It looks like the analysts were right in their suspicions that EA and Bioware’s The Old Republic MMO is already losing subscribers just a few months after its late 2011 launch. In an earnings report issued today, EA announced that the game currently has 1.3 million active subscribers, down nearly 25 percent from the 1.7 million active subscribers reported in March.
The announcement runs counter to previous statements from Bioware Lead Writer Daniel Erickson, who said last month that dropping server populations did not indicate a reduction in active subscribers.
In a conference call accompanying the earnings report, EA Labels President Frank Gibeau said the drop was in line with the company’s “original assumptions” about how the game would fare after launch. Nonetheless, he added that the company “intends to increase subscribers” with continual upgrades, including new guild features, player vs. player improvements, and “elder gameplay” that keeps the game appealing to high-level players.
Gibeau also stressed that “core MMO users” are sticking with the game in good numbers, and suggested that the subscriber drop comes mainly from the expanded audience of non-MMO-obsessed Star Wars fans attracted by a title like The Old Republic. “As the service evolves, some of those initial casual customers have gone through a billing cycle and decided not to subscribe,” Gibeau said.
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