Bioware & Lucasarts announce Star Wars: The Old Republic

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10071972-52.html

HOLYCRAP!

KOToR MMO headed by Bioware? Goodbye, life.

 

I wonder when the Star wars lineup will end, I hope it does not.

 

Boo! I want a KOTOR 3. What made the franchise so good was the storyline and game progression - both of which are sorely lacking in MMOs.

 

Kotor 3! This Sucks!

 

Loud Noises!

 

Lol@bioware.
ENJOY YOUR HUGELY INTRUSIVE DRM POLICIES

 

wahhhhhhhhh

 

It that wahhhh as in confusion, or agreeing, or just telling me to go cry?

 

the last one.

 

Good thing MMOs are boring and I didn't like any of the KOTR games. Sucks for you guys who are going to buy it and what a hassle it's going to be, enjoy the game though. I've nothing to cry about as I don't care about the game.

 

I'd rather have a KotOR III done by Obsidian. They may not have been given the time to complete II, but they had a nice gritty story going.

As far as DRM past a CD key, it'd be retarded to put it on an MMO.

 

Don't doubt the retardation of companies like Bioware and EA.

 

i know you're on the ever popular anti-drm bandwagon, but are you even familiar with bioware's reputation? you can't cast that all aside because of the EA purchase.

 

I also would much prefer a KOTOR 3 over this.

 

An MMO is one area where you don't have to worry about DRM.

 

Sure you can. EA has a debilitating effect on companies such as Bioware. EA has a long history of destroying studios and providing substandard product and community support. You cannot cast aside EA's proven record of destruction and abuse just because Bioware is involved. Bioware could easily become the next Westood, Maxis, Origin, or some other studio.

As far as this MMO, I think the quote "I have a bad feeling about this..." is most appropriate. The screenshots and artwork I've seen so far indicate this game will be a generic sci-fi RPG with lightsabers and Star Wars music. We'll have to wait and see if things improve, but at the moment the early previews don't look so great. I think they should have waited a while to release information about the game. Hopefully they'll tighten the focus and put more Star Wars into this game.

 

Yea you pretty much can. No matter what they tell you they still will screw Bioware over.
See Westwood and Maxis if you need more info.

 

heh I made a thread last june about this announcement so a little late Nontheless I am so psyched for this. good find

 

I like Kotor also but to me the best series is Jedi Outcast , Jedi Academy... where you can actually swing the lightsaber and use the force the way you want. I always prefer the action ones to role-playing.

 

kotor 3 ftw!

I dont play wow because i cant afford it, so this is rubbish!!

 

I have a bad feeling about this as well.


KOTOR 2 was arguably ruined by LucasArts and their forced deadlines.

Publishers are only intent on making money, and will force an unfinished game into the market, because all they care about is that people buy it.


I used to be a huge fan of Bioware. The only consolation is that they may be able to resist the bullying of EA, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

Being this a Star Wars title it'll probably be published by Lucasarts and not EA. So you don't have to worry about EA's drm.

 

same here , jedi acadmy was a great game, dumb plot but great gameplay.

 

I don't think this is a good idea. Somehow these companies got it in their heads that there is a continous stream of revenue in MMOs. Well, if EVERYBODY is making MMOs, there won't be a large enough player base to make up for the costs of running servers, continued patching, etc. WOW was really an exception here. And as I recall, Star Wars Galaxies wasn't exactly a success...

Incidentally, KotOR should have stayed single player. The mechanics worked quite well and the story line was great. Just a bit more development time than with KotOR 2 would be nice

 

Here's the game's website link that Bioware sent through their newsletter: http://www.swtor.com/info/?sourceid=ea2445

 

hmmm I sense a disturbance in force... lol I hated KOTOR2 even though I never played 1, played it for like 2-3 hours and gave up (didn't like the battle system). SW:TOR will probably have some kind of monthly fee so I'll just wait for Guild Wars 2. Plus I don't really like MMOs anyways.

 

wheres my mass effect MMO!!! WHERE!!!

 

hehe thats the thing is that there really is an ongoing stream of money from these games. think about it, you make the profit of selling whatever number of compies of the game + expansions eventually which makes a prfit already,and then as long as you have the subscribers to fill a couple servers, once theyre running $15 a month from thousands of people leaves a lot of extra money. MMO's will never stop being prfitable because when something new comes out, players will always switch.

 

Running and maintaining the servers is actually quite expensive. Plus since the customers pay a monthly fee, they expect service, ie regular patches and rooting out cheaters, which is also pretty costly in the long run. Only a few games will actually profitable over the long run, and I have some doubts that their number will increase with the constant release of new MMOs

 

Look, I know this is a forum and all and we have the right and platform to express our opinions, but this is quite possibly the dumbest quote. "I don't think it's a good idea?!?!? Dude, then don't buy the game. Apparently, "these companies" do know a thing or two about making money" because they are. The announcement for this game was released today and you're already saying I don't think it's a good idea. I don't think it's a good idea for you to post anything until you've had time to forumlate a half-way relevant thought.

 

And you don't have to reply to my posts if you think they're stupid. I was only pointing out that too many MMOs are released for too small of a market. Some will inevitably fail, and I would rather not see that happen to a Bioware game. It's basic economics, you know?
By the way, "I don't think this is a good idea" is the most basic way of formulating and argument. But if you can tell me an easier and clearer way of indicating one's disapproval of a concept, please let me know.

 

As for DRM... MMOs do not need them.

If they have any brain at all you will be able to download the baseline client from their website. (minus the cutscenes, high-res textures, and musical themes to reduce bandwidth hog)

Remember, with an MMO the game designer doesn't care if you copy the client. Copy all you want and hook more users... heck offer free trial keys on the website.

You cannot play without an open account... of which opening and creating costs the price of the retail box! Then it is X/month as long as you want to play.

Sleep well KotOR fans... DRM will not be necessary and even the most money hungry, drooling idiot of an executive won't have a leg to stand on to add it.

 

Lets say an mmo like age of conan launches. The game released on may 20th and by june second had sold over 500,00 copies. So lets see. 500,000 times $50 per game would be $25million dollars in two weeks. Over time, if he company can move a portion of that number of slaes like say 100,000 more games a month thats still a constans stream of revenue of $5 million a month. If a game takes around $30 million to develop which It likely wouldn't then AOC would break even within its first month probably. After that, all they have to do is pay for severs and subscribers will pay the rest.

If Aoc were to have roughly 20 severs open, andthose servers cost $2 million for the group and around $1 million to run a month, subscriptions would easily cover the costs, A game like wow has 10 million subscribers which is unlikely for any new mmo to reaco, but if Aoc holds on to ever 150,000 subscribers and the fee is $15 a month, they they would be making $2.25 million dollars a month along with at least 1 million more for people purchasing the game. Throw in an exapnsion dowon the road and an mmo can't possibly lose money. Also, when subscribers start to go down for a game, servers can be merged so that money is saved. AoC remember is a high end example. A lower key mmo wouldn't cost nearly as much to make and would result in far more gain in money.

 

True, but keep in mind that only a fraction of the money made from the initial purchase goes to the developer/publisher. So it's highly unlikely that AoC made $25 million profit from the sale of the game alone.
I'm not saying some MMOs aren't profitable, but I am saying the market is very compedetive. Very few people will buy subscriptions to more than one MMO, so a new MMO doesn't just have to appeal to new gamers, but must also convince some current players of other MMOs to give up their subscription, which ain't easy.