Tag: EA

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)

[Humor] Bioware Permaban Over Meme Misunderstanding


Memes somehow end up being far funnier when the people who perpetuate them end up in trouble by people who don’t “get it.” Take, for instance, the user who was banned from The Old Republic (including the game) for using the meme on the forums “I’m 12 and what is this.” Like any other company operating under the Child Online Privacy Protection Act, Bioware is required to actively monitor their player base and weed out any players who may be under 13.

Still, the humor in Bioware mistaking a meme for an actual confession of age has not eluded internet users. Infuriating, this is not. At least not as frustrating as the users who were warned for posting links to how to cancel your subscription when the option went missing for a good number of users.

Continue reading “[Humor] Bioware Permaban Over Meme Misunderstanding”

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.

Bobby Kotick Blasts The Old Republic: LucasArts Business Tactics


It isn’t often I get to pull out the young Bobby Kotick picture. There are a whole host of reasons Bobby Kotick would want to pick up The Old Republic and throw it directly into the garbage, so I will step back for a few seconds and allow you to come to your own conclusions. Because World of Warcraft is hemorrhaging subscribers? Because Activision Blizzard recently had its stock downgraded due to World of Warcraft? Because The Old Republic is the largest MMO release of the year? Or because of the bitter rivalry between EA and Activision? Maybe it’s because analysts predict that not only will The Old Republic steal users from World of Warcraft, the number figures somewhere around 3-4 million departing Azeroth for Tatooine. Don’t rush, I’ll wait.

Bobby Kotick threw a few jabs at Electronic Arts, by pointing out the LucasArts will be taking some of the MMO’s income home as royalty payments:

“Lucas is going to be the principal beneficiary of the success of Star Wars,” Kotick said. “We’ve been in business with Lucas for a long time and the economics will always accrue to the benefit of Lucas, so I don’t really understand how the economics work for Electronic Arts.”

Thank you, Bobby Kotick. I think. Considering that Electronic Arts has had dealings with LucasArts in the past, they know what they’re getting into. Also remember that Bioware has dealt with LucasArts in creating the original Knights of the Old Republic (the second handled by Obsidian Entertainment).

Warhammer Online Isn't Going Free To Play


I’m sure a lot of people expect me to do the usual poking of fun at Mythic over Warhammer Online, and truth be told I have enough content to fill more than just an introductory and self-parodying paragraph. So for the sake of getting to the point, I will not be referring to Warhammer as “boring crap,” nor will I make a joke about Mythic apparently not seeing the worth in players investing in the MMO, apparently even if that investment is absolutely nothing. And for once, I will stop inciting Mark Jacobs.

VP Eugene Evans over at Bioware Mythic wants the world to know that Warhammer Online is alive and still fighting for survival, and much like the steak supply in a house full of vegetarians, isn’t going anywhere. Evans stated that subscriptions on Warhammer Online have actually risen since the announcement of the free to play MOBA. That being said, if players want Warhammer for free, they’re going to have to turn to Wrath of Heroes. Warhammer, according to Mythic, has no intention on shutting down, nor does it have any intention on going free.

“We also think this is a better approach. You know, how do you make it more accessible? How do you make it a fun experience out of the door? So we’re really starting almost from the ground-up but having the benefit of being able to draw on everything we’ve learned from producing Warhammer Online.”

Since today has seen some conspiracy theories, let’s take a guess on the intention behind Warhammer never going free to play. It’s a successful business move, and if WAR needs anything it’s a bigger community, so who is behind it? Does the team really think that keeping the subscription is best, or does this have to do with EA’s refusal to move their other MMOs into the free to play realm?

Warhammer Online Isn’t Going Free To Play


I’m sure a lot of people expect me to do the usual poking of fun at Mythic over Warhammer Online, and truth be told I have enough content to fill more than just an introductory and self-parodying paragraph. So for the sake of getting to the point, I will not be referring to Warhammer as “boring crap,” nor will I make a joke about Mythic apparently not seeing the worth in players investing in the MMO, apparently even if that investment is absolutely nothing. And for once, I will stop inciting Mark Jacobs.

VP Eugene Evans over at Bioware Mythic wants the world to know that Warhammer Online is alive and still fighting for survival, and much like the steak supply in a house full of vegetarians, isn’t going anywhere. Evans stated that subscriptions on Warhammer Online have actually risen since the announcement of the free to play MOBA. That being said, if players want Warhammer for free, they’re going to have to turn to Wrath of Heroes. Warhammer, according to Mythic, has no intention on shutting down, nor does it have any intention on going free.

“We also think this is a better approach. You know, how do you make it more accessible? How do you make it a fun experience out of the door? So we’re really starting almost from the ground-up but having the benefit of being able to draw on everything we’ve learned from producing Warhammer Online.”

Since today has seen some conspiracy theories, let’s take a guess on the intention behind Warhammer never going free to play. It’s a successful business move, and if WAR needs anything it’s a bigger community, so who is behind it? Does the team really think that keeping the subscription is best, or does this have to do with EA’s refusal to move their other MMOs into the free to play realm?

Warhammer MOBA Announced, WAR Going Nowhere


Mythic Entertainment today announced Warhammer: Wrath of Heroes, a lobby-based arena PvP game. As part of the Electronic Arts Play4Free program (you may recognize this from Battlefield Play4Free), Wrath of Heroes will be free to play with a notable cash shop. Judging by the trailer, the game appears to control similar to Warhammer Online, with the exception of trading in a persistent character for an array of heroes. The game will run on 6v6v6 (that’s right, three faction matches) battles centered around destruction and territory control.

Warhammer Online fans may be a little miffed at this announcement, and Mythic rather quickly dropped a new Herald letter on the main website today to calm fears. Kai Schober wants you to know that this is not a death strike for Warhammer, but rather a positive notch. In addition to new armors, Schober also talks the return of fortresses and perks for Warhammer Online subscribers that will cross over to Wrath of Heroes.

We brought in people to develop the new title and actually increased our pool of resources. This means that we can leverage things done for one game into the other. A small example is that the new Mourkain Temple layout was a result of some work done for Wrath of Heroes. There are others and a few we want to share with you as soon as possible. New looks perchance?

It will be interesting to see if these two brothers can coexist, or if Wrath of Heroes being free to play will have any detriment on Warhammer Online’s population.

Cowen And Company: The Old Republic Could Sell 3 Million


Cowen and Company may sound familiar, and that is because they’ve been featured here on MMO Fallout once before. Back in June, the analyst group got a look at The Old Republic, and they weren’t impressed, quoted as saying:

“Despite promises from EA/Bioware that the title represents a major step forward in MMO design, what we saw was essentially a World of Warcraft clone with Star Wars character skins and the Bioware RPG nice/nasty dialogue tree mechanism bolted on for non-player character conversations.”

Well it appears Cowen and the rest of the company have had a change in heart, as the analyst group has recently upgraded its prediction to 3 million sales in the first year, with two million of those players staying on to continue subscribing. This comes on the heels of the announcement that The Old Republic has become EA’s fastest selling pre-order.

Read the whole article here, without falling too deep into the “Bioware is bribing Cowen” conspiracy crowd.

The Old Republic: Big Announcement?


With the impending (read: yet to be revealed) release of Star Wars: The Old Republic, I’m finding gamers can be grouped into two categories. There is the group that can’t get enough Republic news, and the group that believes the game is being far over-hyped. For the former, The Escapist has run a story today that there is still big news to come regarding the upcoming MMO, on the scale of space battles and warzones.

Director James Ohlen would love to tell you what the feature is, but apparently Bioware’s PR department only budgets for allowing talk about what he wishes they would allow him to talk about.

Ohlen also said that players didn’t quite know about everything that The Old Republic had to offer yet. He said that while most of the game’s really big components – things like the space battles or the warzones – had been revealed, there was at least one more announcement to come on that scale. There would be a steady stream on information right up until launch, he added, but he could say any more without getting in trouble with the game’s PR department.

You can read the whole interview this article was derived from, an interview with Newsarama, at their website. The actual quote by Ohlen is:

We have some pretty exciting announcements that will be coming. I don’t think there’s anything on the level of PvP, Warzones, space battles or anything like that. Well, there’s one thing that might be at that level. Depends on what you like about the game, but it’s pretty exciting. Obviously I can’t go more into that, PR will kill me.

The Old Republic Breaks EA Record For Preorders


That image is getting old. This is an odd piece of news, Electronic Arts did its Quarter 1 financial call for the fiscal year ending in June. The Old Republic did not go on sale until a few days ago, likely leading many of you to ask: How is this being included in their last quarter’s report? Right in the title, man:

Star Wars: The Old Republic Breaks EA Record For Pre-Orders

Despite this being in the header, there is no other mention of sales, likely because of the sales being part of the current quarter. During the conference call, they did confirm that the team is ready for whatever sales the players throw at them:

2:29: Question on capacity management in SWTOR? EB: We’re in good shape to do that, we have the ability to scale for multiple millions of users. We’re looking at stuff coming in as far as marketing and pre-order promotion. We have a lot of capacity to do that.

In the words of the Gman, we’ll see about that.