One could argue the PC release was early access with the "real" launch on the console combined with the conversion to B2P propelling the game to its present day success.
That's only part of the equation. Releasing on additional platforms, and changing revenue models might raise initial interest in it, but they won't carry it if the game isn't enjoyable enough to people.
No matter the revenue model, the platform, the IP, whether it's old-school or "modern" in style, etc... if the game isn't enjoyable to people and doesn't keep them engaged, none of that is going to matter.
To that end, they've been improving the game by leaps and bounds. ZeniMax, too, listened to their players and realized decisions they'd made early on (world split by faction, in particular) were not very good. They responded with One Tamriel, which was a huge improvement. They've added Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, Justice System, and so on. ESO is a massive MMO, with tons of content. It has an extremely active population now, and with Vvardenfell being added, it's going to get even larger.
If they didn't manage to pull off what they have, a change of revenue models and adding additional platform support wouldn't have saved it.
I'd say that qualifies it as a successfully "turned-around" MMORPG.
Yes I will agree, they've made impressive improvements to the game play, which as you say are significant factors into turning this into the success it has become.
I had hoped for more focus on the PVP side and they did release an expansion for it but overall I don't see this as a primary concern for them.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Most of the early complaints were around the loot lag issue, which likely was only a problem for the U.S. release in Nov 2004.
EU launch was later (remember when Devs did that frequently?) on Feb 2005 when likely this was resolved.
I don't know about that.. I didn't play WOW until after the NGE in Nov 2005. if you're referring to the issue with getting stuck in the loot animation, it was still there then. I had it happen quite often.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
I don't understand why people keep mentioning swtor. Swtor sold more than 2 million copies during the first month and the game got very positive reviews. The game did have a sharp decline in subscriptions beyond the three months mark but it wasn't because of a bad launch, it had to do with the game not having the longevity needed for the P2P model.
It got good professional reviews but terrible user reviews, word of mouth was don't touch it. It sold 2million copies in the first month but dropped to below 500k somewhere between 3 and 6 months in (EA said their break even point was 500k subscribers). Also, despite selling 2 million copies, it peaked at 1.7 million active accounts during the launch month, dropping to 1.3million once the free month ended (according to the EA financial reports).
Now, of course retention is always an issue and a large dropoff is expected in any MMO. The dropoff on SW:TOR was quite steep but nothing overly special. The only reason so many people list it as a bad launch / failure at launch is because it completely failed the expectations game and it failed financially. It was the biggest budget MMO ever, but within 6 months it was set to make a loss unless something dramatic was done.
So, whilst the game wasn't broken (apart from Ilum), the game was heading for failure due to general low quality / lack of fun combined with the payment model. Bioware made some fundamentally bad design decisions that they never recovered from, they just managed to stabilise their finances by going F2P.
The game surpassed EA's expectations at launch, it sold the second most copies of any western mmorpg during the launch month. While you have listed the right numbers the 1.7M subscribers was beyond the launch month, 1.3M subscribers was for the quarter ending at march. During that time swtor had the second most subscribers in western mmorpg history so the game clearly wasn't a failure at launch.
While there were quite a lot of negativity surrounding swtor it wasn't that different from other hyped games like GW2 and ESO. However, that kind of negativity generally happens by a few people and it was definitely no consensus that swtor was a failure during the launch month, that happened later on.
Compare first few months of swtor to a game like the secret world and its obvious that swtor didn't really have a bad launch. Sales for tsw was even less than the worst case scenario that funcom had for the game and they had to go into panic mode almost immediately.
Iselin: And the next person who says "but it's a business, they need to make money" can just go fuck yourself.
Don't forget EverQuest II. That one made a remarkable comeback with the Echoes of Faydwer expansion and remained a high population ( 350k+ subs) for several years, until Smedley screwed up again with bad business decisions as usual.
Comments
I had hoped for more focus on the PVP side and they did release an expansion for it but overall I don't see this as a primary concern for them.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
While there were quite a lot of negativity surrounding swtor it wasn't that different from other hyped games like GW2 and ESO. However, that kind of negativity generally happens by a few people and it was definitely no consensus that swtor was a failure during the launch month, that happened later on.
Compare first few months of swtor to a game like the secret world and its obvious that swtor didn't really have a bad launch. Sales for tsw was even less than the worst case scenario that funcom had for the game and they had to go into panic mode almost immediately.
Crazkanuk
----------------
Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
----------------
Don't forget EverQuest II. That one made a remarkable comeback with the Echoes of Faydwer expansion and remained a high population ( 350k+ subs) for several years, until Smedley screwed up again with bad business decisions as usual.