While World of Warcraft is losing, Star Wars will be gaining. Massively.
"We view the early success of Star Wars as an indication of a healthy MMO market," said Colin Sebastian, Baird Equity Research analyst. "While there is likely some shifting of usage from Activision's World of Warcraft, we see a viable market for multiple million-user MMOs in the U.S. and Europe."
Star Wars: The Old Republic gained over 1 million users in only three days since its December 20 launch making it the fastest-growing subscription-based MMO in gaming history, according to Sebastian.
Though he expects the new MMO to sell around 3 million copies by the end of EA’s fiscal year (March of 2012), he added that “We think Street expectations for 1.5-2 million paid monthly users through 2012 may be too optimistic.”
Sebastian estimated that Star Wars: The Old Republic reaches approximately 350,000 peak concurrent users on more than 200 servers. EA stated on Monday that players logged over 5.5 million hours of gameplay this past weekend.
Macquarie Capital analyst, Ben Schacter, said added some more insight on the matter. "Staying power will be key measure. The speed with which TOR crossed the million-subscriber threshold is certainly a positive, as the early feedback remains encouraging (88 rating from Metacritic, with 60 percent positive user reviews vs. 35 percent negative). However, the key, as with any MMO, will remain longevity — only time will tell."
Source: [Gamasutra]
