Since before SWTOR first came out, there has been talk about bringing it to the consoles. But that is all it was… talk. What began as a mixup turned into rumors that were debunked by BioWare. While some players scoff at the idea of SWTOR on console, there are some who really want to see it happen one day. The idea of bringing MMOs of consoles is not a new one but it’s not one that any developer has been ready to tackle. That is, until now. World of Warcraft lead systems designer Greg Street would be keen to bring the company’s MMO experience to next-generation consoles, says VG 24/7. They go on to say: “I would personally be very excited to see that, it would be a huge challenge to take something like World Of Warcraft with its massive hard drive footprint and its reliance on mouse and keyboard,”…
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SWTOR Not Hurting WoW as Much as Some May Think
We just heard from EA’s quarterly earnings call that sales of SWTOR are doing great and that they have 1.7 million active users as of February 1st. This news puts something of a muzzle on the nay-sayers who were accusing SWTOR of being a flop. However, we still return to the comparison of SWTOR vs. WoW and this begs the question: Just how much is Blizzard’s cash cow WoW hurting from the success of SWTOR? A report on Venture Beat says it might not be as much as we think. They tell us that traffic reports from leading independent community websites for both of these online games show that SWTOR has actually affected WoW very little at this time. When EA reported a strong number of 1.7 million active SWTOR users on February 1st, it left many industry observers wondering how much this gain had hurt World of Warcraft. The…
EA Claims SWTOR Did Better than WoW in First Month
In the quarterly earnings call for Electronic Arts, they announced they had 1.7 million active subscribers to SWTOR. These are some pretty huge numbers but just what do they mean? These figures count the number of players who have subscribed to the game past the first month free trial you get with purchase. This means that Star Wars: The Old Republic has gained more followers in the first month than Blizzard Entertainment’s immensely popular World Of Warcraft (WoW) did during the same period. (via Hexus) Of course, these are just early figures and in the SWTOR vs WoW arena, Blizzard has a 7-year head start. The true test of MMORPG brilliance will come when we see where SWTOR is in the long run. Where will they be after 6 months? What about a year from release? What about 7 years? The true test of success lies in whether or not…
The Sith Inquisition: Kotick Attacks The Old Republic; Experts Fight Back
In a recent articles , Bobby Kotick, head of Activision, publicly stated that he felt The Old Republic had little real chance of success, not only because Lucasarts was going to drain most of the revenue their direction, but because the amount EA needs to receive in the number of subscriptions from launch or withing one quarter of launch is simply too high. He went on to describe other minor points of error he felt were important, but they simply weren’t important enough to be restated here. Experts immediately retorted with accusations that Kotick, despite being one of the biggest heavy hitters in the industry, had no real information or facts to back up what he was saying. One analyst, Michael Pachter was quoted as saying, “Based on used commentary and user surveys, the profit potential for The Old Republic is high.” This outpouring of support from industry experts begs the…
1.6 Million WoW players ‘could switch to Old Republic’ according to surveys
The battle between SWTOR and WoW rages on and as we get even closer to the launch date of TOR (December 20th) we continue to hear talk of WoW players who are or are not planning to jump ship and trade one game for the other. “Analyst house Lazard Capital Markets thinks World of Warcraft could lose between 900,000 and 1.6 million players following December’s Star Wars: The Old Republic launch”, as reported on Computer and Video Games. The stats aren’t really that surprising when you think about it. People are getting tired of WoW. It’s something we’ve written about many times and this also wouldn’t be the first analyst or expert to make such a prediction. The story explains: “A recent survey conducted by the firm in conjunction with Peanut Labs found that over 50 percent of 381 respondents have grown tired of Blizzard’s game.” This really isn’t a…
Activision Blizzard Stock Ticker Report: Any New Tricks Up Their Sleeve?
A report this past week about Activision Blizzard’s stock showed us that they have nothing big going on and stand a chance to drop later in the year. They are the second most valuable game company in the world, below Nintendo, but there are other companies looking to edge in on some of that profit. We’ve heard the comparisons made before, especially in the MMO scene. Time and time again over the past 6-7 years, there have been companies who hoped to do what Blizzard has done with the very popular MMORPG World of Warcraft. The article from Games Industry talks about Activision Blizzard’s stock and how they are faring particularly well against a large platform holder like Nintendo. Titles like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft have helped soar them to their current level but how long will they reign? With many anticipators feeling SWTOR might be the…
New WoW ‘Expansion Mists of Pandaria’ Announced as Gamers Wait for SWTOR
We’re down to only two more months until the release of SWTOR (finally) and Blizzard has finally decided to reveal info about their next expansion, Mists of Pandaria. For those who have been waiting for the chance to play drunken Monks, it has arrived! Details: “”This next expansion set is set in a place lost to time for the last 10,000 years. A land of harmony, and beauty, and hope. That is, until we arrived. With all our hate and our violence and our unending faction conflict, the war that is coming for the World of Warcraft will be fought in this gentle place.”” The expansion will have: New Race: Pandaren New Class: Monk New Continent: Pandaria Level Cap 90 Pet Battle System New Talent System Check out the official trailer: Learn more about the fourth World of Warcraft expansion set, Mists of Pandaria, on Blizzard’s official website. Will the…
Blizzard Revealing Project Titan Next Month? – Gloves are off!
Update: In a comment to IGN, a Blizzard representative stated that its ‘unannounced MMO’ will not be talked about at this year’s BlizzCon The rumor mill is out and it looks like the long awaited “casual MMO” from Blizzard code named Titan may be revealed next month at BlizzCon 2011. Pressures from the release date announcement of SWTOR and the delay of Diablo 3 may have led Blizzard to push up the release of news about their new secret project. At least one analyst believes the news might be coming sooner than we thought. “If they are holding any juicy details, it’s going to be announced at BlizzCon,” M2 Research senior analyst Billy Pidgeon said. “”The big news is probably going to be a Diablo 3 date and a possible new announcement about one or more new properties.”” Previous reports have revealed rumors about this potential project. They tell us…
Blizzard Wish Success for Star Wars: The Old Republic
So it turns out Blizzard can not only produce a masterclass in MMOs, but also a masterclass in… class. Narrowly following comments by EA that World of Warcraft was in some respects like a shopping list, the Blizzard riposte was to wish their rivals well and remark on how a bigger pie means bigger slices for everyone, or something to that effect. Blizzard’s co-founder and Executive Vice President, Frank Pearce, tells MCV in an interview that, “This is a game that has an opportunity to grow the MMO market if done right and therefore is very important to the industry as a whole, not just EA. “We’ve talked about this internally and from our perspective we hope they make an enjoyable game because they’re going to bring in a lot of new players to the MMO genre, and those players’ idea of whether or not they like this type of…