Star Wars MMO – MMO Fallout

[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.

The Old Republic: Did We Say 1 Million? Sorry…

Back in March 2010, I wrote about my concerns with Star Wars: The Old Republic, primarily built around the expectation by EA Games that the game would require one million subscribers in order to “break even.” In fact, in the very-pre-release hype, EA went as far as saying that they could not only see one million subscribers, but that the number could go as high as two million. Naturally, I expressed my concern that The Old Republic could wind up like Tabula Rasa (I would have made a comparison to All Points Bulletin, but the game had neither launched or crashed at that point), shutting down after about a year.

Perhaps in response to the news that investors are lacking faith in EA Games’ ability to maintain its MMOs (Warhammer and All Points Bulletin being two examples), EA responded this week by reeling back on their one million subscriber comment. In fact, they went as far as rolling down numbers to claim that The Old Republic could be profitable off of only five hundred thousand subscribers, although EA would prefer to see the insanely profitable number of one million and beyond.

So is EA CFO Scott Brown doing damage control? Very likely, as both comments came up during conference calls attended by Gamasutra. Claiming one million to “break even” is a recipe for disaster, and in a world where EA can’t risk losing any more investors to their MMOs, the fate of The Old Republic may sit on Scott Brown not exaggerating in conference calls from now on.

Clone Wars Adventures Confirmation Confirmed

It felt like years ago that I originally wrote about an upcoming Star Wars: Clone Wars MMO, namely because it was way back in September 2009. Earlier this year in Feburary, I posted the above image that quite a number of people received on their Station Pass adverts, and was blasted on a few forums linking to the article that I was forwarding rumors, falsifying photos, etc.

Well, today Sony officially confirmed Clone Wars Adventures for this fall, a casual (yep) Clone Wars (yep) MMO similar in style to Free Realms (of course), chock full of mini-games (mmhmm), pets (yes), and more. The trailer is below:

This of course brings me back to questions I asked last September. By the end of next year, barring an unpleasant event occurring in the next twelve months, there be three Star Wars MMOs on the market. Can each coexist? Does Sony really need two Star Wars MMOs? I don’t know, but I do know that you’ll be able to catch me in my house on Tatooine this fall. Oh and make sure you take your shoes off when you come in, this is supposed to be a kid-friendly MMO.

It's Official: Clone Wars MMO!

Back in September, I mentioned a report by Tentonhammer that Sony is currently working on yet another Star Wars MMO. All we know about the title is that it is set in the Clone Wars universe, will be developed on the Free Realms engine, and is a casual browser based game that will likely have a freemium model (free portion with option for subscription/item mall). The above picture is the final evidence we needed, apart from an official announcement, that the game is indeed being worked on. There has yet to be an official statement by Sony Online Entertainment, mind you, although this slipup is a high indicator that an official announcement is on its way.

When Clone Wars is released, there will be three Star Wars MMOs on the market. Granted each title is likely playing to a different audience, I can’t help but get the feeling that one of these three titles is going to be pushed out of the market by the other two. If Star Wars Galaxies is any indicator, both the pre and post NGE versions, the Star Wars IP is one that has yet to be fully implemented in an MMO form, so the player actually feels that they are in the Star Wars universe, rather than a sci-fi shooter that looks suspiciously like Star Wars.

More on Clone Wars as it appears. Would you play a casual Star Wars MMO (cue cheap shots at Star Wars Galaxies) set in the Clones era?