BioWare's Star Wars MMO Won't Make Any Money, Says Free-to-Play Developer

[Logan Westbrook]

BioWare's Star Wars MMO Won't Make Any Money, Says Free-to-Play Developer

The days of subscription-based MMOs are over, says Bigpoint CEO Heiko Hubertz.

It won't be on shelves for months, but some people are already predicting doom for BioWare's upcoming sci-fi MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic. It's expected that SW:TOR will try to generate revenue through subscriptions, something that Hubertz thinks is a mistake.

Hubertz, whose company operates a number of free-to-play browser MMOs, thought that relying on subscriptions wouldn't work for The Old Republic anymore than it did for the likes of Lord of the Rings Online or Champions Online. He also said that SW:TOR's estimated development budget of $100 million - or $300 million, if anonymous whistleblower "The EA Louse [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/104345-Alleged-Insider-Airs-EAs-Dirty-Laundry]" is to be believed - will make it very difficult to for BioWare or EA to make a profit on the game.

Presuming that Hubertz is correct in his assumption that SW:TOR will use subscriptions, it's hard to say if his dire predictions have any validity to them or not. Earlier this week [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/104955-World-of-Warcraft-Sets-the-Standard-for-Pay-MMOs-Says-Champions-Online-Dev], Cryptic Studios' head Jack Emmert said that any MMO that didn't offer a F2P option was "skating uphill," as World of Warcraft had essentially cornered the market on subscriptions. There's also the cost of making the game to consider, and if the development budget is really as high as estimates suggest, then it's going to take a long time to recoup.

On the other hand, of all the MMO's around, SW:TOR seems the most likely to be able to make subscriptions work in the face of extreme competition from WoW. Star Wars is a massive brand, and BioWare has an excellent reputation, both of which will be instrumental in getting people to try out the game. SW:TOR has also won a number of accolades at the last two E3s', suggesting that it might be good enough to keep people playing, which is what will really make it a success.

Source: MCV [http://www.mcvuk.com/news/41669/LGC-2010-Old-Republic-will-never-be-profitable]



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[Irridium]

It should be fine so long as the press/public/publisher don't hype it as a "WoW killer" or whatever. Because if they do then it will fail.

But I'm looking forward to it. I cannot let 8 KOTOR's in one game pass me by.

Each class has its own unique KOTOR-sized story. I'm gonna be playing this game for a long-ass time.

 

[Crimsane]

Hard to take this guy seriously. His company does what? I've never heard of them.

whose company operates a number of free-to-play browser MMOs

Oh. Explains why I've never heard of them. People play browser MMOs?

 

[Zero_ctrl]

Here's a novel idea.
Purchase game, no monthly payments.
Oh wait, Guild Wars.
Hmm...

 

[Ewyx]

Thing is, WoW has cornered the market on instanced MMOs, EVE online is still going strong as far as MMOs go. However, it's catering to a niche crowd. As strong as WoW? Not really, but CCP is a strong company right now, and they can afford more projects, so I'd say it's a success.

The problem with SW:TOR is that it'll be just another instanced game, sure a lot of SW fans will signup, play through it once, and never look at it again. The game, from what I've heard doesn't look like it'll have any lasting factor at all. I'm probably not going to bother, I prefer persistent worlds where intrigue and deception rule above all.

 

[Tenlaius]

TOR does have potential, but I don't like how Bioware's answer to old SWG-players wanting space-combat..was make a rail(or tunnel if you go off what one dev called it)-shooter.

I will play it though, I will atleast give it a shot..besides..maybe one day it will have full-on space combat.
also, hoping they impliment a player-bounty system..i'm going jedi-hunting

 

[lacktheknack]

If anyone could do it, Bioware has the best chance.

Besides, if you really thing that subscription-based MMOs are "over", there's a twelve million subscriber elephant sitting on you...

 

[bak00777]

im on the fence about this game. At first i was rly psychd, but then they realized they couldnt do the whole completely voiced game, and the face that every smuggler will have the same exact wookie(couldnt they do random names for them like WoW does for warlock/DK minions?). I guess only time will tell.

 

[Xersues]

I would be all for a subscription or micro-transaction model.

Lets be honest, most people that purchase things on a Free-to-play item mall model, generally spend more than 15 bucks a month. For some reason it feels better, because you "own" the little piece of content now.

Either way, people find a way to pay the WoW subscription. Why/How? Because it is accessible to do so. It doesn't always need a credit card, you can practically pick up the time cards at vending machines. AND the game is solid enough for people to like it.

If SWTOR is accessible to everyone, and has different payment models to keep crowds of people playing, it will by proxy, attract more crowds. The standard MMORPG is popular as shit for 6 months at most before fizzling, unless it is a solid game.

Games like Guild Wars, LOTRO, and WoW that bring in large numbers, have a large fanbase already, and the accounts are more likely to grow than shrink.

Support the game, make it not suck, make a lot of people want it. It'll sell itself.

 

[zen5887]

Spoiler: Sorry everyone

As good as it may be I just can't see it staying afloat for any more than a couple of years. Anyone remember Aion?

 

[lumenadducere]

So the CEO of a company that operates F2P MMOs is saying that another pricing model won't work? Yeah, color me surprised.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think that The Old Republic will approach anything near WoW's numbers, but I don't think that it'll have trouble maintaining enough numbers to be making a profit.

 

[findler]

I haven't touched WoW for about 2 years now. But I am going to play this game at least for a while. Simply because it's made by bioware and who doesn't love star wars? I don't want a WoW-killer game, I just want a new MMORPG experience that I can get into. WoW has just gotten too big now in my opinion, I'm not longer interested in the story or the grind. So I'll give this a shot but if I see nothing new I won't stick around.

 

[rekabdarb]

Psh, as a wow player myself i can safely say that i will most likely drop a cataclysm upon cataclysm to play this

 

[Flunk]

Bigpoint, who's that? If Bioware doesn't succeed I'll eat my hat. I'm certainly going to play TOR.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

I will get this game when it comes out but I still wish they'd just release a console KoTOR again

 

[Nouw]

"Don't believe in Star Wars: The Old Republic! Listen to me, and use that $15 a month instead on one of my various shovelware Buy-2-Win MMO-Wannabees instead!"

That pretty much sums up the article, and this guys point.

/thread.

Ahem, people who play Wow obviously love Starwars but to an extent. Unless 12 million suddenly start playing, Kotor is doomed. I hope it stays alive for the people who actually want to play it though...

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Not even Star Wars will be able to dent WoW's monolithic monopoly in the MMORPG industry. Forget about it.

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

"They're not doing what we're doing, so it won't work." How very insightful and wise. Someone should ask him if he wipes from the front or the back, so that we may know if we're doing it properly.

 

[DustyDrB]

I won't be playing this game, as I'm both not into MMOs and doubtful it would come out on Mac (shut your mouth, I didn't buy it for gaming). However, I do hope it is successful. I love BioWare and I have to think that the game being a failure would be a pretty big hit to them.