PR speak. I am surprised people take it at face value. Of course it will end, the question is merely when. I'd say TOR will reach is peak within three years and be a ghost town within 6. Then another 2 years before shutdown.
You just don't understand Star Wars fans do you? SWG lasted for 8 years and that's even after SOE screwed it with the NGE. That said - if Bioware lives up to it's end (and reputation) SWTOR will be around for a long time. Wow is still here and doing well enough and if that game can last this long SWTOR will have NO problem.
Oh, I understand them quite well being one and having played SWG for seven years. WoW is an anomaly no other game will come close ever. As far as SWG goes it lived on life support for years although it had a population large enough to justify its existence. SWG was sandbox though and while generally having a much smaller population they tend to form close knit communities of diehards. TOR is fast food for the masses, Star Wars or not, and the masses are fickle. Many will walk away as soon as something shinier comes along. TOR will not die or become deserted by any means but to suggest that in ten years TOR will still have the full support staff... Well I don't buy it.
You are right WoW is an anomoly and I would wager that we will NEVER EVER see an MMO that has that many ppl playing it, the reason I say this is cause games like SWTOR will tap onto the player base, so will GW2, these games are no anomolies but they are good quality with the features and the same sort of vibe as WoW that got ppl into MMO's.
So it is very likely that those 10mil ppl or whatever will become diluted in this new wave of games, since the MMO crowd doesnt change very often ( like it did change with WoW ). Does that mean SWTOR needs to have 10mil subs?Not at all, but if it captures a couple of mil it will be very successful and make Bioware a lot of money.
I remember my friends calling me crazy that I was paying monthly or a game and now they have played WoW, for many ppl this was the end all platform and they werent really aware of other mmos until now.
Yes but will it be enough. Let's say TOR levels out in 6 months at roughly around 1 million. Almost any publisher would be very happy with that but EA and LA won't or they can't. They have been shouting their big mouths off for months now. Even if 1 million is more than enough to turn a very healthy profit, anything less than a number big enough to seriously threaten WoW would be seen as a defeat or at least not satisfactory. That is my belief.
This situation is typical of MMOs after launch, they all promise this but few ever deliver. Given both EA's, and LucasArt's track record concerning MMOs, that doesn't lend much credence to their statements either. SWTOR has to be huge, if it's not, it will be considered a failure and both LucasArts and EA will put incredible pressure on BioWare, and thus the game's 'polish' will suffer due to deadline constraints.
MMO development is a high risk and extremely costly endeavor, and considering the budget BioWare had to work to create the original game's content, I doubt its feasable to continue to employ such a large staff to create new content. This is a Catch 22 scenario, they need subscriptions in order to generate enough revenue to produce the models, quests, environments, voice overs, dialogue options, etc, but then they need that content to get the subscriptions.
Also considering how fast players are burning through the content (Level 50 in the first two days...) I don't see how they can keep up with the rabbid consumption of content. I think BioWare really underestimated how fast players would burn through their content, and especially so given that many people find it too easy.
Also rolling alts isn't a feasable method to reduce the burn rate either, while you have a certain amount of class specfiic quests, alot of that content is side missions which are exactly the same per faction. So while you might get a new class story, the majority of the content your going to experience will be exactly the same. For most people, this will get old fast.
I simply cannot understand how someone can claim that this MMO (but wait, it's really not is it? It's a CORPG), and it's development and ongoing maintenance is cheaper, or produces higher revenue considering the inherent costs associated with it. It boggles my mind. I sincerely believe that BioWare is going to run into a wall with the costs of this, and cracks will emerge sooner than alot of you think.
They are simply not going to be able to generate enough content, with a fast enough turn around to satiate it's rabbid playerbase. This is the myth of the Themepark, it's great while there is content, but eventually it runs out.
This situation is typical of MMOs after launch, they all promise this but few ever deliver. Given both EA's, and LucasArt's track record concerning MMOs, that doesn't lend much credence to their statements either. SWTOR has to be huge, if it's not, it will be considered a failure and both LucasArts and EA will put incredible pressure on BioWare, and thus the game's 'polish' will suffer due to deadline constraints.
MMO development is a high risk and extremely costly endeavor, and considering the budget BioWare had to work to create the original game's content, I doubt its feasable to continue to employ such a large staff to create new content. This is a Catch 22 scenario, they need subscriptions in order to generate enough revenue to produce the models, quests, environments, voice overs, dialogue options, etc, but then they need that content to get the subscriptions.
Also considering how fast players are burning through the content (Level 50 in the first two days...) I don't see how they can keep up with the rabbid consumption of content. I think BioWare really underestimated how fast players would burn through their content, and especially so given that many people find it too easy.
Also rolling alts isn't a feasable method to reduce the burn rate either, while you have a certain amount of class specfiic quests, alot of that content is side missions which are exactly the same per faction. So while you might get a new class story, the majority of the content your going to experience will be exactly the same. For most people, this will get old fast.
I simply cannot understand how someone can claim that this MMO (but wait, it's really not is it? It's a CORPG), and it's development and ongoing maintenance is cheaper, or produces higher revenue considering the inherent costs associated with it. It boggles my mind. I sincerely believe that BioWare is going to run into a wall with the costs of this, and cracks will emerge sooner than alot of you think.
They are simply not going to be able to generate enough content, with a fast enough turn around to satiate it's rabbid playerbase. This is the myth of the Themepark, it's great while there is content, but eventually it runs out.
I've kept saying this for years and I quote myself:
"I'm sure TOR will be very fun for the first two months but after that, what then? They can never produce content at the same rate as powergamers or even casual gamers are gobbling it up, no company can. The game mechanics need to allow players to create their own content while they wait for the next update, that is if they want to keep people around long term"
Comments
Yes but will it be enough. Let's say TOR levels out in 6 months at roughly around 1 million. Almost any publisher would be very happy with that but EA and LA won't or they can't. They have been shouting their big mouths off for months now. Even if 1 million is more than enough to turn a very healthy profit, anything less than a number big enough to seriously threaten WoW would be seen as a defeat or at least not satisfactory. That is my belief.
This situation is typical of MMOs after launch, they all promise this but few ever deliver. Given both EA's, and LucasArt's track record concerning MMOs, that doesn't lend much credence to their statements either. SWTOR has to be huge, if it's not, it will be considered a failure and both LucasArts and EA will put incredible pressure on BioWare, and thus the game's 'polish' will suffer due to deadline constraints.
MMO development is a high risk and extremely costly endeavor, and considering the budget BioWare had to work to create the original game's content, I doubt its feasable to continue to employ such a large staff to create new content. This is a Catch 22 scenario, they need subscriptions in order to generate enough revenue to produce the models, quests, environments, voice overs, dialogue options, etc, but then they need that content to get the subscriptions.
Also considering how fast players are burning through the content (Level 50 in the first two days...) I don't see how they can keep up with the rabbid consumption of content. I think BioWare really underestimated how fast players would burn through their content, and especially so given that many people find it too easy.
Also rolling alts isn't a feasable method to reduce the burn rate either, while you have a certain amount of class specfiic quests, alot of that content is side missions which are exactly the same per faction. So while you might get a new class story, the majority of the content your going to experience will be exactly the same. For most people, this will get old fast.
I simply cannot understand how someone can claim that this MMO (but wait, it's really not is it? It's a CORPG), and it's development and ongoing maintenance is cheaper, or produces higher revenue considering the inherent costs associated with it. It boggles my mind. I sincerely believe that BioWare is going to run into a wall with the costs of this, and cracks will emerge sooner than alot of you think.
They are simply not going to be able to generate enough content, with a fast enough turn around to satiate it's rabbid playerbase. This is the myth of the Themepark, it's great while there is content, but eventually it runs out.
I've kept saying this for years and I quote myself:
"I'm sure TOR will be very fun for the first two months but after that, what then? They can never produce content at the same rate as powergamers or even casual gamers are gobbling it up, no company can. The game mechanics need to allow players to create their own content while they wait for the next update, that is if they want to keep people around long term"