Darth Hater

Star Wars: The Old Republic News, Interviews, Media & Podcast

  • MMOReport Mention in Microtransaction Discussion

    In the discussion about the Star Wars: The Old Republic testing applications, we were mentioned in an aside about the possible micro-transactions reference in the agreement which you have to accept upon signing up. Description of what was discussed during the episode:

    Funcom has been forced to delay The Secret World due to lay-offs, Star Wars: The Old Republic has started accepting beta applications, and WTF Second Life finds a billion dollars have been exchanged in Second Life since it began. You figure out which one of those is the good news.

    You can find the mention at the 3:15 mark. Thanks for the mention guys ;).

    Hat tip to SavageDaddy for the heads up.

    Embed after the jump.

  • Could Star Wars: The Old Republic have BioWare Bucks?

    A few articles on Darth Hater, bothold and new,have focused on the possibility of microtransactions being part of BioWare's pricing structure for Star Wars: The Old Republic.None of the information gathered so far has blatantly stated what plan they will use, and if microtransactions are used, to what extent it would be implemented. However the recent game testing sign ups have revealed yet another piece of information regarding BioWare's interest in at least some elements normally associated with microtransactions.

    Many of the prospective testers working with Darth Hater, as well as a commenter named Eria on our website, noticed something while signing up for the game testing on the 29th.Buried within the Terms of Service are some telling sentences that could be revealing more then most users realize. Specifically terms H, I, J, and K deal with "points" and what amount of control BioWare has over said "points".

  • BioWare and Microtransactions

    Recently Gamasutra posted an interview with Greg Zeschuk, one of the BioWare Doctors. The vast majority of the interview deals specifically with Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2, however towards the end we get an interesting quote regarding MMOs.

    "For so many years, we just saw this thing as retail, but I think that's finally changing. Now, you see these 10 million person numbers for monthly plays on Facebook games. Your jaw hits the floor. People, in a sense, are doing more in a month of actual plays than World of Warcraft. It's certainly not monetizing anywhere near the same level, but the actual number of people touching that product is enormous.

    It's very insightful for us, because I think a lot of the really smart things are low barrier to entry, and games that work on any system. It's kind of permissive, in the sense that if people really want to engage with it, they'll start spending money if you make a really great game. If you make quality stuff, it plays to your strength. There are a lot of neat opportunities there.

    Also, obviously, the MMO space continues to get bigger and bigger and more important.I think you're going to be starting to see -- there are already a few now in North America -- full free-to-play MMOs with microtransactions coming down the pipe and stuff. So, lots and lots of exciting stuff there." - Greg Zeschuk


    There has been a great deal of conjecture regarding the payment style that BioWare will adopt for Star Wars: The Old Republic. This speculation was spawned by an older quote regarding the developer's willingness to explore multiple business models.

    While this certainly isn't a declaration of intent, it does show an acceptance of the free-to-play model that is relatively foreign among western developers. It is still far too early to say one way or another without an official announcement from BioWare, however quotes, like the one above, continue to point towards the possibility that TOR could be, at least partially, micro-transaction based.

  • Misinformation on Microtransactions

    There seems to be quite the amount of misinformation making the rounds on the forum as of late and in an attempt to quell the flames I need to reiterate that Bioware has not made any statements regarding a use of a payment model whatsoever. This discussion started way back when EA Boss Riccitiello stated that The Old Republic's payment model would be microtransaction based. EA then sometime after retracted the statement attributing the comments to a misunderstanding. Flash forward to this last week when LucasArts President Darrell Rodriguez was interviewed by GamesIndustry on the payment model, speculation ensued from one quote:

    And on that point of business models, he added: "Yeah, were considering it all, absolutely."

    "You start looking at how different communities, territories such as Asia, actually play games, and we start to consider it all especially if we want it to be a worldwide phenomenon."


    Many people on the forum then took that comment out of context as a confirmation of a microtransaction model being used in the US and other territories even though the quote does not say or confirm anything near that. Furthermore in an interview with TenTonHammer, Blaine Christine was quick to dismiss the rumor:

    Ten Ton Hammer: Rumors persist about microtransactions in The Old Republic. Are the rumors accurate or not?

    Blaine Christine: The bottom line with that is that its a total rumor since we havent talked about pricing structure or subscription plans at all. So people dont need to worry about anything if that is a worry we will do whatever makes sense for the game.


    You can stop claiming that they're using a microtransaction model from those comments as confirmation now ;) .

  • GamesIndustry: The Old Republic could feature multiple subscription methods

    Gamesindustry.biz has an interesting interview with LucasArts President Darrell Rodriguez which discusses the possibility of multiple subscription methods in Star Wars: The Old Republic:

    And on that point of business models, he added: "Yeah, we're considering it all, absolutely.

    "You start looking at how different communities, territories such as Asia, actually play games, and we start to consider it all - especially if we want it to be a worldwide phenomenon."


    Nothing as far as confirming one subscription model or another just that they are considering different methods of going about it.
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