EA boss admits The Old Republic subscription model is 'challenging'
EA CEO John Riccitiello says The Old Republic has "begun to work with different models," but doesn't quite commit to continuing down the F2P path.
Star Wars: The Old Republic has recently taken a tentative step towards free-to-play, but was hesitant to jump in completely. The company might still finish that journey, though, as comments from EA CEO John Riccitiello imply that the company is still considering its options.
In an interview with CNBC (via The Escapist), Riccitiello says that the "softness" of Star Wars led to its current partial free-to-play model. "Our conclusion was we had a great product in Star Wars, but that the subscription model in the world of free-to-play was challenging," he said.
He went on to note that the free-to-play model has a lot of power, and stresses that it can be a good revenue generator despite the name. He said, "We've begun to work with different models," but stopped short of directly stating any future plans. He also said that the shrinking player base isn't a "pressing concern," so it may still be a while before EA gives up the ghost and goes fully F2P.
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replySteve Watts posted a new article, EA boss admits The Old Republic subscription model is 'challenging'.
EA CEO John Riccitiello says The Old Republic has "begun to work with different models," but doesn't quite commit to continuing down the F2P path.-
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Quit wasting your time beating a dead horse with TOR, its over man. Instead, focus your energy to prevent another massacre known as Elder Scrolls online. 2 years from now it will be, 'should have focused on Elder Scrolls 6 rather than this MMO POS.
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At least that one isn't eating the time of the main dev studio for Elder Scrolls.
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You do not have any idea what you're talking about. The ES Online team is not the Skyrim (main) Bethesda team. They have absolutely nothing to do with each other.
Elder Scrolls 6 is being worked on by its dedicated team.
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What people wanted is a polished SWTOR game at release. All the polish came far too late, subscribers left, end of SWTOR.
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I honestly don't know how you can expect to launch a successful MMO that lacks the features the big-players have had for years now.
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BUT WE HAVE PAGES OF TEXT
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EARFULS OF WORDS!
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Correct. Unfortunately, it won't solve the current problem they've made for themselves.
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when I read SWTOR all I hear in my head is the jar jar binks laughing
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"EEEESA BOM-BAD!"
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I confess, I was super hyped about SWTOR before it came out, but ended up not having the time to play it so I never picked it up... About a week ago, I went and started futzing around with the free trial and I have to say... the game is really really bland and uninteresting. I really wanted to like it, I spent hours and hours reading about it and watching every second of video footage countless times before release.. Now I'm not even sure I'll bother to play it to the trial cap of level 15.
Also, even after all this time, there is almost no polish on this game.. Minor bugs and glitches everywhere, it takes half a dozen loading screens to get anywhere, etc. etc. I've played betas that were more technically sound.-
Yup. I spent untold hours (just look at my shack history) obsessing over this game being released. When it came out, it was just kind of bland and uninteresting as you said. I was more engaged by it than say Age of Conan or Warhammer but lord have mercy it was just really uninteresting. I thought Star Trek Online for crying outloud with it's ship combat was more engaging (just the rest of the game blew chunks.
So disappointing.-
did you guys play SWG? how does it compare to that?
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SWG was possibly the worst MMO i've ever played. nothing about it felt liek star wars and, worse, it wasn't even remotely fun.
SWTOR may be bland and uninspired, but it's not a putrid pile of shit. -
SWG and SWTOR are two different animals.
SWG was kind of like EVE in terms of its economy. PVP was bleh, questing was bleh, and it was mostly a sandbox MMO with Star Wars themed stuff. I enjoyed it, but if you weren't into the whole economic aspect of the game, you'd probably end up hating it.
SWTOR is more like WoW, but the quests have pretty awesome dialogue and dialogue options, just like any other Bioware game. -
Star Wars Galaxies, or as I liked to call it, Land of the Log People.
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See I'm the opposite. I found SWTOR to be the more interesting game. I thought the ship combat was sweet, but everything else was bland. SWTOR at least had the more interesting stories and questing and I like the classes more too. I didn't even get out of beta for STO.
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my trooper class quest bugged out at level 30 so i couldn't progress the main quest line anymore. I sent a bunch of support tickets in to try and get it fixed but i NEVER got a reply. After 2 months of asking for help (even on the forums) i quit. It's such a shame because EA did a great job with customer support for Warhammer. I used to always get stuck in the terrain and a CSR would be there within 5mins of me asking for help. But they really fuckin' cheaped out with SWTOR.
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Huh. In the beta my Imperial Agent's class quest bugged out around level 30 too and I couldn't continue.
I made a report and checked back a while later and it was still busted so I gave up on it. I was sick of the class quests becoming farther and farther apart with all the filler in between anyway.
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If the sub was only $5 I'd consider it again but....$15 is too much for me given my playtime
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this. i would keep a running subscription for that price.
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Every time I see the name John Riccitiello, I have to listen to his ballad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtHzLt3C_z0
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Keep hanging on EA, lol
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I agree with you and I can't put my finger on it. The game is so much more boring than WoW yet I see the similarities. Hard to explain, and I love the Star Wars universe too...weird. =(
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Side thread-
Did anyone else want to play this game? Star Wars MMO based off the old movies?
Playable wookies, X-wings, visiting Dagobah and fighting Darth Vader?
Something like an updated good SW Galaxies.-
yeah I wanted that's why I played SWG - for a while it was exactly that. until they introduced the idea of holocrons and made people grind.
The thing I took from that is, either everyone's a jedi or noone. if you like the original trilogy and have a MMO on your hands it can therefor only work if noone is a jedi or it will be this bullshit comical universe people now think of as star wars. -
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