News

Analyst: 350K concurrent The Old Republic players proves MMO market is healthy
Posted: 03.01.2012 19:20 by JonahFalcon Comments: 5
Industry analyst Colin Sebastian of Baird Equity Research states that the MMO market is healthy, pointing to the fact that Star Wars: The Old Republic was able to achieve a concurrent user count of 350,000 at its peak. This proves, according to Sebastian, that World of Warcraft is not obstructive towards another major AAA subscriber-based MMO with over 1M+ monthly paying players.

 
Sebastian reported, "We view the early success of Star Wars as an indication of a healthy MMO market. While there is likely some shifting of usage from Activision's World of Warcraft, we see a viable market for multiple million-user MMOs in the US and Europe."

The Old Republic utilizes 215 servers (as of the 31st December), with 124 in North America and 91 in Europe. For comparison, World of Warcraft has a total of 491 servers worldwide. However, the World of Warcraft subscriber base had dropped in the last few months of 2011. According to sources, roughly 2.5% of the user base had stopped subscribing to Blizzard's MMO.

Star Wars: The Old Republic has received generally positive reviews and feedback since its release on the 20th December, enjoying an 88 Metacritic score.

Comments

By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Jan 03, 2012
herodotus
Well the "STO" community is alive and well, with starships cluttering every Sector visited and all space docks teeming with players (as opposed to NPC's). MMO's are offering a wide diversity for Action as well as RPG gamers, and "WoW" just isn't 'wowing' anymore. Chuck norris and Pandas....
Starting with an above average score is good to see (though by no means an assurance of sustained success). All depends on how EA and BioWare handle the product over the next 2 years, the usual amount of time in which a MMO has to prove it has the growth potential to sustain a subscriber audience.
By JonahFalcon (SI Elite) on Jan 03, 2012
JonahFalcon
@herodotus: They're not taking about free-to-play - they're talking about premium subscription-based MMOs. STO is going FTP on the 17th.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Jan 03, 2012
herodotus
I was talking about "STO" as it was before being sold to Perfect Worlds. There really has enevr been a population dip over the entire time, and it's seen it';s fair share of problems and teething problems. F2P has nothing to do with it, and if anything may just be the death of the game.
By JonahFalcon (SI Elite) on Jan 04, 2012
JonahFalcon
The fact that STO was going FTP was evidence for some that the subscription model wasn't healthy.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Jan 04, 2012
herodotus
There was nothing wrong with the subscription model that nay long term members could find, only that Cryptic were slow in bringing new content to the game and leaving the Klingons as a very under-realised component of the game (core component, many would argue). It took almost 2 years to bring the "Episodes" into being that are now a staple. Aside from content, what you got for your sub fee just wasn't enough for quite some time.
Going F2P is raising all the prices in the C-Store, taking away the free ship upon promotion and basically making the game a "Pay as you go" plan. So far I'm not liking any of the changes being made already as F2P looms.