EA's statements on Swtor.

[RoninaThorstone]

At the end of the day you had to expect it i was following that game for so many years when its was just a rumour
Bioware making a mmo what could go wrong ...
I tried so hard to like that game after leveling a few characters past 30 and my main but couldnt keep with it, the free to play model seems the best course i may even reinstall

Almost everyone has a terabyte or higher now. Reinstalling a free game should be no issue. Look forward to seeing you in november.

[Wilian]

A clear trend-line is emerging here. When I look at the quality of these games and the revenue
they produce, I’m convinced that free-to-play will soon emerge as the leading business model
for PC and mobile gaming.

It emerges because inability to compete in the subscription scene not because it's more profitable.

[Rooflesstoofless]

So what if the game gives XP boosts?

Can anyone honestly like saying that they enjoyed those pointless 'bonus' missions? That's like my boss giving me a 'bonus' by telling me I have to stay late 15 minutes before I'm done for the day. Less side missions and more story missions = win.

[Deleted]

It emerges because inability to compete in the subscription scene not because it's more profitable.

Yeah this.
It gets on my nerve each time a publisher tries to excuse its failure by bringing this 'argument'.

[Bluecupcakes]

Even with SWTOR going f2p, I won't be dropping my sub anytime soon. I really enjoy the game, and I want to support it anyway I can.

[Orange Joe]

Everyone that is saying it's dead anf a failure. Isn't it still in the top 5 for sub based MMO's? From what I understand It could have at least as many if not more than rift.

[SirRobin]

The problem is that there's nothing to do -but- level.
TORtanic shooting itself in the hull.
Again.

Yep, no overhauling space combat, no adding pazaak, holochess, or swoop racing. Just "less than half of those quitting didn't think it was worth a monthly sub." So instead of fixing TOR, they are going to get rid of the monthly fee instead? Sigh... They, still, just don't "get it."

[greysinsanderson]

the questing in swtor was more fun BY FAR than in any other MMO i've ever played. people don't want a fun game, they want whatever their friends have. the "larger mmo market" is really just the friends of people who actually like the genre, but sadly that's the majority now. it's bad for the genre to appeal to the lazies and that's what MMOs have to do now. look at MOP, everything has been dumbed down to the point that my action bars feel empty.

[Thage]

I'm actually super optimistic for the first report after it transitions, even with competition from MoP/GW2. I' wouldn't be surprised if subscribers increased and absolutely expect total revenue to increase.

Me either, in all honesty. Freemium games generally do well for themselves--look at how long Turbine has kept their flagship MMO, LOTRO, going, and with several others like D&DO to boot. Age of Conan was a rapidly-tanking game due to a poor release and rapidly-dropping subs, but managed to stabilize and from what I hear pull a profit once it went freemium. It's not a bad business model--you get players interested by having a good chunk of free-to-play content, and offer stuff on a cash shop (or offer an ingame alternative if people are really that determined to do everything without spending real money). The income from the cash shop offsets dev costs, the paying subscribers get unlimited access and you get steady income, and everyone generally wins in this scenario.

[Frostea23]

Despite all the nay-sayers. I will definitely play the game again because of this; I just could not justify opening the proverbial moth-ridden wallet as a college student for an MMO. Especially since when I bought it, it ran horribly on my old gaming desktop, which had an adequate GPU, just my old E7500 Wolfdale CPU wheezed and hacked in Fleet/Warzones, and on top of that, I could only play casually a few times a week.

The $15/month puts a lot of pressure in the back of your mind to push and see as much content as one possibly can while the subscription is still active. But as a college student, $15 can represent 3+ home cooked meals. Rent by itself is insane, so money is at a premium.

[ZeroWashu]

"40 percent say they were turned off by the monthly subscription"

I would be happy to pay a subscription fee. If the game had "more to do" at max level. Instead of expanding the content at max level, the last plans I heard, was that they intended on MOVING the max level, by increasing the level cap. Free-to-play won't be it's salvation.

I would have been happy to continue playing if there had been at minimum two distinct level paths per faction instead of having to repeat the same quests/planets over and over for each alt. The game was not alt friendly which meant it got very boring very fast for many.

[Deleted]

SWToR should, for now on, focus on what Bioware does the better. Writing storylines.

That's what Bioware is majorly known for, deliver more and more story, that way people that are interested on more story subscribe just to get it.

[Thatguyiscool]

I feel bad for the game developers. Game just never was finished/polished and in turn ruined its debut to the point it will never recover.

[probert]

My sub for Rift expires shortly, and there's nothing to do in WoW. LOTRO's expansion is a few months out still. GW2 head start isn't until Aug 25th.

They're timing this very well. SW:TOR is fairly low on my priority list, but i'll try it out for $15 -- If nothing else, its a good single player game. The stories are apparently pretty decent, and it has the star wars sound effects and familair components.

F2P can revitalize a game. If nothing else, they'll sell thousands of $15 licenses (or $10-20 of online cash shop components) this way. I wasn't touching it @ $45-60.

[SirRobin]

I would have been happy to continue playing if there had been at minimum two distinct level paths per faction instead of having to repeat the same quests/planets over and over for each alt. The game was not alt friendly which meant it got very boring very fast for many.

Yep... EA and BioWare still don't "get it." I read that forty percent line and the first thing I thought was, "well, what did the other sixty percent say?" Of course going free to play with cash shop is probably a much cheaper option than trying to actually fix TOR.

[NatePsy]

Not surprising EA finds a way to maximize profits even with F2P model, one of them being the restriction on content and I bet the restrictions will be that big you'll just have to go with $15. This won't bring back that 40% because it's not what they asked for, they're doing the F2P idea completely wrong, there should be NO restrictions. Their CEO should burn, he's a greedy ass.

[DarthTenore]

Not surprising EA finds a way to maximize profits even with F2P model, one of them being the restriction on content and I bet the restrictions will be that big you'll just have to go with $15. This won't bring back that 40% because it's not what they asked for, they're doing the F2P idea completely wrong, there should be NO restrictions. Their CEO should burn, he's a greedy ass.

Limited to most of the content but no Operations, certain Flashpoints and PVP. Could care less about that really. I wont purchase anything short of an expansion. Customization and paying real money for in-game armour weapons? No thank you.

[SirRobin]

You know it does bother me that they didn't actually say how many are still playing and paying. They say "slipped below" like they are trying to minimize the drop beneath one million and then say "well above" when that could mean as few as 500,001. They don't even try to say how many are still paying to play and how many are "free to fifteens?" Its sad that they are minimizing TOR even more than they did on the last call. TOR was worth, reportedly, two hundred million to make but isn't worth any more to fix? Sorry BioWare Austin, the purge isn't over yet.

Not to mention that less than half, of those that even chose to respond, said the fee was the problem and another meaningless "many" would come back if there wasn't one? Ugh...

[Maglen]

I wonder if you'll have to be a premium member (pay) to have forum access.

[SirRobin]

I wonder if you'll have to be a premium member (pay) to have forum access.

Well since it seems that most of the mods were canned. I don't think they are expecting forum traffic to go up.