Origin Online Exclusivity Won't Hurt The Old Republic, Says BioWare

[Logan Westbrook]

Origin Online Exclusivity Won't Hurt The Old Republic, Says BioWare

BioWare's co-founder says The Old Republic is actually almost too successful right now.

Greg Zeschuk thinks that Star Wars: The Old Republic [http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Old-Republic-Pc/dp/B001CWXAP2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1314217680&sr=8-2] will do just fine, despite digital sales of the game being limited to EA's Origin service. He says that Origin is "pretty slick" and that the game has reach it needs, even without other online retailers.

If anything, Zeschuk thinks that The Old Republic will do almost too well, and that if people don't hurry, they might not be able to play at all when the game launches. "We're going to be at capacity," Zeschuk said. "we're telling people is that if you don't pre-order a copy you may not even get in in the first month just because there's so many people on the servers that if you don't get it you may not play for a while." BioWare and EA have admitted that they are deliberately capping the capacity at launch however, so whether it should really be used as a metric for success is debatable.

Zeschuk is a high-profile EA employee, so it's unlikely that he's going to turn around and say anything bad about Origin. That said, it's unlikely that Origin will actually be bad, at least, not if EA really wants to compete against the likes of Steam. Unfortunately, it seems that Origin has something of a curious streak [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/112559-Internet-Explodes-Over-Origins-Invasion-of-Privacy ], by which I mean that the terms and conditions give it permission to mine your computer for information and sell it to advertisers. That's going to put some people off, no matter how good The Old Republic actually turns out to be.

Source: PC Gamer [http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/23/bioware-origin-wont-hurt-the-old-republic/]


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[Xersues]

Yeah I said it once and I'll say it again. If they force me to use it even though I have a physical copy, I WILL cancel my pre-order. Just like I did for Battlefield 3. I agree with Jim, make a boycott mean something, especially for bad behavior.

My guess is they won't force it because its not delivering any of the patches and would be another unecessary layer of DRM they cannot justify since this not a game you can pirate easily.

 

[Rutskarn]

I'm guessing these guys didn't study their Greek tragedies, because right now, they need to be concerned with a magical little something called hubris.

 

[Shycte]

I might check out TOR if it doesn't demand Origin, but Zeschuk isn't really a trust worthy source here.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I don't see why they don't just ring up more servers to handle the demand. I get that it is about having a stable launch, but it might be a slap in the face to people who buy it on launch day to find all the servers are full.

 

[FreakSheet]

I would actually like to see it do shit, just so EA gets some humble pie shoved down their... well, pie hole.

First all their comments on MW3 (not saying I don't think agree, but its still dickish) and now "oh man, our game will do too well! get it while you can!" doesn't make me think of them any better

 

[kouriichi]

I want this game, but not enough to legally hand over all my private information.

Sorry Bioware, but until they change the ToS, your out of another sale.

 

[tcurt]

Um. Are they suggesting that they might prefer to turn away customers who don't preorder? With a digital download solution, shouldn't they/wouldn't they attempt to sell as many copies as humanly possible? Doesn't their back-end scale?? Last I checked, if a game is so sucessful that every server is full, you open more flippin' servers. You don't hang a sign that says "come back later potential paying customer, we are full."

I can't decide if they are just pushing pre-orders (technically unnecessary), trying to distract from a potential capacity problem (uh oh), or are idiots.

 

[Scizophrenic Llama]

Yeah I said it once and I'll say it again. If they force me to use it even though I have a physical copy, I WILL cancel my pre-order. Just like I did for Battlefield 3. I agree with Jim, make a boycott mean something, especially for bad behavior.

My guess is they won't force it because its not delivering any of the patches and would be another unecessary layer of DRM they cannot justify since this not a game you can pirate easily.

I want this game, but not enough to legally hand over all my private information.

Sorry Bioware, but until they change the ToS, your out of another sale.

Allow me to point you to the thread of a fellow Escapist. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.308993-The-Old-Republic-will-NOT-require-Origin]

TOR won't require Origin for anything, aside from if you order the game from Origin itself.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I prefer hard copies anyway, if my laptop can even run TOR in the first place that is...

Though it's basically concrete fact that some people flat out refuse to buy games if they're not on Steam so it will hurt sales to some extent at least.

 

[yuval152]

after the shitstorm with origin it won't be too successful,inb4 get a physical copy,the physical copies are very limited and the consumers who didn't get the physical copy will be forced to use origin.

 

[JMeganSnow]

I can't decide if they are just pushing pre-orders (technically unnecessary), trying to distract from a potential capacity problem (uh oh), or are idiots.

I think it's too much optimism, personally. Bioware has been really over-estimating how popular their games will be for a while now.

I don't expect the servers will be over-crowded on launch, because I expect they are using some kind of metric like "every person who has pre-ordered a copy will attempt to get on SIMULTANEOUSLY". They may be close to full during peak hours.

I kind of hope TOR does reasonably well, but I personally have no interest in actually playing it.

 

[Mahorfeus]

Part of me wants to see this game bomb more than Final Fantasy XIV did.

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

Part of me wants to see this game bomb more than Final Fantasy XIV did.

...Why?

You must have some reason.

 

[Somebloke]

I'm sure anything with the words "Star Wars" in it, will sell well, no matter how mismanaged, but I can still not help to laugh a little bit, over how much the whole "buy-now-tomorrow-it-may-be-too-late" schtick sounds like vacuum cleaner salestrickster rethoric.

 

[Wolfbane_Daoine]

I think a month or two long wait to play is by no means a bad thing with this title. At the very least this would give Bioware time to patch out bugs, and to get a glimpse of where they're going with new content. On top of that, it'll give people a chance to see if those in at launch are going to stick around or Bail like Organa did. (Sorry!) Plus, every time a new gameplay video comes out it seems to lessen my excitement to pick SWKOR up. The chances of me succesfully getting it now at launch stand at 3,720 to 1. ^_^

 

[Cat of Doom]

I would actually like to see it do shit, just so EA gets some humble pie shoved down their... well, pie hole.

First all their comments on MW3 (not saying I don't think agree, but its still dickish) and now "oh man, our game will do too well! get it while you can!" doesn't make me think of them any better

Why, so many of EAs lesser development teams like Criterion (where I work) and Black box get shut down and there employees are let go to cover their losses. So the company refuses to take risks on their other games and stick to 'safe' first person shooters. Like it or not EA is an industry Juggernaut and an important player in the industry, and if the game flops the entire industry will suffer.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

If I NEED Origin to play SWTOR then they've lost my purchase. I'm sure I'll be happy with just Guild Wars 2.

 

[vxicepickxv]

I might check out TOR if it doesn't demand Origin, but Zeschuk isn't really a trust worthy source here.

It doesn't require Origin if you get a physical copy.

Of course not. It's tied to one of their servers. Why would they need you to have origin for a physical copy.

I kind of hope TOR does reasonably well, but I personally have no interest in actually playing it.

I don't think it's going to do anywhere NEAR as well as EA thinks it's going to do. Hell, I don't see it making a profit at first.