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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 7 of 7)
ashtin Jun 10th 2011 10:11AM
Rift is not a bad game at all actually. I very much enjoyed the demo trial and beta I was a part of. The only thing I hated was the wow kids coming over there to trash the game because they were just trying to make the game fail because it threatened wow. and if its true that it has 2 million subs; just imagine when The Old Republic comes out. 600k subs were nothing. Blizzard won't just be ripe for the taking. Wow will be like a village being raped and pillaged.
Bossy Jun 10th 2011 10:24AM
If you didn't find Rift a bad game, I guess your predictions stand with the other usual WOW haters crowd.
No taste and future views at all.
Activision Blizzard is going to eat EA alive in the next 2 years.
thepiratester Jun 10th 2011 12:13PM
@ Boss
I "think" Tor will do more damage to WOW subs then you "think"- wait till the next round of sub loss comes out then we talk about how things will turn out. People are tired of WOW and are leaving.
WoW is self destructing. They lost the Cynical Brit!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndcysuEIqus
Honorshammer Jun 10th 2011 10:28AM
It's clear to me the release date will be announced at Pax. That gives them about ten weeks before a mid November release. Enough tome for Blizzcon hype to have died down.
ashtin Jun 10th 2011 10:45AM
So I guess if I don't accept everything that Bobby Co feed me on a spoon I'm no good is that right? Tell me something stranger. How is that slippery slope you and Bobby are sitting on rocking back and forth?
ashtin Jun 10th 2011 7:46PM
That was supposed to read Bobby & Co.
Jeff Jun 10th 2011 10:57AM
The fact that he says this, makes me think they have a release date. The TOR devs have made it sound more like they won't say it because it could change, and similar to Blizzard, they will only release a polished product. It makes me think they are very close to being done if they have a specific date in mine.
Jeff
http://www.starwarsmmo.net/
Jason Ralph Jun 10th 2011 11:38AM
Some how this concerns me. I'm a major Star Wars fan boy. Always have been, always will be. The problem lies in video games from this story line, haven't quite delivered. Yes, Force Unleashed was good, but not when you compare to other games. As fans we have been wanting a game that goes toe to toe with is out now, and for once, a game to live up to the hype.
Far as WoW...
I currently play to play WoW and DCUO (as I'm a comic book nerd). What will drive me away from WoW won't be Ghostcrawler, nerfs, lack of content, or anything else Blizzard does to WoW. It will be in fact, the gamers who play the same game as me. Why? Imagine deploying at the tail end of The Burning Crusade. You return. You missed a whole xpac, and your guild is no more (for who knows why). You're now stuck with the dungeon finder for groups, and now most endure your WRATH (pun intended) for not ever having done Halls of Reflection.... So, yes. It'll be WoW's community of gamers that will make me decide enough is enough and not renew (as I won't cancel), as I'll have no problems paying for three MMO's: I like variety in games I play. MMO's included.
Astalnar Jun 10th 2011 12:35PM
Wait, principal competitor...
Doesn't that relete more on some studio that is still making their game, like Guild Wars 2. ArenaNet also didn't announce their date but they are repeating When its ready. And we know that it will be 3rd or 4th part of this year for GW2.
And the best thing that is a big helper in case of GW2 is that it does not have subscription, it is free to play, when you buy the game. That way it does not realy cut the share for other mmorpg-s out there. GW2 can pretty much coincide with any other game if they fulfill all those promises of no holy trinity.
And by the look of SWtOR it is realy dissapointing. WoW 2.0 with futuristic look... Not that this is bad or anything but come on... Rare are the ones that still know how to be original. Their trailer looked awsome and very promising, but their gameplay was old generic what we have WoW for. Not some real something new.
I saw a sorcerer gameplay (evolved version of sith inquisitor). He has lightsaber but just for show, spamming one and the same force spell for whole 10 minutes.
Gunslinger012000 Jun 10th 2011 3:11PM
I don't blame them for doing this. Since there has been thousands of claims of corruption from former and current players of warcraft, I wouldn't put it past Blizzard to try and pull off some kind of miracle to squash Old republic before or around it's release date.
As you can read in the above article, they resort to name calling "weasel around a release date". These people who develop and operate Warcraft are not honorable people. They screw people over and could care less about their customers. They lost sight of the game and only care about control and money.
ashtin Jun 10th 2011 7:51PM
Your right. Just look at how the wow community nerd rages if you criticize anything the developers do to wow that might make everything more accessible for everyone. The fanboys set themselves on fire and run into the village square.
Arithin Jun 14th 2011 9:37AM
Seems like they're handicapping their release hype for only a small gain. Its a release of an MMO. People do everything from setting aside work vaction days to just planning their weekend play around it. Not giving people a date to look forward to will just shoot their initial sales in the kneecap cause people will have other stuff planned for that week.
Bad move all around.
Especially when your main competition is a 6 year old game. People can and will leave for even an inferior game, just to do something different at this point.
t.worley10 Jul 19th 2011 1:36PM
I have to agree with Arithin. I don't quite understand the logic with being scared of a nearly 7 year old game. Seven years is a long time to stay in the #1 spot. People are becoming bored and want something new. Additionally the game engine is starting to show its age and will need an overhaul if it's to remain at the top of pack over the next 24-36 months as new IP from various studios is announced and/or makes it to the market.
supersaint71241 Jun 14th 2011 12:40PM
I've seen the SW:TOR gameplay trailer they showed at E3 and it's VERY similar to WoW's look, only makes sense to copy what works.
As far as "first month" problems concerning game releases, ask the people at Cryptic about that. STO was absolutely awful at launch, and now they're all learning how to speak Chinese.
Shotgunjesus Jul 6th 2011 3:23PM
Your and idiot its smart buisness. This game is gonna be epic and so many people are looking forward to it . it should take a big chunk out of blizzard commerical mass produced shit you dumb sheep eat up.
Bman5 Jul 12th 2011 10:27AM
Shotgunjesus Jul 6th 2011 3:23PM
Your and idiot its smart buisness.
It should be: You're an idiot, and it's business not buisness.
Learn to write properly before you criticize someone you dumb ass, now who's the idiot.
wowsucks Jul 27th 2011 1:26PM
Let us hope that EA are also investing in the one area that blizzard never did. Training the customer service people how to deal with customers.
I recently deleted both my wow accounts and it tooka solicitors letter and a threat of legal action to actually make blizzard delete the accounts raher than keeping all my data for no actual purpose.
Like many many old guard wow players I now couldn't be brought back to a game that now panders only to the kids and the money men.
If the Old Republic turns out to be amazing then excellent. New game. If not then no way going back to wow.