The 7th? EA strikes again!

[ringthree]

When your quarterly reports have always been structured to end on a specific date you cant just go "ohh wait now it ends on Jan 31 now" it does not work that way. You are however right that they do not need do disclose exact numbers, which is why I said their response as to subscriber numbers was in response to a question asked. There are laws that govern these things and changing the dates of your quarterly reports is a big no no.

A quarterly report reflects earnings. There is no "quarterly population report". You can talk about the money you have made to a certain point, but the population numbers of a game can come from anytime. They can be peak times, they can be from early or late or even after the report time they are covering because they have an impact on the earnings in the future.

I believe some people think that an earnings report will include a printout of the game's population from March 31st. This is not the case.

(Also, as a complete side note, a "quarterly report" does not always mean Jan 1 - Mar 31 and etc. through out the year. Many companies operate on different quarters. Some start in October, some from the middle of the month, etc. The only laws that govern a "quarterly report" is that you can't lie in it. That doesn't mean that anything in a "quarterly report" isn't up for interpretation.)

[Deamonic]

This is all true but I seem to remember it was heavily debated after the last earnings call as to when the sub numbers were actually pulled. That quarter ended Dec. 31 but many people said they sub numbers from that call were up to date as of Jan. 31. If that was in fact the case then the sub numbers for this next call would be accurate up to April 30, which would then include the free month accounts.

You do understand the difference between Active Subscription and Active Account right?

[Redblade]

I agree with Dakia. I don't see a change. My server is as busy as ever, and I regularly meet new people to the game. Concurrent may be down, but overall doesn't seem to have changed.

Going by the numbers some one used over at the official forums concurrent on mine would have to have dropped by several thousands on both sides for the better part of the day, while I think re-rolling has had a large effect on some servers I'm still enough of a realist to doubt it's just that.

But we won't know for a week! So might as well just wait it out and enjoy the game. And, like with Blizzard, does it really matter that much to you? As long as you're enjoying yourself, I don't see a reason to worry.

That's the problem, being on a low pop server you don't really enjoy the game as much as you used to, while I have re-rolled on Tomb it's like walking up hill in the snow trying to level a 5th character this soon.

I do hope their numbers are good though and that they can sort out the major issue before it's to late for a lot of people.

[Leadsop]

Why do you guys even freaking care?

SUB NUMBERS GO UP
The people who love the game are going to say "cool" and go about their business.

The people who hate the game are going to grab tinfoil hats, call BioWare liars and say how now 3 reports in a row they are giving false numbers and how they have a friend who has a friend's friend who plays and there are less people on his Fleet so no one is playing the game and ZOMG we need Recount and Pandas and SWTOR sucks.

SUB NUMBERS GO DOWN
The people who love the game are going to say "it doesn't matter if SWTOR is losing or gaining because I love the game and the game is profitable with 500k subs and blah blah blah..." and they are right. And they will go about their business.

The people who want to slam on the game are going to grab tinfoil hats, call BioWare liars and say how now 3 reports in a row they are giving false numbers (because even though SWTOR lost numbers, it's MUCH MUCH worse than they are telling you) and how they have a friend who has a friend's friend who plays and there are less people on his Fleet so no one is playing the game and ZOMG we need Recount and Pandas and SWTOR sucks.

Point being - the people who like the game will continue to play. The people who don't are going to continue to bitch and moan ad nauseum when they have much better things to do with their time than trolling a message board.

[lokithor]

When 1.2 hit I resubed, an my server was dead. Did a little research, and found the highest pop server (The Fatman) and rerolled there.

Come to find out when I went, a lot of people rerolled there after 1.2 came out.

---------- Post added 2012-05-01 at 11:05 AM ----------

Why do you guys even freaking care?

SUB NUMBERS GO UP
The people who love the game are going to say "cool" and go about their business.

The people who hate the game are going to grab tinfoil hats, call BioWare liars and say how now 3 reports in a row they are giving false numbers and how they have a friend who has a friend's friend who plays and there are less people on his Fleet so no one is playing the game and ZOMG we need Recount and Pandas and SWTOR sucks.

SUB NUMBERS GO DOWN
The people who love the game are going to say "it doesn't matter if SWTOR is losing or gaining because I love the game and the game is profitable with 500k subs and blah blah blah..." and they are right. And they will go about their business.

The people who want to slam on the game are going to grab tinfoil hats, call BioWare liars and say how now 3 reports in a row they are giving false numbers (because even though SWTOR lost numbers, it's MUCH MUCH worse than they are telling you) and how they have a friend who has a friend's friend who plays and there are less people on his Fleet so no one is playing the game and ZOMG we need Recount and Pandas and SWTOR sucks.

Point being - the people who like the game will continue to play. The people who don't are going to continue to bitch and moan ad nauseum when they have much better things to do with their time than trolling a message board.

Lol I agree 100%.

[SirRobin]

Why do you guys even freaking care?

Indeed. Their sub numbers could be in the bajillions and its not going to do a player any good if he is on a dead server, doesn't like it that way, and doesn't want to start over on a busier server. Those overall type of counts only matter to the folks paying the bills and they will make their decisions, like whether to purge BioWare Austin or not, long before they relay those numbers in an earnings call.

Its more a matter of curiosity for me. EA really went all out trying to attract new folks to the game, bring back ones who already left, and keep the ones they still have. I'm genuinely wondering if it will work or not. Though we probably won't get any real info regarding that till the next earnings call after this one.

[Vladrick]

Indeed. Their sub numbers could be in the bajillions and its not going to do a player any good if he is on a dead server, doesn't like it that way, and doesn't want to start over on a busier server. Those overall type of counts only matter to the folks paying the bills and they will make their decisions, like whether to purge BioWare Austin or not, long before they relay those numbers in an earnings call.

Its more a matter of curiosity for me. EA really went all out trying to attract new folks to the game, bring back ones who already left, and keep the ones they still have. I'm genuinely wondering if it will work or not. Though we probably won't get any real info regarding that till the next earnings call after this one.

Same here. Last night I gave up and unsubed. I write them a rather long reason for the hell of it focusing on the dead server issues the most. With the free 30 days I got, I now have 47 days play time left. If server x-fters are up by then and server pops level off, I might stay. If not, oh well, it was fun for a short time. Before I logged I looked at the server list to see what the population was listed as on each. This was what I got at 9:00 pm Eastern Standard time.

74 Light pop servers
47 Standard pop servers
1 Heavy pop(Jedi Convanent)
1 Very Heavy pop (Fatman)

Mine was listed as standard and there was 56 people on the fleet. I couldn't get a group for even a Flash Point and I'm a tank.

[Koalachan]

Why do you guys even freaking care?

Because if the sub numbers go up, the devs think people are enjoying the game, focus on more good things to add to the game to please the people staying like better space combat, harder raids, and more in depth flash points and story. Sub numbers go down, devs might get desperate to attract as many people as possible, and they start focus on things the current players don't like in order to get new players, such as easier raids, less story, and more loot handouts.

[soulcrusher]

Just reads like a load of armchair market bs tbh. Stats and figures can be massaged and presented in numerous ways. Either play the game and have fun or move along. Enough already of the amateur market watch.

[Alvito]

The reason some don't believe it's still 1.7 is in part due to the fact that even if you cancel or try to cancel you are given 30 free days which on you account page shows you as an active subscriber.

Besides that it's really hard to believe that the exact same number of people joined as who left over the course of 5 months.

edit - for 5hits and giggles call in and try to cancel. They wont let you. Your account will remain active no matter what you do and be counted as a sub do to the fact that you can log in.

No game counts its activity based on who actually is logging in, active accounts are all they care about. Ppl pay to keep accounts turned on how much or little they play is far less important.

---------- Post added 2012-05-01 at 03:40 PM ----------

Because if the sub numbers go up, the devs think people are enjoying the game, focus on more good things to add to the game to please the people staying like better space combat, harder raids, and more in depth flash points and story. Sub numbers go down, devs might get desperate to attract as many people as possible, and they start focus on things the current players don't like in order to get new players, such as easier raids, less story, and more loot handouts.

You do realize that they could "focus on more good things to add to the game to please the people staying like better space combat, harder raids, and more in depth flash points and story." to get new ppl to start playing too? Subs could raise and they could "devs might get desperate to attract as many people as possible, and they start focus on things the current players don't like in order to get new players, such as easier raids, less story, and more loot handouts." Why you think things are done and why they are really done may not be the same thing. Lets not act like they aren't always going to try and increase numbers too, they could hit 2 million and then they will start to eye 3. They are going to keep trying to grow all the time to do that they have to balance what keeps current players paying and what brings in new money as well.

[Roar-Powah]

You will never get the truth from any company in reguards to player numbers, it would hurt business if they did. The only real way to get a "rough" idea is looking at the server selection screen and see how many are light etc etc.

[RoninaThorstone]

You will never get the truth from any company in reguards to player numbers, it would hurt business if they did. The only real way to get a "rough" idea is looking at the server selection screen and see how many are light etc etc.

That would only give you concurrent users.

That's different from subs.

[SirRobin]

That would only give you concurrent users.

That's different from subs.

Yep, so while the numbers we might get from the owners will always be subject to "spin." They also have the best chance of being accurate since even using a census mod will only count players that are actually active while it is.

[Dakia]

Yep, so while the numbers we might get from the owners will always be subject to "spin." They also have the best chance of being accurate since even using a census mod will only count players that are actually active while it is.

Additionally, with the server population caps raised significantly since release, what appears to be total population drops may actually be the same number, but with a higher cap.

ie 500 people at launch = heavy server. 500 people now = standard/medium server.

[SirRobin]

Additionally, with the server population caps raised significantly since release, what appears to be total population drops may actually be the same number, but with a higher cap.

ie 500 people at launch = heavy server. 500 people now = standard/medium server.

Even though I'm no longer paying, I would still like to know the number ranges of those categories. A couple of times, well after launch, the category didn't seem to match up with my in-game impression. So I ponder that those categories might still be "floating," both ways in fact.

[shimargh]

Why do you guys even freaking care?

SUB NUMBERS GO UP
The people who love the game are going to say "cool" and go about their business.

The people who hate the game are going to grab tinfoil hats, call BioWare liars and say how now 3 reports in a row they are giving false numbers and how they have a friend who has a friend's friend who plays and there are less people on his Fleet so no one is playing the game and ZOMG we need Recount and Pandas and SWTOR sucks.

SUB NUMBERS GO DOWN
The people who love the game are going to say "it doesn't matter if SWTOR is losing or gaining because I love the game and the game is profitable with 500k subs and blah blah blah..." and they are right. And they will go about their business.

The people who want to slam on the game are going to grab tinfoil hats, call BioWare liars and say how now 3 reports in a row they are giving false numbers (because even though SWTOR lost numbers, it's MUCH MUCH worse than they are telling you) and how they have a friend who has a friend's friend who plays and there are less people on his Fleet so no one is playing the game and ZOMG we need Recount and Pandas and SWTOR sucks.

Point being - the people who like the game will continue to play. The people who don't are going to continue to bitch and moan ad nauseum when they have much better things to do with their time than trolling a message board.

I was going to post something like this, thank you.

[Dakia]

Even though I'm no longer paying, I would still like to know the number ranges of those categories. A couple of times, well after launch, the category didn't seem to match up with my in-game impression. So I ponder that those categories might still be "floating," both ways in fact.

That really is the million dollar question. As much time as people have spent trying to figure out the designations, we really still have no idea what numerical range or value is used for each designation.

[Redblade]

That really is the million dollar question. As much time as people have spent trying to figure out the designations, we really still have no idea what numerical range or value is used for each designation.

Light server has from 1 to 350 players online on both factions.
Standard has from 350 2000 players online on both factions.
Heavy has atleast 2000 players online on both factions.

Numbers were taken by simply logging on standard, heavy and light servers and typing /who and adding numbers of online players within level brackets. ( for example who 1-10, who 11-20, who 21-30 or who 1-2, 3-5, 4-7 till 49, level 50 bracket was taken by each zone for example /who Balmorra 50, /who corellia 50, who fleet 50, who coruscant 50).

Most light servers had a population around 100-150 on both factions, standard servers had atleast 350 players on both factions thats why i decided to take 350 as a maximum population a server can have before it goes from light to standard.

Source, how accurate it is I wouldn't know but should give an idea at least.

[SirRobin]

Source, how accurate it is I wouldn't know but should give an idea at least.

I've pondered that, and it may be in the ball park, but I'm hoping we'll get something official at some point.

[Redblade]

I've pondered that, and it may be in the ball park, but I'm hoping we'll get something official at some point.

Doubt it but who knows they might surprise, wouldn't hold my breath for it though. :P