EA Hit Another time at Activision; New 'Star Wars' Videogame
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== EA Hit Another time at Activision; New 'Star Wars' Videogame ==
Electronic Arts Inc. released its big-money "Star Wars" videogame in a move to win rival Activision Blizzard Inc.'s empire, even as many gamers flock to free games from Zynga Inc. and others.
EA began selling "Star Wars: The Old Republic" in U.S. stores , in what is a huge bet for the Redwood City, Calif., company. Star Wars" is a so-called massively multiplayer online game, in which millions of people can play together online in the same fantasy world Power Leveling
EA said the game, which costs $60 along with a monthly subscription fee,beijing escort, is the company's "biggest development project still," through a number of analysts estimating it cost hundreds of millions of us dollars and took five years to get off the ground.
With "Star Wars," EA is taking aim at Activision's "World of Warcraft" game,escort beijing, which has approaching 10 million subscribers who pay a monthly or annual bill to compete together over the Online world for cheap WoW Gold. The game creates almost half of Activision's quarterly revenue in several quarters.
This is EA's second major strike this year against Activision, that is the world's most worthy videogame business by market capitalization. In October, EA released a new version of its "Battlefield" shooting game and heavily marketed it against Activision's "Call of Duty" series, the best-selling shooting videogame franchise of all time.
EA executives supposed their titles would compete against Activision's twin juggernauts although acknowledged they would not surpass them. Frank Gibeau, head of EA's studios, believed the corporation would be "approaching profitability" if "Star Wars" reaches 500,000 subscribers. One million subscribers would make it a "good investment," he said.
Activision declined to comment.
While online games that sustain millions of customers can be huge moneymakers-a monthly subscription to "World of Warcraft" starts at $12.99-they are also big investments. Among numerous traditional videogames played on pcs or gaming consoles, most of the game maker's costs end when the games hit the shelf. With on line games such as "Star Wars," EA has to develop the game and next maintain servers in addition to put in new features to tempt players to go on subscribing.
EA also faces a new problem from companies such as social-games maker Zynga that have happen to popular by offering games for free next then charging players for virtual goods.
Still, EA has the benefit of the well-known "Star Wars" title. The company developed the game in collaboration in addition to LucasArts, the company founded by "Star Wars" creator George Lucas,Shanghai Massage - Bodily Pleasures That Invigorates, Mr. Gibeau said.
The early signs have been decent for EA. Doug Creutz, a Cowen Group analyst, said his "very rough" estimation was that 1.5 million people are already playing "Star Wars." The challenge for EA is to get folks to continue subscribing, said Colin Sebastian, an R.W. Baird analyst.
Sites like Veooo.com have already came up with promotion like 5% rebate to each and every one item to attract more gamer to experience the game.