In the third-quarter financial report for its 2012 fiscal year, Electronic Arts have revealed that Star Wars: The Old Republic has gotten off to a strong start. The long-awaited MMORPG from BioWare has sold 2 million copies since launch with 1.7 million of those reported as “active daily users.”
EA CEO John Riccitiello stated that those early sales combined with other strong titles like Battlefield 3 and FIFA 12 have helped to make this quarter a year-over-year improvement from 2011 for the major publisher.
“Star Wars: The Old Republic is developing a committed community of players with more than 1.7 million active subscribers and growing,” said Riccitiello in a press release ahead of the comapny’s earnings conference call.
In a document containing prepared statements for the earnings call, EA revealed that SWTOR was one of the biggest reasons that full game downloads for the company saw a 442 percent increase year-over-year.
“Two million people have purchased the game – from our retail partners and via direct digital downloads on our Origin system,” boasted Riccitiello in the document. “This great launch makes Star Wars: The Old Republic the fastest growing subscription MMO in history. We’re incredibly pleased to see this great game from BioWare off to a very strong start.”
The CEO wasn’t the only EA executive heaping praise on the MMO, President Frank Gibeau also discussed the success the game has had in more than just sales.
“Outside of scheduled maintenance, our servers have been up and running at 99.5 percent of the time – which is a big win in and of itself,” stated Gibeau in the document. “Every major MMO launch has had significant service issues—until now. Star Wars: The Old Republic broke that cycle, leading PC Gamer to write: ‘BioWare hit a big homerun with server stability.'”
The publisher also announced that due to the game’s success, EA will be putting a heavy focus on marketing SWTOR in its fourth quarter. Eric Brown, the company’s chief financial officer, also claimed that the game will be a major factor in the company’s success or failure over the next year.
