John Riccitiello - "Realistically, TOR's a solid success."

http://files.shareholder.com/downloa...Transcript.pdf


will you please stop your cawing now?

Actually, John Riccitiello said that TOR is "very profitable". He wouldn't say that in a fiscal report to Wall Street unless it was, indeed, "very profitable". To say otherwise if it wasn't "very profitable" is a federal crime.

What we're concerned with, anyway, is the game, not profits. We're players, not shareholders. I, for one, couldn't care less about TOR's profitability, because it has little bearing on the future of the game. Most MMOs have turned a profit within the first 6 months to a year and still fell flat on its face after that.

Oh good one... lol..

oh .. you really think that...... thats even more funny

Some of us are players AND shareholders though

I never said it had no issues, where you inferred that from beats me. The game isn't as big a success as they initially hoped, but it's still a success. The job layoffs were simply because their original dev team were massive, and I mean massive. Now the game has launched, they don't need all that staff anymore.It was mostly concept artists and marketers that were laid off.

Haha! I knew someone was going to say that as soon as I hit submit. Very few of you, though.

No, what's funny is your lack of comprehension within the business world. Those people were on 3-6 month recurring contracts. There was a mass amount of them, the game has been developed and is in the stage where it only has to be worked on, they don't need all those concept artists, janitors, marketers, coffee guys anymore. All games do this after launch, it doesn't determine whether it was a success or not ... actually in contrast, if they needed to keep all those people on working on the game then one could assume that there was still an abundance of work to be done, most likely due to it not being a success.

Nope. It was "very profitable" so far. Now they're looking to "grow the franchise".

Technically, he is right in his usage of "profitable" and "very profitable."

According to Bioware, they only need 550k subscribers to be "profitable." Right now they are "very profitable" in that they have double the subscription at the time the report was released. However, that report was very vague in that it only took into account people who were actively subscribed at the time. If you were on a rolling 3 month plan, you were subscribed. If you had just bought the game for a free month, you were subscribed. If you were patiently waiting for 1.2, you were most likely subscribed. I am curious to see June's call.

I am pretty sure it will show either a small gain or perhaps no loss. Reason: resubscription rate post 1.2 patch to "try out." Also free months were given out to active paying subscribers at the time. My free month ends at the end of June, and I've already unsubscribed so I don't forget.

If you use common sense, you will ignore these "profitable" remarks and stop putting their words in quotes. Play the game and *think* about it. If sparse server population does not indicate a worsening trend, then there's nothing more to say.

He also said subscriber numbers were growing. What metric allows him to say that nonsense?

He also down played SWTOR's role in the EA line up ins direct conflict with prior statements made in the SH meetings prior to launch.

I am not trying to be mean at all so Im sorry if I come off that way.

There are no HARD number to crunch and that was my point. You cannot make definitive statements without those numbers. And CEO and CFO's will manipulate and spin during SH meetings.