So why did so many quit the game over the years?

[jedipattawan]

Just wondering what it was that led to the game dropping off from upwards of a million subs to around 100k-200k these days?  Not that that is bad cause honestly that's still quite a lot but I am just wondering what your thoughts or input are?

What would bring you or your friends back?

What haven't they done that people always wanted that would interest players?

Is the end game not being a big focus a huge turn off for people?  From what I can see the last raid was 3 bosses and one of them sits stationary in the room and never moves at all.  And the R-4 anomaly ending cutscene looked very cheaply done as well with some bad audio.  Would an LFR type feature help at all where you just queue up for a raid with others for the bosses?  Would more bosses and bigger budget raids with 8 to 12 bosses interest people?

Is it because the story has all been done before and then that's it and people don't stick around after that?

Don't have to bother to answer any or all of these I'm just curious.  I've only ever heard the end game isn't very good for SWTOR and it's more a single player game with the story.

Edited January 27, 2023 by jedipattawan

[EdratLightindark]

Simple answer......not enough content. Bioware also changed to game every update and it upset a lot of people by running their favorite class into the ground. It also didnt belp that BW doesnt know their own game.

[JediQuaker]

Any game can lose players over time. Some games shut down altogether.

[jedipattawan]

8 minutes ago, JediQuaker said:

Any game can lose players over time. Some games shut down altogether.

Right but what's your opinion as to why it has?

[Chryptyk]

not enough content, fast enough.  even when it is released, it doesn't appeal to a broad range of people.

monotonous grinding, and busy work in lieu of actual content.

major unfavorable class changes.

bad design changes to gearing and scaling.

removal of pvp specific gear.

lack of meaningful communication.

increasing numbers of bugs, many of which are still unfixed to this day.

 

at this point, the only thing that would bring people back is an actual big expansion like SoR that had tons of stuff for everyone that was released all at once and not released piecemeal.

[AJediKnight]

The same reason that all games in the genre are suffering: the lack of DYNAMIC content.

We often see MMORPGs compared to theme parks (if they're designed that way), and it's a decent analogy: you pay the gate fee, you see the sights, you punch Mickey... but nothing changes. And adding more content doesn't alter this pattern.

The problem with nearly all MMORPGs (with the exception of some truly boutique, niche titles like EVE Online, which is hamstrung by it being so byzantine in a number of other areas), is that they don't attempt to break this inherently flawed construct: there is never enough content to satisfy fully-engaged players. And, within this framework, there never CAN be.

How do you rectify this? By designing core systems that A) encourage deep player investment (housing; towns; city-building; city-defense; crafting that allows players to design wholly unique items based on their real-life skills; military campaigns where terrain changes hands, etc.) and B) alter the game world over time to reflect player actions (places get destroyed; new ones are built; a tree that's chopped down needs to regrow; if players slaughter enough wolves in a region, they'll be depopulated; if an Empire falls, its NPCs are no longer present in the game-world, and so on). And before you say this is impossible - no, it really ISN'T. It's just that the vast majority of AAA titles have been so hung up for the past TWENTY YEARS on copying WoW's success by trying to just be WoW that they have refused to accept that maybe the modern player needs to be really awed to invest like they used to.

That's the mistake with SWTOR - it's been the mistake since the get-go. 

[ZUHFB]

51 minutes ago, jedipattawan said:

million subs to around 100k-200k these days? 

sorry are we playing the same game? This game has roughly 10k subs. 6-7k play through steam and 2-4k via the normal Launcher

[FlameYOL]

6 minutes ago, ZUHFB said:

sorry are we playing the same game? This game has roughly 10k subs. 6-7k play through steam and 2-4k via the normal Launcher

Source for that number?

[GeneralGyro]

it was marked as being the wow killer and sub numbers definitely were on its way to rival it. however, the MMO crowd that rushed to endgame and found that it was nothing, not even a raid was out. so they en mass left back to wow and other MMOs and the game became a joke F2P mmo. from 2.8m subs down to less than 500k maybe which is why they forced into F2P

[jedipattawan]

4 minutes ago, GeneralGyro said:

it was marked as being the wow killer and sub numbers definitely were on its way to rival it. however, the MMO crowd that rushed to endgame and found that it was nothing, not even a raid was out. so they en mass left back to wow and other MMOs and the game became a joke F2P mmo. from 2.8m subs down to less than 500k maybe which is why they forced into F2P

So would you say adding in a bigger end game focus would help nowadays though or would that be the wrong move?  Or maybe just keep pumping out story content instead if the current players want that more?

Edited January 27, 2023 by jedipattawan

[jedipattawan]

25 minutes ago, AJediKnight said:

The same reason that all games in the genre are suffering: the lack of DYNAMIC content.

We often see MMORPGs compared to theme parks (if they're designed that way), and it's a decent analogy: you pay the gate fee, you see the sights, you punch Mickey... but nothing changes. And adding more content doesn't alter this pattern.

The problem with nearly all MMORPGs (with the exception of some truly boutique, niche titles like EVE Online, which is hamstrung by it being so byzantine in a number of other areas), is that they don't attempt to break this inherently flawed construct: there is never enough content to satisfy fully-engaged players. And, within this framework, there never CAN be.

How do you rectify this? By designing core systems that A) encourage deep player investment (housing; towns; city-building; city-defense; crafting that allows players to design wholly unique items based on their real-life skills; military campaigns where terrain changes hands, etc.) and B) alter the game world over time to reflect player actions (places get destroyed; new ones are built; a tree that's chopped down needs to regrow; if players slaughter enough wolves in a region, they'll be depopulated; if an Empire falls, its NPCs are no longer present in the game-world, and so on). And before you say this is impossible - no, it really ISN'T. It's just that the vast majority of AAA titles have been so hung up for the past TWENTY YEARS on copying WoW's success by trying to just be WoW that they have refused to accept that maybe the modern player needs to be really awed to invest like they used to.

That's the mistake with SWTOR - it's been the mistake since the get-go. 

Yeah agree I think what works for WoW doesn't work for others.  For WoW they have a former IP Warcraft, an RTS responsive combat engine, and a high budget end game with dozens of new bosses every 6 months.  The game is built around the end game, mods, and a highly experienced competitive community.  

SWTOR has story in droves that puts a ton of other mmorpg's to shame.  All with some branching options and fully voiced equipped with cutscenes.  It makes the leveling actually interesting and fun and not just something to slog through.  My guess is the selling point here is story and an end game for all that is highly story focused might be the best move, but with skippable cutscenes unlike FFXIV encounters.  

Regardless copying WoW at this point wouldn't make sense at all as SWTOR is its own thing.  Tacking on mythic plus to this game might be terrible.  

[GeneralGyro]

16 minutes ago, jedipattawan said:

So would you say adding in a bigger end game focus would help nowadays though or would that be the wrong move?  Or maybe just keep pumping out story content instead if the current players want that more?

its too late for this game, they made ops a focus with this expansion and locking the best gear behind it, they even made a new ops. dont see more blood at all

 

best course for them is to appease their existing loyal playerbase but big bombastic game alterations like KOTFE are out of the picture

Edited January 27, 2023 by GeneralGyro

[felleto]

I think we biggest thing that needs to change is engagement and excitement, communication and transparency, Customer satisfaction. The rest will come as consequence of these things.

a) engagement and excitement: basically building up hype. What's the next big thing for SWTOR? What are the devs working on? What are we getting in return for our support and excitement for this game? Where is the excitement? Where is the joy? Everything with this game development seems so bland, you need to make we care about everything that happens to this game. Show people that do not play what they are missing out on. Why should I play this game? Trailers build hype and that's good but do some in game events, run some PvP championships narrated by the devs, do some gameplay sessions on twitch and use these opportunitues to build up hype for the things to come, show us you guys working on the game creating some assets (NO CARTEL MARKET ITEMS THO!)

b) communication and transparency: Hey I get it everyone makes mistakes. Developing a game is no different. Communication is key. What feedback do you want from us? Why are content drops so spaced out between each other? Are there licensing issues with the brand? Are you guys polishing the product more?  Are there some issues with how the coding is working? And let us know the good stuff you are working on! Build up the hype. I think a lot of the relation with players has been degraded with the 10th year anniversary. What the hell happened? We never got any word on why the anniversary was a failure. People just don't trust the company anymore I think and they don't want to spend their time in a place where people promise something they will ultimately not deliver. We need some good promises delivered not radio silence.

c) Customer satisfaction: this is one of the most passionate and loyal fan bases I have seen for a game. It makes me sad that this seems to be seen as something to be exploited. I will not forgive Bioware or EA for that matter for the mistakes they have made with people that adore their game. They need to do a 360 in my opinion or this ship will sink with all Bioware Texas on it. Start fighting for your community and for your game. It's your jobs that are on the line if this boat sinks. Do you think we need more cartel market items or a less buggy game? Use your brains for a second. Stop squandering the hope and MONEY your players lay at your feet as a show of good faith. Shame on you for exploiting that. Do better.  
 

Edited January 27, 2023 by felleto

[Sir-steve]

This is a recurring topic that can spawn lengthy and insightful, heartfelt essays....I know I've ranted on it myself in the past.  I think I'd summarize by saying:

 

• EA/BW will never make this the game we, the players, want in the way we want it.  They will make the product they want to sell/support so, on that note, our expectations will never be met.  It is best to have low expectations.
• Because they've focused on 'story telling' with a heavy voice acting component they've placed a constraint on themselves which impacts their ability to maintain a release cadence i.e. they have dependencies on writers, actors, storyline approval from Disney, plus the actual game enhancements.  We've seen them try to compensate through 'retro' mechanics like the written dialogue options seen in KOTOR but in my mind, that makes for a worse experience.  I think this leads the developers to spend time where they can and that is 'under the hood' tinkering with game mechanics. 
• I used to think it was because every game lead wanted to do things 'their way' leading to silly things like changes in release numbering, revamped combat etc., but now, I suspect they're just trying to do what they can with what they've got.  If you cant implement a new planet because the story isn't onside with Disney, or the actors arent available, or there's not enough budget, then you do a combat pruning.

I was wholeheartedly surprised they threw resources into the 64 bit leap but that, I think, is a prime example of what you can do if you only have technical resources available to throw at the game.  However, addressing this technical debt means the game could survive longer so hopefully that added longevity will lead to more story/content down the road.  If we ever see them address their game engine situation then heck the game might be around several more years.

Edited January 27, 2023 by Sir-steve
typo

[sharpenedstick]

I will start off with one little bit of defense of EAware and that is, other than a very few examples like WoW, attrition and player shrinkage is the default experience of MMOs.

That being said, here's why this game nosedived:

1) Copied the holy trinity tab targeting combat that was already outdated by the time this game launched. Although saying this is a WoW clone with a Star Wars skin annoys a lot of people, it's essentially true, especially the situation at launch. The original devs even said in an interview that they regretted following the WoW model so closely.

2) Abandoned individual class stories literally at the first expansion. Yes, it is a lot more work, but those stories are the #1 draw of the game.

3) Constantly changing the loot/gearing system and in groundhog day style loops. RNG is fun! Currencies are fun! RNG is bad! Too many currencies! Back to RNG! Back to currencies!

4) Development time is wasted on features that will not lead to player retention. Combat Styles is a fine feature. But it wasn't worth two years of dev time, as their major project, just to make it possible to play classes we already could play.

5) KoTeT/KotFE and the subsequent stories like Iokath were terribly written. We defeat an immortal galaxy eating force ghost. Immortal. Galaxy Eating. Force Ghost. WTF is supposed to threaten us now? The Alliance is incredibly stupid. And the story, which is already really bad, makes zero sense for the non-force using classes. The scale of the game was completely imploded by that drivel. The only thing worse than the story was the game play. 99 chapters consisting of endless waves of 3-man skytrooper patrols who all cc. They do very little damage so you won't die, you'll just wish you did. IRL.

6) The only dev communication we get is when they replace their community manager, who then posts once promising a new era of improved communication.

7) A process that completely ignores the PTS and issues that arise. Every time a big new release comes out broken or poorly designed, you see posts from people who were on the PTS saying "we told them this was an issue."

8 ) Complete failure to support the mechanics they do have, even in trivial ways. It's been literally seven years since the GSF vendor got any new rewards. You could just give us a decoration of an NPC that already freaking exists like Imperial/Rebel naval officers. The Collector's Edition and the VIP vendors are the same. How hard is it to add a deco or a pet once a year to these?

9) Too many time sinks. Who thinks daily themeparks and rep grinds are fun anymore? Nobody. Yet it's the only move EAware devs have.

10) Dramatic changes are implemented based on the pet projects of whichever devs have replaced the previous failed devs. Ranked pvp removed cause why? Seriously, whatever you think of ranked or ranked players, why remove content in a game that desperately needs content? Some of these idiot devs make pvp quests based on wins, others on games played. GSF is not integrated into the PVP season. Space Missions (remember those) have been almost completely abandoned. When was the last time you got new gear for that?

11) A player base that is completely hostile to grouping and an inability by the devs to make modern kill-sharing mechanics. SWTOR players are more hostile to grouping to complete open world quests than any other MMO I've ever seen. This is essentially a solo game.

12) Constantly recycling trash characters like Malgus and Revan because the devs have written themselves into a corner and have no vision for the game. They have only two moves: Either make everything bigger and badder (hence why we fight an immortal galaxy eating force ghost) or lean on played out tropes that the last team of scrub devs left in place (Malgus has an unbroken track record of failure. Why should we believe he is any threat to anything?)

13) EAware clearly starves this game of dev resources. We either get time serving failures who EAware shunts here in a kind of exile, or a training ground where people come to test their pet projects on us.

14) Everything interesting is on the cartel market. The number of desirable cosmetics from the cartel market vastly outnumbers those you can acquire through game play.

15) Galactic Seasons is fine as a content idea, but its primary purpose is to be a treadmill, so we get a ton of very grindy mechanics. Gone are the "play your way" days (not that they managed that very well) and now instead you get shunted into a few choices for weekly objectives, many of which you're never going to want to do.

16) The economy is in complete shambles, and while they have no idea how to fix it (or any desire to do so), they make ill-informed opinions based on it, which is supposedly why the current Galactic Season has much less cartel coins. The real reason, which we all know, is to try and increase sales of cartel coins. Which, to be fair, is the only thing keeping this game afloat, so I suppose it makes sense for EAware to focus on.

There are many, many more reasons, but they mostly boil down to the fact that SWTOR's dev teams are just not very good.

Edited January 27, 2023 by sharpenedstick

[AJediKnight]

43 minutes ago, jedipattawan said:

Yeah agree I think what works for WoW doesn't work for others.  For WoW they have a former IP Warcraft, an RTS responsive combat engine, and a high budget end game with dozens of new bosses every 6 months.  The game is built around the end game, mods, and a highly experienced competitive community.  

SWTOR has story in droves that puts a ton of other mmorpg's to shame.  All with some branching options and fully voiced equipped with cutscenes.  It makes the leveling actually interesting and fun and not just something to slog through.  My guess is the selling point here is story and an end game for all that is highly story focused might be the best move, but with skippable cutscenes unlike FFXIV encounters.  

Regardless copying WoW at this point wouldn't make sense at all as SWTOR is its own thing.  Tacking on mythic plus to this game might be terrible.  

Thing is, it doesn't even work for WoW anymore. Not only is the game old - it's been horribly mismanaged for three concurrent expansions (plus the suicide scandal).

Ultimately, the genre needs to move on or die. And, so far, at least, it's chosen to die. Though I do have some hope for Ashes of Creation (if it ever launches in my lifetime).

[OlBuzzard]

2 hours ago, jedipattawan said:

Just wondering what it was that led to the game dropping off from upwards of a million subs to around 100k-200k these days?  Not that that is bad cause honestly that's still quite a lot but I am just wondering what your thoughts or input are?

What would bring you or your friends back?

What haven't they done that people always wanted that would interest players?

Is the end game not being a big focus a huge turn off for people?  From what I can see the last raid was 3 bosses and one of them sits stationary in the room and never moves at all.  And the R-4 anomaly ending cutscene looked very cheaply done as well with some bad audio.  Would an LFR type feature help at all where you just queue up for a raid with others for the bosses?  Would more bosses and bigger budget raids with 8 to 12 bosses interest people?

Is it because the story has all been done before and then that's it and people don't stick around after that?

Don't have to bother to answer any or all of these I'm just curious.  I've only ever heard the end game isn't very good for SWTOR and it's more a single player game with the story.

Short answer(s):

** Content drought(s)
** Multiple BUGS that still exist !  (especially in the last 12 - 18 months ... 7.2 being an exception).  If I didn't know better with the exception of 7.2 a LOT of it seemed to have been thrown together!  This is a MAJOR issue!!
** Completely ignoring pleas from those who were active on the PTS (in the past).
** A lack of activity for any real purpose other than to try to gain gear in between new releases.  IN short people get bored!
** The 10th anniversary of SWTOR was a total bust!
** Overall customer dissatisfaction, disillusionment and frustration as a result of a combination of things such as listed above.

It should be noted that I REALLY DO believe that 7.2 really is a step in the right direction.  It really is worth playing!  I'm hoping to see more in the future!  And it should be equally noted that falling back into the old routine that we witnessed in the PREVIOUS 12 to 18 months will probably sign the epitaph and SWTOR will gradually fade away!
 

[OlBuzzard]

11 minutes ago, AJediKnight said:

Thing is, it doesn't even work for WoW anymore. Not only is the game old - it's been horribly mismanaged for three concurrent expansions (plus the suicide scandal).

Ultimately, the genre needs to move on or die. And, so far, at least, it's chosen to die. Though I do have some hope for Ashes of Creation (if it ever launches in my lifetime).

Strangely enough we agree on this completely!

[OlBuzzard]

39 minutes ago, Sir-steve said:

This is a recurring topic that can spawn lengthy and insightful, heartfelt essays....I know I've ranted on it myself in the past.  I think I'd summarize by saying:

 

• EA/BW will never make this the game we, the players, want in the way we want it.  They will make the product they want to sell/support so, on that note, our expectations will never be met.  It is best to have low expectations.
• Because they've focused on 'story telling' with a heavy voice acting component they've placed a constraint on themselves which impacts their ability to maintain a release cadence i.e. they have dependencies on writers, actors, storyline approval from Disney, plus the actual game enhancements.  We've seen them try to compensate through 'retro' mechanics like the written dialogue options seen in KOTOR but in my mind, that makes for a worse experience.  I think this leads the developers to spend time where they can and that is 'under the hood' tinkering with game mechanics. 
• I used to think it was because every game lead wanted to do things 'their way' leading to silly things like changes in release numbering, revamped combat etc., but now, I suspect they're just trying to do what they can with what they've got.  If you cant implement a new planet because the story isn't onside with Disney, or the actors arent available, or there's not enough budget, then you do a combat pruning.

I was wholeheartedly surprised they threw resources into the 64 bit leap but that, I think, is a prime example of what you can do if you only have technical resources available to throw at the game.  However, addressing this technical debt means the game could survive longer so hopefully that added longevity will lead to more story/content down the road.  If we ever see them address their game engine situation then heck the game might be around several more years.

Hmmm!  Interesting synopsis!  Good read too I might add!

From my perspective ...  I'm kind of keeping an eye on how things progress from where we are at (7.2).  It is good!  There are soooo many possibilities!  Question is, will the new direction that the team is following continue to grow or not?  

[JediQuaker]

2 hours ago, jedipattawan said:

Right but what's your opinion as to why it has?

I have no opinion why. But I will say that the reasons need not have anything to do with the 'quality' of the game itself, but rather, just a disconnect between 'expectations' and 'reality'. That is, some people expected certain things from SWTOR that just weren't there.

[OlBuzzard]

1 hour ago, JediQuaker said:

I have no opinion why. But I will say that the reasons need not have anything to do with the 'quality' of the game itself, but rather, just a disconnect between 'expectations' and 'reality'. That is, some people expected certain things from SWTOR that just weren't there.

I'm gon'a disagree with this to some extent!  Yes ...  expectations were not met! (True) ... BUT there for a good while there was sooo much that was released with a LOT of BUGS !!!  A certain amount of this sort of thing happens to the best of games!  BUT good grief!!  [/Facepalm].  And (like it not) the recent 7.0 and 10th anniversary debacle wasn't exactly a bell ringer!

IMO the spiral downward accelerated within the last 12-18 months (just prior to the release of SoV).  Some might place that downward spiral at or about JUS.  But IMO the last 12 to 18 months PRIOR to 7.2 were really notably pretty rough even by some of the most conservative folks that post here!

EDIT:  To reiterate:  I believe that 7.2 really is a good release and definitely a step in the right direction.

Edited January 27, 2023 by OlBuzzard

[ZUHFB]

3 hours ago, FlameYOL said:

Source for that number?

steamcharts, if you ask on fleet roughly 70% of people play through steam, steamcharts usually say 6-7k and thus we get to 10k

also where the heck are the other 90k of players hiding? like imagine thinking this game has more than 15k subs, lmao

[SteveTheCynic]

4 hours ago, AJediKnight said:

they don't attempt to break this inherently flawed construct: there is never enough content to satisfy fully-engaged players. And, within this framework, there never CAN be.

True (the bolded part), but BioWare could do *much* better at providing new content.  In a very real sense, there can never be enough game-provided content to satisy the truly, monstrously, fully-engaged players, but the studio can do much better than it has since the end of KotFE/ET.

[Nee-Elder]

21 minutes ago, SteveTheCynic said:

 In a very real sense, there can never be enough game-provided content to satisy the truly, monstrously, fully-engaged players, but the studio can do much better than it has since the end of KotFE/ET.

Agreed ( obviously ) , but they don't have enough funding$ .

Therefore, as i've been saying for years:  BioWare should give  US , the players, much much more tools to create our own content  to help the community better/longer  between updates, and until such time as EA  invests/promotes significantly again into SWTOR.

Edited January 27, 2023 by Nee-Elder

[ThanderSnB]

I think there were several major drop-offs in player count:

3 months after launch - Millions of players signed up to see the Bioware story. Bioware still had a pretty good reputation back then, coming off Mass Effect 2 and all their hits before. Probably the only bad game they released before SWTOR was Dragon Age 2 (first sign of trouble). Most of these launch players weren't interested in MMO mechanics, they just came to see the story. Once they got to endgame, they quit waiting for the continuation of their story, but it never happened. Class stories were abandoned and even planet stories became quite short in expansions (maybe 2-3 hours of story in Makeb and Shadows of Revan).

Knights of the Fallen Empire - This story was kind of a reboot, throwing out the whole Republic vs Empire thing for a new threat. A lot of people hated the direction it went. I thought it was an interesting story, but not the right one for SWTOR. It would have been better as a standalone Bioware RPG with a new protagonist. It also came with a bunch of system changes that many veterans didn't like for "dumbing down" the game (revamping the class trees into the much more basic utilities system, greatly speeding up leveling). And of course, there was almost no endgame content added to the game. They did get a lot of new players to play SWTOR, but paying $15 per 1-hour story chapter just wasn't enough value for most players to stick around after the first 9 chapters at launch. And Bioware couldn't even keep up with that release frequency. For the later chapters, it was sometimes $30 to $45 for a 1-hour chapter.

Knights of the Eternal Throne - This was sort of the same story but came with the whole lootbox fiasco. Gear became much harder to get for everyone plus RNG made it impossible to focus on the gear you wanted. Tons of people and even whole guilds quit over this. They did add endgame content in the form of Uprisings, but they were never popular because of requiring subscription and flashpoints being easier and more rewarding. They added 3 flashpoints and 1 operation, but they were tuned to be pretty hard. They were fun in guilds, but no good for random groups (PUGs), so most players dreaded seeing them in the group finder. The flashpoints in particular were way too long, so another case of it being easier and more rewarding to do the flashpoints from earlier expansions.

Legacy of the Sith - There was almost nothing but problems at the launch of this expansion. 7.0 had barely any content: only 2 hours of story (if you played both sides), no new planets to explore outside the on-rails Manaan story, no new crafting, no new operation. The story was also really buggy with characters getting stuck, having to relog or reset quests to continue. The new flashpoint was like Traitor Among the Chiss, long and difficult, no fun to do after the first time except occasionally if you had a guild group and wanted a challenge. It was also really buggy with random instant kills for no reason whenever a boss pushed or pulled characters. The new endgame gearing system was a slog because of the weekly caps on currencies. It was also very unfriendly to alts. The second combat style didn't benefit veterans much because they already had max level alts for many or all of the combat styles. There were lots of bugs with the combat style weapons in origin story cutscenes. The new combat style trees and the combat styles themselves were not very balanced. In both PvE and PvP, it was some of the worst balance in the game's history, in some cases over 20% difference in DPS between the top and bottom combat styles/disciplines. On top of this, really popular combat styles like Arsenal Mercenary were gutted. Bioware has made a lot of progress on all of these things, but it was terrible at launch.

Story Content Droughts - Starting in 2018 there began to be long story content droughts for the game. What I think is that Fallen Empire and Eternal Throne didn't meet EA's expectations, so they cut additional funding from the game. This meant Bioware could only work on the game based on its own income from Cartel Market and subscriptions. Since it lost so many players already, there wasn't a big budget and staff was reduced to a small team (20-30 max). You can't get people to continue subscribing if there are too many months without content. Most people won't stick around longer than 3-5 months without new story. You can see quite a few content droughts longer than this below:

• 5.9 to 5.10 - 7 months (May to December 2018) - too long
• 5.10 to 6.0 - 10 months (December 2018 to October 2019) - too long unless you count Dantooine Pirate event in June 2019
• 6.0 to 6.1 - 4 months (October 2019 to February 2020) - good
• 6.1 to 6.2 - 10 months (February 2020 to December 2020) - too long but you could blame this on covid lockdowns
• 6.2 to 6.3 - 4 months (December 2020 to April 2021) - good
• 6.3 to 7.0 - 10 months (April 2021 to February 2022) - too long but Galactic Seasons 1 helped
• 7.0 to 7.1 - 6 months (February 2022 to August 2022) - too long but Galactic Seasons 2 helped
• 7.1 to 7.2 - 4 months (August 2022 to December 2022) - good

Edited January 27, 2023 by ThanderSnB