Originally posted by Nikkita

Originally posted by Tardcore

Originally posted by Nikkita

Originally posted by Kakkzooka
"January" eh? I'll be very surprised if EA allows the lid on the cash vacuum to stay open that long.

Yeah EA turned SWTOR into F2P just to shut it down 3 months later. Makes all the sense in the world.

*rolls eyes*

Well they turned to FTP out of desperation. If the change doesn't bear fruit its not impossible that EA could just can the game as they've already stated they've made their money and the game is no longer a priority.

*rolls nose*      . . . . ouch.

If they have already made their money and it is not their priority, still...you are telling me that SWTOR would  bring them even lesser profit than say games like WAR and Daoc? again i doubt that considering SWTOR has  a very healthy population compared to these old titles.

*shows tardcore how to roll a nose*

I'm not sure what to think with EA's handling of SWTOR to be honest, as they've aleady acted of of character and taken the game FTP which they didn't do with the other two MMOs. While thm canceling the game seems unlikely I'd be careful not to rule anything out as of yet.

*watches nose roll off desk, out the door, and down the stairs*     Oh bloody hell!!!

Originally posted by Weretigar

They plan on releasing one more warzone.

Illum is scrapped perminately. They have nothing in the works for World pvp, but there thinking about ways to do it. 

The next set will have a 20% increase? I didn't quite follow this. 

Every company lays people off 3+ times in the frist year.

They plan on one day introducing bounty hunting, on planets however current rules say anyone attacking a player 5 lvls lower then them can be banned for greifing. 

Some guy to the responses want him fired asap.

There should have been a 20% gap (stats/skills/abilitys/armor/mods etc) between a full decked out lvl 50 character and a starting lvl 50 character, didn't really work out that way.

The game hasn't paid for itself. Source EA - who said that 1M long term subs "would make them a profit but nothing to write home about". And when they said it they were stressing that it was long term subs that were important not initial sales. And that probably ignored a chunk of what it cost to buy Bioware.

EA also said they needed 500k to break even - make a profit on a day to day basis. And they have had 500k subs so they have been covering their operating costs.

The problem will have been things like retention rates and new sales.

The reason they gave out a 500k to 1M sub number as at 31st July is probably because of the 6 month subscribers coming up for renewal (if only 20% of the 2.4M box sales opted for a 6 month sub then that will have been 480k). And based on the retention rate they were seeing they clearly expected many of them not to renew and the number of subs to plummet towards the 500k break even point.

And from there it is a short step to going below the 500k figure and an unprofitable subscription based game.

So new strategy needed. They could have considered simply reducing costs, laying off more staff etc. - but if the drop off in subs they were seeing was very steep that may not have worked. So they have opted to try a hybrid. Keep as many subscribers as possible trying to persuade them they are going to get as much whilst trying to get as much money from F2P (EA's stated assumption) and at the same time cutting back costs hard. After all it is F2P so you should be thankful for what you get (but please whisper because we want to keep our subbies as well).

They have a hope and a business aim. They have not however articulated a coherent business strategy about how they are going to achieve it. And as the game is supposed to be going F2P in c. 3 months they should be shouting it from the rooftops.

A F2P game will not be top of the list in most people's Christmas stockings. One of Zynga - and other company's - big problems is the cost of getting new players ....

Originally posted by Weretigar

They plan on releasing one more warzone.

Illum is scrapped perminately. They have nothing in the works for World pvp, but there thinking about ways to do it. 

The next set will have a 20% increase? I didn't quite follow this. 

Every company lays people off 3+ times in the frist year.

They plan on one day introducing bounty hunting, on planets however current rules say anyone attacking a player 5 lvls lower then them can be banned for greifing. 

Some guy to the responses want him fired asap.

what they were talking about for the 20% increase wasnt the next tier of gear.  they were talking about how they had orginally wanted a player that was fully decked out in pvp gear to only have a 20% difference in power from an equal lvl player entering pvp with no pvp gear and how it clearly didnt happen because players were getting face stomped.

Originally posted by Ahnog

A very positive and upbeat interview.

 

I found the discussion of the future cost of wz under ftp interesting.

 

He spoke of the "revitilization of Illum" coming in January, and more rewards for pvp including gear upgrades. Very interesting.

I have a feeling that this "revitalization" will go the way smugling in SWG went. They will talk about it untill the game shut.

If they wanted to fix Ilum, they would talk about fixing engine performance.

Originally posted by Tardcore

Originally posted by Nikkita

Originally posted by Tardcore

Originally posted by Nikkita

Originally posted by Kakkzooka
"January" eh? I'll be very surprised if EA allows the lid on the cash vacuum to stay open that long.

Yeah EA turned SWTOR into F2P just to shut it down 3 months later. Makes all the sense in the world.

*rolls eyes*

Well they turned to FTP out of desperation. If the change doesn't bear fruit its not impossible that EA could just can the game as they've already stated they've made their money and the game is no longer a priority.

*rolls nose*      . . . . ouch.

If they have already made their money and it is not their priority, still...you are telling me that SWTOR would  bring them even lesser profit than say games like WAR and Daoc? again i doubt that considering SWTOR has  a very healthy population compared to these old titles.

*shows tardcore how to roll a nose*

I'm not sure what to think with EA's handling of SWTOR to be honest, as they've aleady acted of of character and taken the game FTP which they didn't do with the other two MMOs. While thm canceling the game seems unlikely I'd be careful not to rule anything out as of yet.

*watches nose roll off desk, out the door, and down the stairs*     Oh bloody hell!!!

Sucks about the nose, sorry. Love the new sig. And what, may I ask, have you done with Pony? The unicorn isn't near as fun as Pony was (try as I might)!