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Analyst Predicts Sales Of 2 Million Units At Launch For The Old Republic

Familiar industry analyst Michael Pachter with Wedbush Securities yesterday issued an investor note indicating he estimates that he expects Star Wars: The Old Republic to sell 2 million copies of the game at launch, with 1.5 million players hanging around beyond the traditionally included free month:

Pachter also weighed in on EA’s Star Wars: The Old Republic massively multiplayer online game. The analyst expects it will sell 2 million copies at launch, with 1.5 million of purchasers sticking around beyond a free one-month trial period. Earlier this year, Riccitiello told investors that the game could be “substantially profitable” with just 500,000 subscribers, with anything above 1 million monthly users making the game “very profitable.”

Pachter is the host of Pach Attack on GameTrailers, and you can follow him on Twitter here.

Source: GameSpot

 

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EA Summer Showcase – Live Stream

Later today, Electronic Arts will hold their Summer Showcase event from their headquarters in Redwood Shores, California. The good news for fans is that they’ll be providing a live stream!

What: Electronic Arts Summer Showcase
When: Thursday, July 7, 2011
When: 1:00PM PDT (4:00PM EDT)
Where: Right here! Click to tune into the live stream.

So what does that mean for fans of Star Wars: The Old Republic? Well, potentially, not much.

Earlier this week, BioWare Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid Tweeted that as far as he knew, The Old Republic would not be a part of the event:

@Rockjaw: EA’s summer showcase… AFAIK, #SWTOR will not be present. We just came back from E3! Stand down folks

Now, some news outlets are throwing TOR into the mix as far as anticipated coverage, but take it with a grain of salt:

Rumored content includes more on Battlefield 3, Need for Speed: The Run, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Syndicate, more on the Origin web store (and perhaps EA’s retail store ventures), and maybe even something from the ex-Call of Duty developers at Respawn Entertainment.

So, in the “better-safe-than-sorry” category, we figured we should make a note of it, and heck, if nothing else, we’ll get some great news or reveals on other games!

 

 

 

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Electronic Arts' Frank Gibeau On Origin's TOR Exclusive

As we learned back when Electronic Arts’ new digital download service Origin was announced, it would be the exclusive outlet for players who prefer to purchase Star Wars: The Old Republic digitally.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, EA’s Frank Gibeau talked a bit about the reasoning behind this decision:

Q: Star Wars: The Old Republic is a digital exclusive to Origin – should we expect more PC digital titles to be exclusive to Origin?

Frank Gibeau: It depends on the title and what we’re trying to do. In the case of Star Wars we’re trying to build an audience for Origin. And it’s also an opportunity for us to better manage the downloads and how we bring people over from the beta and that sort of thing. For a lot of reasons it made sense for an MMO, which is a highly complex deployment. I think long-term you’ll see we believe in reach so we will have other digital retailers for out products because we want to reach as many audiences as possible. But at the same time if we can use exclusive content or other ideas to help grow our audience then we’re going to do that because we’re growing a platform.

Yes, this means that if you’re a Steam groupie or a Direct2Drive junkie, you’re out of luck.

It’s important to note that this exclusivity only reflects the digital purchase, and you’ll still be able to buy a boxed, retail copy of the game from your favorite retailer (both online and off.)

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Electronic Arts Q4 2011 Earnings Call – TOR 2nd Half of 2011

At 2:00PM PDT (5:00PM EDT) today, Electronics Arts will hold their quarterly call for investors to report results and provide guidance going forward.

That’s all well and good, you say, but what about TOR?!

Welp, prior to the call, EA releases their financial support documentation, including a list of key upcoming title releases for all platforms. Conspicuously absent from that list proper was Star Wars: The Old Republic, however upon closer inspection, the release chart had a footnote:

Fiscal Year 2012 Key Titles by Label and Platform — this list excludes Star Wars^®: The Old Republic™, which is scheduled to launch in the second half of calendar 2011.

So, with this bit of information, the release date of TOR remains status quo – calendar year 2011.

You can listen to the conference call here for yourself, or follow along here as we liveblog any highlights that might pertain to The Old Republic.

Liveblog:

5:16PM – Guidance assumes Star Wars: The Old Republic will ship in calendar year 2011, with the outside possibility of a January 2012 launch.

5:18PM – Additional guidance does not include Star Wars: The Old Republic, which will launch as a digital service.

5:20PM – Expect significant subscription revenue from Star Wars: The Old Republic

5:24PM – “We close the year with Star Wars: The Old Republic in operation”

5:29PM – “The biggest event of the year” will be the launch of TOR

5:29PM – Subscription-based MMO

5:31PM – Q&A beginning

5:35PM – How long does beta last for TOR? “Typically about 6 month cycle for MMOs”

5:37PM – What’s the high end guidance for Star Wars: The Old Republic? “90 cents per share, but not giving subscriber metrics” “interest in beta highest we’ve ever seen”

5:40PM – Expect to sell some of the clients digitally

5:50PM – Significant capital expenses in FY12 for Star Wars: The Old Republic infrastructure/service

 

 

 

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UK Press Event Today – Hands-on For Fans

UK Fans of Star Wars: The Old Republic are getting a surprise opportunity to play the game at a press event being held today by Electronic Arts at gamerbase in London. Fans will be able to play any class on their respective origin worlds (Tython, Hutta, Korriban and Ord Mantell) in one of two 1-hour sessions. Although video or photography aren’t allowed at the event, we’re hoping to get some great hands-on feedback from those who did get to play today. If you were there, let us know you thought!

But before the session for fans, journalists will get a chance to get their hands on the game. Interestingly, there will apparently be some new information shown to them today, however it will be under an embargo for some time, so there likely won’t be any news about it today, or for some time to come:

It’s what we call Immersion Days – similar to ones we held last year (where press got hands-on with the Jedi classes). Everything from this one is embargoed for a while though, to give magazines time to print and press time to write up their thoughts.

But don’t be disappoint –  this means fans have something juicy to look forward to in the near future!

BioWare Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid Tweeted a shot of the special entryway set up for attendees of the event… I can almost hear John Williams’ Imperial March:

Remember, if you were able to attend the event today and get some time to play, please let us know your impressions in the comments below!

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