The Old Republic will “never be profitable” says Bigpoint CEO
by Jonathan (Ardua) Doyle OnRPG Journalist,
In case you have not heard the news, on Thursday at the London Games Conference, Bigpoint CEO Heiko Hubertz went on record as having claimed that EA-Biowares upcoming The Old Republic MMO will never turn a profit.
“If you look at Star Wars from EA and BioWare, they estimated a development budget of over $100m,” he explained.
“This is an online game for many million of subscribers, so the publisher does not understand that a subscription model is not the future.”
“With micro-transactions maybe I see the game having a chance but I don’t think that EA or BioWare will ever be profitable with this game. Ever.”
Bigpoint, for reference, is developing free-to-play MMO’s using licenses such as Battlestar Galactica and The Mummy, and Hubertz has insisted that developing games for a single format or device is a mistake.
Only time will tell if The Old Republic replaces APB as the industries largest and most painful failure.
