Star Wars MMO Estimated To Cost $100M

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:but...

[nschubach]

You say that like there are people in the world not disgruntled by EA (ex-employees and non-employees [ie: gamers])

EA has single handedly destroyed my will to game. I've been seeking out game publishers that don't treat their customers like pond scum to be able to play decent games and every time I do, EA scoops them up and infects them with viral hate goo.

Re:but...

[Onuma]

www.leagueoflegends.com www.firefallthegame.com (release expected later this year). Both free 2 play. Both not EA- or Activision-owned. May not be your style, but I've met the developers of both games and was impressed by their willingness to have open two-way dialog with the gamer base. IMO, people are tired of spending $50 for a retail game, being forced to pay a subscription fee, and then finding out after a short while that the game isn't at all what was expected. Free 2 play can still offer gaming companies large profit margins while putting out quality work. A publicly traded company is always going to put the stockholder's interest in mind, not the game play experience.

Re:acknowledged the possibility that it could slip

[Onuma]

After Valve has proven with three titles now (L4D, L4D2, Portal 2), a spring release can still be extremely profitable.

FYI: L4D and L4D2 were both Q4 releases (November 2008/2009, respectively). They often have major sales via Steam in the springtime to boost their numbers, as well as various holidays and seasons as well. Perhaps this is where you got mixed up.