Having over 6 million copies sold when this game came out and only having around 500k subs scares me.

 

F2P doesn't bring in as much money compared to subs, even with the Cartel market.

 

Anyone else fear for the future of the game?

Having over 6 million copies sold when this game came out and only having around 500k subs scares me.

 

F2P doesn't bring in as much money compared to subs, even with the Cartel market.

 

Anyone else fear for the future of the game?

 

Not really. I've played plenty of games that have died. Didn't look back twice when they did, and won't when SWTOR does. It is a game. Have fun playing it while it lasts, it won't last forever.

You probably need to read the latest quarterly financials and analyst Q&A from EA.

 

You know.. the one where they say they have doubled revenue on SWTOR, subs are stable and climbing. etc. etc.

F2P doesn't bring in as much money compared to subs, even with the Cartel market

 

Says who?

You're so sure? Girl on my server spends almost 300 dollars per new pack, I spend roughly 80-120 per new pack depending on how bad an item is in there I would want in the packs. and there are people who buy a few hypercrates(more than 50 dollars worth) who sell the packs on the GTN for credits aswell on Jung ma. If it is the same on the other servers, I think its safe to say the money flow is roughly the same, and noting. a lot of people quit after the first month, so 6 million subscribers were just the hype mode of launch, and can't really be used to compare to the rest of the games existence.

F2P doesn't bring in as much money compared to subs, even with the Cartel market.

 

I don't fear nearly as much as I did before the last EA shareholder call that rained positive news on TOR.

Having over 6 million copies sold when this game came out and only having around 500k subs scares me.

 

F2P doesn't bring in as much money compared to subs, even with the Cartel market.

 

Anyone else fear for the future of the game?

 

They only sold around 2-2.5 million I think it was.

 

F2P bought them some time. It's up in the air as to what they will do with that time, but the initial track record is not overly promising. They've still done almost nothing to fix the reasons why they lost those 1.5-2 million subscribers in the first place.

I don't fear nearly as much as I did before the last EA shareholder call that rained positive news on TOR.

 

Calling it positive is a leap. An improvement, yes.

 

Essentially it broke down to they have the income equivalent of 1 million subscribers, or half what they started with.

Calling it positive is a leap. An improvement, yes.

 

Essentially it broke down to they have the income equivalent of 1 million subscribers, or half what they started with.

 

Errr......isn't an improvement, by its very definition, POSITIVE?

 

Or, can you provide example(s) of a negative improvement?

 

Because, that would be freakin' awesome!

You're so sure? Girl on my server spends almost 300 dollars per new pack, I spend roughly 80-120 per new pack depending on how bad an item is in there I would want in the packs. and there are people who buy a few hypercrates(more than 50 dollars worth) who sell the packs on the GTN for credits aswell on Jung ma. If it is the same on the other servers, I think its safe to say the money flow is roughly the same, and noting. a lot of people quit after the first month, so 6 million subscribers were just the hype mode of launch, and can't really be used to compare to the rest of the games existence.

 

Personally, I think anyone spending that kind of money on any game is nuts, but to each their own.

 

Someone spending $300 every couple of months is worth about 10 subscribers. Someone spending $0 is worth nothing. You can bet that there are hundreds of thousands spending $0 and at best a couple of thousand spending big dollars. It is not a sustainable model to rely on that amount of disparity.

Errr......isn't an improvement, by its very definition, POSITIVE?

 

Or, can you provide example(s) of a negative improvement?

 

Because, that would be freakin' awesome!

 

 

It was the "raining" part that was an overstatement. It implies smiles und sunshine, when the reality is partly cloudy with a chance of falling CM revenues.

You probably need to read the latest quarterly financials and analyst Q&A from EA.

 

You know.. the one where they say they have doubled revenue on SWTOR, subs are stable and climbing. etc. etc.

 

Subs are below 500k (they were somewhere between 500k and 1mil last quarter), so falling, revenues doubled because of CM, meaning the focus will be more and more on CM aka bullcrap.

 

Yes, I fear for the future of this game as well - more dribble in the form of S&V and re-skinned armor sold for real money, not to mention patches like 2.1 entirely focused on CM.

You probably need to read the latest quarterly financials and analyst Q&A from EA.

 

You know.. the one where they say they have doubled revenue on SWTOR, subs are stable and climbing. etc. etc.

 

last sub announcment before those from a few days ago where slightly under 1 mil. so in effect, they lost 50% of subs. ofc EA describes it flattering, but it doesnt change the numbers

Edited May 12, 2013 by Neglience

Personally, I think anyone spending that kind of money on any game is nuts, but to each their own.

 

Someone spending $300 every couple of months is worth about 10 subscribers. Someone spending $0 is worth nothing. You can bet that there are hundreds of thousands spending $0 and at best a couple of thousand spending big dollars. It is not a sustainable model to rely on that amount of disparity.

 

Its worked well for Lord of the Rings Online.

When a game goes F2P, traditionally revenues go up. This is because most people on this planet are stupid, and are more willing to pay more for something if it's presented in inexpensive little chunks than they are to pay slightly more for it up front. It's like saying you can buy a 12-pack of 20oz sodas for $6, or single 16oz sodas for $1 each.

 

Some people will say "Hell, I'm going to drink 12 sodas anyway, and $6 isn't a bad price, so let's just go ahead and get the 12-pack. Besides, I even get a bigger soda in the deal, which is cool" Other people say "I'm not paying $6 for a whole 12-pack of soda! What a rip off!" But they'll then proceed to buy and consume 12 sodas anyway, because eventually they get thirsty again, pay double the price for them, and get less soda overall than a person who just paid his due up front. And this person is generally content to do just that, and most often feels like he's actually making out on the deal.

 

Generally speaking, F2P players spend significantly more on average per player to play the game than subscription players do, and they do so despite a perception that they're saving money. And although you hear a lot of grumbling about it, players LOVE to participate in microtransactions. Well, "love" is probably not the right word... but still, they do it over and over and over even if they're not particularly fond of doing so. And you know who eats up microtransactions more than anyone else? F2P players.

 

Hell, as long as there is a strong F2P community in this game, it will keep going for a looooong time. I'd fear for the day when most F2P players finally wake up and realize they could just be paying less to sub.

I guess my city where I'm from is dead, it only has give or take 500,000 residents.

Subs are below 500k (they were somewhere between 500k and 1mil last quarter), so falling, revenues doubled because of CM, meaning the focus will be more and more on CM aka bullcrap.

 

Yes, I fear for the future of this game as well - more dribble in the form of S&V and re-skinned armor sold for real money, not to mention patches like 2.1 entirely focused on CM.

 

They said subscriptions have stabilized, and are steadily increasing. See the full EA quarterly report here. There are links in the report for what was said at the conference call.

 

Nothing is falling here, except maybe the sky in your imagination.

as long this game makes a profit, this game will survive

 

PLUS! EA has signed some rights to make new SW games, im sure Ea is doing fine in the eyes of disney.

They said subscriptions have stabilized, and are steadily increasing. See the full EA quarterly report here. There are links in the report for what was said at the conference call.

 

Nothing is falling here, except maybe the sky in your imagination.

 

Yes, they stabilised ... below 500k, whereas before they were below 1m and above 500k.

 

Sorry for not wearing EA-PR glasses absorbing all that rosy ideology

Yes, they stabilised ... below 500k, whereas before they were below 1m and above 500k.

 

Sorry for not wearing EA-PR glasses absorbing all that rosy ideology

 

I'm sorry, I must have missed the part where they said "below 500k".

 

Could you point that out? I can be slow on the pickup, sometimes.

Subs are below 500k (they were somewhere between 500k and 1mil last quarter), so falling, revenues doubled because of CM, meaning the focus will be more and more on CM aka bullcrap.

 

Yes, I fear for the future of this game as well - more dribble in the form of S&V and re-skinned armor sold for real money, not to mention patches like 2.1 entirely focused on CM.

 

Reality is that if the only thing we now have to worry about are reskinned money grabs and digital expansions then thats a tidal wave of good news.

 

6months back the subscriber numbers bottomed out (at allegedly 350k) and the game was omitted from any and all mention by EA. Now it's around 500k subs, still growing and supplemented with a healthy enough f2p revenue stream to warrant a pat on the back for being one of the largetst successes of said model from the publisher which happens to be the biggest in the biz.

 

So yea, if recolored armor and miniexpansions with one raids (I dont get the s&v jibe at all btw, easily the largest/best op they did?) are the only thing I have to worry about now we had a tempest of cute kittens cos this time last month I was half way resigned to this game going the way of warhammer online with its maintenance mode wait for a slow slow death.

 

Now I got a positive trend, positive forecast and a renewed commitment to continued support and development I can actually place faith into cos it makes fiscal sense for the publisher to back it as the game is making them good money.

Edited May 12, 2013 by aeterno

Heck

Taking from experience.

 

The Devs are getting into a groove of things. We'll see some cool stuff.

STO is about a year ahead of TOR and went F2P as well and they are still around. Frankly I'm kind of surprised because I stopped playing long ago. But as long as you have a core player base and make enough to keep the lights on, it will keep on trucking.

Having over 6 million copies sold when this game came out

 

Just to get the facts straight, it sold about 3 million, not 6.

 

When EVE recently hit 500k subs, the news was all OMG WOW EVE Hit 500k subs! This is spectacular!

 

And then when WoW's subs drop vrom 10 million to 8.5 million everyone is like "OMG WOW IS DYING!"

 

mmo people are funny.

Edited May 12, 2013 by chuixupu