SWTOR post-mortem

[Wirdschowerdn]

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Here're some mindboggling numbers:

It may be the largest entertainment production in history. More than 800 people on four continents have spent six years and nearly $200 million creating it. The story runs 1,600 hours, with hundreds of additional hours still being written. Nearly 1,000 actors have recorded dialogue for 4,000 characters in three languages.

At the Austin home office of game developer BioWare, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts, more than 400 designers, programmers, writers and artists have immersed themselves in the imagined Star Wars universe, surrounded by maps of the ice planet Hoth, armor designs for bounty hunters and even a five-day weather forecast for Princess Leia’s home world of Alderaan.

Art has been outsourced to Russia, Estonia and China. Motion capture filming is done in L.A. and Vancouver, Canada, with voices recorded in New York, London and Paris in English, French and German. Quality assurance testing takes place in Romania, Argentina and India, while technical operations are run out of Virginia and the customer service center operates in Ireland. A regular plane shuttles employees between Austin and Electronic Arts’ headquarters in Redwood Shores, Calif.

“Coordinating it all is like teaching elephants to do ballet,” said Greg Zeschuk, who co-founded BioWare with Ray Muzyka.

I just wonder how many proper singleplayer Kotor games could have been made with these ressources...

Gawd I so hope this turd fails.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Hope? Why do you need t hope it fails? It's going to fail.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

What kind of drug did Ray and Greg apply on poor John? I mean they are medical doctors, and D&D nerds, so they gotta know a thing or two about...alchemy.

Fuck. Them. All.

 

[Gerrard]

Most expensive flop in the history of entertainment.

That would look good on a CV.

 

[Average Manatee]

@500 million for development they need to reach WoW numbers just to break even. When this flops Bioware gets the axe, period. Even if they maintain 1 million people they need to squeeze $500 out of each one of them, that just isn't going to happen.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Ray and Greg will find ways to protect their investments, they'll just "convince" John and the EA board to axe 500 devs from other EA studios, can't have the mighty Bioware get touched and the BioDocs overtly humiliated.

That's how it really works.

 

[DragoFireheart]

No, Bioware is going to get the axe. First, it was DA2. Now, SW:TOR. EA is a fickle daemon lord and does not accept failure so lightly.

 

[Zed]

ME3 will save them. People seem to have perma-erections for that game.

 

[DragoFireheart]

ME3 will save them. People seem to have perma-erections for that game.

ME3 is going to flop. Just you wait: it's going to be compared to ME2 constantly. The fact that they had to pull the script to rewrite it after the leak is our first piece of evidence of ME3 failing. Could I be wrong? It's possible. But will I be wrong? Improbable at this rate. It's either ME3 that will do in Bioware or DA3. The quality of Bioware has suffered for quite awhile now. The last worthwhile game was BG2:SoA (expansion was ass).

 

[King Crispy]

People seem to have perma-erections for that game.

 

[Average Manatee]

ME3 will save them. People seem to have perma-erections for that game.

Not over 10 million erections, which is what TOR is costing them.

 

[Drakron]

ME3 is going to flop. Just you wait

Look, Mass Effect is not going to flop because people played ME1 and ME2, they will play ME3 to see the ending ... even if its ME2.5 its not going to perform worst that ME1.
Its not Dragon Age 2 were it moved so far from DA:O that was almost unrecognizable and there was no real investment of the player base to the series, at least not as in Mass Effect.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

ME3? Different team. Good there's gonna be a demo though.

I just can't possibly believe they can support TOR all these years along if they don't have at least 2 million subscribers. I think TOR right now only sold 1 million units, and there's gonna be lots of people jumping off after the 30 free days, and probably will never return.

 

[Drakron]

I think TOR right now only sold 1 million units, and there's gonna be lots of people jumping off after the 30 free days, and probably will never return.

They said it was profitable at 500k subscribers but I doubt they will have then, my guess is they would have around 300k after the free month and then comes the down-spiral so its going to be similar numbers of SW:G (that also sold a million copies at launch) before NGE.

 

[ChristofferC]

TOR will fail hard and nobody will dare to make a big budget MMO in the future except for Blizzard.

 

[racofer]

The question that matters most: when it fails, will they blame piracy?

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

500k is just to appear modest and confident in the face of the competitors.

A year ago they hoped for 2+ million.

Not to mention they also have to pay royalties to Lucas Arts, just for using the SW license.

 

[Valestein]

I don't think ME3 will flop but it's not going to have the Gears of War sales they're hoping for.

I have my fingers crossed that TOR will bomb hard and this depraved company goes the way of Westwood.

 

[Grunker]

Hope? Why do you need t hope it fails? It's going to fail.

The question that matters most: when it fails, will they blame piracy?

TOR will fail hard

ME3 is going to flop

preserved for a few cheap future lulz

 

[Serious_Business]

People are spouting that this shit cost 200mill, then 500mill. Which is it? At any rate, sounds like forced bullshit to me. TOR will do okay, Bioware will continue riding the mediocrity train for the next 10 years. There's no way these fucks are going down, even though their gimmicks are starting to get old even to the mainstream - which is quite extraordinary when you think about it, but then again it's only the vocal minority that is burying others in their complains, as usual (honourblade). That this minority is bigger than the Codex since DA2 doesn't mean jack shit

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

800 people and 6 years? Yeah, sounds like $200 million.

Either way, good luck recouping all that money.

 

[Kz3r0]

ME3 is going to flop. Just you wait: it's going to be compared to ME2 constantly. The fact that they had to pull the script to rewrite it after the leak is our first piece of evidence of ME3 failing. Could I be wrong? It's possible. But will I be wrong? Improbable at this rate. It's either ME3 that will do in Bioware or DA3. The quality of Bioware has suffered for quite awhile now. The last worthwhile game was BG2:SoA (expansion was ass).

What will bite them in the ass is that they crossed the gay line.
Bisexuality is fine and dandy when entails hot lesbian alien sex, but having a straight out gay character modeled after a US marine would not work.
People who play games for the marine factor tend to have some 'prejudice' about open gayness.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

They're Canadians, FFS. They are open-minded and tolerant people, what would you expect?

 

[Zed]

Whether or not TOR fails will be pretty clear in a few days when most people's free gametime run out. I personally just double-checked that they did not keep any info on my credit card and uninstalled the game.

I really don't think ME3 will flop though. I think the kinect thing is a waste of money, but the sales will make up for it.

 

[Sergiu64]

I pulled the first google result for the statistics, so it may be off on the numbers:

http://www.statisticbrain.com/star-wars-the-old-republic-statistics/

It claims the total cost of $155 million and that it sold 1.5 million units.

So just from sales of the game alone they regained 1.5mil*$60 = 90 million.

That only leaves 65 million to regain in subscription fees. If they lose 1 third of the people they'll still be pulling in 15 million per month.