Star Wars: the Old Republic was an experiment in creating the perfect MMO. With a $200 million budget, an established license and fan base that would leave marketers drooling, an engine that was custom-tailored to create new MMOs, and one of the most prolific design studios, EA expected to have its hands on a gold mine. Yesterday, EA announced that the title failed.
On July 31, EA announced that they absolutely would be going free-to-play this fall. This confirms speculation that it was to happen before Christmas. There are two pricing models, which you can compare here. In addition, they've announced a new currency, called cartel coins. They've even prepped a FAQ. This is an announcement they've been planning for quite some time.
EA/Bioware lost my business precisely because there was a complete lack of fun endgame content. Additionally, communicating with players or organizing outside of any massive guild was a headache at best. There were amazing things about The Old Republic -- the individual stories were beautifully crafted, and I'm ecstatic that I can go back and explore them for free.
Bioware was woefully unprepared for an actual MMO launch, and I am convinced EA shoehorned the Mythic team into Bioware to turn what was to be an epic single player experience into an MMO. Everything that involved other players felt tacked on at best. While they've taken strides in fixing it in subsequent patch, the MMO aspect was dead for me. EA again missed the mark with an MMO, and is still struggling to exist in a market they've never done well with. It ended with a massive bleed at Bioware and a tarnishing of a name that's been associated with quality as much as Blizzard had. I can't help but wonder whether EA ruined Bioware in the same way Activision seems to have ruined Blizzard.
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