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Opinionated1 10/07/06 10:33:40 AM
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Novice Member
Joined: 9/21/06 |
I posted this on the official boards, in Chris Cao's infamous thread, which is now locked. I just wanted to see what you guys here think of it:
Something just occurrd to me. Assuming the numbers are correct based on Chris Cao's statement that their own internal metrics indicate that only 20% of those who play Star Wars Galaxies use the forums, and assuming that the counting of active user names on the forums really does point to roughly 2500 people, and assuming that the total number of actual paying customers really IS approximately 12,500, that means that SWG is generating a monthly revenue of roughly $187,500.00 per month, down from the $4,500,000.00+ per month when they had 300,000+ subscribers. This demonstrates roughly a 95.83% drop in profits per month. If these figures are even remotely close to accurate based on what Chris has said, then anually, SOE has lost roughly $51,750,000.00 in anual revenue for Star Wars Galaxies.
I don't know of very many corporate entities (or their partners and investors) who would tolerate such a massive loss. So I believe that all the redesigns which tick players off, the marginalization of customer concerns, and blatantly inflamatory statements like those of Chris Cao, coupled with the constant broken promises (which could be interpreted as lies) on the part of SOE all taken together point to one adgenda on SOE's part:
They know that the situation is broken beyond fixing. They are looking to drive people away, make them go ahead and unsubscribe so that they actually start going into the red. They're still in the black, but nowhere near what they want or their partners/investors expect in returns. The sooner they stop making a profit, then they can justifyably pull the plug and SWG's failure becomes a nice tax write-off for them. We know it's all about money for the corporates.
I say, that even though it will mean putting up with BS, DON'T cancel your subscription. Make them ride this disaster out until they either put forth a genuine effort to turn it around, or unjustifyably pull the plug. They clearly want out as much as we want our game. Well, deny us our game, so I think we should deny them their easy-way-out.
In Christ, G. B. Jackson
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chlaos 10/07/06 10:40:59 AM
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Novice Member
Joined: 11/11/05 |
That makes some sense, but honestly trying to apply logic to this group may just be an exercise in futility. This is the same group that thought it would be a smart idea to piss of 70% of its players to chase the holy grail of mmo customers, the wow kiddies. Regardless of the fact that the backbone of the game isnt set up for a WOW type game, and what made wow so popular was the fit and finish of the game not the style. But, i digress......
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| "The man who exchanges Liberty for Iconic classes is a fool deserving of neither." - Me and Ben Franklin |
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shirlnt 10/07/06 5:18:44 PM
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Novice Member
Joined: 4/29/06 |
On top of that, I knew people who'd left SWG to play WoW when it first came out...and they were coming back. If SWG had focused on cleaning up the game it had, it would have gotten more subscribers and the subscribers it had would have stayed around longer. No, SWG would never have reached the number that WoW has in players simply because there's more of a demand out there for Fantasy MMOs than other genres (shown by the number of Fantasy MMOs that exist...either that or no one has ever done a good job at another genre in order to pull people away from fantasy so game creaters just assume fantasy is what is in high demand). |
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Uberman 10/07/06 6:36:07 PM
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Novice Member
Joined: 6/13/06
Talk to the kitty. |
If you are right, SOE is playing with fire. They have a contract with LucasArts on this IP, and if they are deliberately sabotaging the title, it would be tantamount to thumbing their noses at LA and purposefully breaching their contract. Ol' George is tenacious about his Star Wars property, and likely wouldn't hesitate to unleash the lawyer shitstorm upon SOE. Granted, Sony as a company has been spiralling down the bowl recently, the result of some stupid decisions, but this scenario could really hurt them.
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Wildcat84 10/07/06 6:43:17 PM
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Apprentice Member
Joined: 1/31/06 |
If we're right, sooner or later they will give up.
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Rekrul 10/07/06 7:20:49 PM
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Novice Member
Joined: 2/09/06 |
Everyone, subscribe. Let's ruin SOE.
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kaibigan34 10/07/06 8:26:16 PM
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Novice Member
Joined: 1/14/05 |
Have to disagree here. If done right SWG could have hit the numbers of WoW or least came close. Star Wars is known the world over by everyone. There are probably undiscovered tribes in the amazon that know who Luke Skywalker is. Of course the common arguement is that not all Star Wars fans play games and not all Star Wars games fans play MMOs. But as WoW has shown..... Alot of nongamers and nonMMOgamers have jumped into WoW. At C3 last year, the inside joke was SWG players. All these hardcore fans laughed at them. But they also would admit they would have been playing SWG if it had stuck closer to continuity and hadnt always been a bug filled mess. Kai |
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majoch 10/07/06 8:32:10 PM
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Advanced Member
Joined: 9/19/04 |
It still baffles me to this day how could a Star Wars MMO not be successful? I guess if you do the math based on actual boxes sold and early subscription numbers it was in a sense a success. This should have continuously evolved into bigger and better things for the once avid comminity but as we know it has been very successful at de-evolvling to the point of extinction.
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Hauken 10/08/06 4:09:09 AM
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Apprentice Member
Joined: 3/22/06 |
They are losing money, no doubts there. They are maybe not in the red yet but are getting closer each month.
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| Hauken Stormchaser |
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Dark_Lord_13 10/08/06 10:27:25 AM
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Advanced Member
Joined: 6/12/05 |
LOL, yea right, let me just throw $180 away a year instead. |
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Bogdawson 10/08/06 11:00:47 AM
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