is not interested in investing in other things. EA publishes hundreds of games a year - big fish, small fish, and medium sized fish. Let me show you pragmatic... Facts: The Star Wars franchise is valuable and resurgent. EA has a development studio that is familiar with the franchise. Free to play hybrid is a viable business model for an MMO game. EA has a development studio that is familiar with this business model. EA has an established customer base for a new Star Wars MMO. If Disney has given EA the ability to renew their license for future MMOs it seems like a no brainer to start development on the next game. Stop using the word pragmatic. Your responses clearly show you don't know what it means. You have stated isolated facts and weakly drawn a conclusion from them. You have ignored the context people have responded with. Not being able to apply theory effectively is literally the exact opposite of pragmatism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shy-Nee Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 you make it sound like the decision to reduce staff wasnt a result of the game not maintaining a playerbase after launch. the same thing happens to all mmos post-wow. they all have grand ideas until someone looks at the operating budget and the revenues. The problem is nobody is willing to invest the resources necessary to have an MMO ready to compete in the marketplace at launch. SWTOR needed another year's development time and another beta cycle prior to launch and decent server population management, if it had gotten those things the revenues would have been there to retain staff post-launch. Same thing happened to ESO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SgtJeremy Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 First off like I just said. Kotor 3 is in higher demand. But lets just leave that out of the picture and just look at the state that this game is in and how things have been going since 3.0 it is not in their best interest to make a sequel to this game. It would be a very bad business move on their part. Considering the amount of people that are pissed off at them already for things that have happened in this game. SWTOR 2 would fold faster then this game. And the bigger part is that disney would have to approve of it and again it would be a very bad move on their part. If they were to make anything KOTOR 3 is the way to go. They've already stated this is Kotor 3 and beyond. Kotor 3 is less likely than a Swtor sequel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liquor Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 (edited) lets look at a bigger picture. episode 7 drops this coming December. and the following 2 in the 4 years after that spaced 24 months apart. you have 6 years of new cannon coming. not to mention SW:Rebels and the spin off movies between the SW 7-9 releases. that's a lot of cannon coming out which can be used for new ideas on games. first-person shooters, RPGs, the next MMO. do not expect a new SW MMO during the movie releases. look at Star Wars: Galaxies which came out during the episode 1-3 time frame. Released June 26, 2003 and ended December 15, 2011. 3 expansions and 2 huge gameplay changes, CU and NGE. the game has spawned an emulation as well. you can expect SWTOR to at least fair just as well if not better than SWG (so long as they don't **** with the classes link CU and NGE did in SWG), which now puts us between the release of episode 8 and 9. could a spin off MMO come? only the success of a FPS or RPG would help decide that. or could SWTOR get a graphics update like AO? if DX12 info holds true and the performance increase is significant, I don't see why not. it is easier than creating a totally new game. add a large expansion and let the game grow with the community. a happy gaming is a paying gamer eidt: SWG was really killed to make room for SWTOR Edited February 23, 2015 by Liquor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pagy Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 The problem is nobody is willing to invest the resources necessary to have an MMO ready to compete in the marketplace at launch. SWTOR needed another year's development time and another beta cycle prior to launch and decent server population management, if it had gotten those things the revenues would have been there to retain staff post-launch. Same thing happened to ESO.couple problems with your assessment 1) swtor at its launch was regarded as the most expensive video game ever made. trying to play the "investment card" is a bit pointless. as with any project, you can't work on it forever. at some point it needs to generate revenue. 2) you're making the assumption that because a game is ready, or good, or anything, that it will be successful. it doesn't. again, look at wow. it was a pile of junk. 3) lets not talk about eso, or any other post-wow mmo. they all have grand ideas and plans except when they all launch, they all fail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts