Will the game survive 2013 ?

BW may be subject to some criticism, but I for one would not want to see BW, the company responsible for the Baldur’s Gate, KOTOR, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age learn some hard-knocks lesson about the viability of ambitious PC games in the console age. So yeah, some may be disgruntled because they can’t play a pink Ewok while wearing Revan’s pajamas, but no one should really want SWTOR to fail, even if they hate it, even if they gave up playing it long ago. As a PC, RPG, SW, and MMO fan I see a lot on the line here. YMMV.

To keep it simple: NO
This game will not survive 2013, in my opinion. It would need to do a complete 360 to what its doing right now in order to survive, and i just don't see that happening.

SWG bombed because the devs had to make the game "easy"

Actually, if you remember, the devs went easy mode after loosing a ton of subs BECAUSE SWG was bombing. I'm not saying CU and NGE didnt essentially kill the game but lets face it, SWG was already on life support.

As far as will TOR survive 2013, I think it will though if they dont pull a rabbit outa the hat with F2P, development of new content will slow to a trickle. Personally I hope that F2P turns it around cause with all its problems and missing bits that should be in any MMO... I still like the game.

A direct question - what is EA's roadmap for this game ?

I really want to enjoy the class stories and invest the majority of my game time into Swtor. But EA does so little to make me trust in the future of this game. There is no real communication with the playerbase, the Q&A panels only focus on silly stuff like "Can we marry Wookies ?" while I am more concerned if I will still get to enjoy Swtor next year.

I don't want to pour money for Cartel Points and the little game time I have into a game which might already be doomed. The weird f2p decisions (paying for an extra hotbar), the fresh bugs introduced with every patch and the dwindling subscriber numbers often make me wonder if sometime next year they will just close it down because it does not create enough cash to pay for the Star Wars license and the running costs.

EA spoke up loud in clear in July: “Disappointing performance of Star Wars: The Old Republic was offset by powerful performance of Battlefield 3.” “Star Wars is the primary driver for adjusted guidance to a lower number.” “Our diversity allows us to make up for a miss on one franchise (SWTOR) with a hit on another (BF3).” One of the last things EA said to investors during that quarter’s investor call was to give a brief rundown of their F2P strategy. Next report for EA is end of Oct. and there will be nothing new to say other than they are banking on F2P to turn things around. The months of Nov., Dec., and Jan. SWTOR is probably fighting for its life. That’s the roadmap. [note: this is all public info. EA is a public company and I don’t have any insider info!]

BW may be subject to some criticism, but I for one would not want to see BW, the company responsible for the Baldur’s Gate, KOTOR, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age learn some hard-knocks lesson about the viability of ambitious PC games in the console age. So yeah, some may be disgruntled because they can’t play a pink Ewok while wearing Revan’s pajamas, but no one should really want SWTOR to fail, even if they hate it, even if they gave up playing it long ago. As a PC, RPG, SW, and MMO fan I see a lot on the line here. YMMV.