The Daily Grind: Did BioWare make the right call?

@(Unverified)

because having 400 servers makes the game look like it's a raging success.

or at least it does to the shareholders who are generally clueless about the products that their company sells.

as for an a technical benefit: if EVE or perpetum have a server problem then their entire product is off line; with multiple servers you can have a problem with one server without your entire player base getting locked out of the game while you fix it.

@(Unverified)

If you're talking about sharding, I know people dislike it because of the artificiality of it. Kind of breaks immersion to have to switch to Tatooine #2 even though you're standing in the same spot. They have said they're using this in the beginning to alleviate congestion, but they'll be phasing it out over time, ideally removing it completely.

@hereafter

immersion will be shattered the second your side kick pops out of existence when you hop on a mount, not to mention when the holiday season rolls around and they start giving out Ewok hats and Rancor mini pets.

@Fakeassname

Yeah, but sharding would make it all the worse. That stuff I can overlook, heavy instancing is harder to ignore.

@(Unverified)

Who is saying that the servers wont be barren after month of two even with limited sales at release ? Its not like ppl leaving after first week are a sign for others to get into the game. The logic is flawed. Bioware has huge amount of time to prepair for the launch. They have pre-orders so they know how many will be going into the game. Limiting based on Pre-order is stupid and show total lack of respect to custimors.

@Deadalon

Because there's basically a guaranteed playerbase. There's a lot of fans that will play this and stick with it. If games like STO, Rift, WAR, DDO, etc. can survive, a game of this size and ambition is likely to keep at least the 500k that they need to keep going (I believe that was their last reported minimum for profitability). And that's being pessimistic. If you want to be even-handed about it, 1 million isn't out of the question, and if you're an optimist, the sky's the limit.

That being said, I expect that there will be an initial massive surge of players, followed by a change after the first month or two as players who aren't satisfied leave and new players who are interested join. At this point, BioWare can assess the population and either add more servers or remove the sharding they're going to have. Whether the population grows, plateaus or drops down after those first couple months, it's in BioWare's best interests to stagger and limit things initially to keep it from getting out of control.

EA wants this to be a mega-hit like WoW, but BioWare has been moving forward with the simple goal of having everything work and be fun. If launch goes off without a hitch, that will reflect well on BioWare as a fledgling MMO company, despite the frustration caused by this decision.

@hereafter
Its up to a buisness to respond to demand for a product. If Bioware intend to launch 20 servers and stick to that because thats all they need to come out in profit... then fine.

I will then be 1 of those that has zero intrest of playing the game. Cause making money and satisfying potential custimors is two totally diffrent things.

@Lateris There are no laws or restrictions that prevent digital sales in Argentina. I can buy every game that was ever released in a digital platform in the west without any problem, including mmos, except for this one.

Also, there are no restrictions about content or ratings like in other countries. Our government really doesn't care about that stuff.


I can understand why they can't launch box sales worldwide, that looks like a logistics nightmare, but I'm dumbfounded about the digital restrictions. They don't have to ship anything and my money is as good as everyone's.

For a second I thought they didn't like money, but then I remembered we were talking about EA.

@Lateris
EA might run afoul of false advertisement laws around the world, since they sent emails to players around the world telling them to pre-order, but didn't allow them to do so.

Also, the Brazilian version of the Origin store is running an advert telling pre-orders are open, but Brazilian users can't actually pre-order. Which, at least in this case, is even more clear cut, since it can be classified as an advertisement directed to Brazilians, containing an open offer that is not, currently, being honored.