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The Old Republic Only Needs 500k Subscribers For Profitability
Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello reassured investors in clear terms on a conference call yesterday. "At half a million subscribers, the game is substantially profitable," he said of BioWare's upcoming Star Wars MMORPG.
This runs counter to speculation floating around the 'Net in recent months. EA chief financial officer Scott Brown said that The Old Republic was "the largest R&D project EA has ever undertaken" earlier last year, which fueled wild guesses about the game's development cost and sales targets. Rival MMO developer Bigpoint's CEO Heiko Hubertz said, "I don't think that EA or BioWare will be profitable with this game. Ever."
While Riccitiello didn't specify the time commitment required for half a million subscribers to make SW:TOR turn a profit, that seems like a very achievable number for the highest-profile MMO since World of Warcraft – which had 12 million subscribers as of last October. Riccitiello added, "Anything north of a million subscribers, it's a very profitable business."
So long as EA's CEO isn't putting Rafael Nadal levels of spin on these comments – and doing so on a public financial conference call can have significant repercussions – the future is much brighter for EA, BioWare, LucasArts, and Star Wars fans than many had previously feared.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is scheduled to come out this spring, though EA has yet to commit to anything beyond "before the end of 2011."
[via Gamasutra]
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