watching my friend play the beta tells me this game is going to be a big hit. It looks that good.

I think it will probably sell a couple of million units initially, and lose some subs after the first month but not enough to make the game a failure. I'd say the 2-3 million region is a fair estimate.

The one problem I can see is the possibility of fan disappointment. We all love Star Wars, but will it truly feel like Star Wars? From what I've seen so far, the more I read about this game, the less I am convinced that it is a true representaiotn of the Star Wars universe, and more of a traditional MMO in a Star Wars setting. I don't say it's WoW in space as some have commented, but I don't think that's too far off the mark.

I'm not convinced that the class system will feel right. It just doesn't fit with my idea of Star Wars. IF they get that right they'll probably do well enough. IF they get it wrong then we'll see more subs being cancelled. Only time will tell, but for me personaly, I have lost all interest in this title.

It's going to succeed money wise and subscriber wise for sure, but I don't think it will succeed in the long run after the first month.

 Well, I hope it does. Really excited for it, can't wait. If it sucks I doubt I will ever play another MMORPG, I thought I was done for good before, then started following TOR.. It's like my last hope to stay an mmo gamer.  Otherwise I will play all my 100's of indie games, and FPS games lol.

Look, I've been a TORfan for years now, but each day that goes by I feel alittle estranged. 

I was willing to forgive the RD issues. I was super excited for the september beta test, Which was confirmed several times. BW loves wordplay so they never give a pure date, but this time they gave a range. September. http://darthhater.com/2011/07/21/ea-details-beta-test-weekends-in-september/ .

Now at gamescon this past week; they said weekends starting in the fall.  (When BW gives you a window instead of a solid date, it means they pushed it back.) 

I'm losing faith in TOR's future. Yeah; the game has to come out first, but if it's taking us this long to see the game, how long will it take us to see an expansion? Since they have so much content it's already going to almost double the production time it takes Blizzard to produce a new expansion. 

I think that once the veil is lifted, most people will be pleasantly surprised.

It will easily take over the number two spot... maybe more, who knows.

It's Star Wars.  It's Bioware.  It's an MMO born in the WoW era of people that are newly aware of MMOs.  Yes, I think it will succeed.

I won't be playing it (I don't think), but that has nothing to do with whether or not it will be successful.

I think it will succeed due to the Star Wars label, and the fact that it ties into an established Star Wars game franchise (KOTOR) with mass appeal will boost it further. Bioware's reputation will help too and with a reported 3 million pre-orders it's already off to a flying start.

I think that the tried and tested, traditional MMO format won't do it as much harm as some think. Yes, there are jaded gamers who want something new and different, but new and different hasn't carried any games forward so far. I also think that the majority of gamers (not just MMO gamers) won't be too concerned about it being familiar or lacking in innovation.

The big question is how well will it hold up over time. The storylines seem big and plentiful and by all accounts there is plenty of content outside of them too. The one area where Bioware departs from traditional MMOs is in brining traditionally single player mechanics into an MMO, though and only time will tell how well this works in the long term.

But we'll see. The fifth week of release will give an idea about TOR's long term prospects, everything before then is conjecture and guesswork. I do think it will attract enough casual and new MMOers to sustain decent numbers past the first month, though.

TL;DR - Yes.

  When it comes out people will be surprised by the content.  I was.  All I can say really...

I have no doubt it will "succeed".  Even bad mmos like Star Trek Online are still chugging away.  Im not sure what measure of "success" the OP means. 

Anyways I suspect it will do fair enough.  Its not going to bomb.  I can say that.  Im not convinced its going to be majorly successful or even a WoW killer (yea right), but its going to do alright for sure.  Im not that interested in it right now, but I think the fans will keep this game going for years.  Many. 

Originally posted by Leoghan

This is still very successful, but there are people here and on the SWTOR forums that think it will have any where from 1 to 5 million subs a year from now. I just don't see that happening. 

Without Asian market, and I don't know if that is even planned yet, I tend to agree.

Is it even opening with European servers?

I think it will be a financial success, but an artistic failure. The publishers and investors will probably get all of their money back from pre-orders and box sales, once the game is released, alone. I think most players will play for at least a couple months as well. On the whole, I think most Online RPG players are sick of the gear grind and the raid-or-die mentality that has pervaded the genre for the last 10 years. I think there are other games that will come out that are going to open players' eyes to new ways of doing things that will make them wonder why nobody else ever thought of it, like being able to raid from level one as a means to level up.

I believe this game will do very well IMO. Bioware and Star Wars IMHO is win win. I also believe it will do very well long term as long as they continue to pump out new content.

**The Raving Rabbid is Back and aiming a plunger....at You!**

Originally posted by DerWotan

...the hype is already at Failhammer levels and will...

When talking about what happened to "Failhammer" and comparing other games to it, there's the fact that it was poorly coded and executed game with visual bugs, animation glitches and bugs including often sliding monsters, sprite like special effects and so on, even a year after it launched (I'd propably still play it if it had smooth gameplay, working animations, sparky gfx etc, but no, all it manages to do is insult me with its quality). I dont see any of that in TOR, it has all that mentioned quite well working right now and on top of that it does not have yet another fantasy skin.

Yes I believe it will be a success in sales numbers, and propably for a while after that, then it's all up to the pace of Bioware adding stuff to the game, and not following Blizzards lazy ass path to recycle content in expansions while adding nothing new. If they add free space roam and meaningful big things like that I can see this game only growing after launch, if not, it deserves to wither away.

When people realize this is not a traditional MMO, it will succeed.

When people realize it is not designed to be SWG2, it will succeed.

When people realize its not meant to be a sandbox, it will succeed.

When people realize that, because its Bioware and aspects of MMO's we are use too must be different in TOR, it will succeed.

When people realize the game was designed for casual players and not the hardcore crowd, it will succeed.

Most of all, when people accept the game for what it is and it is meant to be, it will succeed.

I believe it'll greatly succeed, and not just because of the Star Wars title.

You know there are a ton of gamers out there like me, that granted we are very bored of WoW and its multitude of clones, but we're not adverse to playing another MMO that has its similarities, yet better advances on the usual.  Like WoW did to streamlining EQ, SW:TOR is doing the same to WoW and adding a bunch of new features:

• For example, its all vocal and to me that makes even the most minor of quests feel more important and personal.  Instead of rapidly clicking past boxes of text with usually pointless reasons for doing so, you're having a conversation that can and will have different outcomes based on ones attitude and demeanor.  {Granted they won't be major differences, but it'll be enough to make additional playthroughs slightly different}
• Everyone gets their own personal starship, and while we know little about it atm, it'd be stupid of Bioware not to allow us to fully customize it with our own colors and style eventually.  This will probably be something that will take a good deal of time, but I'm willing to wait on it.
• The space game, or tunnel shooter is a great way to relieve some stress.  Very similar to Starfox, and I loved that game, plus there are difficulty settings, additional challenges and its been said there will be ways to upgrade your ship with better weapons and manuverability.
• Huttball PvP ~ Seriously its about damned time someone did something other than capture the flag.  Thats fine if there is that mode also, but I'm happy and it looks like fun with all the powerups and traps to navigate through as well as fight/dodge other players. 
• The class specific Lootboxes are a huge plus for me, and I'm actually game for wanting to engage in raids for once.  One of the most annoying aspects of raiding has always been having to deal with the DKP BS, or never seeing the items drop that you desire, and when they do, always losing the roll.  Now that won't be an issue and the time will be well spent.
• Companions are also a nice feature and if they are as engaging to talk and play with as they were in the Mass Effect series, then heck yeah.  Not to forget mentioning you can send them on diplomatic and material runs/mission, and assign them loot corpses and harvest node while you're on a bloody killing spree.

I'm sure there is more I'm forgetting about, but it all sounds pretty good to me and while I've had my doubts on occasion I'm still really looking forward to playing.  

I definitely agree with many here that EA and Bioware will make money from this game. I didn't pre-order and I am not sure that I will play it right away or at all at least until there is some kind of trial (that won't be for a long while I am guessing.). The game breaks little new ground as far as I can tell. I am sure many people will enjoy it but I am looking for something completely new and this isn't it.

Originally posted by Khrymson

I believe it'll greatly succeed, and not just because of the Star Wars title.

 

You know there are a ton of gamers out there like me, that granted we are very bored of WoW and its multitude of clones, but we're not adverse to playing another MMO that has its similarities, yet better advances on the usual.  Like WoW did to streamlining EQ, SW:TOR is doing the same to WoW and adding a bunch of new features:

• For example, its all vocal and to me that makes even the most minor of quests feel more important and personal.  Instead of rapidly clicking past boxes of text with usually pointless reasons for doing so, you're having a conversation that can and will have different outcomes based on ones attitude and demeanor.  {Granted they won't be major differences, but it'll be enough to make additional playthroughs slightly different}
• Everyone gets their own personal starship, and while we know little about it atm, it'd be stupid of Bioware not to allow us to fully customize it with our own colors and style eventually.  This will probably be something that will take a good deal of time, but I'm willing to wait on it.
• The space game, or tunnel shooter is a great way to relieve some stress.  Very similar to Starfox, and I loved that game, plus there are difficulty settings, additional challenges and its been said there will be ways to upgrade your ship with better weapons and manuverability.
• Huttball PvP ~ Seriously its about damned time someone did something other than capture the flag.  Thats fine if there is that mode also, but I'm happy and it looks like fun with all the powerups and traps to navigate through as well as fight/dodge other players. 
• The class specific Lootboxes are a huge plus for me, and I'm actually game for wanting to engage in raids for once.  One of the most annoying aspects of raiding has always been having to deal with the DKP BS, or never seeing the items drop that you desire, and when they do, always losing the roll.  Now that won't be an issue and the time will be well spent.
• Companions are also a nice feature and if they are as engaging to talk and play with as they were in the Mass Effect series, then heck yeah.  Not to forget mentioning you can send them on diplomatic and material runs/mission, and assign them loot corpses and harvest node while you're on a bloody killing spree.

 

I'm sure there is more I'm forgetting about, but it all sounds pretty good to me and while I've had my doubts on occasion I'm still really looking forward to playing.  

 Your post sounds like it comes right out of my head lol.  I don't know why so many people seem to say "it will suceed because it's Star Wars".  Star Wars video games are not big sellers in either console or mmorpg space either SWG was an underperformer (for good reason) Bioware games are always among the top sellers as well as highest rated often so I see those being as large of factors as the fact that it is star wars.

I've also heard many mmo gamers who are glad to have a quality sci fi mmorpg as they are sick of fantasy be it high or low (as am I).

I too find myself excited again to raid after giving up on it very early in WOW heck I had even gotten to the point where I didn't want to run traditional instances because the design was so stupid in making people have to run instances so many times to get even one piece of loot.

I think many gamers underestimate the number of people playing mmorpgs who do in fact care about the story being told in mmorpg's.  I am always interested in the story being delivered in every mmorpg I play believe it or not for the longest I was highly engaged by the story being told in WOW but as you pointed out once you read the quest the first time it turns into a "shell game" of clicking through boxes as quickly as possible especially considering no matter how many alts you made you were doing the exact same quests with no deviation at all.

One responder on this thread said he thought the game would hold around 350k subs which is crazy considering those are the kind of numbers SWG did at it's high point while many people are quick to say they think people are overestimating this game I say just as equally many people are underestimating this game I just don't see anything they are doing that will keep this game at under a million subs and I would think that even if I didn't pre order or wasn't excited for the game WOW still has many millions of subs and for all intents and purposes this game is going to be the other side of the WOW coin if one would ask me.

And lastly I remember being so excited for Dark and Light because it was the first mmo that I knew of that was offering gameplay that included companion characters

I would like to thank you guys so far for keeping this discussion civil. Please keep up the great conversation. And don't make personal attacks on people. Even if his/her view is very different than yours. I made this topic to have a civil conversation among fans and non-fans. 

It'll succeed...while I think its a total care bear game that is nothing more than an rpg, there are tons of huge loyal kotor fans.  That fan base is exaclty what bioware is targeting.  The game will be fine for those that are looking for a solid rpg.