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The Old Republic will "never be profitable" says Bigpoint CEO..
Vyeth
Member UncommonPosts: 1,461
"In case you have not heard the news, on Thursday at the London Games Conference, Bigpoint CEO Heiko Hubertz went on record as having claimed that EA-Biowares upcoming The Old Republic MMO will never turn a profit.
"If you look at Star Wars from EA and BioWare, they estimated a development budget of over $100m," he explained.
"This is an online game for many million of subscribers, so the publisher does not understand that a subscription model is not the future."
"With micro-transactions maybe I see the game having a chance but I don't think that EA or BioWare will ever be profitable with this game. Ever."
Bigpoint, for reference, is developing free-to-play MMO's using licenses such as Battlestar Galactica and The Mummy, and Hubertz has insisted that developing games for a single format or device is a mistake.
Only time will tell if The Old Republic replaces APB as the industries largest and most painful failure."
I truly think that if this big budget game tanks, it will shake the pc mmo market up so badly that no one would have the courage.. The guts.. The balls to step up to the plate.. The big fish will flock to probably more of the "casual corner" of facebook and maybe even consoles.. The failure of Final Fantasy by such a well known and recognized company already sent ripples through the fan base, people losing faith.. If Bioware fails to deliver as well, then who, besides blizzard could we look to for advancement in the PC MMO genre?
Comments
The guy knows more about the industry than I do. Than most of us here do.
That said, its still just one man's opinion.
From what i've heard of this publisher he markets FTP browser based games (and not good ones from what other people say) so many people think he has a motive for the P2P market to fall.
But as was said only time will tell. But i'm more confident that it IF it does fail it won't be because it's pay to play more so then just badly made. The way to play will affect some subs but it won't make the game fail just by itself.
edited some changes.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
Not really, the vast majority of people have been saying this, including EA themselves. This game HAS to be an MMO revolution akin to WoW just to break even. BREAK EVEN.
Have to look at his statements in the light of the fact he represents a company that supports the micro transaction model, whereas the old republic is a battleship for the subscription model.
I seriously doubt that gamers lost faith in the sub model because of final fantasy, or in AA titles in general, Or that we because of FF would now want to go play browser games on FB, I mean wtf?
Personally mmo's have made me wary since AoC and Warhammer not to mention Aion, but I'd still rather throw my money after subscription mmo's than the currently available f2p's with cash shops.
So would many of us, but don't pretend this is the first person to say this.
EA has come out and said they NEED 1 million subs or this game is a failure. Other people have crunched numbers and used EXTREMELY optimistic estimations, and the game still comes out to a net loss. This game needs to be MASSIVE or Bioware will be in the hole for a good 3 years before they even see a profit.
"P2P MMOs will never be profitable, only F2P MMOs"
..."By the way, I've got this company developing F2P MMOs. Who'd like to invest into us?"
Hehe, yeah, that's what I was thinking.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
This has already been posted in another thread here: http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/296736
"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
-- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
-- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year."
-- The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957
"But what ... is it good for?"
-- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968,commenting on the microchip.
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."
-- Western Union internal memo, 1876.
"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"
-- David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.
"The Old Republic will never be profitable"
-- BIgpoint CEO
I enjoyed that, thank you, made my night just a little bit better for some odd reason.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
This CEO needs to stfu. A better statement because of his position would be making a better game than EA, Bioware.
You all know so little, yet post so much. No one from EA said the game has to have 1 mil subs to break even. And this guy is a NOBODY in the real mmo industry. Geezus.
Always beware the predictions of orange growers about what this season's apple crop will be like.
Especially if people are eagerly awaiting apple juice...
LoL Who even cares what that guy says? They think a web based BSG game is going to be profitable? Web based mmos based on beloved properties are destroying the mmo scene. They are the lazy way out so bigpoint can suck it.
I think the game will make back it's development costs.... not at release but maybe after 6 months to a year.
As much as I like Star Wars, I'd love to see a game like this fail and crush EA.
But on the other hand I really like Star Wars and want to have a really great next gen Star Wars game to play.
But! I just hate EA so much.....I'm going to burn down the building.
Well considering the new trend in MMO industry, i would say that the ods are against TOR. Dont want to be pesimistic and say that the game will fail, but if we follow the last big titles from the last years its hard not to be worried of the "failhammer" that hit MMO genre.
sounds like he knows how to spend hundreds of millions of dollars
probably all that great experience making The Mummy MMO
Do i **HAVE** to stare at you?
Just when you think you have all the answers, I change the questions.
Win.
He's just mad his budget is so small, his epeen is a microbe compared to EA and Bioware. I've seen some of what Bigpoint has to offer and it's poop. BTW Thanks for ruining Battlestar Galactica.
I would just have to bump this one.
good job.
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The only problem i can see is that guild wars 2 already looks a far more interesting game in every respect so far, although it won't directly compete for subscription space with ToR (since many will probably play gw2 and a sub MMO), it'll definitely cause many tot hink twice about shelling out a sub when a B2P game delivers a better experience.
Considering the budget devoted to this, i do hope Bioware/EA do manage to claw it back. But i feel that too much of the budget was spent paying for subs of WoW to see what they can clone.
You're better than that Bioware, if you want this to be the next MMO revolution, make it the next MMO revolution. You shouldn't make a game to be an MMO, you should make a GAME that is an MMO, that way you'll end up with an amazing game and not a cookie cutter wow clone like is evident thus far. As far as i can tell, ToR is not the revolution, guild wars 2 is.
*sigh* i remember seeing the first ToR trailer thinking 'cool' and then seeing the first gameplay footage (after seeing guild wars 2) and thinking 'uh oh'.
Thats some good proof that the high ups don't eactly have such wise words to share as they may think
Lol Bioware will only have to sell like 1.6mil copies at $60 a pop to make to $100mil back and that will be way easy.I would'nt even doubt that just the presales alone wil make to $100mil back. I'm sure 2 will be bought in my house, 1 for me and 1 for my wife. And depending how long it takes to get to "endgame" we will also sub for at least 1-2 months after the free month if not more. And if the "endgames" is good and not just char rerolls until new content comes out then we may pick up a year sub or lifetime one if they offer it. So my vote is that SWToR will make a profit.
[quote]Bigpoint CEO Heiko Hubertz[/quote] Well, if he says is, it must be true. As we all know, Bigpoint is famous for... doing something?!? /sarcasm off. Who the hell is this guy?
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