After reading the article over at Eurogamer all I could manage to come up with is a resounding "Hmmmm" as my conclusion. Was this a good thing, are EA happy with the numbers or is it ritualistic suicide time? I don't even know what I was expecting personally as going up against WoW has proven to be a non-good idea, historically speaking, but I thought ToR would be somehow bigger. Maybe I bought into all the hype, but I'll just get to the numbers then, shall I:
1.7 Million Active Subscribers
2 Million copies sold
This is after a bit over a month of sales and the retention rate seems impressive at least, although I'm not sure if losing 15% of the game's purchasers in its first month is actually a good thing. Something to keep in mind is that prior to the game's release EA had said that even 500K subscribers would make the game profitable. Obviously we won't get any real answers from EA or Bioware as they'll find ways of calling it a resounding success regardless of what they really think, so we'll just have to make our own minds up! So what do we think, success, failure or none of the above?
Not sure the WoW launch comparison works here tbh, considering how much huger the MMO market is right now. WoW had some issues at launch because they didn't have enough servers and kept adding new ones so the numbers were a bit slower, but i think it was around 4 mil when they finally got their server thing settled.
Personally I think losing that many subscribers in the first few months of the game isnt a fantastic sign, but having 1.7 million subs In a little over a month is a great acompishment. I don't know WoW's opening numbers but I would assume something around this.
I myself have been playing from early release, have been lvl 50 a while basiclly only pvping but wasnt sure myself what the numbers would be,if these numbers are right then imo its a good number of ppl still playin the game,lets face it the game was probly released 3-6 months to early and there was a hell of a lot of bugs in it at the start,with ability delay being my major concern,BUT at least they have been adressing this problem and its no were near as bad as at launch.
From what i see the devs are workin hard at sorting out all the major issues and i can only imagine the game will get better and better,if you read the forums a lot of ppl who have quit have said they will try the game again in 3-6 months cause they no once all the issues are sorted out swtor can be a verygood game.
I'm not sure about that Ztems, I was actually wondering that myself, but the Eurogamer article states "Cuurently" and was published yesterday so it has to be after the re-subscription window, also because if they lost 300k subs that can't really happen before the first month is over (unless they counted people who cancelled their subs before the month was over, but I kinda doubt that). I do agree that later numbers will be more indicative of long term success though.
The Next report is the one that going to be more accurate. Since this report is for December 31, 2011. So that means that people still was playing on their free month.
I hope tthey have 2.5-3 mil after 6 months since the launch, then i will be pretty sure it is here to stay.
I am 50 now for a week. I love the game. It has quite a few issues that want You to rage at times, but then again i remember that they were twice as much two weeks ago. The deciding factor will be how the new content rolls out within next 2-4 months - PVE, PVP and game improvement wise.
I expect the numbers of SW:TOR to go down over the next few months. I know a lot of people who have tried star wars over the past few weeks now the reviews have come in, but have stopped playing fairly quickly which leaves their subsription still active for the rest of the month
Yeah, February the 9th will be interesting!
Starym, can you please request the Ensidia "staff" to give a update on how the merge is going, their current status on who has decided to quit and who is still playing.
Thank you!
i'm drawn 2 ways after reading this
On the one hand 1.7mil is more than enough to keep a game alive.
On the other hand losing 300,000 subscribers during the first month of the game should send alarm bells ringing... I really want to brand this as the new Warhammer type flop but its too early to say just yet.
As for WoW numbers i'd imagine they've gone down another few hundred thousand again but that will still leave it tinkering around what? 10mil+?
I really do wonder what WoW's subscriber numbers will be like on the upcoming Feb 9th conference call...should be very interesting