I keep hearing the numbers for this game are way off and if they don't do a server merge soon they could lose even more members and this game could go the way of WAR.

Anyone see this happening? 

I don't think so. WAR failed because it was an RvR game whose RvR sucked. SWTOR's PvP also sucks, but that's not its core focus. It should continue to be strong with its desired audience of gear grinders, raiders, and altaholics.

BioWare: Austin has a large number of Warhammer Online/Mythic people.  That's good, because those people still have a job, and I'm not sure who would actually want to hire them, but it's bad because they turned both the Star Wars MMORPG and the KOTOR franchise into this crude mash up of WoW gameplay + BioWare dialogue wheels.  Anyways, the rule is "Three strikes and you're out!" and after Dragon Age 2, SW:TOR and Mass Effect 3, I'm going to approach future BioWare products with the greatest degree of skepticism.  It's hard to imagine SWTOR's numbers going up anytime soon, and it's not hard to imagine the numbers decreasing even further once TERA, GW2, TSW... etc. etc.... gets released.

Depends what you mean with same fate. It will surely be far from what EA/Bioware hoped and no where near 1mil+ subs in the long run. It will be a big disappointment and I'm guessing it will have maybe 200k subscribers for a few years time. Max 500k after first year.

Originally posted by red_cruiser

BioWare: Austin has a large number of Warhammer Online/Mythic people.  That's good, because those people still have a job, and I'm not sure who would actually want to hire them, but it's bad because they turned both the Star Wars MMORPG and the KOTOR franchise into this crude mash up of WoW gameplay + BioWare dialogue wheels.  Anyways, the rule is "Three strikes and you're out!" and after Dragon Age 2, SW:TOR and Mass Effect 3, I'm going to approach future BioWare products with the greatest degree of skepticism.  It's hard to imagine SWTOR's numbers going up anytime soon, and it's not hard to imagine the numbers decreasing even further once TERA, GW2, TSW... etc. etc.... gets released.

its been over 3 months and they are still keeping close to 1.7 mil subs.  I think there is a large fallout from the MMO crowd,  but i think they are juicing from a different pool then normal MMoers

If they keep this up and sell expansions they are in pretty safe waters.

The only thing i see killing this game is EA filkness.  

Yeah, for a casual MMO it's great. I still have my sub

I'm still keeping to 300k - 400k subs after the six-month subs expire, but I'd hardly call that a failure.  Those are still pretty respectable numbers.

The Feb figures touted by the Bioware put it at around 1.7million active subs after ~2million box sales.

The biggest reason it won't flop as badly as Warhammer is they are publicising it, there is a huge advertising campaign ongoing for SWTOR, Warhammer never really bothered and the amusing thing is SWTOR's pvp is a lot better balanced and polished than Warhammers hideously laggy collision detection AoE farm nightmare, but Warhammers pvp was supposedly at the heart of the game, TOR is mainly a pve game with some pvp content.

If you think they will lose 1.2 million players in 6 months then i'd love to know what cataclysmic cock-up you forsee for this to occur. It'd have to make the NGE/CU look like the best idea ever.

Originally posted by shenfrey

I keep hearing the numbers for this game are way off and if they don't do a server merge soon they could lose even more members and this game could go the way of WAR.

Anyone see this happening? 

I dont think so, alone because of the fact that WAR was a lot bigger mess technically, it still has some major technical issues like sliding mobs and sprite like effects, none of that in TOR. I know a lot of people left WAR because it started to seem like those issues will never get solved, I was one of them and a bunch of my friends left for the same reason. Then there's the Star Wars name, and currently it seems like Bioware is really trying to fix everything and add to the game. So no I dont believe so, but only time will tell.

I don't think SWTOR will crash and burn nor do i think it will be the success EA/BIO would have hoped for.

What has me worried is the timeframe and consistency with which future content updates are implemented. With Bioware having decided on the VO path, they are expected to continue down said path. VO is expensive and more importantly time consuming, which may negatively influence the intervals between content patches.

I'm full aware that different dev teams work with different aspects of the game and in a perfect world, they'd be able to work simultaneously without any time delay when the devs consult each other. However, it's not a perfect world and delays are bound to occur.

Whether i'm too pessimistic or not remains to be seen as there haven't been any real content updates as of yet.

I believe SW:TOR is already a successful and profitable product for BioWare at this point.  The game was sold in different versions at launch and prior to launch (pre-order), where the Collectors Edition was quite pricy.  THe revenue they must have made from initial game sales alone probably "put them in the black", so to speak.  As for subscriptions beyond the first 30 days, I imagine they lost people (as all titles do), but I didn't notice an exodus on my server.  In fact, it seemed to increase in players, and maintain a high level of activity to now.

I also believe this game should have had much more content than it currently does.  In addition, compiling all of the new fixes/implement features into one large patch (1.2) is a bad idea in my opinion, because it makes players wait for them.  Implementing them in smaller patches, as they are ready, makes much more sense to me, and would provide subscribers with something new more frequently.

My subscription was cancelled a couple of weeks ago, and not for any other game.  I reached the point where playing is no longer fun for me.  At the same time, I believe the game is fun for most people (at least for awhile) and is not a bad game.  BioWare did a good (not great) job overall, in my opinion.  This title is one of the few MMOs that are worth playing (even if only for a month or two).

Anyone here who were actually there during first 2 months of WAR? because the game just nose dived in terms of players in first 30 days alone. WAR must hold a record for losing the largest number of players.

No

It doesn't have near the amount of issues Warhammer had. Well, PvP is abysmal in this game but it was never marketed as a PvP game and far as PvE goes this game is pretty decent. A lot better than Warhammer was.

It simply isn't going to do as well as I believe BW and some others were hoping for.

Originally posted by Wickedjelly

No

It doesn't have near the amount of issues Warhammer had. Well, PvP is abysmal in this game but it was never marketed as a PvP game and far as PvE goes this game is pretty decent. A lot better than Warhammer was.

It simply isn't going to do as well as I believe BW and some others were hoping for.

Bingo

Originally posted by red_cruiser

BioWare: Austin has a large number of Warhammer Online/Mythic people.  That's good, because those people still have a job, and I'm not sure who would actually want to hire them, but it's bad because they turned both the Star Wars MMORPG and the KOTOR franchise into this crude mash up of WoW gameplay + BioWare dialogue wheels.  Anyways, the rule is "Three strikes and you're out!" and after Dragon Age 2, SW:TOR and Mass Effect 3, I'm going to approach future BioWare products with the greatest degree of skepticism.  It's hard to imagine SWTOR's numbers going up anytime soon, and it's not hard to imagine the numbers decreasing even further once TERA, GW2, TSW... etc. etc.... gets released.

I thinl people keep saying things like "three strikes and you're out!" and simply aren't backing it up.  you then follow that up by saying you now approach Bioware products with "skepticism,"  ummm, ok.  I decided when playing DA:O that it wasnt that great of a game and when they were trying to get me to buy DLC during the game that this would be my LAST bioware game.  Havent bought another of their games since.   This coming from a guy who has NWN in his top 3 games all time on ANY platform.  It's ok to move on sometimes.  Especially if you want to throw around the 3 strikes cliche.  Back those words up with something more then a skeptical gaze or dont say it. 

Originally posted by gotha

Originally posted by red_cruiser

BioWare: Austin has a large number of Warhammer Online/Mythic people.  That's good, because those people still have a job, and I'm not sure who would actually want to hire them, but it's bad because they turned both the Star Wars MMORPG and the KOTOR franchise into this crude mash up of WoW gameplay + BioWare dialogue wheels.  Anyways, the rule is "Three strikes and you're out!" and after Dragon Age 2, SW:TOR and Mass Effect 3, I'm going to approach future BioWare products with the greatest degree of skepticism.  It's hard to imagine SWTOR's numbers going up anytime soon, and it's not hard to imagine the numbers decreasing even further once TERA, GW2, TSW... etc. etc.... gets released.

its been over 3 months and they are still keeping close to 1.7 mil subs.  I think there is a large fallout from the MMO crowd,  but i think they are juicing from a different pool then normal MMoers

 

If they keep this up and sell expansions they are in pretty safe waters.

 

The only thing i see killing this game is EA filkness.  

Several people in my guild were as they put it, caught up in the Hype. They subbed for 3 and 6 month plans, and almost to a person have expressed disappointment, few still play, but are counted in that 1.7M. In game guild was over 300 Republic side and 100+ Empire, now it seems to be stable at about 60 on each side. With some of those 60 playing on both sides. We just deleted ~80 people that were more than 22 days since last login.