Star Wars: The Old Republic to be microtransaction-based [Updated]
by Michael Zenke 
Dec 9th 2008 at 8:15PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, Business models, New titles, Star Wars: The Old Republic
To end a somewhat surprisingly eventful day for the RMT and microtrasaction model, EA has announced that Star Wars: The Old Republic will not be subscription-based. Instead, the title will be gain revenue from a microtransactional model. Shacknews reports this surprising tidbit from a conference call held by the mega-publisher earlier today. Said CEO John Riccitiello, "The Star Wars online MMO [is a] mid-session game, microtransaction-based. You'll be hearing more about those in the February [conference] call." According to the game news site, "Mid-session" is a term that EA uses synonymously with microtransaction-supported titles. This fits effortlessly into EA's portfolio alongside games like Warhammer Online and the DICE title Battlefield Online.
Everything we've seen regarding information on the title had it positioned as a big-budget title, leading us to wondering what kind of game we're going to be dealing with when the game finally launches. There are only a handful of AAA-funding titles based on the free-to-play business model, and none have the cachet of a Star Wars IP. We'll follow this story as it develops.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
david said on 8:24PM 12-09-2008
Thats amazing... free-to-play MMO and its Star Wars. They will definitely make a TON of money from this game... I will preorder as early as I can... can't wait for this game! :D
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Mythanotos said on 2:52PM 1-31-2009
I agree... I'm as good as in on this game!
FarSpace said on 12:00PM 12-12-2008
Good point lethality, and so I would like to add that I'm thinking there are going to be so many pretty darn good MMO's out there in the future.
In order for companies to keep making more MMO's they might need to all give us the opportunity to choose when to pay up with MT's and that way everyone can stay in business.
MMO's can not work on the assumption for much longer that they will be able to pull people from other games any more and no matter how good TOR will be people will still be inching to leave after a while to play some of the other great MMO's coming along.
It's like a kid in a candy shop, you can't expect them to want only one type of candy, enough but no all, but enough people need variety.
MMO's are like friends not so much partners in life or a Girl/Boyfriend were you should stay loyal to one.
Also I don't think MMO's are not worth staying with just one, I think they are pretty good but the other MMO's are good too.
MMO's are and will be engaging enough to stay with them but some people will want to stay with more then one or switch around and MT's give them the ability to keep all the MMO's running.
WoW is mostly got 2 1/2 million players from the N. America because of advertisement anyways.
We need a way to keep an MMO's temporarily low on pop to keep the money coming in. So people in MMO's like TR will not loose their game and big games like WoW will not have to fire staff even if only the player pop is lower one year.
Wjowski said on 8:32PM 12-09-2008
Suckers!
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xslipperyx said on 8:25PM 12-09-2008
I think I'd rather pay a monthly fee and be on even ground with everyone else than have a game nickel and dime me for every nice piece of equipment.
The game isn't out yet though and we don't eve know how this will work so I'll keep my hopes up and pray that this game lives up to what I'm dreaming it up to be :)
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Utakata said on 8:31PM 12-09-2008
Oh great...players with money than me get to be better than me. Naaaah, no thanks...I'll just skip it.
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Rollins said on 8:31PM 12-09-2008
Well, that's one way to avoid having it compete with Warhammer. Could be an extremely smart decision on EA's part.
I'm wondering if it's really going to be much of an MMO at all. I suspected when they first started talking about it that it could end up being very similar to Guild Wars as far as how the storyline is implemented. Now there's another similarity.
This also answers how LucasArts plans to have SWG and SW:TOR operating simultaneously.
It all makes sense now.
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Tony said on 8:34PM 12-09-2008
I have to say I'm 20 times more likely to try this now.
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Wjowski said on 8:52PM 12-09-2008
"Congrats you qualify for level 2, please pay 3.95, for the next level."
Tony said on 8:53PM 12-09-2008
Usually fees of this nature revolve around items, not level access. I'm not quite that naive lol.
Joe_the_mad26 said on 2:46AM 12-10-2008
Wow. I find myself, for the first time, at an almost complete loss for words. Though, in truth, I find myself somewhat conflicted by this course of action on EA's part.
As has been stated in above posts, this choice could prove a boon for EA in that having a Micro-transaction based AAA-MMO residing in the Star Wars IP almost ensures the game's success; at least in the short term, hopefully in the long term.
However, as has also been posted above, there now resides a possibility that "Elite" status in the game may have more to do with the size of your check-book, as apposed to game skill. One does not require control of the Force to foresee some possible problems in that re-guard.
In Truth, I agree with the view point that the game is still a long way off, and as such, one can not really make a solid observation on which way the tide will turn for TOR.
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Hardy said on 8:53PM 12-09-2008
Wah wah, people say players with money will get the best equipment...BUT
If you really think about it, you can play for free and enjoy it.
Or spend 15 bucks a month and probably get the gear you think you won't get.
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BookhouseBoy said on 8:56PM 12-09-2008
The way I see it... if you were willing to pay $15 or so a month, then all you have to do is figure maybe you'll pay $10-$15 a month for microtransitions, and you'll be more or less on the same playing ground, financially, and you'll have an advantage over people who just play it for free. So... what's the problem ?
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keylight said on 8:48AM 12-10-2008
I think the point being that if you decided $10-$15 was what you were going to spend a month, there will be quite a few that will decide $40-$50 is their budget. I'm sure there will even be the people that think $100/month is do-able.
Think about most trading card games.. the person with the best cards has a huge advantage over the guy that buys one deck and thinks that he can play with everyone. To be the best in these games, it takes time, money, and skill. At a constant monthly rate, you eliminate the money factor.
Samael said on 8:58PM 12-09-2008
Ok this turned me off really and hope this is a rumor. I had such high hopes for the game. As this is a SW game that Bioware is making, I will give it a try, but now I am not nearly as excited as I was before :( this sucks.
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Jef said on 9:15PM 12-09-2008
You guys realize that they'll likely be charging a regular subscription fee plus the microtransactions right?
Lol, all of this 'oh the RMT will save you money' sentiment is a little naive.
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Lateris said on 9:56PM 12-09-2008
I am sorry but to me this is a major let down. The Star Wars IP is even more of a joke if this news appears to be true. With that in mind if it is true I will pass on this game. I don't think it is going to be worth my time or money.
What a bunch of sell outs.
Ingrod said on 10:30PM 12-09-2008
They said clearly that will not be subscripcion based.
Perhaps similar to Guild Wars or some mixed system.
Mr Angry said on 9:17PM 12-09-2008
From the SOE forums :
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=45&topic_id=438353
Smedley is hurting a bit over recent MT criticism and so pulled a news story to justify the introduction of this model to Everquest. He is comparing an absolutely unknown model which will be introduced with SW:ToR to something they shoehorned into a subscription game. Now does that speak volumes about the differences in management style between these two companies.
There is one major difference here. EQ players have been playing 10 years and this was dropped on them with absolutely no warning.
Bioware has released this information to customers right now to allow them to determine if that is right for them.
Big, big difference. He gives his own opinion on what his preference is when playing a game, that he doesn't mind this model and will make micro transactions for other games.
Well that's great except for the fact that if anyone ever found out Smedley was playing an online game, he'd need to open his wallet as wide as he can to try and get out of the permanent griefing he would endure by any means possible.
Looking at the EQ2 gear for 'sale' it's pretty lame right now. They know it's controversial, so they have held back the more desirable stuff for later.
Smed if you read this, let me tell you something, the game is everquest right, not everbuy, not everstationcredits. You have willfully diverted resource from the games you've pushed out to ensure people have to pay for these assets without warning. Did it not dawn on you that :
'Hey guys, this might piss people off if we just push this out the door today, shall we give them some warning?'
'Nah, what they don't know won't hurt them'
You want to earn money from MT, take a leaf out of Bioware's book and communicate, inform and get people behind the idea. While it might not be a popular model for Western gamers, at least they know what they are wasting their time doing.
It might be fluff, but Bioware didn't actually offer an explanation right now to item availability, it might be episodic content (such as the adventure packs SOE used to sell), it might be character slots, you can not contrast what Bioware have planned against what SOE have done.
Finally, Smed has a big ass pair of balls even mentioning another Star Wars game with his track record. It seems the wounds of the NGE open up once again with players calling foul and SOE scrambling to align themselves with an exciting new game from one of the premier developers of PC games.
Sorry to go off SW:ToR, but I saw this response and felt it was appropriate to show how far ahead of the game Bioware is when it comes to a game not even released as yet. I might not like Micro Tranasctions, but I appreciate the heads up regardless.
You want to extol the virtues of Micro Transactions and think it's such a good idea, SOE, make EQ2 free to play, I just dare you, and see how successful that going to be.
You've earned a whole lot of cash from these games up to now, you've fallen behind the times by poor management and some bad decisions after the excellent revamp to EQ2, and now you are just hitting up players for a bit more cash.
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Lunazen111 said on 7:01PM 12-10-2008
That was brilliant and I agree completely. When Smed mentioned another Star Wars MMO, I wanted to reach through the screen and smack him.. he's got balls.