BioWare Cutting SW:TOR Staff After 400K Player Dropoff

[Guest]

There are many who still enjoy this game and will continue to play, unlike the troll pack present here. Being one of those die-hard fans, I admit I'm disturbed that they cut their development team, the most important side of a video game when so much needs to be done. I hate how video game companies disproportionately stack their marketing team over development /sigh .

 

[xerroz]

Actually this is a not an abnormal thing to do with MMOs. Most if not all of those laid off were part of the development team so there's no longer any need to have that many people. Like you wouldn't need as many story writers or audio engineers as they did a year ago. With the massive budget they must've hire quite a good amount of extra people for each department than most studios do.

 

[schiwing]

"casual and trial players cycling out of the subscriber base, driving up the overall percentage of paying subscribers."

Keep telling that to yourself EA/Bioware, and maybe some day you'll convince yourselves.

 

[leongrado]

I don't see why they're surprised. The hundreds of other copies of WoW didn't work. I don't see why they expected anything different from slapping some Star Wars skin onto it. MMO companies will eventually learn that the only way to win is to reinvent the genre. That's why I really respect what games like Tera and GW2 are trying to do. I've personally played GW2 and it's one of the best MMO's I've ever tried. Plus with no sub fees I don't have to feel bad about actually having a life.

 

[tleavit]

I gotta admin, I haven't played a second since Diablo III came out and I was on one of the largest servers and its obvious that Diable III has killed their numbers at least in the short term. After playing Diablo, I just cant even get into SWOR. I suspect Ill keep my subscription and go back when Diablo hits that point where the repetition kills me.

 

[Cy-Kill]

[citation][nom]theunfrailhale[/nom]someone needs to think outside (the) genre.[/citation]

Supposedly that is what Bethesda is trying to do with Elder Scrolls Online, and like BioWare will be using the Hero Engine, because they are too lazy to make their own!

 

[Guest]

Solo'd all of D3 in normal mode on monk. Only a couple real challenges that each took maybe 20 mins more. Kind of disappointed at end, since it's too easy. At the end of my normal mode full clear of D3 my monk is only lvl 31. As for SWTOR, took a largely crafted gear and PvP geared Seer into a guild. Went in on heroic raids as one of the two healers cleared H EV and H KP in a few hours. I never did normal mode SWTOR raids, but heroics were easy, even in my gear. SWTOR guild is going inactive over the next month without more content soon. They've clear nightmare mode on all but last raid. Sad. Very good guild though. SWTOR isn't even close to WoW in raid difficulty.

 

[ringzero]

[citation][nom]xerroz[/nom]Actually this is a not an abnormal thing to do with MMOs. Most if not all of those laid off were part of the development team so there's no longer any need to have that many people. Like you wouldn't need as many story writers or audio engineers as they did a year ago. With the massive budget they must've hire quite a good amount of extra people for each department than most studios do.[/citation]

Except that no. MMOs require constant expansions to keep players interested. Development NEVER stops on an MMO.

 

[whimseh]

LOL.

Because MMOs are dying. Elder Scrolls Online will be subject to this as well, as awesome as their series is.

 

[Tab54o]

[citation][nom]bignick18[/nom]Glad im not alone[/citation]

You are definitely not alone.

 

[bildo123]

Yay. Now can we officially stop milking popular titles to suck in millions of dollars for crap games? How many more crap games and grinder MMOs do we need with some popular title slapped on to get everyone all pumped up?

 

[Guest]

Here is an email from one of the people that where laid off today from the SW:ToR project. I have cancelled my account.

"They laid off 25% of the staff (not contractors), including your favorite community manager, and going to be 1/3 by the time they are done. About 100 people gone from every department. The game is dead, the design direction has no clue what they are doing and never has. MMO decisions being made by people who have never played and don't like MMO's and just blatantly not listening to the people that do know what they are talking about. EA has basically given up on the game, it will not recover from this."

 

[sp0nger]

I laugh when gamers claim to be gamers but dont know a basic principle of the game industry

people are always let go when projects

 

[n3ard3ath]

When will they learn? Stop doing freaking MMOs. Bunch of greedy asses...

 

[Peenutts]

[citation][nom]electrontau[/nom]say what you want, WoW is still the king of MMORPG!!![/citation]


No, Ultima Online mid to late 90s is king of MMO

 

[sykozis]

SW:TOR is the #2 MMO at 1.3million subscribers? Did Rift's subscriptions bomb?

[citation][nom]Peenutts[/nom]No, Ultima Online mid to late 90s is king of MMO[/citation]
Don't recall UO ever reaching 12million subscribers.....which WoW did.

 

[dalauder]

How well can they expect SWTOR to do? It's missing the most basic element: fun.

It's mindless, unoriginal, and unsatisfying questing with Star Wars themed races and names, but not the real Star Wars character that made KOTOR fun or characters to make you care what happens.

 

[theroguex]

It's not like EA has ever done anything like this before. They haven't yet closed the studio and forced everyone to move to California to continue development or lose their jobs. You know, like Westwood Studios and Earth and Beyond. That was a pre-WoW MMO that was doing well until EA pulled their shenanigans.

 

[theroguex]

Sorry for the double post, just saw this and had to respond:

[citation][nom]sykozis[/nom]Don't recall UO ever reaching 12million subscribers.....which WoW did.[/citation]

UO still has an active subscriber base and is profitable. 15 YEARS LATER.

 

[demonhorde665]

[citation][nom]icasti1993[/nom]I would feel more inclided to support BW if they were not affiliated with EA. I do not SUPPORT bad business.[/citation]

I agree , i'd say i was almost heart broken when i ehard EA bought Bioware back in 08. but then i got over because ohoenstly bioware seems to be going down hil in general , with the exception of dragon age , they haven';t really matched their past sucesses of the baldur's gate series (on pc ).

 

[demonhorde665]

[citation][nom]Cy-Kill[/nom]Supposedly that is what Bethesda is trying to do with Elder Scrolls Online, and like BioWare will be using the Hero Engine, because they are too lazy to make their own![/citation]

this sis about one of the most ignorant things for some one to say about a game company regarding game engines. honestly you have ANY clue how many major games are built off licensed game engines. just counting The UDK alone I can list off more than a dozen triple A titles and un countable number of indie titles that use the UDK. most games today are not made on in house engines. It's not a matter of laziness , it's a matter of saving time and money , building whole new in house engines adds a massive ammount of time to development. not to mention all the issues a new engine can have bug wise., or the employees it takes to code a new engine. laziness HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT.

 

[ironmb]

I hate to say it, but this was going to happen regardless. SWTOR is basically WOW with star wars skins. Anyone who defends that this game is good, is just an actual fan of the star wars movies. This game is awful, and so is their customer support, anything they can't resolve or know that the customer is right on a forum post, they delete it. They delete so much information on their forums just to avoid the bad taste customers are displaying towards the game.

Diablo 3 had a tough launch, yes. But its definitely 100% better than SWTOR. And if you think diablo 3 is easy, you're just another one of those groupies who are in nightmare thinking that you can just cookie cut through inferno. Get to inferno try to solo then get back to QQ'ing its easy.

 

[freggo]

Nature of the beast. Anticipation runs high... than you spend a few long nights going thru all levels...and than routine sets in; boredom... and you start looking for the next new thrill.

Hmmm, just like some of my ex-relation ships before I grew up 🙂