Star Wars MMO a 10-year opportunity for EA

Upcoming BioWare MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic, is a 10 year opportunity, publisher EA has said.

Speaking at the UBS Annual Media and Communications Conference in New York (seen by Eurogamer), EA CFO Eric Brown was bullish about the chance of the game’s success.

“Our assumptions for break-even and profitability are not seven digit subscribers. We think we can run and operate a very successful and profitable MMO at different levels,” said Brown.

“The key thing here is to really perfect the product. We’re shooting for an extremely high quality game experience. We view this as a 10 year opportunity.”

EA recently confirmed that the game will launch after April 2011, but before the year end.

The seven digit figure Brown is obviously referring to is the 12 million subscribers paying to play World of Warcraft. While this kind of player base might not be required, it will be important for the game have a successful launch and, importantly, maintain a growing subscription base.

We’ve seen many an MMO launch well, with impressive sales, only for users to dwindle several months down the line. Age of Conan and the now free-to-play Lord of the Rings Online come to mind.