I dont get it.  Not like SOE to just shutdown and not squeeze every dime out of the customer...

The story said that the contract with LucasArts was ending, didn't it? And with SW:TOR in the pipeline, the shutting down rather than F2P is likely a business minded decision.

Don't want an F2P Star Wars game if there's a chance that it could take potential paying players from the new one

SOE's contract with LucasArts ends in 2012. I'm sure the cost to renew was greater than the revenue a F2P SWG would genereate, especially with TOR looming.

  Yes, Smeds stated their contract was ending in 2012.  Pretty much guarenteed LA outright told them there'd be no re-negotiating ;P

F2P games have same upkeep costs as P2P games and not the same income. Maybe they just didnt want to pay for server capacity for 100,000 players who play a month, dont spend a dime and quit?

F2p is the midpoint between p2p and death.

SWG just accelerated the process.

Originally posted by Robokapp

F2P games have same upkeep costs as P2P games and not the same income. Maybe they just didnt want to pay for server capacity for 100,000 players who play a month, dont spend a dime and quit?

 

F2p is the midpoint between p2p and death.

 

SWG just accelerated the process.

 Only a few games have gone from P2P to F2P, the majority of them in the past year, and are still going. DDO was the first big one to do it, and its even moree succesful now than it was when it was P2P.

So....youre basing your statements on what exactly?

Most likely LA wants it shut down so the players will potentially leave for TOR and fuel it's future growth. SOE also finally gets rid of the biggest black eye in gaming.

on the fact that no game ever went from F2P to P2P. On the fact that games like Algalon, NFSW and others went f2p when they couldnt make it as P2P.

I mean why is AoC going F2P? Why is LoTRO? Why did Lego Universe? it's not because P2P is working for them.

meanwhile why is it that no game goes F2P - P2P ?

huh. That's what I base my oppinion on. if the two were different but equal, you'd see games transitioning both ways. since you dont, and since only games failing in P2P go F2P...and since games who fail at F2P die, i counclude that P2P > F2P > Death.

am i wrong?

Originally posted by suffuse

The story said that the contract with LucasArts was ending, didn't it? And with SW:TOR in the pipeline, the shutting down rather than F2P is likely a business minded decision.

Don't want an F2P Star Wars game if there's a chance that it could take potential playing players from the new one

Holy shit there are still intelligent people on this forum! Who would have thought.

Do you really think SOE would shut something down that could still make them money as FTP with an item shop? Really? Most likely this is Lucas Arts pulling the rights to use the Star Wars franchise with the end of the contract. They want their new MMO to make maximum profit and a competing game in their franchise that is free to play is nothing but a hindrance to that.

As to the guy saying he was glad SOE was hacked, I too find nothing more enjoyable than seeing innocent people's information scattered over the web and average employees at Sony with families to feed fired while all the executives who make the choices that fuck over the consumers continue to give themselves raises.

Originally posted by Auzy

I dont get it.  Not like SOE to just shutdown and not squeeze every dime out of the customer...

Two games. One IP, one ultimate owner. Why would LucasArts want to potentially dillute interest in TOR to any degree no matter how small?

Originally posted by Robokapp

 

am i wrong?

 Yeah... I think you are.  You did a mighty fine job of assuming things, and not such a good job proving anything.

Originally posted by Paradigm68

Originally posted by Auzy

I dont get it.  Not like SOE to just shutdown and not squeeze every dime out of the customer...

Two games. One IP, one ultimate owner. Why would LucasArts want to potentially dillute interest in TOR to any degree no matter how small?

EXACTLY THIS!!!

ALL Star Wars fans need to be vested in the success of SWTOR. ALL of them.

They're shutting it down for money.

SWG, what subscribers that are left are hardcore Star Wars video gamers who want anything Star Wars, no matter how bad it is.

So LucasArts has to shut SWG down 100% so that these people will buy SW:TOR, no matter how bad it is.

Its a financial decision.  They don't give a rats patoot about Star Wars itself, its about the dollar bills.

Originally posted by Cacaphony

Originally posted by Robokapp

 

am i wrong?

 Yeah... I think you are.  You did a mighty fine job of assuming things, and not such a good job proving anything.

 well...I wouldnt need posting if I KNEW I'm right. But I'll need to see a flaw in my logic pointed out otherwise between my original thoughts and nothing, I'll have to stick to what I think so far.

so why am I wrong?

Originally posted by Robokapp

Originally posted by Cacaphony

Originally posted by Robokapp

 

am i wrong?

 Yeah... I think you are.  You did a mighty fine job of assuming things, and not such a good job proving anything.

 well...I wouldnt need posting if I KNEW I'm right. But I'll need to see a flaw in my logic pointed out otherwise between my original thoughts and nothing, I'll have to stick to what I think so far.

 

so why am I wrong?

 You assume that F2P is a natural step to a games death.  If that is so, are games that release as free to play half dead already?  Was Guild Wars half dead on launch?  Is it dead now?  Guild wars has been out for years now, so when is it going to "die"?

Originally posted by Robokapp

on the fact that no game ever went from F2P to P2P. On the fact that games like Algalon, NFSW and others went f2p when they couldnt make it as P2P.

 

I mean why is AoC going F2P? Why is LoTRO? Why did Lego Universe? it's not because P2P is working for them.

 

meanwhile why is it that no game goes F2P - P2P ?

 

huh. That's what I base my oppinion on. if the two were different but equal, you'd see games transitioning both ways. since you dont, and since only games failing in P2P go F2P...and since games who fail at F2P die, i counclude that P2P > F2P > Death.

 

am i wrong?

 Why would anyone go F2P to P2P? The appeal of F2P is that you dont have to pay a subscription. Thats how they get most of their players. If they went P2P they would lose the majority of their customers. And they still make a great profit off of F2P IS they do it right, which not many do.

And you seem to be confusing 2 different things here. A game dying, and a game not working out as P2P. Theres lots of reasons for that. With so many identical games out there (wow/EQ clones), its harder to keep their subs up when forcing people to pay $15 a month when theyre already paying $15 a month for something else. Why pay for both when theyre similar games? F2P allows them to keep people playing, wether they buy anything or not. Those who are willing to spend, wont spend if theres nobody else playing. By allowing people to play for free they keep a healthy number of people playing, which keeps those with extra money spending. No game that im awar eof has ever gone from F2P to P2P because the second they put P2P into place theyd lose a massive chunk of their playerbase who either cant pay the sub, or who prefer to buy things a sthey please rather than being required to pay monthly.

As far as some of those examples...

AoC was doomed from an absolutely terrible launch and first year or so. They made a little bit of a comeback, but not enough to keep them profitable on subscriptions alone.

Alganon was just plain bad & yet another clone. It was doomed from the start and never did anything to redeem itself. They actually would probably be better off just shutting down since there are many better F2P options out there.

LOTRO = Turbine. DDO = Turbine. DDO was dying a pretty quick death as P2P, but has made a big comeback ove rthe past few years with a great F2P model. They did the same with LOTRO (though not quite as good of a F2P model). AFAIK LOTRO is still doing ok, though with a few improvements it could probably do better as an F2P. Big problem with LOTRO though is its similarities to WoW. Its just not going to get the population when people are already invested in WoW for so long.

Originally posted by Auzy

I dont get it.  Not like SOE to just shutdown and not squeeze every dime out of the customer...

 

 It's LA, not SOE. It would make no sense for SOE to shut a game down that has 10 fold or better the population of a game that will live on (Vanguard)

i think it is LA they want SWG subscribers to go over to TOR.  Too bad would have liked to see swg F2P

Originally posted by Robokapp

on the fact that no game ever went from F2P to P2P. On the fact that games like Algalon, NFSW and others went f2p when they couldnt make it as P2P.

 

I mean why is AoC going F2P? Why is LoTRO? Why did Lego Universe? it's not because P2P is working for them.

 

meanwhile why is it that no game goes F2P - P2P ?

 

huh. That's what I base my oppinion on. if the two were different but equal, you'd see games transitioning both ways. since you dont, and since only games failing in P2P go F2P...and since games who fail at F2P die, i counclude that P2P > F2P > Death.

 

am i wrong?

 Suggesting that F2P is half way to death is whats wrong. No MMO that went from P2P to F2P has died, in fact they are all successful now. The decision to go F2P is because they are having trouble on their own as a p2p yes. But f2p creates a new market for them in which players are willing to come try it out and often enjoy the game and spend some money on it. DDO has more actual subscriptions now than it did when it was full p2p only.

We all know a lot of games launch with issues, once these issues are addressed most are not willing to shell out money to play it up front. But f2p creates news and gets people logging on. It also taps into a whole market of players who only play f2p games and never consider trying p2p.

I'm willing to bet SOE coulda renewed the license if they really wanted to. But they prly realized it was not worth the cost and Lucas Arts was just like "Ya, thats fine." SOE has a lot of other games and new ones on the way, they are keeping the whole team from SWG to use on another project, i'm sure it made sense for various reasons.