The-Old-Republic-Makes-Millions

There have been a lot of numbers thrown at BioWare’s massive, galactic project Star Wars: The Old Republic. The company even stated that they'd need over 500 thousand registered users to make back profits. Considering they recently tripled the registered beta users, it certainly looks like the studio has a fighting chance of being the next big MMO.

Now with pre-orders open to the mass public, Analyst group Cowen and Company says that Star Wars: The Old Republic could not only recoup expenses - but also Force Push the gates wide open with a potential 3 million units in sales during the inaugural year - doubling the sell-though estimates that were recorded just six months ago.

Currently, The Old Republic is trending “well or better” than other heavily anticipated titles such as StarCraft 2 and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm - which both sold over 4 million units each in their opening year. Keeping in mind that “units” are not the same as “subscribers,” Cowen and Company believe that The Old Republic will see nearly 2 million subscribers within the first year - not exactly a small number either.

This is pretty big news for both BioWare and Electronic Arts, who are funding the expansive endeavor. The liability of the game's cost, couple with a potential commercial failure, would obviously have serious repercussions for the series and publisher as a whole. Yet with a strong front line — NCAA Football 12 and soon-to-be-released Madden 12 — any residual fallout that The Old Republic could see will be comfortably buoyed.

Star Wars The Old Republic Region Free

That said, given the amount of content within the game, as well as BioWare's efforts to show off what’s in store for players, the new numbers definitely indicate that EA and BioWare have a galactic winner in their midst. The only thing that is truly slowing them down right now (as we've mentioned before) is the lack of a firm release date. With the end of the Quarter approaching, and the start of the holiday season around the corner, now would be the perfect time to give players an official number - to get them really excited.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is set to release this holiday season for the PC.

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Source: Gamasutra

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