Star Wars MMO Estimated To Cost $100M 133
donniebaseball23 writes "EA's BioWare is developing its first-ever MMORPG in Star Wars: The Old Republic, and the publisher is betting big that the project will be a huge success. Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter says development alone cost an estimated $80 million, with marketing and distribution adding in another $20 million. The good news is it shouldn't take much to break even. 'We estimate that EA will cover its direct operating costs and break even at 500,000 subscribers (this is exceedingly conservative, and the actual figure is probably closer to 350,000), meaning that with 1.5 million paying subscribers, EA will have 1 million profitable subs,' Pachter noted."
They're now aiming for a release late this year, but acknowledged the possibility that it could slip to January 2012. If you're curious about the current state of the gameplay, Eurogamer and Rock, Paper, Shotgun (PvE, PvP) both posted write-ups of some recent hands-on time.
Re:Great... (Score:5, Funny)
Great, even more people will be camping their parent's basements.
What's the big deal? They'll be camping in their own parent's basements - not with you in yours!
You'll still have your parent's basement all to yourself.
Oh please... (Score:5, Funny)
Oh please... some of us are well adjusted adults with jobs and all, and can afford our own basement to camp in ;)
100M wtf? (Score:5, Funny)
Who is going to play that? Shit, I always balk a bit at $60 for a game, but, that's at least somewhat reasonable. I don't have 100 million burning a hole in my pocket though, good luck to anyone who picks up that title. Not going to be massively multiplayer with a cost like that!
citizens' fake terror tolerance rebates reduced? (Score:0, Funny)
j. public; 1 million $ each is just too much. what a group? recalculated, each citizen will get a $.5 million dollar$ unending patriotism stipend, at a total cost of less than 1 trillion (the 'new' billion) dollars, to our rulers, out of the holdings they hold in trust, for us, thank god. good thing we planned for endless terror? there'll be even more prosperity after the total disarmament, just in recycling that guaranteed fatal crud into useful life extending stuff. as for the 'weather', we can now buy better boats (floating bunkers), due to the thoughtful diligence of our
self-appointed rulers?
Re:but... (Score:5, Funny)
Since each class supposedly has its very own storyline...
Yeah, so instead of not reading the dialog box about how your carbine soldier needs to deliver 45 wombat hides you can not read the dialog that pops up from the same NPC asking you to collect 45 wombat furs.
Re:Great... (Score:4, Funny)
I have some. I can mod someone for you as long as I don't post.
D'oh!