Tag: Bioware

The Old Republic: Server Mergers Possible


“Long term we actually have to look at servers as a whole. The nice part about it is we have doubled how many people we can put on each server since launch. The down side is that at launch, because people were upset at the long queues we aired on the side of opening up more space. What that has now done is separated our player-base into a larger group.”

When The Old Republic originally launched, servers were staggered in order to ensure that players evened out over the course of launch. Following launch, Bioware has slowly increased server capacity to allow more people into each server. The combination of increased capacity and post-launch player activity has resulted in a number of servers with a dearth of players, and Bioware is looking into server mergers in the future.

First, however, Bioware will be opting for a server transfer approach, allowing players to freely move about to the server of their desire.

“One of the problems we’re running into right now is kind of a classic MMO problem, which is that our overall population of players has not changed, but our peak concurrent users has changed”

(Source: Now Gamer)

[Update] The Old Republic: Free Month For Most Loyal Players


[Update] Bioware has extended the free month to anyone who also receives Legacy level 6 on their account. The time to obtain this has also been extended to April 22nd.

[Original Story] Bioware wants to thank its most loyal customers for sticking with the developer during these hard times. Of course, how do you factor in how loyal a player is? You could ask for a human sacrifice, but Human Resources is notorious for requiring long and redundant paperwork to be signed before any such promotion can take place.

So Bioware has decided to rate “most loyal” as anyone with at least one level 50 character. Those of you who have subscribed since launch but have not reached end game? Well, you’re loyal but they are more loyal. Perhaps you shouldn’t be such a casual gamer?

But don’t fret, all players subscribed regardless of loyalty will receive a free Tauntaun pet. in addition, previous subscribers can log in from April 13th to April 19th.

More on The Old Republic as it appears.

(Source: The Old Republic)

Try Out The Old Republic Free, Again!


Last weekend, Bioware invited users who had never experience The Old Republic to show up and try the game for free for a weekend. Starting today and running through the 26th, Bioware wants to scoop up anyone who did not participate in last week’s trial. Players are able to take on the first fifteen levels of the first two planets for any class or race. Trial players will not be able to use general, trade, and PvP chat, and will be unable to use the send mail or use the Galactic Trade Network.

Check it out here. A reminder: This only extends to people who have never played The Old Republic before. Previous subscribers, friend pass users, and prior free weekend players are not included.

The Old Republic Responsible For WoW Subscriber Losses


Talking to Eurogamer, Producer John Lagrave admitted that the launch of The Old Republic has had an effect on World of Warcraft’s subscription numbers. Lagrave goes on to talk about possibly extending the current World of Warcraft unlimited trial (up to level 20) to level 40, or even level 60, but with a firm reminder that Blizzard has no plans to take the MMO to a free to play model, as Blizzard still feels that the game runs best as a subscription.

“Of course people are trying Star Wars – our development team are trying Star Wars! I’m one of the few people who’s still playing it actually, but yeah we’ve seen a dip in subs. It certainly has to at least be attributable to The Old Republic, but it’s also attributable to people who want to wait and get Mists of Pandaria, so it’s not surprising.”

Blizzard is one of several developers to be very open about their loss of subscribers, and one of the few companies to actually post a base figure of how many are still playing. Up until recently, a major portion of Blizzard’s dropped subscribers have been attributed to losses over in China where the rate of income per user is lower than in the West, in territories including China where users pay for World of Warcraft like a prepaid phone (adding hours). Blizzard also attributes some of the loss to players to a need to release more content at a faster pace, as players complete it. Meanwhile, the expansion of the cash shop has more than made up for the loss of subscribers, leading to higher revenue each quarter.

In the face of 1.7 million subscribers for The Old Republic, Blizzard is looking to entice its previous customers to return and current customers to remain so. Back in October, Blizzard launched the expanded Annual Pass offering a free copy of Diablo 3, a spectral mount, and guaranteed access to the Mists of Pandaria beta (The Diablo 3 promotion ends May 1st, if you were thinking about signing up). Just recently, Blizzard launched the Scroll of Resurrection campaign, offering an upgrade to Cataclysm, a free level 80 character, and free faction/server changes for the recipient.

All of this on the heels of Blizzcon 2012 being cancelled so Blizzard can focus on its development, and laying off 600 non-developmental workers.

You can read the rest of the discussion at the link below.

(Source: Eurogamer)

Mass Effect 3: The Right Way To Protest


Here at MMO Fallout, I’ve devised a sport known as “competitive charity,” a corporate sport where the rules are simple: Donate more than anyone else to a respectable charity and you win the prize. What is the prize? We haven’t figured that out yet, but it is in progress. So far, competitive charity has been extremely successful, with a majority of the companies listed here at MMO Fallout participating on an occasional basis.

Over at Bioware, the Mass Effect community decided to express its outrage at the ending of Mass Effect 3 in the only way it knows how: Throwing the rules of competitive charity right out the window and starting up a charity fund. So far, over two thousand contributors have donated more than fifty three thousand dollars to Child’s Play. Sure, it’s an odd marriage: The joy of charity and the general useless endeavor that is an internet protest.

This is my kind of protest, and I’m sure Child’s Play is just as happy as I am to see the money rolling. The charity drive runs until April 11th. If you want to chip in, or just want to donate to Child’s Play, click below. I will also have a counter running on the side of MMO Fallout until the charity ends.

(Source: Child’s Play)

Play The Old Republic Free, March 15th Through 19th


You know you’ve been wanting to try out those Old Republics that the kids all seem to be getting into these days. But you don’t want to spend sixty bucks on a game client for a title you might not enjoy? Well, Bioware has your back. Starting March 15th and going through March 19th, you will be able to play The Old Republic absolutely free of charge. There are restrictions: Level is capped to 15 (40 for trade skills) and bound to origin/capital worlds. Weekend pass holders will also be restricted from general/trade/pvp chat, cannot send or reply to email, use the galactic trade network.

It is worth noting that this is not a welcome back weekend, and the offer does not extend if you already own The Old Republic. Prior subscribers who have allowed their payments to lapse are not included in this weekend. If you purchase The Old Republic during this time, the start of your subscription will cancel any remaining time in the weekend pass, so wait until the 19th to redeem your code.

Also, there is a small note that Bioware reserves the right to delete trial characters on abandoned accounts without notice, although there are no plans to do so at this moment.

No, there are currently no plans to delete characters created as part of the Friends of Star Wars: The Old Republic Trial. Should your friend decide to purchase the Game, their trial characters will still be on their account. We do however reserve the right to delete trial characters on abandoned trial accounts without notice.

(Source: SWTOR website)

Ilum To Be Deprecated In 1.2, PvP In Warzones


If planets are children, Ilum is the son who plays by his own rules and inevitably is shot and killed at the end of the movie due to his own recklessness.  Since The Old Republic launched last December, the high level planet Ilum has been the subject of major bug and resource exploits, controversial bans, players grinding valor points by trading kills, and more headaches for Bioware.

As a result, Stephen Reid was seen on the Old Republic forums stating that Ilum will be deprecated in 1.2, to be reconstructed Vader-style to be more fun. Until then, rewards gained from Ilum will now be gained in warzones.

As we said during the Guild Summit, the PvP team is ‘going back to the drawing board’ with Ilum. That means they want to rework it to be fun and engaging. We accept there are issues with the current design and want to ensure that what we end up with is enjoyable for PvP fans. We have no ETA on when a redesigned Ilum might be available, but when we do have more news, we’ll share it.

In other news, Stephen Reid also mentioned that while Bioware would like to see a Mac client for The Old Republic at some point in the future, there are currently no plans to develop one.

(Source: TOR Forums)

Yea, Well, The Old Republic Will Fail When…


You may not be aware of it, but here at MMO Fallout I have a very lax policy of commenting. I don’t require you register, or for that matter even fill out your username or email address (a good portion of the comments here are entirely anonymous). There are well over five hundred comments spanning 1,100 articles, and in the two and a half years since MMO Fallout was funded, I think I’ve had to delete one legitimate (not a spam bot) comment but only because the person was using a large amount of racial epithets. Still, there are a lot more comments about this website off site than on site.

I think it has something to do with not wanting to risk looking like a fool on the off chance that your premise is inaccurate and you are unable to edit the message, which is also why I receive more emails than I do comments. With The Old Republic, I managed to hit a nerve with a few people every time I referenced the game this past year as clearly “the biggest release of 2011.” First I was told to wait until I’d played the game. Truth be told, I started playing The Old Republic around the time the Electronics Entertainment Expo was still running, so I already had experience. Then the closed beta weekends started and those same people told me to wait until open beta for the game to flop.

Naturally, closed beta turned to head start and I was told to wait until launch, that was when the game would flop. Forget that, by this point, The Old Republic had already been referred to as the best selling preorder for Electronic Arts. Finally the game launched, and this is where those same people started sending me actual “proof,” in the form of empty guild channels. I was told to wait until the dreaded first month passed, and that is when I would see subscriber numbers drop off and the server mergers start.

Well now Bioware has stated that The Old Republic has sold two million copies and retained 1.7 million subscribers, most of whom are past the first month. No doubt the next step will be waiting for the initial three and six month subscribers to drop off, and then we’ll play it by expansion. Will The Old Republic grow or decline? I don’t know, I don’t claim to foresee Bioware’s production schedule to ensure players at end-game don’t get bored too quickly.

In other words: I’ve already talked about how Guild Wars 2 will be insanely profitable and popular, and some of the fans shouldn’t take good news for The Old Republic as a personal assault on their game of choice.

The Old Republic: 1.7 Million Subscribers


Many years ago, I could provide you with hard subscriber facts because companies were actually able to reveal them. Today, thanks to investors and “trade secrets,” we generally have to settle for vague statements of growth, decline, or breaking even. Actually, these days World of Warcraft is one of the few developers left that come straight out and give base number of subscribers, while NCSoft goes into a detailed breakdown on sales figures per title rather than subscriber numbers.

Since plenty of people have called for the imminent death of The Old Republic, Electronic Arts has eased our pain and suffering of needing to know everything by revealing that The Old Republic has sold over two million copies with 1.7 million subscribers (1 million concurrent), or a retention rate of between 80 and 85 percent. Despite the level of vitriol on certain websites, Origin accounted for 40% of those sales.

You can find an interview below at Darth Hater.

(Via: Darth Hater)

The Second Month Of The Old Republic Approacheth.


Bioware early adopters, have you made your plans for the upcoming 20th of January? Odds are you are in the process of deciding whether or not you want to continue that Old Republic subscription past the first month. Was it as good for you as it was for them? Do you see yourself playing a few weeks down the line? There aren’t really any MMOs releasing in February, but is there a title you gave up calling your name? Perhaps you want to give the game a break, or maybe you’re enjoying it and haven’t even thought about quitting.

Either way, December 20th is when the PR boat hits the water (or the dock) and the legacy that will be Star Wars: The Old Republic reveals itself. Remember the prime directive of MMO launches: Longevity is not made in preorders, but rather in the first six months and beyond. Granted, we know enough to say with confidence that Bioware isn’t going to go bankrupt, and there likely won’t be an apocalypse next month so there is another scenario to cross off the list.

Barring some massive exodus, there is still some time left before The Old Republic’s viability can be confirmed. Electronic Arts has invested too much into this title to just let it die off.