14 DAY TRIAL // Despite recent suggestions from an analyst that the subscriber numbers for the MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic are in decline, BioWare says that gamer interest in the video game has not declined and that it has no plans to merge servers.
Daniel Erickson, a writing director working at BioWare, has told PC Gamer that “Nothing is off the table when it comes to making sure our communities are strong and active on each server.”
He also noted that the number of concurrent players had gone down recently because more players were choosing to log into the MMO outside of peak hours in order to raid or just meet up with friends.
The developer is convinced that his company is ready to do anything it takes in order to make sure players continue to log into Star Wars: The Old Republic, although he has not offered any clear details on the plans BioWare has for the future of the MMO.
Erickson also talked about the Rakghoul plague event that was recently launched and promised that it would spawn a number of new daily quests, which will make The Old Republic more than “just a destination to see your friends but a place to log in just to see what’s new.”
Doug Creutz, who is working for Cowen and Co., has recently said that the peak subscription number for Star Wars: The Old Republic was 1.7 million, registered during February, and that it will steadily decline until March 2013, when it should reach 1.25 million gamers.
The Old Republic was launched late in December 2011 and is one of the last big MMOs to use the subscription model, which asks players to pay each month in order to access the video game.
Most multiplayer titles now tend to favor the free-to-play and microtransaction model, which relies on a large player base and a small percentage of gamers who choose to pay.