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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsEA CEO won't share Old Republic release date because of "principal competitor"
by Mathew McCurley 
Jun 9th 2011 at 9:00PM
Announcing a release date "would be irresponsible for two really good reasons", Riccitiello said. "One, the competitive marketplace. Putting a window out there creates a window of opportunity for our principal competitor to put out an expansion pack or an ad campaign et cetera around our launch window. Bad move at this point in time."Now, while Riccitiello does not name Blizzard specifically, there are only a few potential "principal competitors" in the MMO market. Blizzard is definitely the biggest name at the table. What Riccitiello is saying is that announcing a release date for their MMO would give Blizzard the opportunity to move in on EA's hype, move its own release dates around, or prepare a patch or game release for the same time frame that The Old Republic would launch.
It is interesting to me that Riccitiello would say these things, especially at an event like E3, where everything is about showing games to players through the press and getting games into people's hands. Shouldn't Riccitiello be more concerned with letting the game stand on its own rather than weasel around with a release date? If two products stand side by side and one is better than the other, people will choose the better product.
I understand the concern -- WoW is the 500-pound gorilla. RIFT has proven you can release against WoW and maintain a sizable user base and even continue to grow. Don't blame Blizzard preemptively, and don't be scared of Blizzard. Yes, the MMO market is a volatile one, and yes, the MMO market feels limited, but it's not as bad as you think. Star Wars is going to succeed initially by brand alone, and while it would be nice to release without any competition, this is the competitive sphere we live in. Release a good game, and people will play it.
On the other hand, first-month launches can ruin an MMO. Perfectly good games have released unopposed, but with a little bad press at the start, fallen flat on their backs. Riccitiello isn't a dummy, and it is a smart move to avoid as much unnecessary competition as you can, especially from Blizzard. EA just wants to pull out all of the potential problems when launching.
Filed under: News items
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 7)
dengarsw Jun 9th 2011 9:45PM
This is Bioware's first MMO, so I'm not sure what else they could do an open beta on.
The thing is, I've betaed a handful of other games. The only other one that I can recall that refused an open beta and locked down an NDA was Horizons/Istaria. If you've never heard of it, there's a reason for that ;P
Ringo Flinthammer Jun 9th 2011 9:51PM
WoW was Blizzard's first MMO. They still did open betas of Diablo II and Warcraft III. It's a culture issue, not an MMO commandment.
Cparker5012 Jun 10th 2011 6:15AM
You seem to think Blizzard doesn't have anything big coming out soon. But, you forget about Diablo III, though not an MMO, it's still a highly anticipated, and widely played game.
I bet Blizzard will also be announcing the next up coming major content patch, as well as the new expansion. Though probably the release won't be for around a year or so, the news of the expansion has a chance to off set some people jumping over to TOR.
I guess we won't know for sure until TOR has released.
Durenas Jun 11th 2011 7:25PM
Uh, actually, blizzard didn't do open betas during any major expansion. The PTR doesn't really count in my book, because it's minor content patches, not a paid expansion update.
The definition of 'open beta' is anyone can download the client, log onto the servers, and play, without being invited first. Every beta that Blizzard has done, has required beta access, only available through invitations. How you got that invitation, whether you were directly invited, or invited through a friend's pass, or won an invite on a contest through a fansite, or HOWEVER, you still needed a beta code to get in. That's a closed beta.
Dalrint Jun 9th 2011 9:37PM
Know what the meanest thing Blizzard could do would be?
Release Diablo 3 on the same day.
BigBadGooz Jun 10th 2011 9:44AM
yeah that would kill anyones release however im going to play swtor regardless what blizz does.
Ringo Flinthammer Jun 9th 2011 9:39PM
Blizzard still knows, as do we, what six-month window they're hoping for. Blizzard has got to be planning on having 4.3 or 4.4 ready to drop around that time. I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if they have a five-man, a raid and maybe even a new BG all sketched out for that very reason.
It would be irresponsible for Blizzard to not have both something to respond to the launch and, a few months later, something to lure back max-level TOR players. It's not a coincidence that the folks I know who left for Rift are all trickling back now, right in time for Firelands.
rhorle Jun 9th 2011 9:43PM
Unless EA does a surprise launch, nothing is stopping any of their competition from "launching an ad campaign" to target TOR users. Any decent AD agency can whip up a suitable ad in the the month or two prior to release announcements.
All this is doing is creating more buzz around TOR and fueling the flames of the Anti-wow crowds feelings.
Tim Jun 9th 2011 9:46PM
I will be playing TOR regardless. Kinda burnt out on WoW and haven't logged in for days. I need a new video game fix. Easy as that. Bring it on EA.
Tramddark Jun 9th 2011 10:02PM
Don't get me wrong. I love World of Warcraft, I've been playing it since release.
However you seem to have a skewed perception of how the releases for the big MMO's work.
For example, do you believe that the World of Warcraft's producers and development team were any different when the game came out? If so, you'd be wrong. While they were hoping the game would be a major success, even they didn't predict the level of success they had.
Your response would likely be that Blizzard didn't fear competition and put out their release date long in advance.
Well you'd be wrong if you stated that. Blizzard announced its release date on November 4, 2004. The game was released on November 23, 2004. The open beta occurred for a very small window between that. I believe for only a week prior to the release but I honestly don't remember, since I don't remember Open Beta very well.
Blizzard feared competition just as much as any game developer does at the time. But most of all, the release date wasn't announced because their game simply wasn't ready.
You don't stand an unfinished product against the giants of the genre, no matter how next gen it is. At the time, Everquest wasn't exactly a giant, per se, but it was tried and tested, and Star Wars Galaxies had a healthy fan base. World of Warcraft still had to be something special, and be polished up to survive.
Don't take this the wrong way, I'd like a release date as much as anyone else, but I realize that for big MMO releases, it will come VERY shortly before release. You don't get a six month to a year notification like we're used to with, non Bioware games, and non Blizzard games.
VIVIsectVI Jun 9th 2011 10:31PM
It's a smart move on EA's part. WoW needs competition. When companies compete, the customers win. WoW dropping a filler patch on us when another game is released is only a band-aid.
Hollow Leviathan Jun 9th 2011 10:40PM
Two things. First, E3 is NOT about the players, who are not invited. It's about the press and PR firestorms.
Secondly, That last paragraph reads like it was written by a different person from the two before it. I don't see how their opinions can be reconciled. 'This is a perfectly valid and understandable PR move' and 'This is weaseling around the players who can decide on their own what's good' are basically diametrically opposed.
fainda Jun 9th 2011 10:40PM
Bring on the corporate pvp battle extravaganza!
perderedeus Jun 9th 2011 10:51PM
It's smart, because you KNOW someone at Activision-Blizzard would be thinking just that. "Let's launch X Ad Campaign right around that time..."
It's why people get paid to be in advertising and business development. You recognize opportunities and go after them/exploit them.
Utakata Jun 9th 2011 10:53PM
If this is about what happened with releasing Warhammer just a month or so before Wrath, I believe that EA was aware of this beforehand. They went ahead anyway...not their brightest move; and thus the rest was history.
Awallio Jun 9th 2011 10:53PM
I would so bail on WoW in a heartbeat. So tired of WoW. I can't bear to have a sub for more than one month... everything is the same ole same ole. Most folks I know on my server have gone to Rift or are on sabbatical until something better comes along.
ToR come quickly!
Brian! Jun 9th 2011 10:57PM
This makes perfect sense. Actually, they could do better by holding back even more information about their game.
It is just my opinon, but I think marketing departments in MMO studios hype far too much and too early.
First, because they start too early, they constantly run the risk of numbing their audience to their messaging, so they can only try to either keep flooding with new information or - worse - trying to make the hype bigger. At some point, the hype becomes far larger than anything the product could deliver on.
Second, because the market is flooded with information - the mystery of the game is lost on many of the core MMO gamers. Extensive open betas, marketing every feature of the game, etc... just serves to have less and less to explore in the actual product.
It is akin to fishing. Jerk too hard and too much and you'll just break your line or completely miss hooking the fish. You need to reel in the audience gently, firmly, and at the right time.
Imagine if Bioware held back all information about their Star Wars until the month before release. Then had similar information released every couple of days that they have shared over the last year. It would drive the fans crazy - and more so, the idea of being able to play the game within 30 days would generate a frenzy of emotional pre-orders.
That tactic has worked for Apple extremely well, as an example. Typically they announce their product, hype it like mad, announce the release that is within a month or two at the most. Lines form at stores and their products sell out for months and months.
okmijnuhb Jun 9th 2011 11:20PM
Meh,
they could be speaking against Blizzard. It is a fact that they expect to grab to grab a portion of the playerbase.
It makes since as a business strategy but we will see who wins in the end.
Name Anon Jun 9th 2011 11:04PM
And bets that Diablo 3 will hit beta about the time SW:TOR gets released?
cuchulayn Jun 9th 2011 11:09PM
I won't be playing this, or any other game by EA.
I used to work for the very first MMO company out there - Kesmai, and their subsidiary Gamestorm.com. They had games like Airwarrior and Legends of Kesmai, but notably, they also had full rights to the Mechwarrior and Aliens licenses. Because of this, they got bought out by EA.
EA made a bunch of promises. They broke every single one - the fired pretty much everyone and shelved all of the games. The servers went dark back in 2001 and I haven't played an EA game since.