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Star Wars MMO Estimated To Cost $100M
donniebaseball23 writes "EA's BioWare is developing its first-ever MMORPG in Star Wars: The Old Republic, and the publisher is betting big that the project will be a huge success. Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter says development alone cost an estimated $80 million, with marketing and distribution adding in another $20 million. The good news is it shouldn't take much to break even. 'We estimate that EA will cover its direct operating costs and break even at 500,000 subscribers (this is exceedingly conservative, and the actual figure is probably closer to 350,000), meaning that with 1.5 million paying subscribers, EA will have 1 million profitable subs,' Pachter noted."
They're now aiming for a release late this year, but acknowledged the possibility that it could slip to January 2012. If you're curious about the current state of the gameplay, Eurogamer and Rock, Paper, Shotgun (PvE, PvP) both posted write-ups of some recent hands-on time.
Great, even more people will be camping their parent's basements.
...wasn't the game already confirmed to have cost in excess of $300million?
Pachter is always bleating about stuff but has no idea about gaming. He continually mis analayzes stuff. How on earth does he manage to keep his position?
A dollar for every compromised Sony account
A HUGE success?
This is code for "damn, November 2011 is looking pretty crowded with AAA title games - we might reevaluate the situation and climate - not to mention our customer's wallets - and release at a later date."
Not that I blame them. I can think of at least five AAA games coming out this fall, and I don't even follow gaming news all that closely. Christmas titles are getting as much pre-marketing as presidential candidates these years. After Valve has proven with three titles now (L4D, L4D2, Portal 2), a spring release can still be extremely profitable. Sounds like other studios might start caching in on the developing year-round release cycle.
moox. for a new generation.
Release more cinematic trailers. Those seem to get the most hype and buzz from non-players and non-tools. That's how I found out about it, and the best hope is to get the casual gamers hooked. Those are the people who will happily sign up for a sub, then play a month or two and forget about the game while still paying for a month or so until they read their CC statement and cancel.
Get with the program fellas, take advantage of the "GeeWizz" factor and take our money. Plus the cinematic trailers are cool. Must better IMHO than the last three POS movies from Lucas.
Heybiff
So 80M is that per month or lifetime subscriptions I haven't looked at the money markets this week. Will there be in game purchases also because otherwise I might get bored.
Oh please... some of us are well adjusted adults with jobs and all, and can afford our own basement to camp in ;)
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Who is going to play that? Shit, I always balk a bit at $60 for a game, but, that's at least somewhat reasonable. I don't have 100 million burning a hole in my pocket though, good luck to anyone who picks up that title. Not going to be massively multiplayer with a cost like that!
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
I'm not sure I'd that much every month just to play a game.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
$100 million is not really that huge compared with other recent mmos.
MMORPG - Massively Monetizable Online Rip-off Profit Game.
I won't be playing any such games, no thanks, Star Whores.
j. public; 1 million $ each is just too much. what a group? recalculated, each citizen will get a $.5 million dollar$ unending patriotism stipend, at a total cost of less than 1 trillion (the 'new' billion) dollars, to our rulers, out of the holdings they hold in trust, for us, thank god. good thing we planned for endless terror? there'll be even more prosperity after the total disarmament, just in recycling that guaranteed fatal crud into useful life extending stuff. as for the 'weather', we can now buy better boats (floating bunkers), due to the thoughtful diligence of our
self-appointed rulers?
I never have understood why game publishers historically shoot for a Christmas release date. When I was growing up my parents, friends, nor extended family ever bought me a single video game. It's too complicated to shop for games for someone else, especially when it's a PC game; you have a lot of things to look for in what your target audience needs: platform (Windows, Mac, ... Linux?), CPU, memory, GPU, etc. On top of all of that you cannot return any software to any retailer and Steam only makes it slightly easier to send a game to someone.
Outside of the above, you have Christmas, New Years, and the winter break for college students - why release a game amidst that? Pick the summer when kids have more time free, more money to buy games from their summer job, and more freedom to reliably shop for software. There's still another 10 or so reasons I haven't even touched on as to why NOT to release a game during winter break, but apparently people speak with their money to the contrary.
penis is for pleasure
Considering the rumors that are and were floating around and the many delays this project suffered already it's hard to believe that it will cost "only" 100 mio. incl. marketing. I heard numbers reaching as high as 250 mio. and it would surprise me if they would manage to stay below 100 mio. for development only.
But I just read $80M on another website: http://www.the-magicbox.com/gaming.htm Wait a minute, it's still in development right? So the number changes every day...
Hey /.
So lets quickly look at some MMOS
Eve-online: Great MMO supported by a company that loves it (to a degree) and really tries to make the game better. Driving 80% by player actions and the developers give the tools to the players to create their own content, this is a sandbox game
WoW: They got it right here, the first real user friendly pretty MMO, with a simple mission system and great back story supported by an existing legion of fans who already played blizzard games. Remember that it took 2 years to iron out the bugs and in that time it had no competition. Not driven by player actions in anyway. We call this a funfair game, all the rides must be built before hand for you to enjoy
SWG: Was also one of my favs because i felt like it had a mix of both sandbox and funfair, the crafting in the game was completely player driven, while the developers still added content to keep people entertained if they were too lazy to amuse themselves.
I tend to believe these 3 older MMOS are the basis of what we really have today.
Moving on, TOR i am not sure about, they are spending huge amounts of money on Voice overs, getting actors in, what i believe they are trying to create is an amazing storyline in an MMO. The problem with this is that MMOs need reply-ability and one great story line only cuts it so much. I will be playing Tor when it comes out but I fear that they are focusing too much on developing a storyline when really they should be building the tools to create communities, since its the players and the guilds/corps/groups of people that make a game good or not. I not got to play Tor Yet, but I just feel this is going to be one of those things that looks amazing, 10/10 but just has not depth to it. Also because of the amount of money they have spent and the fact it will be multi server means once again players really do not change the world and everyone just ends up running the same missions. Meh, Someone make more sandbox games, and yes i know there ar a few out there, i think i consider darkfal as more sandboxie, and ofcouse mincraft not sure we can count that as an MMO tho
After Valve has proven with three titles now (L4D, L4D2, Portal 2), a spring release can still be extremely profitable.
FYI: L4D and L4D2 were both Q4 releases (November 2008/2009, respectively). They often have major sales via Steam in the springtime to boost their numbers, as well as various holidays and seasons as well. Perhaps this is where you got mixed up.
What else can happen when an unstoppable force collides with an immovable object?
Whoops! You are correct, sir. My apologies. I think they had a 50% off sale on L4D in early spring and then did a press release about how dropping the price of a game inside of a year can significantly boost overall sales numbers. That's probably what I am thinking of.
moox. for a new generation.
Its a pity this game looks fucking terrible. That $100M could have been used to make several new Dark Forces games.
There have been rumors floating arround in the SWTORO Comunity that the Dev costs are closer to $300 Million. They have been developing the game for 5 years now.
For the release date, they originally schedualled it for their Q1 release (April 1st to June 30th). however that has come and gone. The newer estimates are Q2(July-Sept). The Community has been hoping that E3 will have the release date anouncement. Short of that it will have a release date likely announced at PAX Prime.
For those slamming the game all I can say is go to one of the Game conventions an play it. I was at PAX East and played the Taral V instance. I waited in line for 7 hours waiting to play. 90% of the people at PAX were there seemingly to play/see TORO. I Quit WoW almost a year ago because it was begining to bore the hell out of me. Many people I knew from WoW have done the same. Some have tried Rift, and Liked it... At the begining at least. Now that they are capped and running raids, they feel the same as they did with WoW.
StarWars is in the running to be "different", and quoting Bioware/EA, "this game has Story", which is different than all of the other MMOs out there...
Personally, I hope the game does great. I think more choices for MMORPGs is great. However, I would like to point out a problem that exists with the industry, and that's that any problem that occurs right from the start can doom a project forever. An MMO has pretty much one chance to make it, and if it doesn't succeed right out of the gate, it's going to move at a snail pace until the owners finally cancel it. Bioware has a lot riding on this because they're taking an intellectual property that failed miserably in the past and has actually become the standard of how to destroy an MMO (Star Wars Galaxies did so many things wrong that they teach it in computer business classes now). Therefore, Bioware needs it to be a massive hit right out of the gate, or it will fail horribly. The fan base of an MMO can so easily launch it into the stratosphere or doom it to obscurity forever, and it will happen overnight.
Sarbonn's blog: http://www.sarbonn.com/blog
Great. . . another crappy Star Wars game. I miss when Lucasarts was responsible for good games. X-Wing, TIE Figher, Rebel Assault, Dark Forces I & II, Sam & Max, Outlaws, Full Throttle, Indiana Jones & The Fate of Atlantis, etc.
I'm running a little short today... Or how about this life?
Really another one, in a market that is saturated with MMOs? Couldn't they of used that $100 million for something useful like giving us a finished version of KotOR 2?
Cannot find REALITY.SYS. Universe halted.
80M seems like hollywood accounting
I never have understood why game publishers historically shoot for a Christmas release date. When I was growing up my parents, friends, nor extended family ever bought me a single video game. It's too complicated to shop for games for someone else, especially when it's a PC game
As a kid I usually took a handful of my Christmas money out the day after Christmas and bought myself a game or two. It is hard to buy games for someone else, but game purchases still increase around the holidays.
When I was younger games were less complex and if you got any game, it was great, regardless of how much of a turd it really was.
Today, kids are brats and will tell someone that just gave them a gift it was crap.
Kids deserve to be beaten and less picky about what they get.
On your comments on Steam, I actaully hate their gift system. For one thing, I can't gift a game I've played. I should be able to move that license freely among accounts. I'm tired of my wife wanting to play the latest tomb raider game I've gotten while I'm playing borderlands on my computer.
The other issue is that I can't buy a game on sale and hold onto it in my account to gift later nor can I delay the email to a specific time more appropriate. I have to gift the game to my email and then forward the game at a later time on my own.
Fortunately the ONLY time I've bought anything on steam is when it has gone on sale. I've got 40 to 50 titles on my account and last tally I only paid about $120 over the course of two years.
How much of this 'cost' is Lucas getting in licensing fees?
Great, Star Wars Galaxies II ... ... ... what an absolutely terrible idea ... ... ...
I'll stick with EVE Online thank you very much.
NO.
The Penis is Evil. The GUN is GOOD.
"I am an Adept of Tantric VAX."
WoW makes what ~150 million a month? 100 million for a game is chump change.
Your family sucks. My family, I'd give my Mom a list of games I wanted in the order I wanted them and my family would work their way down the list.
I am really hoping this will be good as a star wars fan and an Ex-Wow addict. However, and take this with the requisite grain of salt, I've heard from two different people working on this project that it's got alot of issues and they don't have alot of hope it will turn out great. They complain there is way too much focus on things like voice acting for every single character and not enough on gameplay and combat. It's supposedly not even in alpha testing internally so I doubt we'll see it this year, unless they rush it which I really hope they don't
KOTOR I and II were 2 of the best RPGs I have played. True that KOTOR 2's ending was botched up, but then it wasn't released by Bioware. I am really excited about this game - I haven't found a really good RPG recently after Witcher. Mass Effect and Dragon Age wasn't that good in my opinion.
No, Mom. I don't have a WII. I have an XBox 360. This is the WII version of the game. See? The list says, quite explicitly, "XBOX 360 VERSIONS ONLY." Now I'll have to exchange this.
And this is a PC game. The only PC here is your laptop, and you don't want me using that any more than I want to try to play this game on that non-gaming piece of crap.
You know what, Mom? Just give me cash next year.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
Today, kids are brats and will tell someone that just gave them a gift it was crap.
Wow, yes! This was free. Therefore, you can't criticize it, even if your criticisms hold merit! Even adults criticize free things. Being free does not mean exempt from criticism.
Kids deserve to be beaten and less picky about what they get.
Then I guess a lot of people deserve to be beaten, and not just kids. People have differing opinions. Just because someone's opinion differs from yours, that does not mean they need to be beaten or that they are wrong.
Sucks that your mom can't read. Must be really hard growing up there.
I watched a couple videos of this game. Honestly it's going to fail for one reason:
Lightsabers don't actually cut through stuff.
Who wants to play a game where you have to beat someone about the head a dozen times with your lightsaber before they die of a concussion?
G.
Because EA destroys every MMORPG it touches.
Everything will be nerf'd to CARE BEAR status within 10 days of release, if it doesn't ship that way.
I for one have no faith in EA when it comes to MMORPG's.... I mean look what they did to Ultima Online..
Has anyone else been getting the email "updates" on this game for the past 3-4 years now? At first I'd get one and go "oooo, so exciting"; now, it's more, "Is it releasing yet? No? Delete."
A simple reason is a vast number of children get gift cards these days. The children do the purchasing.
Even in small denominations these add up fast.
His family sucks for not giving him free video games? Its funny how your values work.
I want to know how much it will cost before they break even, they imply 350,000 accounts, is that from day one with a game bought and a month played? 3 months played? 6 months played? My poor marketing skills suggest purchases and a month payed for would make them about 20 million. So I guess those numbers implied some months payed for to offset the cost. I have no doubt it will succeed but I think the MMO movement is hitting it's plateau period. There will be new players at a steady rate but the meteoric rise that happened over WoW I doubt we'll see again. The hourly and appointed time consumption is a killer compared to other forms of entertainment. Then again I could be absolutely wrong, I don't doubt the game will be wonderful but being an adult seeking to start a family this game will never be for me.
is the use of Light Sabres. Otherwise, it's just some random sci-fi genre game with pretty hairstyles and face paint.
While Star Trek and Dr Who retained/reclaimed their original appeal over many iterations, I find it very strange how Star Wars - at least as ubiquitous and seemingly immutable - so quickly and carelessly mutated into something completely unrecognisable and utterly unappealing to those who loved the original.
One of the great tragedies of modern film culture in my mind.
EA's taint will most certainly seep into this game and it will either disappoint fans or be a shoddy wow clone. Whenever there's a good franchise or game idea EA will swallow it up and crap it out in an miserable pile.(and your typical person will buy it up anyway). The EA method of doing things and an MMORPG are definitely NOT a recipe for success. I won't be bothered to buy it and I'm betting that it will end up failing just as bad as the previous starwars mmo.
The game could have been 25% better.
Breakeven possibly as low as 350,000 subscribers? Spending $100M, that means they expect each user to spend an average of $285.71 on the game. Wha? Even at 500,000, it's $200 per player.
Words, words, words
One of WoW's main competitor at launch was EQ1, not to mention 2 and Guild Wars, which in all seriousness wasn't a real threat. EQ1 was because there were fully established raiding guilds in it and it was a real gamble at the time to jump ships to something else. Even EQ2 had to compete with EQ1, and lost to a large degree. EQ2 is free to play and EQ1 people are still willing to pay for 12 years later. MMOs are about raids and that's it. Maybe for friendship for a brief period of time, but other than that you're wasting your money.
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.