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Star Wars: The Old Republic beta test attracts 2 million players
It's no secret that Star Wars: The Old Republic is one of the most highly anticipated MMORPGs in recent memory, and the game's recently concluded public testing phase confirms the hype. The game's publisher, EA, announced that the SWTOR test phase drew in over 2 million players, and of those 2 million, 750,000 unique players jumped into the game over the Thanksgiving weekend alone. EA also shared some interesting statistics about the game's test players. Over the holiday weekend, players averaged about 12 hours of game time each for a grand total of over 9 million hours of playtime across the playerbase. If you didn't get a chance to try the beta, or if you simply couldn't get enough, you don't have much longer to wait. The game launches in about two weeks on December 20th, with pre-order head start beginning on the 15th.
Bigpoint announces two million player mark for Battlestar Galactica Online
Bigpoint announced today that its sci-fi MMOG Battlestar Galactica Online, based on the immensely popular Syfy series of the same name, has reached two million registered players in its first three months of service. The free-to-play game has been under constant construction since its launch, with the addition of new ships for both the Colonial and Cylon factions, the introduction of the Merit system (which "enables the purchase of high-value items like nuclear missiles"), and even the ability for players to pilot their factions' trademark capital ships. What's next for BSGO? Rob Ollett, managing director at Bigpoint International, has this to say: "With BSGO continuing to achieve new benchmarks and receive such a strong positive response from the fans, we're excited to take its development to the next level. At just three-months in we're at a point now where we can shift the majority of our attention to adding new content and addressing the community's wish list." To join the exciting, paranoia-fueled (ohgodohgodohgod who's a Cylon!?) universe of Battlestar Galactica Online, head on over to the official site.
Anti-Aliased: Is SWTOR worth 2 million users
So, some big news out of the Electronic Arts/BioWare camp today -- it's going to take one million subscribers to break even on Star Wars: The Old Republic, and EA is shooting for two million subscribers on the game. Those are some pretty intense numbers for a game, but when you're sinking as much money into a project as they're sinking into SWTOR, those are the numbers you need. But, are they realistic numbers? This isn't the first time EA poured their heart and soul into a MMO, only to find that the subscriptions weren't to their liking. Then again, when you're dealing with a well known IP and an already successful RPG developer who knows how to handle said IP, you might just have the recipe for a subscriber explosion. So that's this week's question -- Is SWTOR worth two million users?
Over 2 million now served in Free Realms
As a testament to the power of fun, in less than two weeks, SOE has managed to add another million accounts to the already extant one million Free Realms accounts. With the recent blitz in advertising, including two television spots, Free Realms has managed to heavily gather the targeted tween market they were after. According to their information, 75% of the registrations are users under age 17, and 46% under 13, they're definitely making great strides into making SOE a superstar name in the youth gaming market. As part of the celebration to mark the 2 million accounts line, SOE notes that all current players will receive a "party pack" bundle of in-game items to help celebrate. John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment further remarks on the explosive growth of Free Realms: "In less than a month, Free Realms has captivated a core player base of tween and teen gamers, while also strongly resonating with MMO gamers. We wanted to create a game to play with our families and are excited to have hit the mark with our intended audience." At the rate this is growing, we suspect they'll be marking many more millions in the months to come. We're also curious to see what the success of Free Realms will mean for the development of future SOE MMOs.
