I read that SWG had almost 11,000 subs on its last day of existence. That's over $150k per month revenue; nearly $2 mil a year. That is a lot of money; surely it was profitable. Why shut it down? Unless...

1. You think these 11,000 subs will quit as soon as SWTOR launches
or
2. EA paid SOE, or came to some other agreement, that lead to SOE shutting down SWG.

Read where exactly?

And the fact the game was considered a laughing stock by many and probably viewed as an Albatross around the neck of a company looking to move onto EQ Next and PS2 probably had nothing to do with shutting down it right?

No doubt SWTOR put alot of pressure on the shut down, but it was more a case of final nail in the coffin in all probability. It wasn't some thriving game which was suddenly cut short in it's prime. It was in a bad way and mercifully taken out back and shot.

swg's ip contract with lucas ran out and they didn't extend it.

at least that was the public announcement. maybe it was aliens.

The game ultimately closed because it was not generating enough profit to sustain it.

For years, most people on this board were calling for it to be shut down.

It was no where NEAR the game most people have recently made it out to be.  This is some sort of reverse hype mind-trick.  Makes those of us that were actually around during the game's life wonder what sort of alternate history everyone else lived in.

Originally posted by grimal

The game ultimately closed because it was not generating enough profit to sustain it.

For years, most people on this board were encouraging its shutting down.

It was no wehere NEAR the game most people have recently made it out to be.  This is sort of like a reverse hype mind-trick.

The game most people make it out to be, had not been that game long before its end.

Originally posted by Arclan

I read that SWG had almost 11,000 subs on its last day of existence.

 

Don't forget that SOE issued out free trials to former customers to try to boost the numbers for a short while......because they had to show those numbers to Lucasarts and partners.

11k subs on the last day.......that's not representative for the SWG post NGE community......what were the sub numbers before the closure was announced? (in between trial periods for ex-customers)

Originally posted by Arclan

I read that SWG had almost 11,000 subs on its last day of existence. That's over $150k per month revenue; nearly $2 mil a year. That is a lot of money; surely it was profitable. Why shut it down? Unless...

1. You think these 11,000 subs will quit as soon as SWTOR launches
or
2. EA paid SOE, or came to some other agreement, that lead to SOE shutting down SWG

11K subs is a rather horrible number for a MMO.

And far from all the subscription revenue is earnings. The game still need devs, servers and Lucas art is probably taking a whole lot of the income.

If you want numbers to compare with had Tabula Rasa over 75K players when it was cancelled. There are few games out there with fewer subs than 11K, like Mortal online but if any publishing house owned them they would have been cancelled a long time ago.

SOE figured that they could move those devs into a game in development that actually had the chanse of hitting over 100K players, something SWG hadnt had since the NGE. 

The game did have some potential a long time ago but now it was just beating on a dead horse. You can just have a death spiral for so long.

Of course Lucas arts and SOEs contract went out and it is possible that LA wanted a raise for SOE to use their name and that was the final straw but the game was already dead in the water since long.

I just hope they reuse the original crafting system in a new MMO some day. It was great.

SWG:

idea: good.

execution: horrible.

lol, I would settle for a SWG with SWTOR graphics in a open world and enough content.

Originally posted by Arclan

I read that SWG had almost 11,000 subs on its last day of existence. That's over $150k per month revenue; nearly $2 mil a year. That is a lot of money; surely it was profitable. Why shut it down? Unless...

1. You think these 11,000 subs will quit as soon as SWTOR launches
or
2. EA paid SOE, or came to some other agreement, that lead to SOE shutting down SWG.

 

As I predicted 1 year before SWTOR launch, I said that SWG would close its doors few weeks before SWTOR release, as it happened.

The reason is really simple, although people at that time gave me hard time for saying that, it is basically down to licensing rights.

It is not possible for 2 companies to share the same IP for the same kind of products.

A licence is generally exclusive.

So when Lucas Arts gave the MMO rights to EA, automatically it had to withdraw the Licence from SoE (Just to understand what I am talking about Google the legal war between Bethesda and Interplay for the rights of Fallout MMO)

It has nothing to do with the profitability of SWG, which I believe made more money than Vanguard anyway (and Vanguard is still alive)

Originally posted by Muke

SWG:

 

idea: good.

execution: horrible.

 

lol, I would settle for a SWG with SWTOR graphics in a open world and enough content.

Depends on your point of view.  Funny how many die hards there are around here talking about how it was one of the most fun games they ever played, and that they played it for years, *despite* bugs and other issues.

I loved it, not because it was the best made game in the world, but because it gave me and everyone else a rich universe of open world gaming, and the tools with which to create our own adventures, and our own stories.  It let us make a mark on the worlds, and many things emerged from it that the developers never even thought of.

I miss the fact that it was a social game by default, but also allowed me to be a loaner if/when I wanted to. I miss having non-combat gameplay professions or "classes" such as Bio Engineer, Doctor, Entertainer, Musician, Image Designer, Trader, etc. All of those played important roles in the original game.

Your opinion may vary, but I have yet to play a game where I had so much fun, and no one had to hold my hand and tell me where to go or what to do.

Hell, my favorite days were often the ones when I logged in with a plan, and then had it totally derailed by some other *player driven* adventure that came up in the game.  Imagine what SWG could be if it was made with today's technology and money.

thanks for the good info (no flames coool!!)

Yes I seem to remember them saying the license expired. Rings a bell.

Also makes sense a bunch of folks came back for the last hurrah, so the 11,000 is misleading (kinda like SWTOR's figures, eh?)

Never played SWG but had a friend who played at launch and I got daily updates from him. He loved it.

Thanks!

Originally posted by ste2000

Originally posted by Arclan

I read that SWG had almost 11,000 subs on its last day of existence. That's over $150k per month revenue; nearly $2 mil a year. That is a lot of money; surely it was profitable. Why shut it down? Unless...

1. You think these 11,000 subs will quit as soon as SWTOR launches
or
2. EA paid SOE, or came to some other agreement, that lead to SOE shutting down SWG.

 

As I predicted 1 year before SWTOR launch, I said that SWG would close its doors few weeks before SWTOR release, as it happened.

The reason is really simple, although people at that time gave me hard time for saying that, it is basically down to licensing rights.

It is not possible for 2 companies to share the same IP for the same kind of products.

A licence is generally exclusive.

So when Lucas Arts gave the MMO rights to EA, automatically it had to withdraw the Licence from SoE (Just to understand what I am talking about Google the legal war between Bethesda and Interplay for the rights of Fallout MMO)

It has nothing to do with the profitability of SWG, which I believe made more money than Vanguard anyway (and Vanguard is still alive)

 

 

Clone Wars Adventures says hello.