Following one of its most difficult periods since opening its doors, BioWare has received a vote of confidence from EA’s chief operating officer Peter Moore.
The trouble began for the studio way back in 2011 when Dragon Age 2, a quickly-made sequel to their brilliant Dragon Age, raised eyebrows and drew low review scores. The major trouble of the past year, though, has been their under-performing MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic. Despite being roundly praised for its production quality, the subscription model has not been successful against its free-to-play opponents. Since release, the game has been hemorrhaging subscribers.
In a frank interview with Eurogamer, Peter Moore admits that the subscription model has been the number one thing dragging The Old Republicdown.
“40 per cent of people said, I just don’t want to pay $15 a month. I love the game, but I’m just not into the subscription business.
“The reaction to that is, okay, let’s retool this game later this year into one you can both play on a subscription basis and not worry about it and have everything you need, or one you can play for free and as you manoeuvre on you can choose to continue to play for free and there are micro-transactions that help you accelerate in the game. We’re just reacting to consumer feedback by doing that.”
Though, he also says thatof the past 18 months”I think of three things: I think of Star Wars: The Old Republic, I think of what Mass Effect 3 has done and all of the offshoots we’ve done of that, and then a little bit further back Dragon Age. So from that perspective I think the studio has done great.”