And the good news just keeps on flowing.
Isn’t it strange that this wasn’t reflected on fictional table generator Superdata’s info? I wonder why that is, those guys seem so well informed about everything else…
SW:TOR getting put out of its misery in 2015 is looking like a solid bet at this point, though I think the real question now is which will go offline first, this giant disaster or LotRO?
Hardcore Casual 
Both of those games were such massive, massive disappointments. SWTOR got more hype but LOTRO was also a tragic waste of an amazing license. Ugh.
I found that brief paragraph hard to parse. Firstly they bundle four titles together and then they talk about a “decrease in revenue” from those four set against an increase in revenue for the company as a whole.
Does that mean those four games are loss-making or just that they aren’t making as much profit as they made the year before? It would be surprising if SW:TOR was losing money, surely? If it’s just not making as much as it used to make I wouldn’t think that would lead to a closure. EA isn’t NCSoft after all.
I still haven’t even gotten around to trying it so I hope it hangs around a while. I kind of had it penciled in for a slow week sometime. Then again I’ve had AoC marked for that for years now and there’s never been a week slow enough yet…
Same thought as Bhagpuss. They have been #2 on the DD for some time now. http://nosygamer.blogspot.ca/2014/11/the-digital-dozen-4-november-2014.html
And yes, I realize that #2 in play time doesn’t mean #2 in cash, and that XFIRE sure isn’t an absolute metric.
If you brace yourself for an on rails, single player RPG that has a bad story, bad action bar combat, and immersion killing MMO tropes like other people running around doing the same quests as you, it might live up to your expectations.
They’re not loss-making, just things that were important for their revenue last year that are not major elements this year. The sentence just previous to that in the filing is that they had a $476 million increase in revenue from FIFA, Battlefield, and Titanfall franchises.
If you look at all those games, the ones that are plus to revenue are ones that came out this year and had no release last year. The ones that are minus like Dead Space had no release this year to earn money, or are SWTOR.
bhagpuss,
I think you’re conflating revenue and profit.
It’s entirely possible that SWTOR might be more profitable on decreased revenue streams if the maintenance, development cost, depreciation etc inputs were reduced in the quarter.
Note I’m not saying that this happened – just that we (Syncaine)don’t have enough info to snark
Sure I do; in a quarterly report that is intended to boost the stock price by spinning news and numbers, outright stating that revenue is down for something isn’t good news.
I mean, lets pretend revenue was down but they also cut enough costs to increase (or have) profits. On said financial report, if your job is to make things look good, would you mentioned the revenue without the increase in profits?
And, on a completely unrelated note, the Damion Schubert announced he was leaving EA and SWTOR.
EA has a long history or impatience with titles they feel are under performing. They don’t leave servers up for games not still making sales one minute longer than they have to. I suspect that if SWTOR was part of some other company… except NCsoft… it would linger for years… or until Disney got a better offer elsewhere.
LOTRO has had its moments over the years. I have gotten more than my money’s worth out of that lifetime subscription. But Turbine having both the D&D and LOTR MMO franchise… in hindsight that seems like bad decisions somewhere. And Turbine jumping into the MOBA market? Well, Blizz has a chance, Turbine doesn’t.
Lotro is one of the best games out there…it has the most immersive virtual world currently and I will be sad to see it go offline. The combat lacks a lot, but I wouldn’t want it in the hands of lets say Blizzard and running with motorbikes in middle earth.
If anything, the world is true to the licence. The problem with lotro was that it released when wow was on its peak. Anyway, if the game go offline I wonder who will pick the IP to make a new MMO and how they will make it..
Honestly, I think LOTRO was one of the worst licences to pick for an MMO. The main reason is that you are limited by the story. It has ended in the books and generally involved no one else but the original main cast of Frodo, Legolas and company. They are not going to let you expand the world or develop it further. The best you can do is tell smaller stories within the world (like Shadow of Mordor) or retell the original story. LOTRO opted to stretch out the original story for years. We are still nowhere near Mordor. Did Turbine really expect a million people to be playing a game for ten years where they are still only as far as Rohan? Lol.
They would have been better served doing a single player or co op style RPG (where you play the real heroes) with DLC. There’s nothing immersive in a Middle Earth where hundreds of people are all running around killing ten rats.
As for another LOTRO if the licence expires: never. The franchise is too restrictive to be able to do anything radically different from Turbine and would involve having to retell the same story over again.
Yawn. 3-year old themepark MMO is not making as much profit as it was making when it launched – news at 11.
I bet Anarchy Online outlasts them both.