More Troubles for "Star Wars the Old Republic," Future of "Pay to Play" MMOs Questioned

A few days ago, "Star Wars the Old Republic" was given six nominations for the Annual Game Developers Choice Online Awards. But this seems to be the only good news for the once up and coming online game, which lately has had problems keeping up it's numbers of customers.

Earlier this summer, it was reported after initial success, "Star Wars the Old Republic" began dropping in subscribers. More recently has come another unfortunate development: SWTOR's executive producer Rich Vogel is reportedly leaving the company, in addition of talk of further layoffs from the game's developer Bioware.

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitello made the most interesting comment about the games recent troubles, "Our conclusion was we had a great product in Star Wars, but that the subscription model in the world of free-to-play was challenging." Indeed, there are reports that BioWare is considering going beyond the free trials to play the game to making it free to play. Riccitiello stated that EA was looking at "different models to bring in more users into the game," but would not confirm that a free-to-play one was in the works. The companies would only say, "In the weeks ahead, we will announce plans for growing The Old Republic with new content, new players, and new ways to play."

Hamlet Au commented that these troubles were a sure sign that the "pay to play" model for Massive Multiplayer Online Games was coming to a close, "if Vogel, one of the best MMO developers in the business, can't sustain a subscription-based MMO associated with the most well-known sci-fi fantasy franchise in the world, no one can." In my own opinion, I wouldn't say this means "pay to play" is over, but that "World of Warcraft" has pretty much cornered the market as it remains strong with millions of paying customers.

It should be noted that in recent months, World of Warcraft has been losing subscribers as well. The latest expansion, "The Mists of Pandaria" should help in the short term. The long term will require Blizzard being more successful at retaining customers than it currently is.

As for "Star Wars," I never could play it on my computer as no Mac version was ever developed.

Sources: Massively, Gamasutra, Brokentoys, Gamespot, New World Notes, Image from "Sneak Peek."

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab Annouces Rod Humble New CEO

On December 23rd on the official blog, BK Linden announced Linden Lab would have a new Cheif Executive Officer, starting mid-January. They had chosen Rod Humble, whom would be joining Linden Lab from Electronic Arts, where he had been Executive Vice President of EA Play.

Linden Lab's official statement described Humble as having a “20-year career in the game development industry,” with “work on more than 200 games.” He is most noted for his work on “The Sims,” in 2009 ranked seond on Edge magazine’s “Hot 100 Game Developers.” Before that, he was Vice President of Product Development for the online game “EverQuest,” which was the most popular MORPG before “World of Warcraft.”

Philip Rosedale stated, “Rod is a great new leader for Linden Lab. ... With Rod's fresh insights and deep experience in creating and leading the development of fun, intuitive, immersive entertainment experiences that have attracted massive audiences of loyal users, he's the right leader to understand what makes us special and bring the next level of growth to Second Life."

Humble’s words on the press release were, "Joining Linden Lab is a very exciting opportunity, ... have a long standing interest in the how the boundaries of society and economics change as communications evolve in new ways. Second Life is unique: it sits at the intersection of virtual worlds, avatars, and human contact. The Residents and developers of Second Life have built something very special, I am honored to join the talented team at Linden Lab to help expand this new frontier."

Humble will not be availale for interviews until some time after the New Year begins.

For the entry on the Linen Blog, Click Here. For the official press release, Click Here. To watch an interview of Rod Humble done in August about Electronic Arts' "Create," Click Here. For a list of some of the games to Rod Humble's credit, Click Here.

Picture from mobygames.com