The Old Republic is off to a solid start, but where it goes in the next months remains to be seen.
Sometimes we can count on quarterly financial calls dropping hints about games we’re looking forward to, but there was no such excitement in today’s third quarter earnings call by Electronic Arts.
That said, there was plenty to chew on during the hour-long call.
Throughout, CEO John Riccitiello and friends bobbed and weaved between numbers and pats on the back regarding the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic, and I jotted down these bits for you.
- Origin now has 9.3 million users.
- The Old Republic sold two million copies across retail, digital.
- TOR has 1.7 million active users, with 300,000 users having “opted out” (read: quit) or not started at all.
- A “majority” of the 1.7 million active users of TOR are paying subscribers.
- EA was reluctant to discuss the outlook of TOR, saying it had avoided the worst outcomes, the game was profitable, but that “there could be a wide range of outcomes.”
- There will be a “major update, larger than the first [one]” for TOR sometime in March.
- Pre-orders for Mass Effect 3 are currently ahead of where Mass Effect 2 during the same period.
- Battlefield 3 sold more than 11 million copies, and more downloadable content is coming.
- EA claims to have had 11% of the first-person-shooter “market” prior to Battlefield 3. Now, it claims to have 23%.
- Mobile games are a $100 million-per-year business for EA.
- The company expects to generate more than $100 million from FIFA Ultimate Team in the next year.
- A major social game, based on an unknown but existing EA property, has been delayed a few months.
- There will be five new Facebook games based on EA properties within the next year.
- When asked about copying in social games, Riccitiello said this: “Fast iteration and mimicry is something we have to guard against.”
The most interesting financial call of the week, however, should come tomorrow from THQ.
FACEBOOK GAMES WOO
Fuck these Fifa hackers. I just got my account back
That last quote from Riccitiello is probably the most telling of where EA is.
Those numbers sound good for TOR, but if that were the case wouldnt' they be more upbeat?
Good to see Battlefield 3 selling a bunch. Hell of a game. I bought both the PC and PS3 version.
Fuck EA, I rather hear about them dying then THQ.
I just realized I'm one of those 9.3 million Origin users and all I've bought since I registered was Burnout Paradise for 5 bucks.
@Shaanyboi: Saying that TOR was profitable already is very ignorant. MMO's are long term investments. The 200 million spent are nowhere CLOSE to being earned back yet and the game is just over a month old. Wait half a year and check the numbers to see if it can be profitable. It might still crash and burn. Seeing how the general response across message boards seems very negative it could get very ugly.
I bought Battlefield 3 on Origin a few weeks ago. It's good to see the game has succeeded and is holding a large portion of the FPS crowd. It certainly deserves it. I enjoyed the campaign but the multiplayer along with Battlelog has made it one of the best PC games I've bought in a long time. I'm just lovin' Battlelog.
@patrickklepek said:
I would be really interested in the percentage of users that opted out after the free month ran out. Those 1.7 million are a mix of subscribers and players that started the game after launch.
THQ financial call will try hard to make it sound that everything is ok. Poor fellas.
@jozzy said:
Based on what EA has said, a "majority" means roughly 800,000 users are paying.
I'm confused on the TOR numbers. If I remember correctly, they stated that they needed 500k in steady subscribers to be profitable. The 1.7m is much higher than that. Almost 3x. So why aren't they very excited?
It also contradicts what I've read elsewhere, but who's to say that other information is valid?
My desire to own Battlefield and Mass Effect 3 has me contributing to these numbers but I don't foresee using Origin except in the instances when I'm forced to by this stupid EA/Valve disagreement. I really dislike the idea of having separate digital distribution platforms for all my games.
@Paul_Is_Drunk said:
A "majority" are paying, not 1.7 million. It's more than 500,000, but they need to maintain and expand that to recoup. Being profitable upfront doesn't mean the gamble is an entire success. They need to make back everything they've spent and more, not just cover daily operating costs.
@patrickklepek said:
Now i'm no doctor but isn't 800k less than half of 1.700.000?
some "Majority" EA
Didn't really guard too well against that when you guys developed SWTOR to be WoW in space, did you?