The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2008–2012
SWTOR: the $200M MMO that went free-to-play in under a year
BioWare's Star Wars MMO hit 1.7M subscribers at launch, then bled below 1M within seven months — EA scrapped the subscription in 2012.
BioWare · Electronic Arts · 2012-11-15
What happened
Star Wars: The Old Republic was the most expensive game ever made at release — analysts estimated its development at $150–200 million or more. BioWare and EA built it as a subscription MMO, betting that the Star Wars name would sustain a paid live-service model.
The launch was spectacular: one million subscribers in three days, rising to 1.7 million by February 2012, making it the fastest-growing MMO ever. Then the decline began — down to 1.3 million by March, and below one million by July.
EA's response was to abandon the model: on November 15, 2012, the game went free-to-play, just under a year after launch. EA had said 500,000 subscribers was break-even, and by May 2013 subscriptions fell below that. The pivot kept the game alive but marked one of gaming's most expensive failed subscription launches.
Why it happened
- A subscription MMO launched against free rival World of Warcraft; Star Wars fans proved unwilling to pay a monthly fee once the novelty wore off — subscribers fell from 1.7M to under 1M in 7 months.
- The model priced the game by its name, not its retention: at $150–200M to build, it needed subscriber numbers that dropped below EA's own 500,000 break-even within 18 months.
- BioWare spent years and the largest budget in the industry on a story-driven experience, but MMO economics demanded ongoing engagement a subscription fee could not hold.
The lesson
A giant budget does not buy a subscription model: when the biggest-budget game of its era dropped below break-even subscribers within a year, the only fix was abandoning the model it was built on.
Sources
- GamesIndustry.biz — Star Wars: The Old Republic goes free-to-play up to level 50, with reservations
- Wikipedia — Star Wars: The Old Republic
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