Originally posted by Yakamomoto

Originally posted by Marius6870
I logged in the game a few times for the past few days, and all of the servers were Heavy and quite active. 

you mean all of the remaining 20-something servers are full after they merged the initial 250+ servers?

woah, great success, almost as good as SWG before shut down

You can log into any of the NA servers since the merge, and you have 100-250 people in fleet at prime time and at least 30+ people on almost every planet.

It's 2012, we no longer need a 1,000 player server capacity.  The servers have merged, but they support a huge amount of concurrent players.

Originally posted by Yakamomoto

Originally posted by Marius6870
I logged in the game a few times for the past few days, and all of the servers were Heavy and quite active. 

you mean all of the remaining 20-something servers are full after they merged the initial 250+ servers?

woah, great success, almost as good as SWG before shut down

The NA and EU servers appear to be capped at approx. 6,000 players.

(based on a comment by Andraya, if you know it to be different please do tell.))

There are 17 of these servers. (3 backwater APAC servers)

On SWTOR's busient day following the switch to FTP 15 of those got near full/full.

Doing the math, SWTOR on it's busiest post FTP day ever had was just shy of about 100,000 concurrent players, some subing, most FTP.

Since then the numbers have been ebbing down.

What this means revenue wise since the cash shop opened, I can't say.

(The general rule of thumb is that the peak concurrent player number is 10-20% of the total player base, although Andrayah will say it's 5-10%)

All of those numbers were based on SWTOR's busiest post FTP day.

That means that SWTOR's day of greatest appeal on relaunch was 500k-1 million people and now shrinking.

The majority of people, SWTOR enthusists included, seemed to miss on just how small the game population had become after attrition, GW2, and the second round of server merges. I guess it was easier to believe in super-servers and not be phased when EA opted not to announce subscription numbers in the October earnings report.

At this point it hardly matters. What matters now is how much the remaining subscribers will pay for gambiling boxes, cosmetic items, and whatever else is put in the cash shop such as charcter slots, Cathar, Life Day packs, Makeb, etc, etc. on top of their subscriptions.

Originally posted by Masonic1

Originally posted by Yakamomoto

Originally posted by Masonic1

being that subs are right now under 100k and the f2p has been a failure not much longer.

from what i've been told, ea has just given up on the game anyone at ea feels working on anything bioware or tor is a step away from getting a lay off/fired. i have been told ea is now just going to stick to facebook social games as tor has been one of the biggest flops in the history of gaming. and really it shouldn't be hard for them to shut it down, disney feels that tor is doing more harm to star wars then good. so that will help out in getting tortanic shut down.

and who told you that, if I may ask...?

Doesn't really sound like a surprise though. The game was doomed the moment they decided for the craptastic half finished Hero Engine version and cloning WoW mechanics.

Sad. And those plastic lifeless planets, there is no other option than ordering the Death Star for total annihilation.

[mod edit]

 Well your post got me till the last highlighted part. I mean, EA execs aiming at at TSW + Eve? Honestly, if true I don't get it.

Not saying it would be bad, but I have a hard time with top execs in EA thinking that and selling it to their pairs.

Originally posted by Masonic1

Originally posted by Yakamomoto

Originally posted by Masonic1

being that subs are right now under 100k and the f2p has been a failure not much longer.

from what i've been told, ea has just given up on the game anyone at ea feels working on anything bioware or tor is a step away from getting a lay off/fired. i have been told ea is now just going to stick to facebook social games as tor has been one of the biggest flops in the history of gaming. and really it shouldn't be hard for them to shut it down, disney feels that tor is doing more harm to star wars then good. so that will help out in getting tortanic shut down.

and who told you that, if I may ask...?

Doesn't really sound like a surprise though. The game was doomed the moment they decided for the craptastic half finished Hero Engine version and cloning WoW mechanics.

Sad. And those plastic lifeless planets, there is no other option than ordering the Death Star for total annihilation.

[mod edit]

 So you go from a thread yesterday,  page 9, post 86 of "Lucas Arts knew TOR would bomb" saying something along the lines that "how much anyone wanna bet that disney is looking for a way to shut down the tortanic? i know i would be at this point, really the best thing disney can do is shut tortanic down and get into everyones good graces by getting a pre-cu swg going again. with raph koster at the helm.".. now you're at having definitive information a day later.... And then there's the fact that you have 7 posts, all in SWTOR threads, you've praised TSW saying you've heard that their subs are on the incline and will go over 500k soon.... I call bull shit.

Originally posted by tiefighter25

Originally posted by Xirik

Since its the second largest Sub based MMO probably a very long time. Meridian is still alive so is EQ. I really don't understand how people think Swtor is going to die.  They aren't bleeding out subs anymore and are stable around 500k-750k subs.  They found a base that likes this game.

just because its not the game you wanted it to be doesn't mean it should die. Thats a VERY childlike mindset.

 

EA announced in August that the subs were above 500k. That was before their 6 month subs ran out, GW2 came out, and their second round of server mergers. In their latest  quarter earnings confrence call they declind to comment on how many subs SWTOR had.

The game did seem to stabalize in October, but if you were tempted to quantify it, I wouldn't state it as 700-500k subs. You could either say unknow, or more likely around 300k subs, which is ironically the population of SWG before the shenanigans.

Or you could just say what EA did, paraphrasing, "What does a subscription count matter for a game which no longer requires a subscription?" In other words, the name of the game is combined revenue from the subs and the cash shop.

Also in August 2012 EA stated that they still need 500K subs (or the equivalent with cash shop added in that total) to break even. What happens if they do not get 500K subs? To me, that implies the game could shut down.

If they release a cheap game in 2013, like Minecraft, that costs virtualy nothing to operate, has millions of players, and generates  billions of dollars, acquiring loads of jobs for people, then EA are not going to burden themselves with the heavy costs of SWTOR are they?

I do not want the game to die, but from what EA are doing and saying with SWTOR, it just might.

Both SWG and COH before they closed had more positivity about them staying active than SWTOR does, and they both shut down. COH changed F2P only last year and not just added F2P but overhauled the mission system, and still bringing in content with more planned that never happened, but after all that effort and money spent doing that they still shut the game down a year later.

Originally posted by Masonic1

Originally posted by Yakamomoto

Originally posted by Masonic1

being that subs are right now under 100k and the f2p has been a failure not much longer.

from what i've been told, ea has just given up on the game anyone at ea feels working on anything bioware or tor is a step away from getting a lay off/fired. i have been told ea is now just going to stick to facebook social games as tor has been one of the biggest flops in the history of gaming. and really it shouldn't be hard for them to shut it down, disney feels that tor is doing more harm to star wars then good. so that will help out in getting tortanic shut down.

and who told you that, if I may ask...?

Doesn't really sound like a surprise though. The game was doomed the moment they decided for the craptastic half finished Hero Engine version and cloning WoW mechanics.

Sad. And those plastic lifeless planets, there is no other option than ordering the Death Star for total annihilation.

[mod edit]

Sounds like a very likely scenario. I´m not surprised that things are turning out like that. Thanks for sharing that info.

/crystal ball

.....

.....

.....

.....

/magic mirror

.....

.....

.....

.....

/magic eightball

"concentrate and ask again"   WTH!?!

Do people Really believe when a guy says "my friend who works there says"  that he is telling the truth? How many times have people used that on this website.

I won't debate anymore on how big the sub base is as none of us will really know how small or large the sub base is till they feel like releasing some numbers.

What I will say is that There are lots of people ingame that I know that spent $100 to $200 on cartel packs and items. and there were people on the swtor forums saying the same thing. I don't know how anyone could say that the ftp/cartel shop is a failure like the poster above.

I will now give you HATORZ a knock out punch.

Warhammer online is still running which I believe we can all agree has a smaller player base. Until that game is shutdown SWTOR is safe.

Originally posted by Xirik

Do people Really believe when a guy says "They aren't bleeding out subs anymore and are stable around 500k-750k subs"  that he is telling the truth? How many times have people used that on this website. 

It works both way ;)

Originally posted by Xirik

Do people Really believe when a guy says "my friend who works there says"  that he is telling the truth? How many times have people used that on this website.

 

I won't debate anymore on how big the sub base is as none of us will really know how small or large the sub base is till they feel like releasing some numbers.

What I will say is that There are lots of people ingame that I know that spent $100 to $200 on cartel packs and items. and there were people on the swtor forums saying the same thing. I don't know how anyone could say that the ftp/cartel shop is a failure like the poster above.

 

I will now give you HATORZ a knock out punch.

 

Warhammer online is still running which I believe we can all agree has a smaller player base. Until that game is shutdown SWTOR is safe.

As to your knock out punch. Warhammer On Line is an IP under a multi-year license. If EA shuts it down, they still have to pay Games Workshop their fee. Also WAR is in utter maintence mode. There has been almost no new content since launch. The one thing that keeps its two remaining servers going is that unlike SWTOR, WAR's endgame is uder created content in the form of RvR. WAR also has a mini-proto cash shop. So long as the total revenue raised by the remaing subscriber base paying to battle each other in RvR is greater then the cost of the skelton (count on one hand) crew and keeping the servers open, the game will remain open till the license expires.

SWTOR's endgame is primarily not PVP They do not even have a functioning RvR zone (Ilum's dead).

Not really much of a knock-out punch, more of a dire warning for SWTOR.

Originally posted by Xirik

Do people Really believe when a guy says "my friend who works there says"  that he is telling the truth? How many times have people used that on this website.

 

I won't debate anymore on how big the sub base is as none of us will really know how small or large the sub base is till they feel like releasing some numbers.

What I will say is that There are lots of people ingame that I know that spent $100 to $200 on cartel packs and items. and there were people on the swtor forums saying the same thing. I don't know how anyone could say that the ftp/cartel shop is a failure like the poster above.

 

I will now give you HATORZ a knock out punch.

 

Warhammer online is still running which I believe we can all agree has a smaller player base. Until that game is shutdown SWTOR is safe.

Whilst it may be doing well now, I doubt it will be doing well in  a few months time, because there has not been added anything to it to keep people playing, History has proven that people do not want to play SWTOR long term, as there is not mch to do at max level. SWTORs game ends at max level, SWGs game started at max level. People on my friends list on Xfire, started playing SWTOR when it went F2P, now the amount of people playing is dropping and not logging in so much. The interest of SWTOR F2P is now declining.

F2P may not be a failure to you, but it no doubt is a failure to EA/Bioware. They probably were expecting billions dollars from it or way more than what you expect them to get for success.

Also Warhammer does not need 500K subs to break even, nor has a licence to deal with LA/Disney. It was not SOE who chose to shut down SWG, if they were the ones in total control, they would have kept it going, but LA were the ones who called the shots with SWG and Smedley said so, and the same would go for SWTOR - EA/Bioware are not in full control either , although things could be different with Disney, but to go by Warhammers survival is just plain naive, but chances are that as soon as the licence expires with SWTOR, it will probably be shut down. If SWTOR had a future, they would be bringing in content, left right and center.

To me maintenance mode is equal to game shutting down.

When you kill the point of the game you kill the game.

Wait, I thought it was already dead... *scratches head*

Seriously though, an F2P MMO based on a very popular setting can potentially go on forever.

Originally posted by wowfan1996

Wait, I thought it was already dead... *scratches head*

Seriously though, an F2P MMO based on a very popular setting can potentially go on forever.

Vanguard is "going forever" and its pretty much dead (just example, there are boatloads more).

To me its like when you squis a bug (or something similar) and then fiiddle with te remains ;P

Problem with SWTOR is that maintenance (or even shut down) limit is way higher than other MMOs due to its enormous expenses. Thats why you cannot really compare it to other MMOs, SWTOR is catgory of its own.

Originally posted by tiefighter25

Originally posted by Xirik

Do people Really believe when a guy says "my friend who works there says"  that he is telling the truth? How many times have people used that on this website.

 

I won't debate anymore on how big the sub base is as none of us will really know how small or large the sub base is till they feel like releasing some numbers.

What I will say is that There are lots of people ingame that I know that spent $100 to $200 on cartel packs and items. and there were people on the swtor forums saying the same thing. I don't know how anyone could say that the ftp/cartel shop is a failure like the poster above.

 

I will now give you HATORZ a knock out punch.

 

Warhammer online is still running which I believe we can all agree has a smaller player base. Until that game is shutdown SWTOR is safe.

As to your knock out punch. Warhammer On Line is an IP under a multi-year license. If EA shuts it down, they still have to pay Games Workshop their fee. Also WAR is in utter maintence mode. There has been almost no new content since launch. The one thing that keeps its two remaining servers going is that unlike SWTOR, WAR's endgame is uder created content in the form of RvR. WAR also has a mini-proto cash shop. So long as the total revenue raised by the remaing subscriber base paying to battle each other in RvR is greater then the cost of the skelton (count on one hand) crew and keeping the servers open, the game will remain open till the license expires.

SWTOR's endgame is primarily not PVP They do not even have a functioning RvR zone (Ilum's dead).

Not really much of a knock-out punch, more of a dire warning for SWTOR.

If Warhammer is under a license like SWTOR, and it is in maintenance mode then chances are that will be shut down when the license runs out.

Although SOE and LA did renew the license for SWG several times, even after the NGE, but  apparently they waived the fee to do so, but SOE was doing a lot for SWG though, unlike SWTOR. SWG had more content put in during 2011, its final year. than SWTOR ever has had. SOE did not want to shut down SWG, that is what kept it going for as long as it did..

Then comes along SWTOR, and gets millions of peoples attention, and LA see $$$ signs, so then decide to start to charge for the IP again, and it was more than what SOE could afford. If EA were paying for the IP then SOE would need too as well.

If LA can be generous and waive the IP fee, then any company can,  so it could be possible that Games Workshop may waive the fee to Warhammer too, if they want it to stay alive.

It is also possible that Disney will waive the fee too for SWTOR, but considering the deal was done with LA, they will probably want to start fresh, and only renew the licence if it was doing really well.

Also EA/Bioware have not been doing any effort into trying to keep the game alive, by bringing in all that content they said they had for it, which makes the game last ten years - what a joke!. SWG was failing too, but at least LA got on the case and tried to turn things around by doing the CU and the NGE, which as we all know backfired, and at this point LA gave up on SWG and SOE took over completely still bringing things to the game and actually making it better and enhancing it, sustaining a regular flow of players, before doing server merges 3 years later in 2009.

But with SWTOR, EA/Bioware have done nothing, they just went straight to merges within only 6 months and now F2P. They seem to have given up on the game themselves.

SWTOR could end up shutting down before WAR, it all depends on how long they have the IPs for. If WAR has the IP for 3 more years,, and SWTOR only has it for 1 more year, then SWTOR could shut down next year. With all the money they spent on SWTOR, chances are they probably would have gotten a minimal length contract for the IP, and then when it succeeded bought a longer deal, with all the profits they expected to get, but have not now.

There is no 100% clairity whether it will last or not, but the prognosis is not good, not good at all. EA/Bioware need to pull out all the stops over the next few months, if they want to make it seem like it is going to last a long time. Which does not include talking, SWTOR needs full on action from EA/Bioware, like SOE were doing. SOE only had a handful of devs (2 or so), Bioware has what 200 still?  Yet SOE did more for SWG than EA/Bioware has done for SWTOR - total pathetic. Makeb is coming and a few other things, but all that should have been in game already.

Originally posted by Xirik

Do people Really believe when a guy says "my friend who works there says"  that he is telling the truth? How many times have people used that on this website.

EA Louse says hi.

http://www.gamerevolution.com/manifesto/ea-artist-soon-to-be-laid-off-burns-ea-management-2803

I would like to see SWTOR get more content, such as Ilum, space etc. but personally, I wouldn't bet my money on SWTOR living to see 2014.

Originally posted by Xirik

Do people Really believe when a guy says "my friend who works there says"  that he is telling the truth? How many times have people used that on this website.

 

I won't debate anymore on how big the sub base is as none of us will really know how small or large the sub base is till they feel like releasing some numbers.

What I will say is that There are lots of people ingame that I know that spent $100 to $200 on cartel packs and items. and there were people on the swtor forums saying the same thing. I don't know how anyone could say that the ftp/cartel shop is a failure like the poster above.

 

I will now give you HATORZ a knock out punch.

 

Warhammer online is still running which I believe we can all agree has a smaller player base. Until that game is shutdown SWTOR is safe.

Masonic1 also sent me a private message accusing me for marketing for money for EA LOL.

In his opinion any positive comments about SWTOR comes from EA employee.

Yesterday on The Ebon Hawk at 2 AM at night EST there were still 2 fleet instances. Server is packed with people. Judging from general chat F2P enjoy the game. The only negative comments I saw were about F2P restrictions, not about quality of game.  Not sure how many subs moved to F2P status, but not many. I am getting 800 CC every month and that is lowering my sub cost to 5 bucks a month. Why would I want to move to restricted F2P. Majority of people who sub are not even considering moving to F2P.

Like somebody said, the population that is right now in SWTOR are people who like/love the game and are going to continue to play.

Originally posted by Sevenstar61

 

Majority of people who sub are not even considering moving to F2P.

Like somebody said, the population that is right now in SWTOR are people who like/love the game and are going to continue to play.

 

Those statments will only be true after a few months. Those who started with F2P, the shine has not wore off yet, it has only been a couple of weeks

If the game had just launched that would be a cocky thing for me to say, but considering that is exactly what happened a few months after launch, and nothing has been added to the game to keep players playing, then the same will happen again.

Although there may be more people playing but they will move to F2P. If they do not move to F2P then they will just simply quit. History has proven this to be the case.

F2P will only temporarily boost population, but plenty of new content will boost population long term, and it is not getting enough content.

I'm playing the F2P and enjoying it well enough.  It reminds me more of a SP RPG than anything else.

On the other side, I'm not finding any motivation to subscribe.  Questing feels like it rides on rails, which isn't a selling point for me.  Performance on my machine (out of date but adequate for most games on low settings) is poor, borderlining unplayable.

Will it last?  Who knows.  I'm figuring I'll play for a month or so, maybe even use the cash shop, but honestly it's more out of curiousity to see how it's built.  I'm not intent on staying for a long time.

Originally posted by superniceguy

Originally posted by Sevenstar61

 

Majority of people who sub are not even considering moving to F2P.

Like somebody said, the population that is right now in SWTOR are people who like/love the game and are going to continue to play.

 

Those statments will only be true after a few months. Those who started with F2P, the shine has not wore off yet, it has only been a couple of weeks

If the game had just launched that would be a cocky thing for me to say, but considering that is exactly what happened a few months after launch, and nothing has been added to the game to keep players playing, then the same will happen again.

Although there may be more people playing but they will move to F2P. If they do not move to F2P then they will just simply quit. History has proven this to be the case.

F2P will only temporarily boost population, but plenty of new content will boost population long term, and it is not getting enough content.