World of Warcraft may have more than 12 million subscribers, but that doesn’t mean Star Wars: The Old Republic needs to surpass or even approach those sorts of numbers in order to be profitable.
During a conference call yesterday EA CFO Scott Brown talked about the number of subscribers BioWare’s upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic need to be profitable – and according to his comments on a recent conference call: it’s 500,000.
“”At half a million subscribers, the game is substantially profitable, but it’s not the kind of thing we would write home about,” he said. “”Anything north of a million subscribers, it’s a very profitable business.””
Tackling World of Warcraft is certainly a daunting task. Achieving one million subscribers, though? That’s not in any way a given, but it’s most definitely an achievable number for a quality MMO — especially one carrying the Star Wars name.
Brown had previously said that SWTOR, confirmed to be EA’s most expensive project ever, wouldn’t need an exorbitant number of subscribers to be profitable. During the conference call, he added that profits would “turn on a dime” the day it ships, which still hasn’t been confirmed.
My best guess is that BioWare and Star Wars fans combined would add up to 500,000. As with all MMOs, the trick is to keep players wearing their Mandalorian Armor after the initial purchasing binge at release. Because of its pedigree, it’d actually be a little depressing to see Old Republic fail, so lets hope it has the chops to retain the subscribers it needs.
