Casual gamers are to blame for a significant fall in Star Wars: The Old Republic subscriptions, according to EA.
Subscribers to the BioWare-developed MMO dropped from 1.7 million in February to 1.3 million last month.
EA Games label boss Frank Gibeau told investors last night that the 400,000 drop was due to casual gamers, perhaps enticed in by the Star Wars brand, neglecting to subscribe after the game passed through a billing cycle.
Electronic Arts is offering all active Star Wars: The Old Republic players with a level 50 character 30 days free play time.
Additionally, any former player who reactives their account will receive seven days free play time. Those who reactivate their accounts before the 22nd of April also be eligible to receive a tauntaun legacy pet, currently available to all active subscribers.
The full terms and conditions can be found here.
Electronic Arts has responded to a letter-writing campaign by anti-gay pressure groups calling for the publisher to remove same-sex relationships from BioWare’s Mass Effect and Star Wars games, saying it has no plans to censor such content.
The complaints appear to come from the members of two religious groups, the Florida Family Association and the Family Research Council.
One such letter reads: “It was troubling to learn that BioWare and Electronic Arts were pressured into committing to add LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender] content to Star Wars videogames.
BioWare is hoping to woo fresh bantha pudu into a galaxy far, far away by making Star Wars: The Old Republic free-to-play this weekend.
From 6.01pm Friday NZT to 8.00pm Tuesday NZT, anyone will be able to experience BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic.
All server types will be available and any characters created will be saved in the event those trialling the game wish to sign up at a later time.
Bioware MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic was up to nearly 1.7 million monthly subscribers at the end of February, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello has told investors.
The game was only released in New Zealand on 1 March, but had been available since before Christmas in North America and Europe. The "vast majority" of players are into full-on paid subscription mode, having passed beyond the free month of play time included with the game, EA said.
Analyst Doug Creutz of Cowen and Company is expecting SWTOR to reach 2 million monthly subscribers by the end of June.
BioWare has answered several questions regarding the future content patches for MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, revealing upcoming changes to planet docking, and discussing loot rolling for companions.
“We've absolutely heard what the fans are saying and have been exploring options to address these issues,” said senior designer Brian Audette. “While we are still investigating allowing speeder use in Space Ports, we've also been looking for other ways to get people from point A to point B with greater haste.”
There will also be significant updates to end-game crafting. Georg Zoeller said, “With the upcoming Game Update 1.2, we are adding endgame crafting for all professions. This includes augment crafting, the ability to crit-craft custom (orange) gear with augment slots, new endgame schematics, new color crystals, expanded and improved research and reverse engineering and much more (we're up to 4 pages of crew skill related patch notes in 1.2. alone).”
UPDATE: Electronic Arts has confirmed to Gameplanet that the Asia-Pacific servers for Star Wars: The Old Republic will be hosted in Australia.
ORIGINAL: Electronic Arts has announced today that Star Wars: The Old Republic will launch in New Zealand on March 1st 2012.
The fast-growing MMO will also be released in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong on the same date.
The recently released 1.1 update for BioWare's MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic has caused significant player backlash due to multiple balancing issues.
A 227 page forum thread has revealed substantial dissatisfaction with valor point allocation in Ilum PvP due to turret farming, as well as serious spawn camping exploits.
In addition, stability issues such as loading screen glitches and excessive lag during confrontations has been raised by an extremely vocal, and increasingly hostile playerbase.
In Star Wars: The Old Republic, players will explore an age thousands of years before the rise of Darth Vader when war between the Old Republic and the Sith Empire divides the galaxy. Players can choose to play as Jedi, Sith, or a variety of other classic Star Wars roles, defining their personal story and determining their path down the light or dark side of the Force. Along the way, players will befriend courageous companions who will fight at their side or possibly betray them, based on the players’ actions. Players can also choose to team up with friends to battle enemies and overcome incredible challenges using dynamic Star Wars combat.
