Star Wars: The Old Republic Message Board older than one year ago

Sometimes we can count on quarterly financial calls dropping hints about games we’re looking forward to, but there was no such excitement in today’s third quarter earnings call by Electronic Arts.

That said, there was plenty to chew on during the hour-long call.

Throughout, CEO John Riccitiello and friends bobbed and weaved between numbers and pats on the back regarding the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic, and I jotted down these bits for you.

• Origin now has 9.3 million users.
• The Old Republic sold two million copies across retail, digital.
• TOR has 1.7 million active users, with 300,000 users having “opted out” (read: quit) or not started at all.
• A “majority” of the 1.7 million active users of TOR are paying subscribers.
• EA was reluctant to discuss the outlook of TOR, saying it had avoided the worst outcomes, the game was profitable, but that “there could be a wide range of outcomes.”
• There will be a “major update, larger than the first [one]” for TOR sometime in March.
• Pre-orders for Mass Effect 3 are currently ahead of where Mass Effect 2 during the same period.
• Battlefield 3 sold more than 11 million copies, and more downloadable content is coming.
• EA claims to have had 11% of the first-person-shooter “market” prior to Battlefield 3. Now, it claims to have 23%.
• Mobile games are a $100 million-per-year business for EA.
• The company expects to generate more than $100 million from FIFA Ultimate Team in the next year.
• A major social game, based on an unknown but existing EA property, has been delayed a few months.
• There will be five new Facebook games based on EA properties within the next year.
• When asked about copying in social games, Riccitiello said this: “Fast iteration and mimicry is something we have to guard against.”

The most interesting financial call of the week, however, should come tomorrow from THQ.

Like millions of others, I dove right into Star Wars The Old Republic as soon as I was able to. I've never been much of an MMO guy, and I sure as hell don't care very much about Star Wars, but after hearing about the game for years and years, it became one of those things that I had to see for myself.

After 100 hours or so, I realized I was completely done with the game and canceled my account. It still has a bit of game time left on it, so I could, theoretically, grind out those last 10 levels and take my Sith Marauder from 40 to 50... but that's not going to happen. I lost all my momentum on Hoth and stepped away from the game. It was a totally clean break, no hesitation. I'm not bitter about it. I'm not hateful about it. I mean, I got 100 hours out of SWTOR. That's more than I can say about most games. I didn't love everything I saw, but it's certainly not without some appeal.

Anyway, today I got this sob-story email from "The Old Republic Community" telling me that... my companion misses me? Yep, apparently Vette "eagerly awaits my return." Here's that email:

Gross, right? You know what? I don't think I've ever seen a more pathetic-looking attempt at player retention. My companions are "counting on me?" What happens next? Is there a "if you don't reactivate the billing on your SWTOR account, we'll kill this Twi'lek" email in my future? Also, they've gone ahead and slid my character name into the email, which gives is a wonderful, personal touch. But if they're going to go that far, why not go all the way, look at my character, and see that I ditched Vette as soon as I possibly could and spent the vast majority of my time kicking it with Malavi Quinn because he keeps me healed up and loved it when I crushed the Empire's enemies? I even let that bonehead chase his weird spy missions on the side, and he can't even be bothered to write? Man, forget that jerk.

The email actually brings us to a question that Brad and I were wondering about yesterday: Are people still playing Star Wars: The Old Republic? Anecdotally, we seem to be seeing a bunch of people bitching about the end game (which, as far as I can tell, is an activity that bonds every "serious" MMO player, regardless of game), raging about all the things they don't like, and bragging about how they canceled. I'm not necessarily interested in hearing more negativity, because it's easy to find.

So, I want to hear the other side. What's awesome about Star Wars: The Old Republic? What is it that's keeping you on-board now that you might actually be paying a monthly fee to play it? Do you see yourself paying that fee for another year? Five years? Do you already think it's a great game right now, or are you investing in the promise of future updates?

We knew Electronic Arts had spent a truck of money developing Star Wars: The Old Republic, but a report from the LA Times pegs the cost of BioWare’s MMO debut at almost $200 million.

That number is still rising, obviously, as the sprawling development staff (at times, as many as 800 people) continues work on the game.

The Old Republic launched on December 20, and represents a massive gamble for the publisher. You don’t spent $200 million on a project that’s not expected to perform, but we won’t know for a few months yet whether The Old Republic has paid off. Plenty of MMOs have experienced spectacular starts, only to wither on the vine, as genre fans go back to their old haunts, like World of Warcraft.

There are plenty of other interesting bits about BioWare’s process, too, including that BioWare tried to pick up Lord of the Rings, A Game of Thrones and various Marvel properties at one point.

Maybe it all happened in a parallel universe. In any case, you should read the whole story.