When Bobby talks about generic themepark MMOs that might have trouble retaining players, he is speaking from experience here.
I mean look, what’s more likely to get you to keep throwing $15 into a hole, dated-looking Pandas, or ten blaster shots to the face? A cheap pokemon knockoff sideshow, or a 2004 game with a fan-made-quality Star Wars graphical conversion? Skipping quest voiceovers or raiding with dumber-than-bots anonomous raiders? Welfare epics or welfare Sci-Fi epics?
When Bobby talks of failure, you should listen to the expert!
Hardcore Casual 
The graphics look -just- like The Clone Wars cartoon, which is not what most adults associate with Star Wars or even KotOR for that matter. After checking out the beta for shits and giggles a few weeks back, I’m now convinced this game is for those who have recently outgrown SOE’s The Clone Wars — though I suspect it will still appeal to adults who prefer their gaming time to be mindless and predictable.
Le Sigh. Le Sigh.
Spoken like a true emperor whose empire is on the brink of decline. It’s uncanny.
I’m pretty sure that the 2004 game released at the end of 2011 won’t make the billions that the 2004 game released at the end of 2004 did.
But, based on the number of pre-orders, and my own unscientific measurement of happy people vs. disappointed people in the beta, I think it is still going to make hundreds of millions of dollars.
OK, maybe EA will only have an olympic swimming pool full of money, rather than a large freshwater lake like Bobby Kotick, but I don’t think they’re going to be dissatisfied. They might not make the money off you, and they won’t make it off me either, but they’ll make it from a huge slavering crowd that DO want ten blaster shots to the face, a 2004 game with a fan-made-quality Star Wars graphical conversion, skipping quest voiceovers and welfare Sci-Fi epics.
Oh I fully agree.
The sheeple doom us yet again.
(Although Bobby was not involved in 2004 WoW. He came later. Like… around decline time, 2007ish)
I think part of his point is that Lucas Arts will take in a good chunk of that swimming pool, not EA. Maybe they get to keep the shallow end? Seems to fit the community.
No doubt about it, Lucasarts are in on a sweet deal, they can just sit back and keep on cashing the cheques they earned by entertaining us 30 years ago, while EA invest the big bucks and wear the risk.
But I think Kotick is being a bit disingenuous when he jumps from “Lucas is going to be the principal beneficiary” to “I don’t really understand how the economics work for Electronic Arts.”
I find it pretty easy to believe that the Star Wars name, blisteringly expensive though it may be to license, will be a net positive for EA on this title.
I honestly don’t know about that. The number’s might not add up. What’s the budget at now? 250 million, 300 million?
What if SWTOR doesn’t get WoW levels of success? If SWTOR does as well as RIFT (the next biggest MMO in the NA market) then it will take approximately 2.3 years before EA is seeing profits, thats excluding future development costs.
What if SWTOR can’t maintain those subscription levels for 2.3 years? The game is a huge risk on EA’s part.
Bobby does not care about games, its about money. I get it, he’s a CEO, but us gamers lose everytime Bobby opens his mouth.
SWTOR is fun game. And it already sold lots. I dont think it will last though. Past first 6 month it will be Rift 2.0
So… WoW 3.0? Or EQ 4.0…? :-/
It is funny but WoW has made more money since launch than every other MMO combined, People talk about it being in decline but it has more current players and every other MMO combined. Money talks and that other stuff walks!
Lineage disagrees.
I’m not sure you understand what ‘in decline’ means.
This article is awesome.
Also, the Clone Wars cartoons were awesome. Thank you, Samurai Jack creator, for giving us a diamond in the ever-expanding rough that is Lucas’s pool of drool.
Does anyone have any idea what kind of deal/cut LucasArts gets?
Did they get a lump sump license fee or some kind of percentage lifetime?