14 DAY TRIAL // The analysis group Cowen and Co., which frequently comments on the state of the video game industry, has announced that it has seen data suggesting that the subscription numbers for the MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, created by BioWare and Electronic Arts, are already dropping, with just 1.25 million players set to pay to play the game at the end of March 2013.
The firm believes that, when publisher Electronic Arts announced the 1.7 million player number during February of this year, it actually saw the peak of interest in the game.
In a new report, Doug Creutz, an analyst working at Cowen and Co., stated, “We believe that the apparent decline in subscribers is most likely due to a lack of 'end-game' content for the title, meaning that players who hit the level cap have few compelling options in terms of ongoing game play.
“While the game got off to a good start, the relatively light amount of end-game content does appear to be taking a toll.”
He added, “We believe EA is attempting to address the end-game content issue, including a recent major game update, but momentum appears to have stalled and we believe it is prudent to adopt a more conservative forecast on subscribers at this time.”
Before The Old Republic was launched, the development team stated that it only needed half a million players to play their MMO in the long term in order to get development costs back and that it would make a profit for any other subscriber that joins over that number.
Cowen and Co. believes that, despite the drop in subscribers, The Old Republic continues to be highly profitable for Electronic Arts and will contribute to an increase of about 46 percent in revenue derived from digital products.
This means that the company will be in a good position at the end of the current fiscal year despite a drop in physical sales of about 8%.