Star Wars: The Old Republic Subscription Numbers Drop
By - Source: Game Informer
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74 comments
EA's reported SW: TOR's most recent subscription numbers and they don't look good...
For a game that some thought would be a World of Warcraft killer, it seems like The Old Republic isn't doing so hot.
Electronic Arts made public the number of active subscribers for SW: TOR. Subscription numbers have tanked by 400,000 since February, when the number was at 1.7 million. 1.3 million subscribers is still a respectable number and nothing to scoff at, but considering that the game only launched in January, this doesn't bode well.
Part of SW: TOR's draw is also its bane. Having fully-voiced content and deep storytelling in a MMO is difficult to continue churning, especially at a rate that would upkeep player interest.
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Should've just made KOTOR 3 instead.
Should've just made KOTOR 3 instead.
After news of Lucas Arts canceling Battlefront III, I'm not to sure where they are headed afterwords
They've released some awesome new content/fixes/changes recently (1.2) so it drew some people back.
Once they allow server transfers for US to US servers, along with server merges, we'll likely see quite an increase.
The game rocks, once they get an awesome open PVP system figured out I'd expect it to be rocking.
It's always a rough road in the first year for MMOs, then it's make or break. I don't see this game breaking any time soon.
Server transfers won't do a lot because people will want to transfer to the highest pop servers and Bioware won't allow that.....merges will help some.
However, the issue is the population imbalance between factions on a lot of servers. Merging a server with a 2:1 sith
Bioware KNEW there would be problems with content at max level and they KNEW people who play MMOs try and level pretty quickly. They were totally unprepared.
What I just read was that you want an MMORPG that isn't a MMORPG. Good luck with that.
My theory : TOR is more marketed towards the older crowd. Its very Star Wars as well. Both those things shrink customer base. Where as WoW is marketed towards kids (and plays like a kids game) and for all intents and purposes is a generic fantasy game. (Go ahead and flame me. WoW is meant for kids. Then again I came from EVE so most MMO games seem to be made for kids to me.)
I'm constantly surprised at the way the plot changes for different characters doing similar quest lines; the companions make the solo game compelling. I think that is SWTOR's biggest draw: you can play it solo and have an interesting and deep game.
I am very glad that it is not focused on add-ons and numbers (like the i-level). At its core, it is a story.
I think that the only real change needed is higher server populations. It has a huge server array, and the player numbers on each one is small.
I would like to see them consider population consolidation as a temporary adjustment.
Has anyone played KOTOR (I assume the answer is "yes")? That's a lot of fun. SWTOR just makes me not care.
For example:
- I submitted tickets repeatedly about a severe bug - a particular countdown move that when used on a particular bridge in a PvP warzone would boot me out of the warzone briefly to a view of space and then the login screen. This was replicatable (actually happened to me 4 times in the same place as it was a common move) and even happened to other players I knew, yet when I eventually got a response it was a copy and paste about not going AFK in a warzone or you get auto-kicked.
- The random number generator on PvP token bags was terrible, resulting in me purchasing something like 11 bags (a huge amount of PvP) with no item - while watching all my friends get nice loot. Interestingly in the time between my support request being submitted and actioned it the developers actually admitted the problem and patched this to provide more consistent drop rates, but the support agent refused point blank to retroactively fix my issue by replacing the items along the patch guidelines.
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There were many, many more issues like this.
So in a sense, they lost my $200/year by failing to provide $20 worth of quality customer support for an hour.
The class quests available whilst leveling were excellent, but essentially solo content.
Pre 1.2 PVP was mostly in instances where some classes excelled, the rewards were very random
Post 1.2 PVP is all about dps and gear difference; planning a healer wasn't fun any more, so I stopped pvping. A number of DPS people also found it boring and quit.
Operation content, there doesn't seem to be enough, essentially 3 raids with 3 difficulty levels.
Though I am currently enjoying it I was geared in mostly rakata in two weeks. So I am a bit unsure on how long it will keep me interested.
I can understand why a lot of people have left; either they tried it and found there was nothing really new or they have blasted through the content and found little end game.
I'm just burnt out on MMOs period.
this game will be nuked after a year.