Can SWTOR Successfully Take away WOWers and RIFT Players?
Date: 11-25-2011 Views:
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Early in March, Eric Brown, chief financial officer at EA, said that their Star Wars: The Old Republic(SWTOR) would take users away from Blizzard's World of Warcraft. According to him, there are more than 12 million people playing MMOs and roughly half are playing World of Warcraft. Focusing on all MMORPG players, SWTOR aims to pull subscribers away from World of Warcraft through its firm social base and good reputation.
Currently, Star Wars: The Old Republic is approaching the final phase of testing and will be officially launched in less than a month. Many people are wondering how many users on earth it can attract. Probably, all MMOs will be affected by it to some extent, including World of Warcraft which will lead to the fall of Blizzard's stock price. As known to all, no matter how popular a game was at it official release, it is more important whether it can maintain its popularity. Some players may not play SWTOR for it is not a fantasy game, while those who cannot wait to jump into SWTOR are sick of elves and monsters and want to make a change.
Blizzard admitted that they started to lose World of Warcraft users from the beginning of 2011. Specifically, they lost 600,000 WOW users in Q1 2011, 300,000 in Q2 and 800,000 in Q3. That is to say, nearly 10% of WOW users have cancelled subscriptions to World of Warcraft and quitted the game. If SWTOR succeeds in attracting over 1 million WOW users, World of Warcraft can no longer boast having more than 10 million active users.
Nevertheless, Blizzard indicated the newest Patch 4.3 Hour of Twilight and the upcoming fourth expansion Mists of Pandaria would help bring veteran players back to World of Warcraft and attract new subscribers, and the situation is expected to get better.
RIFT competes with other MMOs relying on its frequent, high-quality and profound updates. It releases one small expansion per month and its update always comes along with many promotional activities. If RIFT continues to adhere to the concept "Service Is Crucial To Games" and reveal new content regularly, it can gain an advantage over other MMOs that seldom release updates. Seemingly, RIFT's hardcore active users won't be influenced by SWTOR, but will still linger in RIFT. But how many casual players will have a shot at SWTOR and how many will turn to RIFT?
Have you played World of Warcraft or RIFT, or just know something about these two games? How will you make your choice? Come share your views with us!
