Originally posted by popinjay

LucasArts to take "around 35%" of Old Republic revenue - report

 

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EEDAR VP Jesse Divnich:

 

"Divnich pegged The Old Republic's potential user base a little higher than Pachter, predicting it will attract three million subscribers by next June.

"Taking into account multiple years in service and expansion packs, $500 million in total revenue is not a far stretch. If an MMO can't be profitable at $500m in revenue, than we are all doomed."

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Another analyst says ToR only needs 400K subs to break even and will pull in 1.5 million subs:

 

 

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Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter:

 

Pachter estimated that the MMO will pull in around 1.5 million subscribers, representing around $80 million a year in profit.

"On an ongoing basis, they will split revenue from running the subscription business. My best guess is that they will attract 1.5 million subscribers paying around $15 a month, so they should generate around $270 million in revenue. If LucasArts gets 35 per cent and if EA incurs around 35 per cent operating expense, they make 30 per cent, or around $80 million per year, in profit. That's not bad."

"Most MMOs require around 250,000 subscribers to cover the direct operating expense of the server farms. Given LucasArts' revenue split, SWTOR would require around 400,000 subscribers to break even. That means they make money at 500,000 subscribers."

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So whether it's 1.5 million subs or 3 million subs by June, ToR fans should disregard any of the naysayers as far as the 'doom' projections on these or any other forums. There simply isn't any factual basis to it by any PROFESSIONAL estimates.

 

Even Blizzard CEO Kotick has been shown wrong by both analysts about ToR's ability to make a profit.

Sigh, can we really stop with this.  Kotick didn't SWTOR wouldnt be profitable.  He basically said the profit margin for EA would be not even close to Activision's because of the licensing.  You allneed to stop dumping on a guy who is talking about financials and not your precious video games.

Offical post on SWTOR's site:

One of the benefits to pre-ordering Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ is that you will gain Early Game Access before launch on December 20th. This is a chance to start your epic Star Wars saga early, as you’ll be able to create and play your character ahead of the official live game launch.

Many of you have been wondering how long Early Game Access will last, and we are now happy to announce that depending on when you redeem your Pre-Order Code, you will gain Early Game Access up to five days before the official game launch date.

Early Game Access is staggered over five days to ensure a quality experience for players at launch. Staggering access aids server stability and a gradual increase in player population through the game. Early Game Access will be granted according to when your Pre-Order Code is redeemed at the Code Redemption Center. If you have not yet pre-ordered Star Wars: The Old Republic, there’s still time! Visit our Pre-Order page for more information and watch the Collector’s Edition Unboxing video for a peek inside this highly coveted edition of the game.

Keep up to date with the latest official news on Star Wars: The Old Republic, including any updates on Early Game Access by visiting www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com, or by liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter.

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by maskedweasel

Originally posted by Teala

  Please do not mention the voice over commentary - that was the least of my likes because that would get old after the first time through.   Other than the VO which everyone seems to mention was a positive?  Space combat, character customization, combat?  Please make a list of what you all think is positives for the game.

Lol, come on, don't mention it because YOU didn't like it?  

 

Hey, what did you like about the game,  but don't mention things like the Combat, or the Story,  or the Crafting system,  I hated all those things.. but ASIDE from those things.. whats so good about it? HUH?

 

Its a very biased and shortsighted way to look at the game.  One person might not like the voice overs,  but many others might.. or do... 

 

Some might not like the combat,  others will.

 

Complainers don't do SWTOR any favors when they spout negativity over a game they knew they weren't going to enjoy in the first place.   The OP isn't a review... and it isn't constructive,  its simply - criticism - that is all.   

Criticism can be constructive, much more so than just saying that everything is great. Besides she did say the reason why voice acting is not a viable good feature,  becuse it is a one shot thing. Once you heard the dialog once you dont need to hear it again, unless we are talking some Sean Conner/Al Pacino voice acting.

So her point still stands. What are the good features in this game beside the voice acting?

You could say that about jsut about any feature in any MMO.  Combat? well I fought the thing once before, so its only viable once? Besides we are talking about multiple class stories and even if you do the same class story you have basically two ways of completeing each dialogue light/dark.

Again, people are listing tons of other things that they think are positives, why we all acting like SWTOR is jsut about VO.

Originally posted by kalinis

not true i actually did the ord mantell planetary qusts moe then once and didnt skkp a line of dialouge. That was me though lol 

i just mention u can skp it if u want to players who whine they dont wanna do vo cause they cant wait the 2 mins to get through a cut scene.

I actually did all the Hutt planet's quests twice and did not skip any on both either.  I played it once thru with my light side bounty hunter and then with my dark side imperial agent.  It was fun to see what the differences were.

Originally posted by DerWotan

I couldn't care less if people like my review or it. It is what it is and based on my experience with the game.

Didn't mention PvP think you can join at level 10 after that there is only one battleground avaiable, and most of the time I did search for an option to turn off the announcer futilel but if you want to level fast its the way to go. After each round (win or lose) you were rewarded with 5.000 experience points and it only lasts 15 minutes.

The game will find it fans I'm sure, but its not the holy thing some hype victims make it out to be, just like they did with Warhammer (though they are comparable in terms of linearic handholding and lacking exploration options).

Sure there are some

"this game is going to be nothing but perfection!" crowd.  But seems pretty minimal compared to some games (looing at GW2 fanboys).

But your reasoning on being so negative about a game is to compensate for overhyping? Thats what I don't get.  Bash a game into the ground because somebody else overhyped it?

More peopl would actuyally listen if you had made a legit effort to critique the game.

With that said i agree with some of what you reviewed but obviously you didn't put any effort into the game or did not play at all due to above statements.

Originally posted by Teala

Originally posted by maskedweasel

Originally posted by Teala

  Please do not mention the voice over commentary - that was the least of my likes because that would get old after the first time through.   Other than the VO which everyone seems to mention was a positive?  Space combat, character customization, combat?  Please make a list of what you all think is positives for the game.

Lol, come on, don't mention it because YOU didn't like it?  

 

Hey, what did you like about the game,  but don't mention things like the Combat, or the Story,  or the Crafting system,  I hated all those things.. but ASIDE from those things.. whats so good about it? HUH?

 

Its a very biased and shortsighted way to look at the game.  One person might not like the voice overs,  but many others might.. or do... 

 

Some might not like the combat,  others will.

 

Complainers don't do SWTOR any favors when they spout negativity over a game they knew they weren't going to enjoy in the first place.   The OP isn't a review... and it isn't constructive,  its simply - criticism - that is all.  

 

 

Because everyone mentiosn the VO and then goes on to say how after their first time through they have their thumb glued to the spacebar.

And?

Originally posted by Teala

Originally posted by Distopia

So where's the positive? Not that I expected any from someone who has blasted the game from the get go, but just figured I'd ask because the opposite always comes up when there's a positive review.

To those slamming the OP.   You are not doing the game any favors when you insist that the game doesn't get fun until  past level X.   Some of you keep bring this up that the game gets better past the teens.    A game should be fun right out of the box.   If you must grind through boring content just to get to something resembling fun - the game is a badly desgined game.

As to the topic.  I looked hard for positive things myself while doing beta...and  I myself couldn't find one.    Sometimes a game is so borked, that nothing positive will be seen in the eyes of the person experiencing it.  I am curious though, what did you see in game you consider a positive?  Please do not mention the voice over commentary - that was the least of my likes because that would get old after the first time through.   Other than the VO which everyone seems to mention was a positive?  Space combat, character custozation, combat?  Please make a list of what you all think is positives for the game.

Um, the person you quoted said nothing about the game being better at higher levels.......

There's plenty in SWTOR the I like.  The pvp, the atmosphere, the combat is familiar yet different.  I love the art style and the bioware story.

Oh yes and VO.  Its obvious you will not like Bioware games and in turn, shouldn't probably not get this game.  But to not mention VO in SWTOr is just plain silly.  Its why millions , yes millions, of people are going to play and like this game.

If you dont like the VO then its obvious you dont like Bioware games.  No problem with that, but thats just your taste in games.

Bioware is great at making RPG's.  The only problem I see with themepark MMO's is that the themepark rides are mediocre.  MMORPG's spend all their resources on making a game viable with a massive amount of people that they skimp on the content.  Well, Bioware is changing that by making quality RPG content and interweaving it an MMO.

BTW, people are posting positives all the time and it just sounds like you dont agree with tthem so instead of acknowledging the fact other people like other things then you do, you just dismiss it as untrue or not said at all.  Much like your statement about VO.

Originally posted by Kenze

just a gimmick. I doubt even Bioware will continue with full VO's in futre content.

Bioware puts VO's in all its games.  How will it stop with its biggest game ever?

Originally posted by Hexipox

Does anyone know if they will open the guild registration again later, after this beta or is it deffently closed now?

i dont think so.  If they do, I am sure they wont open it up so you can to the guild import.

I understand Bioware mentioned they would love and encourage people to roll alts, but why do people think there is nothing to do after your class story.  As of THIS moment (beta) there is a lot to do post class story.  You have crafting, space combat, pvp warzones, open pvp objectives, valor ranks, codex, operations and ever single flashpoint have various levels of difficulty for level 50's.

Granted there isn;t a ton like a game like wow, but this is a game that is about to launch.  They also anounced there will soon be tons of end game content added soon after.

This game has enough content to satisfy even teh hard core for a few months.

Originally posted by MMOExposed
I know that the game is theme park MMO, but does that mean it need levels to tell a story? Zelda didn't have levels yet it still has a story and character progression. Levels seem like a waisted feature. It's pointless and uninteresting. I don't like level grinds. I would rather spend my time playing in a open world and having fun doing what I like to do. And the excuse that subscription based games need levels to keep people playing is, just that, an excuse. It's not true. Because if it were true, games like AoC and Warhammer wouldn't have had huge drops in subs after the free month. Bioware should have went with the no level model, or at least added a dynamic level scaling feature like Guild Wars 2 does. Anybody care to agree or disagree?

Have fun in GW2

When you reroll an alt you are not stuck doing all the cross over quests.  space combat and pvp give good xp so if you dont want to do all the questlines, dont. Stick with teh class story and play around in pvvp and such and you will progress fine.

Originally posted by username509

To sum it up.  Just make sure your graphics card or processor does not exceed 100C and you should be good.

Although 80c wont immediatley damage anything I would never run any of my compenents above 70.  Aboce 70c and its above normal wear and tear and may shorten the life of components greatly.

Originally posted by sanosukex

Originally posted by Cthulhu23

I played Rift for about 3 months myself.  It was more polished as in "bug free," but as far as innovation, TOR has it beat by a country mile.  The only true innovation Rift had was the actual Rifts, which grew tiresome after about 20 levels, and the way they utilized their servers to handle the loads of having so many players in a condensed area.  I liked their soul system, but I didn't find it the least big innovative.  It was basically a standard talent tree system except they let you run wild with it to the point that you never had to make any truly important decisions regarding your character progression.  You could basically play any spec you want at any time and never had to truly plan out your class.  As a result, you got a lot of people that could do anything, but many of them couldn't do any of it well because they never grew into their class/spec.  They just simply played them all.  And oddly enough, there were just as many cookie-cutter specs for endgame in the Soul System as there were for any other talent tree system, so nothing was improved in that respect.  And don't even get me started on the balance issues due to so much freedom.  PvP was a trainwreck because of it.  

But to answer your question, here are the the improvments in the genre I see from TOR, and understand, these are just my opinions:

1)  Story---For the first time in a long time, quests actually have MEANING in a game.   There is a backstory.  It's still your typical quest/level grind, but TOR has managed to create the illusion that it's actually meaningful and important.  This is an undeniable step up from what we've seen in the past with themepark questing.

Story is a step up its what they spent the most time on obviously so its no suprise

2)  Choices---Again, these choices aren't far-reaching or all-encompassing.  Due to the nature of the storyline, they don't change the world forever.  But what they do is bring back the RPG element in mmorpgs.  People can debate all day long how important this element is in the overall game, but what can't be debated is that it, like the story, brings a "fun factor" and a sense of immersion to the typical quest grind.  It was the first time I've ever played an MMO where I wasn't focused on watching my xp bar move.  I was focused on how the story would turn out, and on the decisions I would make to give a layer of depth to my character.

same as 1

3)  Companions---Basically a pet system on steroids.  There are people that don't like the companion system, but most do. No game has ever given the kind of customization to a "pet class" that TOR does with companions.  The companions actually have their own story, their own questline, their own personal relationship with the player that can be altered by the choices they make, and the ability to micromanage every aspect of the companion gameplay from choosing their talents to gearing them up and changing their appearance.  This is a very deep feature to the game that I don't think gets enough credit.

You obviously never  played rappelz. That one has a way more in depth pet system and is free to play

4)  Crafting---Not innovative for MMOs in general, but definitely a new, improved spin on the standard themepark version of crafting.  From having your companions crafting for you, to sending them on missions to acquire rare mats, to reverse engineering to acquire rare schematics, this is a very deep crafting system and a definite improvement over what is out there.  

Never tried out the system yet so won;t comment here

Those are the four major improvements I'd pick off the top of my head.  I could list a bunch more minor tweaks to the prevailing thempark system that are a nice touch as well.  I could also provide a list of things I think the game falls short in, but overall, it brings more to the MMO table than it doesn't bring.  

honestly don't see much here. You have the story elements and all which is great but at the end of the day once the story is done everything else is the same ol same ol. Oh and with rift yes not much was new but at least it DID offer pretty much every single feature of past themepark MMOs and had some nice touches like the wardrobe slots(although this wasn't avaialble at launch) I just feel this game is missing a lot of the basic features when they could be bringing new and exciting content out they are probably going to start bringing out basic stuff all these other games already have just to catch up

Whats the basic features its missing?

Originally posted by Deewe

Thoughts, anyone?

Agree with the Ui -They said they will be adding features and customibility through out after launch.

Character customabilty - this probably won;t happen due to the affect on cutscenes and how face expressions and camera angles work.

Short term, they also mentioned they are working on implementing all those items soon after launch.

UI mods, they are still deabting and ahven't ruled it out.  But I really dont want them.  I rather let them implement their own mods.

World pvp  is already in there in the form of a whole planet, designated areas on other plantes, and pvp servers, not sure why you put this in there.

Gear  mods and appearance tabs.  You already have the "match chest peice" so pick the chest peice you want and the rest of you will coordinate.  Appearance is not really needed due to SWTOR's mod system. Pick the look you want and mods the items.

3d space shooter - would be nice, very hard to implement, but they annunced they are looking to do tons more with space combat including possible pvp.

swimming -meh, i dont really care

day/night cycles - wont happen.  its basically one of those things they decided against and rather went with the overall planet theme.  again with this - meh -dont really care especially the hours achange and sometimes weather depending on what par tof the plaent you are on.

NPCs movement - agree hopefully they will work on this.  But really other then "critters" in some other games how much to npcs move?  Not very much.

Originally posted by demarc01

To echo the above posters, unless your aiming to run 5 instances of Star Wars at the same time, theres no reason to over clock that machine. It'll eat up pretty much any game on the market on maxed settings and laugh while doing so.

and jsut to add some perspective, I just built a machine a month ago with a i7 2700k and a GTX 560 and it plays BF3 on ultra settings smoothly without any overclock.  Now I did end up overclocking a little bit after testing but I didnt see any change., pretty much the i7 can easily go to 4500, but I only took it to 4400 cuase i dont have liquid cooling.

Originally posted by CazNeerg

From what I've seen, here, on the TOR forums, and elsewhere across the internet, it seems pretty clear how things are shaping up.  Almost all of the negative opinions about the game focus on things which are either true of almost all themeparks, or of almost all BioWare games.  When you remove those elements from the list, and look at what negative feedback is still present, there just isn't very much left.  

So what is the logical conclusion?  I would say it is that if you enjoy themepark MMOs, enjoy BioWare games, and aren't emotionally invested in any MMO that isn't WoW failing, you are probably going to enjoy TOR.  If you don't enjoy themeparks or don't enjoy BioWare games, you're probably not going to like it, but I don't think you are going to find many rational arguments for TOR not being a very high quality example of both of those types of game.  

Not being a type of game you like =/= being a bad specimen of that type of game.

Your right about the themeparks.  If you enjoy themeparks then SWTOR will be great.  PvP has potential in this game but its still too early to tell with the level 50 pvp zones not populated (also need they need benefits for taking and holding objectives).

Also, if you like Bioware games and/or was looking for a sequel to KOTOR then this game is for you.  At first I was kind of bummed that KOTOR was becoming a sequel.  But after playing thru some of the clas stories its better then I could have imagined.

Originally posted by mgilbrtsn

Originally posted by Quizzical

If you just placed the order, you may still be able to change it.

It might also be good to post the exact hardware you got, in case there are obvious changes that ought to be made.

BLUETOOTH: None
CARE1: Professional Wiring for All WIRING Inside The System Chassis - Minimize Cable Exposure, Maximize Airflow in Your System [+19]
CAS: Corsair Obsidian Series 800D Full Tower Gaming Case
CASUPGRADE: None
CD: LG 12X Internal Super Multi Blu-Ray Rewriter (Black Color)
CD2: None
COOLANT: High-Performance Non Conductive Coolant powered by Koolance [+19] (Blue Color [+10])
CPU: Intel(R) Core™ i7-3960X Extreme Edition 3.30 GHz 15MB Intel Smart Cache LGA2011 (All Venom OC Certified)
CS_FAN: Maximum Enermax 120MM Case Cooling Fans for selected case (Maximum Silent Operation) [+29] (1,000 RPM Black Color with No LED Enlobal Magnetic Barometric Bearing 17 dBA)
ENGRAVING: NONE
FA_HDD: Vigor iSURF II Hard Disk Drive Cooling System [+21] (1 x System)
FAN: CyberPower Xtreme Hydro Liquid Cooling Kit 360MM w/ Triple Fan(CPU & GPU Liquid Cool Capable, Extreme Overclocking Performance + Extreme Silent at 18dBA)
FLASHMEDIA: PPA External Combo USB 2.0 Hub & Card Reader/Writer [+10]
FREEBIE_HD: None
GLASSES: None
HDD: * 60 GB OCZ Agility 3 SATA III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 525MB/s Read & 475MB/s Write (60GB x 2 (120GB Capacity) Raid 0 Extreme Performance)
HDD2: 2TB (2TBx1) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (Single Drive)
IEEE_CARD: None
IUSB: Internal USB 3.0 4-Port Hub [+29]
KEYBOARD: Xtreme Gear (Black Color) Multimedia/Internet USB Keyboard [-55]
MEMORY: 16GB (4GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Quad Channel Memory (Corsair Vengeance)
MONITOR: None
MONITOR2: None
MONITOR3: None
MOTHERBOARD: (3-Way SLI Support) Asus P9X79 Deluxe Intel X79 Chipset Quad Channel DDR3 ATX w/ UEFI Bios, BT GO, SSD Caching, 7.1 HD Audio, Dual GbLAN, USB3.0, SATA-III RAID, 4 Gen3 PCIe X16 & 2 PCIe X1 [+73]
MOUSE: XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse [-57]
NCSW: None
NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
NOISEREDUCE1: Sound Absorbing Foam on Side, Top And Bottom panels [+29]
NOISEREDUCE2: Power Supply Gasket [+5]
NOISEREDUCE3: Anti-Vibration Fan Mounts [+9]
OS: Microsoft(R) Windows 7 Professional [+31] (64-bit Edition)
OVERCLOCK: Ultimate OC (Ultimate Overclock 30% or more)
POWERSUPPLY: * 1,000 Watts - CoolerMaster Silent Pro Gold 80 Plus Power Supply ( 80 Plus Gold)
RUSH: RUSH!!! READY TO SHIP IN 5 BUSINESS DAYS [+49]
SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
SOFT1: Microsoft(R) Office(R) 2010 Professional (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher + Access) [+299]
SOUND: Creative Labs SB X-FI Titanium PCI Express Sound Card [+103]
SPEAKERS: None
TEMP: None
TVRC: None
UPS1: OPTI-UPS VS575B 575VA/345W Uninterruptible Power Supply [+46]
USB: None
USBFLASH: None
USBHD: None
USBX: NZXT Internal USB 6-PORT Expansion Module [+19]
VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 Dual GPU SLI 3GB 16X PCIe Video Card (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
VIDEO2: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 Dual GPU SLI 3GB 16X PCIe Video Card (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
VIDEO3: None
WNC: None

 

Here are my settings, I could do with some advice.

Ya no reason to over clock that thing, the very slight performance boost you may get will not be worth the wear on your hardware.  If you do overclock it should be modest.

Not sure why today people are oveclocking.  Even on modestly priced gaming machines you are going to be able to run anything released today.

I am gussing 30% is just some kind of marketing ploy.  If it is ture then I would think about throttling it back down.

Originally posted by spizz

Originally posted by Cacophanist

This game is not the open world PvP you are looking for. It is about as much PvP as WOW is along with just the 2 factions.

You might be more interested in PlanetSide 2 or Darkfall if you are in to open world PvP with more than 2 factions.

I can guarantee you will be disappointed by this game if PvP ifs what you are looking for. 

Oh alright sounds not that exciting then, well thats what I was expecting since its "Star Wars" and not a chit chat room like it did happen in SWG...maybe they have a trial. Well i did play WoW it had great open world pvp at the beginning, but changed later on and so I did quit.

Lol so whats exciting to you then?  SWTOR pretty much covers everything PvP, lol.