Forbes article on why SWTOR had to go F2P

[kgotter]

do you know what might be funny? if this game follows the movies.

Launch Bioware: gets epic number of copies sold and talks this game up. Qui-gon sees Anakin skywalker tests him up for an insane metachlorian count and talk him up to the Jedi console. Qui-gon Jinn thinks the kid can defeat the dark side. Bioware thinks the game can Become best MMO ever.(beat WOW)

After launch: Bioware losses mass number of subscribers. episode 2 Mass number of fans stop caring about the prequels. Annakin starts his free fall from into the dark side. SWTOR starts its free fall into subscriber numbers.

Going on now: Darth Sidious turns Anakin to the Darkside out of desperation and fear of padmae Dying. EA turns Bioware to the Dark side by having SWTOR go F2P because of fear of their jobs and SWTOR Dying.

End: Anakin actually fulfills the prophecy by killing the emperor. Bioware Fulfills their vision by their F2P model coming just in time with the new industry standard. Setting the NEW standard for f2p MMO's.

I may be wrong, but as a fan who would like to see this game do well I can dream can't I?

[kgotter]

Very true. I think it's weird that when so many kids have so much free time games see less activity, but for some reason there's a summer slump for video games.

I find this to be a little weird also. I think Publishers have a lot to do with that. Couple of reasons i think that's the case. Lately the best time for games to come out is spring and last quarter of the year and around the Holidays. Holidays is a no brainier on why they come out at that time i think. For spring publishers want to capitalize on the Tax refund most of America is getting.

Second i think most people and kids still want to enjoy the summer days. Alot of parents have their kids going to summer camp because they want to get hammered during the summer. Families take vacation, and a lot of parents tell their kids to get some exercise of some kind by going out everyday and video games take a back seat.

just my two cents.

[SoulBender]

Kgotter. Nice

[Count Sacula]

I find this to be a little weird also. I think Publishers have a lot to do with that. Couple of reasons i think that's the case. Lately the best time for games to come out is spring and last quarter of the year and around the Holidays. Holidays is a no brainier on why they come out at that time i think. For spring publishers want to capitalize on the Tax refund most of America is getting.

Second i think most people and kids still want to enjoy the summer days. Alot of parents have their kids going to summer camp because they want to get hammered during the summer. Families take vacation, and a lot of parents tell their kids to get some exercise of some kind by going out everyday and video games take a back seat.

just my two cents.

Yeah because the summer heat made 900,000 people quit...

[clamus68]

This article is absolutely trash. It was written by another whiner who got paid for writing an article yet never understands why developers, writers, programmers, etc deserved to get paid. The game was not a failure in the slightest. It had its share of problems but dropping to below 1 million subscribers for the first time a few months after launch can hardly be called a losing model. I didn't enjoy WOW but they gained subscribers through years of fixes add ons and more content. F2B works in certain scenarios but not on quality mmo's in IMHO. What this game ran into is lack of endgame bugs and of course a slow economy. EA's lack of vision and the heart to see this game expand and grow just put the nail in the coffin.

Okay, this article appears in a financial magazine not a gamer rag whose readership includes teenagers. The demographic for Forbes readers is substantially more financially able and sound. They are also older so there is no real axe to grind unlike Gamespy. If you fail to see this shift as a failure then you misunderstand basic business. Simple question: would EA make SWTOR f2p if the subscriber base was at 2.5m? Would they at 1.5m or even 1.0m? Simple answer no. When SWTOR was in development way back when, they figured to get YEARS of subscriber fees from hopefully millions of people. Not 5 or 10 million like WoW but hopefully 2 or 3 million. Now the only way they make a good level of profit is to abandon a pay model, which is by far preferred, to a free to play model + microtransactions. Is there money to be made that way? Sure. Is it close to what they could make off of two million paid subscribers? Hell no. See had the subscriber base remained strong at one million then EA would HAVE to hold on to p2p, but subscriptions fell well below that they had no choice but change their thinking. That is failure defined. It is a RESPONSE to the loss of cash flow. The reasons cited are legitimate. Simply put this is an unmitigated disaster for EA. Their stock took a huge hit because so much was riding on the projected income SWTOR was supposed to generate. I have said this many times and will say it again, I enjoy the game but there are some SERIOUS flaws within the game. They haven't been addressed, the subscriber base shrank because of it. SWTOR became f2p because of those flaws that weren't addressed and the players voted with their wallets. Given that EA had to save face by going f2p.

T L : D R: The game is an unmitigated disaster financially and the article was dead on. And yes I still enjoy playing.

Just because it's in a financial magazine doesn't make it true. WOW started with less then a million subscribers and worked its way up and yes lost subscribers along the way. A steady million plus subscribers is not a financial disaster far from it. My point was that EA didn't want to put the time or resources into growing SWTOR they thought that WOW has 10 million subs they should also just by launching the game. Mmos take time and need patience to grow and expand. On top of everything else this is just one opinion among many I'm just upset that my favorite game may be on a downward spiral because of some trend that may or may not work for this game

WoW had more than a million subscribers at the end of its third quarter of its first year. It did not lose more subscribers than it gained in any quarter until well into The Wrath of the Lich King. SWTOR started strong at 2.4 million subscribers and bled out subscribers EVERY SINGLE MONTH after the initial month. SWTOR never posted a quarter with a positive subscriber gain. That is a FAILURE. NO successful MMORPG has EVER had the declines SWTOR by percentage and survive. Name any western mmo franchise that had maintained a strict p2p model. Some western games have gone f2p and done better than they were as p2p based solely on the f2p aspect. They are ALL failures because those games were NEVER designed as f2p games. They did it to try to recoup money spent on initial development. Games that start as f2p are different, as its built on that model thus expectations are tempered by that model. The game development costs were $200+ million and its f2p after 7 months and that's not considered a failure how? Do not mistake the fact of unmitigated financial disaster with an unfun game. Not the case. I enjoy the game tremendously but I can easily and honestly acknowledge its a financial disaster that cost me money in terms of EA shares that I own.

[kgotter]

Yeah because the summer heat made 900,000 people quit...

Hope you are not implying that I'm blaming the loss of subs on the weather. I was just stating my opinion why i think release of games in the summer can be rather slow.

Think i can sum up the losses pretty well through guesstimates though.

15 percent: didn't want to pay the monthly sub just wanted to try the game out and move on.


25 Percent: Population issues because of too many servers available at launch spread everyone too thin.

30 Percent: Game has end game issues. You set peoples expectations with the 1-50 leveling then all of a sudden once you hit 50 it became a grind fest to get better gear. I never played a MMO before SWTOR and i kept hearing "the game starts at level cap" Got the the cap i ended up playing the same flashpoints ive spent the last 2 months playing. While i have the desire to get better gear and don't mind doing some grinding to get it. Im wondering if alot of people that havent played an MMO before that jumped into the game got a taste of it and said "WTF this is completely different then what i have been doing for the past few months and its not fun anymore" Plus Bioware has done a very poor job providing enough content to Keep level 50's here imo.

10 Percent: Game wasn't finished at released. Bioware now has to focus on things that should of been in the game in the first place instead of new endgame content and things that help sort other problems out by themselves and gives them a little extra income.(paid server transfers, paid AC changes, paid name changes, ETC)

5 Percent: Crap customer service Nuff said.

10 Percent: Crap job of letting their fans know that they are listening to them and communicating changes and patches better. Would it really kill Bioware to post some data as to why these things are changing instead of General statements that just cause people to complain?

The remaining 5 i think are because of Misc things or RL issues.

[vexx]

With the risk of being trashed by some of you, I'll tell you my opinion about SWTOR. SWTOR is an above average game (it's not the best but it's not bad either), but it's decline was mainly EA's fault. Why? Because they rushed the damn thing so their stock will increase, shareholders pleased etc...classic move. EA practically ruined Bioware, in many aspects...and SWTOR is not the only example. Comparing WoW with SWTOR is practically bullshit for many reasons, mainly because you can't compare the popularity of a game that "collected" the best of all MMOs and was launched in a perfect year/scenario whatever you wanna call it. With that said, EA thought they would "kill us" using the most popular IP out there without considering the current expectations of gamers. That alone killed subscriptions in the game..add an incomplete game at launch and....it's called poor strategy and management..or better yet, execrable is a more suited word

[kgotter]

I agree with alot of what you said vexx. Im not going to trash you because i dont like upsetting big green men that can throw me around like that I just wondering how come Blizzard gets the freedom to hold their ground? I'm sure with them being pretty much owned by activision they go through the same pressure and the same crap Bioware does. I mean activision pretty much killed IW over a demo at E3 but Blizzard NEVER release a game they feel that is not ready. We almost got a confession of a premature release on this game from Bioware.

[vexx]

Well, WoW is used by many to compare current MMOs...that alone means that the game had a deep impact on every player that touched it, being ones that still play or the ones (like me) that dropped it years ago. And the majority of WoW players can freely play another MMO, looking for the next WoW killer, they don;t find it and return to the game....or better yet, they have the ease of mind that whatever the next game will be, they will still have WoW. Now, if you want my impression about WoW is that Blizz ruined it long time ago..well actually Activision did...they made it a non-challening, repetitive and boring adventure. Seeing that in MoP they are lowering the already "low level of brains" needed to play the game, reviving old instances (again)..means that they will milk the cow for whatever's left...and there are gamers who can't stand a day not playing a mmo... = win

[Hastur242]

Uh sry no WOW didn't have million plus subs until well until there second year sorry to ruin it for you fan boy. I really tried to be nice and tell you it was my opinion so let's just not agree on this. Sorry about the fan boy comment but let's be honest EA already stated they made their money back and then some they just couldn't stay the course. No financial disaster here just a company that is used to selling a game for immediate profits nor a long term investment

[t3po]

It is interesting to see all the opinions on this subject and the speculation that is going with it. All the opinions shared has legitimate value (even the Count). For me, SWTOR's place, position, call it what ever you like comes down to this: BAD CHOICES! Bad choices on the part of EA (short-sighted greed) and bad choices on the part of Bioware (allowing themselves to be pushed around by EA). Despite what has been done on the part of the corporate side of things, I still enjoy this game over all the other MMOs I've played. Sure there is room for improvement, there always will be, but the game still is capturing my attention and I hope that EA/Bioware can pull their corporate heads out of their _____ (insert body part here) so I can continue to play and tell people that this game is pretty awesome and improving.

I will say if they can't, then shame on EA/Bioware for flushing a wonderful opportunity for years of enjoyment down the crapper.

[clamus68]

You are wrong on almost all counts. For one as a shareholder, the projected income for this game was SUBSTANTIALLY more than what had been generated to date. You are much more of a fan boy of this game than I am of WoW. SWTOR said they could make a profit if subscriptions stayed above half a million, and currently they sit at 400k. As to WoW, could care less for the game. It had made Blizz a mint, beyond that its not a big deal to me. You may not like reality, but its something we have to deal with here. Right now SWTOR populations are still trending down. The lack of subscriptions tell you from a financial standpoint that this game is a failure. We can agree to disagree if you want, but I am neither fan boy nor hater. I just look at the numbers and they tell the story, whether you wish to believe them or not is up to you.