Reports on cost of Star Wars MMO not accurate

Reports on the cost of development for EA and BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic – one blog post stating it has cost the publisher in the region of $300 million – are so far from being accurate that CEO John Riccitiello has been brought to laughter.

“There’s been a fair amount of talk on various blogs, describing spends that are vastly higher than anything we’ve ever put in place,” he explained during on overnight earnings call. “So don’t read … gamer blogs as having any substance. Some of them are.. they bring a chuckle but they also bring a frustration for those that are being responsible in the management of EA’s R&D dollars when they read sort of falsehoods out of the press.”

Riccitiello also said that the game will be “substantially profitable” if it achieves a subscriber base of 500,000 players, but the publisher is hoping for more.

“Anything north of one million subscribers is a very profitable business,” he explained. “Essentially, it turns on a dime from being … quite sharply negative in terms of its earning per share impact to positive the day the product ships.”

The CEO was also full of praise for the game.

“The game is looking very good,” he said. “A number of you will have seen it in a variety of our consumer shows. It’s only gotten stronger. We feel very good about the title.”

Via Seeking Alpha

We’re sure The Old Republic will sell well – much like previous high profile MMOs have managed in the past – but maintaining a strong subscriber base is a much more difficult feat.

The goal of 500,000 subscribers does, however, seem very achievable given the appeal of Star Wars and the pedigree of BioWare.