SW: TOR - Revenue "More Than Doubled" Since Going Free-to-play

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EA and Bioware annnouced that Star Wars: The Old Republic has more than doubled it's income since going F2P. Polygon has all the details.
Monthly average revenue for Star Wars: The Old Republic, BioWare's massively multiplayer online role-playing game, has more than doubled and subscriptions have increased since adopting the free-to-play model last year, Electronic Arts president of labels Frank Gibeau revealed in an earning's call today.
EA announced that the MMO would adopt a free-to-play model last July, and the transition took place in November 2012. Since then, Gibeau said the game has grown significantly.
"Since it was induced in November, we've added more than 1.7 million new players on the free model to the service," Gibeau said. "And the number of subscriptions has stabilized at just under half a million.
"The really interesting thing that's happening inside the service right now is monthly average revenue for the game has more than doubled since we introduced the free-to-play option. And as we look forward, we're going to continually invest in new content for the service and for players every six weeks or so."
More information.
 
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Great news for them.
For me great news is that there are still singleplayer RPGs out there so I don't have to waste my money on whatever MMO.
 
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Great news for them.
For me great news is that there are still singleplayer RPGs out there so I don't have to waste my money on whatever MMO.

Well the game is free and I played it with no problem. I didn't care about the handicaps and micro- transactions. Still I agree at least there are still singleplayer RPG's.
 
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Great news for them.
For me great news is that there are still singleplayer RPGs out there so I don't have to waste my money on whatever MMO.

You can play SWTOR like a singleplayer games without spending any money in it, you know.
 
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You can play SWTOR like a singleplayer games without spending any money in it, you know.

You are arguing logic with him.
 
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What does Jayne Cobb think of that?

 
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Well the game is free and I played it with no problem. I didn't care about the handicaps and micro- transactions. Still I agree at least there are still singleplayer RPG's.

I have enjoyed TOR as a single-player game and not paid anything. But then I am not a freemium buyer in general. I have bought amplifiers and effects in AmpliTube, but not much else.
 
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grumble grumble if it were free to play you wouldn't have ANY revenue grumble grumble stupid marketing terminology grumble spit
 
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I never would have touched this game in its' original form since it is an MMO and I don't play MMO's ... When it went F2P I decided to give it a try. It took less than 10 hours to convert me and I bought a 60 day subscription. When that expired I bought another 60 day license and finally I became a recurring subscriber and I'm having a blast.

That would never have happened if SWTOR hadn't gone F2P so I could try it out first.

Since Steam started adding F2P games to their catalog as well I have tried several of them. Some like Tribes Ascendence have been great fun and others could easily be dismissed again but at least I got a chance to find out and that wouldn't have happened if not for F2P so I really don't mind it.

And for the record: SWTOR can easily be played as a singleplayer game. I did that for the first 70-80 hours and even though the game mechanics are naturally based on MMO elements the story and the "feel" of the game is definitely that of KOTOR 3 ... IMO.
 
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Well, some of that game is really good - but it has too many flaws.

That said, if they can turn it around and be profitable enough to make the whole investment worthwhile - then maybe something good will come of it.

If they implement freeform space combat/exploration - and they add meaningful world PvP - then I'd be there in a cold minute.
 
I like it as it is - but, oddly, when my play time card runs out, I feel the burden of being F2P the heavier - heavier than if I had started F2P from the beginning.

I got so much accustomed to things that I more or less can't stand not being able to pick up all quest rewards and "artifact quality" items anymore.

From this perspective, I feel better with DDO, because there just aren't any restrictions regarding loot.

Therefore, I really do not like the loot-related restrictions of SWTOR.

The game as such can be played as an singleplayer RPG to a great part.

As a side-note, I read that several people in the SWTOR forums say that of all MMORPGs they know of, SWTOR comes closest to WOW in its game mechanics.

Edit : If you ever want to go to the SWTOR server called "Vanjervalis Chain" and you meet someone called "Alrikfassklauer" there - that's an impostor. Saw him yesterday in the chat.
 
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You can play SWTOR like a singleplayer games without spending any money in it, you know.

You saying 24/7 internet connection ain't required?

But I have to ask something else.
Any of 900 fired ones here?
 
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Let me put it this way : SWTOR is currently the only way to get an contemporary ( ! ) Star Wars role play experience on the PC screen.
KOTOR is around 10 years old already.
 
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I never would have touched this game in its' original form since it is an MMO and I don't play MMO's … When it went F2P I decided to give it a try. It took less than 10 hours to convert me and I bought a 60 day subscription. When that expired I bought another 60 day license and finally I became a recurring subscriber and I'm having a blast.

That would never have happened if SWTOR hadn't gone F2P so I could try it out first.

Same story here, mate. I took a little longer to start paying, but I've been subscribed for several months now, enjoying all the different class stories. I'm glad to hear they've been successful; it certainly worked on me.
 
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You saying 24/7 internet connection ain't required?

You said singleplayer game, you didn't require it to be offline...
 
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I'm somewhat surprised. SWTOR is a decent game and worth checking out but the cash shop implementation they put in is beyond obnoxious. It's like having a vegas style cash shop logo lit up right on the main focal point of your UI. Even if you sub you see this eyesore.

I briefly returned to SWTOR when it went F2P and even subbed for a month since I couldn't tolerate having most of my former account taken away from me if I was F2P, but for me the game hasn't evolved any - still has primitive everything and the worst "AH" implementation of any MMO ever (Neverwinter's is pretty crappy too and search doesn't even work but NW is technically still in beta and that could change).

So good for them, because IMO SWTOR *is* worth checking out even if it's not that great for the long haul.

Bad for me, since I'm sick of F2P - it makes me want to vomit. I want F2P to go away.

I would rather see a smaller number of higher quality players playing MMORPGs (as it was before WoW) that feature GROUPING instead of seeing endless seas of soloing doods playing MMOs like single player games with public chat filled with intellectually insulting idiocy.
 
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You said singleplayer game, you didn't require it to be offline…

And what is the main characteristic of a singleplayer game?
Since you don't need a community - you don't need to be online.
 
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I enjoyed every Bioware game bigtime from BG1 through DA2 and ME3 (I could be reasonably labeled a Bioware fanboi) ... but not SWTOR. It has many of the MMO yuckiness including the environment my actions have no impact, respawning monsters due to the nature of MMOs, etc. The gameplay and storyline were not nearly good enough to overcome these. It wasn't terrible or anything like that but it just wasn't enjoyable for me, either.
 
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Because of this thread I tried the game.

I played it up to Level 11 as a smuggler. Does this this game become challenging later? - 'til now it is boring as hell, nearly no tactics needed.
 
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