Over the past couple of months, I’ve noticed that the world of Star Wars: The Old Republic isn’t quite as “massively multiplayer” compared to when I first started playing in December. It’s a rare thing to see more than ten people signed into my particular corner of the server at one time. I thought perhaps I was playing during off-peak hours, but I began to read reports of dwindling player participation across all servers. Electronic Arts confirmed those rumors yesterday when it revealed that the game had lost 400,000 subscribers in the previous quarter. I still enjoy playing through the story, but it’s become nearly impossible to find teammates for the multiplayer content (which is some of the game’s best content).
I’ll likely remain a subscriber for a while longer in the hopes that Bioware figures out how to make the game world feel more dynamic and less like an abandoned amusement park. Of course, I may not give the matter much thought once Diablo III conjures itself onto my hard drive next week.
