For those of you who may not listen to the podcast,
but should, EA had their Q2 2010 earnings conference call on November 9th. The vast majority of the conference call was directed at the recent acquisition of the social gaming developer Playfish, but it did contain a few gems relating to
Star Wars: The Old Republic. Lets take a closer look at the relevant pieces of the call.
The first notable quote came from Frank Gibeau, EA Game Label President.
We are expanding into new genres. EA has never been a player in RPGs, but now BioWare is set to launch three of the most anticipated games in the genre. Dragon Age: Origins, our new fantasy RPG blockbuster, was just launched last week. Review scores are averaging 90 and initial sell through is strong. The game also has a very ambitious downloadable content plan for keeping players engaged, long after release.
Mass Effect 2 is the stunning sequel to one of the most critically acclaimed games of 2007. It is coming out in Q4. We expect this to be rewarded with very high quality scores and benefit from built in audience appeal.
In addition to the two RPGs in this fiscal year, BioWare is collaborating with LucasArts on development of an epic MMO in the Star Wars Universe, Star Wars: The Old Republic. We couldn't be happier with the vision and commitment to quality at our BioWare studio, they are simply 'best in class'.
This certainly isn't big news on the surface, but at least it confirms that we will not be seeing TOR released until after Q4. However, his next quote is a bit more encouraging.
Right now, we are tracking right on the deal model that we put together for that transaction. The recent release of Dragon Age, and with Mass Effect 2 and Star Wars right in front of us, it appears that we are going to hit our goals on what we sign up to in that acquisition.
Stating that TOR is "right in front of us" is comforting, possibly suggesting that it is not as far away as some have predicted. However, it seems we may be in for a few more months of release date speculation. A quote from EA's CEO John Riccitiello makes a release date announcement in the immediate future seem unlikely.
In terms of guidance on F11 titles, I would say that I'm very pleased with the slate we have coming together for F11. But we are going to reserve time in the February call to talk more about the specific titles.
This statement doesn't actually deny the possibility of a release date announcement, but it does imply we could be waiting. At least it does make February another mile marker to look forward to. Frank Gibeau made another interesting comment after being questioned about whether or not the free-to-play model diluted the quality of an IP.
Yeah, I think your point about, "does a free-to-play version of an IP dilute the equity or perception of quality?" I think actually, the way I look at it is it opens up an access point for people to come into the IP and experience it new ways and potentially up sell them to a more deep and larger product.
We recently ran an experiment were we created a game called Dragon Age: Journeys, which is a free-to-play, web based flash game, that was a great entry way for people to understand and experience what Dragon Age is all about before it released. We generated significant numbers of plays and very high levels of customer satisfaction and we actually went into the telemetry, and looked, and saw that people could unlock things in the web game and put it in the console game.
Though, I think in general, at EA we see it as an opportunity to open up access to our IPs by putting them out in free-to-play models, as well as continuing to maintain the blockbuster model or more connected means.
It appears that EA is comfortable expanding their player base in non-traditional ways. This does create the possibility of TOR receiving a treatment similar to
Dragon Age: Origins. A teaser game, or pre-released character creator, would certainly be a new take on the launch schedule for a large scale MMO, however, as with many aspects of The Old Republic, we will have to wait and see.
