EA's Betting That Bashing WoW Will Sell More Old Republic

[Greg Tito]

EA's Betting That Bashing WoW Will Sell More Old Republic

Everyone knows that Star Wars The Old Republic will compete with World of Warcraft but EA continues tossing PR grenades.

The Old Republic will try to steal some of Blizzard's 12 million subscribers when it releases on PCs in the next few months. Publisher Electronic Arts is gambling a lot of money and clout that the first MMO from story-based RPG experts BioWare will be able to unseat World of Warcraft as the Subscription King. Frank Gibeau, head of the EA Games label that governs TOR, leveled some heavy comments against WoW to make his company's game appear more attractive. Perhaps Gibeau is overcompensating for the immense risk that developing TOR has been for EA.

"It's a big bet for my label and for EA," said Gibeau but he thinks that his game has a lot going for it. "I love Blizzard products, but they're not the entire market. There is an opportunity to come in with a new IP." He didn't stop there.

"When I play World of Warcraft, you go and get your quests, and you go and do your quests, but it feels more like doing a shopping list at times," Gibeau said. "[TOR] is more about talking to characters, learning what's going on, investing in it, getting emotionally attached to it."

Just in case you weren't clear as vodka on this subject, Gibeau wants to make sure you knew that TOR is different. "On multiple levels we're highly differentiated and different from World of Warcraft. We're not being slavish or imitating them at all. We're doing our own thing. We're doing our own unique way. BioWare and Blizzard have been around for almost the same period of time. They've built incredible audiences. They have their own unique cultures, and they do things very differently."

Despite Gibeau stressing the different-ness of The Old Republic, playing the game felt very WoW-like at last year's GDC [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/conferences/gdc2010/7304-Hands-On-Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic] and reading reports from recent shows doesn't seem to have changed people's opinions that much. Perhaps if BioWare showed off more character creation and the first few levels of play, that would get people more excited about the game. Of course, how well that experience plays will often make or break an MMO, so it makes sense to keep that close to the chest. It's even possible that making sure those first few levels are absolutely flawless is why development has been delayed for so long.

Either that or BioWare ran out of hamsters to fuel their world domination.

Source: IndustryGamers [http://www.industrygamers.com/news/wow-feels-like-a-shopping-list-says-ea/]

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[Baldr]

Just because it worked well for the wow-like clone Rift, lets all jump on the Wow-bashing band wagon.

 

[gigastar]

As soon as the first grenade of bashing flies, 12 million bullets of hate mail will come back.

Thats what youre going up against there EA.

 

[RA92]

Aww man, Bioware is getting too aggressive. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE EA?

 

[ImprovizoR]

They can get WoW players but that doesn't mean WoW players will stop playing WoW. I don't play MMO's but this one looks like something I would actually enjoy.

 

[Worgen]

the mistake they are making is thinking about releasing it too close to guild wars 2

 

[Alade]

If anyone in bioware/EA was smart enough they would have released TOR before DA2, they had a pixar/Cristopher Nolan like trust by the community and rabid fanboyism, a lot of that was decimated by DA2 (haven't played it yet, can't judge on the quality but the response has been largely negative). This would have been a good move simply because TOR needed that reputation to boost it's sales, DA2 would have sold on it's own.

 

[Fr]anc[is]

So Bioware has done nothing but say "We aren't trying to unseat WoW" and then EA goes and says "lolz Wow is 4 fags". Sigh...

 

[drunken_munki]

I smell a lemon. No one confident about their product will initiate an offense like that. I predict a flop within 3-6 months. If that.

 

[Croaker42]

Sorry EA exec its all about cannon. I love the SW story and style. If you don't screw those up I will be playing your game. I honstly don't care how different you are.

 

[ZeroMachine]

I got a chance to play it at PAX East, and although the basic mechanics from WoW are there, it flowed much more smoothly and was a lot more fun. We were actually communicating at a level 30-ish "flashpoint". I never had to do that in WoW. Plus, the roles felt better fit with a four instead of five person party.

I, personally, liked it way more then WoW, and I'm looking forward to it. Though I won't deny... it may flop horribly. People going into it thinking it's JUST a WoW clone may end up being put off by the dialog system. I'm crossing my fingers it does well enough to last a while.

 

[Catalyst6]

Ah, I see that EA is taking the "two-party politics" approach to things. Instead of saying why your stuff is good, why not just bash the guy you're competing with? After all, being mature makes our brains hurt.

 

[Fenra]

"The old republic, its everything you love in an MMO and your WoW playing Mom is gonna hate it"

Honestly all joking aside, given EA's marketing department, we are but a stones throw away from something absurd like that... for shame EA, for shame

 

[thenumberthirteen]

I'm really stoked for SWOR and I hope they handle this thing right. I'd hate for it to be associated with another god-awful EA marketing mistake.

 

[RA92]

If anyone in bioware/EA was smart enough they would have released TOR before DA2, they had a pixar/Cristopher Nolan like trust by the community and rabid fanboyism, a lot of that was decimated by DA2 (haven't played it yet, can't judge on the quality but the response has been largely negative). This would have been a good move simply because TOR needed that reputation to boost it's sales, DA2 would have sold on it's own.

The Metacritic user scores have stabilized by now, though. Last I checked, the PC had around 8.3/10 with over a thousand reviews. Funny thing is, it was the console versions that had the lowest scores (both were below 7.9, I think). Looks like it isn't just the 'PC elitists' throwing a hissy fit. &nbsp

 

[Korten12]

the mistake they are making is thinking about releasing it too close to guild wars 2

I agree with this statement.

 

[Saintcole]

1 who still likes Star wars enough for a MMORPG, why not make Battlefront3. 2 WOW is like Big Brother from the book 1984 it CAN'T be beat. 3 What has happened to Bioware! I used to like them, then they banned ppl for calling EA the devil, streamlined DA2, filled ME2 with gaping plot holes, and now their name calling their competition.That makes me a sad panda

 

[Alade]

If anyone in bioware/EA was smart enough they would have released TOR before DA2, they had a pixar/Cristopher Nolan like trust by the community and rabid fanboyism, a lot of that was decimated by DA2 (haven't played it yet, can't judge on the quality but the response has been largely negative). This would have been a good move simply because TOR needed that reputation to boost it's sales, DA2 would have sold on it's own.

The Metacritic user scores have stabilized by now, though. Last I checked, the PC had around 8.3/10 with over a thousand reviews. Funny thing is, it was the console versions that had the lowest scores (both were below 7.9, I think). Looks like it isn't just the 'PC elitists' throwing a hissy fit.  

I don't care about the PC elements, I don't care about the difficulty (as long as it's at least a bit challenging on nightmare), I don't care about the simplified dialog system, those changes are probably good, what I can't wait to see is if they managed to make a good story, because I'm fearing that they may have missed the scale of the danger this time (am very paranoid about spoilers so uninformed on this too).

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

Something is nagging in my mind that this is more "graphics whore" and "George Lucas syndrome" than actual innovation and substance.

For once, I'd like to see gaming companies take the phrase "Actions speak louder than words" more seriously. Just shut the hell up EA and actually put genuine effort and soul into your work. Not buy it and stamp your logo on it as you have been.