The Escapist - How Dragon Age 2 Fell Apart

Originally Posted by Dhruin
Tanking = failing, where I come from. If you'd said "it's certainly not the blockbusting WOW-killer they had thought it was going to be" in the first place, I wouldn't have responded but you clearly said it was failing and then just backed out of it.



I didn't say you were - I said I've seen various speculation about the cost and your link is no different. GameSpot links to LA Times who offer no quote or source, so it's more speculation.

I guess if winning this argument by defining my words with your definitions is what you're after, then I guess you win..? I really could care less. Someone asked, so I offered several examples of why I feel the game is not doing as well as EA/BioWare had hoped— from stock report news, to first-person observation as a former subscriber who felt it was not nearly as good as advertised, and who also saw a significant decline in server population.

Ultimately, my initial point was that everything BioWare has done since its dark union with Electronic Arts has not lived up to the hype— including SWTOR. If, in 6 months, this game is everything they thought it would be with a gazillion* subcribers and happy people dancing in the street, I will be the first to come back and admit being wrong. Methinks I won't have to do that, tho.

gazillion = lots (not meant to be a factual number)

I guess there are just 2 things indicating DA2 did not that well :

- lack of DLC compared to DA1
- the price is not 20 Euros here - and that was reached relatively early last year.
Faster than - in subjective comparison - DA1.

From the current news it cost EA half a billion to develop and fund the game. They need more than a million sales. They need a large chunk of subscribers to rebill also.

Has to be the most expensive game ever made.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ele…7?pagenumber=2

Here the proof before someone says I'm pulling it out of my ass.

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory
I guess if winning this argument by defining my words with your definitions is what you're after, then I guess you win..? I really could care less. Someone asked, so I offered several examples of why I feel the game is not doing as well as EA/BioWare had hoped— from stock report news, to first-person observation as a former subscriber who felt it was not nearly as good as advertised, and who also saw a significant decline in server population.

The problem is that the article you linked to doesn't really back up your claim that SWTOR is tanking.

As for recouping the game's massive development cost, EA said in February that The Old Republic would become profitable with only 500,000 subscribers. And according to Pachter, the game is well on its way to blowing that number out of the water. In an investor note issued today, Pachter said The Old Republic has sold at least 2 million units since its launch in late December. Additionally, he said he expects 75 to 90 percent of initial purchasers to stay onboard as paid subscribers following the bundled 30-day free game time.

"In an investor note issued today, Pachter said The Old Republic has sold at least 2 million units since its launch in late December. Additionally, he said he expects 75 to 90 percent of initial purchasers to stay onboard as paid subscribers following the bundled 30-day free game time."
Well, at least we will not have to wait for long to see how true this prediction will turn out to be.

The writing is IMHO the least of DA2:s problems.

I found that the DA2 narrative and ending worked pretty well for me. Trying to keep some sort of sane middle ground in an increasingly tense situation my character reluctantly sided with the templars, and I felt that the story unfolded in a way that made sense from that point of view.

DA2 was very frustrating since sloppy penny pinching corner cutting obscured the good points. Recycling of dungeons, item scaling, and wave combat were the big letdowns that pulled the game from grade 4/5 to a weak 3/5 in my book… I dont think I've ever encountered a AAA game with that kind of "budget" feel before. Granted Bioware recycled dungeons in the past (Mass Effect 1) but this was atrocious.

This is extra sad as I think the game did have some genuine improvements in aspects such as character building, and that was from a solid if not brilliant predecessor…

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
I guess there are just 2 things indicating DA2 did not that well :

- lack of DLC compared to DA1
- the price is not 20 Euros here - and that was reached relatively early last year.
Faster than - in subjective comparison - DA1.

They also didn't announce any extra shipments after the initial 2M- for DAO they announced that they'd shipped an extra 500k copies (to 3.2M shipped) after a month due to strong demand. If sales are better than expected companies do tend to let you know about them, they're less likely to if a title underperforms though, of course. There's also, er, VGChartz' sale data, haha. The only really definitive thing that can be said is that the sequel sold considerably worse than DAO did and did not pass 2M copies sold (if it has passed it even yet) quickly.

Originally Posted by darkling
Seriously, DA2 had a very clever narrative and plenty of fantastic writing.

Are you trolling good Sir? Either that, or you are as confused as Gaidar.

SWtOR is probably profitable already. However, there's no way in hell it will maintain more than a million subscribers for 6-12 months.

If so, then I'll have to re-evaluate the mental health of the general populace

Once Guild Wars 2 is out - only the most die hard Star Wars fans will want to waste their time on yet another vertical progression treadmill without a soul.

The storylines - "decent" as they may be - can't last THAT long.