SWTOR To Have Limited Copies Sold

[Ket]

GameInformer reports on plans to limit the number of copies of Star Wars: The Old Republic sold upon the game's launch:

"According to the representative speaking at this demo, EA and BioWare made the choice to limit the number of copies of the game available for purchase in order to assure a smooth launch. It's fairly common for popular MMOs to suffer from long wait times and server crashes for the first few months after launch because of the stress put on servers. EA says it would rather make sure the experience is quality for the first gamers to get in than to sell as many copies as possible but ensure a subpar experience for everyone." How many copies they will sell is not specified.

On a related note, the Star Wars: The Old Republic Website has a new trailer from BioWare's upcoming MMORPG introducing the sport of Huttball. Here's word on this in-game sport: "A new event has captured the hearts and minds of the citizens on the Smuggler’s Moon of Nar Shaddaa. Known as “Huttball,” two teams clash for the amusement of the masses and to win favor with the famed Giradda the Hutt in this new video that highlights just one of the Player-vs-Player (PvP) Warzones in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™!"

OwnedCore members need to get their preorders in as soon as possible it seems if they want to be in-game on day 1!

[Confucius]

digital collector's edition already sold out in the first week lol

[piree]

Everything is limited, but you can put the limit so high it will seem unlimited.
I'm sure they will try to break the record of best sold game on first day or something.
So don't think there will be many people who won't be able to buy it.

[Ket]

I am all for limiting sales based on ability to handle the load of the rush of the players. Allows players to have a good intital experience which is most important. I must say, I was very impressed with Rift's launch as that was the smoothest experience that I have had. SWTOR will likely be a whole other level so I hope that they pull it off.

[googlebee]

This is more of a marketing ploy than anything IMO. *Hurry and buy your copies before they sell out!*

Since when do gaming companies give a rats ass about anything other than making money. Initial software sales on a big budget big name game like this will be tremendous. To limit it, and it ends up not being as great as people expect,(which is like the last 5 mmos released) is simply put....dumb. It makes about as much sense as a 400 million dollar Hollywood production movie limiting the viewers because there wasn't sufficient editing done, and waiting to release a directors cut on dvd.

Sure in a perfect world this is a great idea, but in a logical business plan, the idea is to make back your investment in initial software sales....everything else is gravy and maintenance. This hasnt changed in EA's eyes I assure you.

On a Side Note: (Blizzard made back the original World of Warcraft development costs in 2005, less than 12 months from its release in November 2004 - They had roughly 500k unique subscribers within the first 12 months...They spent over 3 years developing the game..... To Date WoW has spent roughly 100 Million in total development costs: Corrections and Amplifications - WSJ.com - When there sub base was at 12 Million last year, WoW was averaging a minimum of $155,880,000 a month. (12.99 a month per person) - Where does all of that money go after expenses....


Back to the Point:

EA is renowned for overworking there employees and being extremely cheap. Pushing super hard to make unreasonable deadlines...dating as far back as 2004. Electronic Arts: Innocent or Guilty? - Mania.com or here: EA settles OT dispute, disgruntled spouse outed - News at GameSpot

Or using things without permission... as recent as 2011: Electronic Arts could lose $1B to NCAA athletes - USATODAY.com

The list actually goes on, but no reason to derail this post anymore than I already have.

EA has already stated that they need to reach 500k subscribers to break even....

I'm sure the 1 million copies they *Limit* distribution to will be adequate to ensure a stable gaming environment.

Just doesn't make sense to me that you cannot be prepared for a large influx of players, to a brand new type of MMORPG, with a Huge name like Star Wars.

K..done ranting.