BioWare's Daniel Erickson admits peak concurrent user figures for licensed MMORPG are falling, but subscription numbers are not.
BioWare's massively multiplayer online role-playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic is not suffering subscriber defections, according to project lead designer Daniel Erickson.
Speaking to PC Gamer, Erickson claims subscriber numbers have not dipped, but concurrent users during peak play times have. This, Erickson said, is why players may have experienced "light" server populations.
The developer said BioWare is considering merging servers in response to the lessened concurrent user population, but this action is not a priority. Erickson also made clear that BioWare is doing "anything and everything" to spike the concurrent user figure.
"Nothing is off the table when it comes to making sure our communities are strong and active on each server," he said.
To help encourage players to regularly return to The Old Republic, Erickson said BioWare is seeking to design quests and one-off events with greater variety and impact.
Additionally, Erickson responded to criticisms of BioWare being slow to create new endgame content. He said because The Old Republic is a fully voiced MMORPG, creating quests takes a big longer, though he said, "We're getting sprier all the time."
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
Losing "concurrent" users on the servers at "peak times" simply means that people aren't playing the game. There's no way to dance around that.
I received zero actual support for my issues and I shelled out $150 for the Collector's Edition plus I renewed for 6 months before I incurred most of the issues.
Anyone that treats a customer who just spent nearly $230 in one pop on their game deserves nothing but unadulterated abject failure. I hope the losses are staggering and mind boggling.
I was a huge BioWare fan before this title. Capital F your game. I'm never buying anything with the name BioWare (or whatever the studio name changes to in the future) ever again. I'm done with Sony Online Entertainment Part II.
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