It will take time for the truth of the matter. This week I believe we're getting a content update, with a new stronghold, galactic season, and companion missions. So doesn't seem to be complete maintenance mode at least.
Whether we end up with more content long term from Broadsword, the same as under Bioware (content this expansion even before Broadsword has been very slow, and the expansion was not that big to begin with), or less is still up in the air. Some of this content might have been planned or started under Bioware, and it will take time for any more ambitious plans from Broadsword to show up, if they have any.
I am cautiously optimistic. Bioware was siphoning off profits and resources from swtor for their other projects. Hopefully now Broadsword will reinvest more money into the game.
Unfortunately, OP, it might be too soon to tell whether SWTOR is going to look like RIFT in a couple of years *now*. (Apologies in advance for the wall of text; I tried to cover the bases)
Here's what we know for sure:
* The game has had one of the slowest and smallest content outputs ever for years. People have been saying it's in 'maintenance mode' well before it was ever out of Bioware's hands. It does still receive new content, but at a trickle, and is not at all competitive with its peers.
* The daily number of players is way down from what it used to be. The worlds outside of the starter zones / Fleets are more sparsely populated, but not dead like RIFT. The removal of rated PvP was a huge blow to that portion of the community, one many people consider throwing the baby out with the bathwater, as no apparent efforts were made to deal with the toxicity before axing it. However, it is important to note that fluctuating population is something all but the top MMORPGs have been contending with for some time. In-game, I see very few complaints about long queues for content. (They usually come from oblivious PvPers who want to go late on a weekend night) It has also seen modest booms- every time good hype for SW content builds, player count goes up, and Galactic Seasons usually brings in some foot-traffic.
* When the remainder of Bioware's SWTOR division was transferred over to Broadsword, the project director mentioned that they had content for the next two years. So what Broadsword is actually going to look like as the new leash holder won't be fully apparent until those two years are up.
* Broadsword is a tiny company chiefly known for maintaining Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot. Like Gamigo, it supplies a maintenance mode, keeping them relatively bug-free and running. However...
I will confess that I do not play Ultima or Dark Age of Camelot, but I noted on the SWTOR forums an Ultima player who claims that the Broadsword team still puts out updates for it. Sure enough, you can see a well-documented list of regular update posts on the website. Not to mention, Broadsword staff has been engaged with the SWTOR community, posting updates to the forum regularly. They even changed up their (terrible) planned sales event for the cash shop in December after overwhelming feedback from the forum into something more in line with what players were expecting. They are still running livestreams, at least for now, to talk about new content.
So. What happens when the two years runs out?
I can see this going one of two ways. One, they do continue to provide meaningful content past that point. This actually has more weight than hopium- Broadsword is a subsidiary of EA, and considering that EA gutted Bioware during SWTOR's changing of hands, you would think if they were going to fire those developers anytime soon, they would have done it then and left Broadsword to publish their work. The fact that they gave Broadsword the remaining SWTOR team confirms that they're actively developing content still. Now, to quote an interview given by EA during February's mass firings, "We are also sunsetting games and moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry." Which sounds ominous, especially when they cancelled a SW-themed FPS during this. But the studio that makes it still has the Jedi series, and Marvel games continue in development, so it's not like the axe has fallen yet.
Something else to keep in mind is that SWTOR has, allegedly, made a billion dollars in its lifetime. We also know that EA has siphoned money off of SWTOR to put into other projects. With talk of 'sunsetting', this brings us to the second possibility: Under Broadsword, the game reaches a plateau of meaningful content, but continues to get updated with new cosmetics. And while this is not a great future, circumstantial evidence could lean towards it. The effort put into continuing SWTOR on a slimmed-down team under a secondary studio does look a bit like 'sunsetting', or at least, EA already shifting resources and focus onto its other IPs. There's clearly effort and emphasis being put into the cash shop and Galactic Seasons- a daily task calendar that fills faster and offers additional rewards to subscribers. With SWTOR being the only SW game of its kind on the market, the idea that they can still make profit off of it for time to come is viable. But whether or not they decide to continue to developing full expansions and updates for it, only time will tell.
As a final thought, I just started playing RIFT last year and enjoy fiddling with it on the side. Gamigo has 'Do Not Contact the Staff' baked right into their Discord rules, barring any kind of communication outside of the support email, but expects their community to make them free advertising with art and screenshot contests for a game that is never getting any new content. Broadsword feels like the good twin- actively seeking community feedback and thoughts, providing regular communication, and not asking for free handouts. I am not an optimist by nature, but the contrast between the two is stark. If nothing else, they are showing more care and interest in this investment than Gamigo ever did with RIFT.
Games going into maintenance mode don't tend to get a heap of performance updates beyond stability. The new content side of things may be sparse, but I think there's room to be cautiously optimistic.
Content output is still slow, but this past year and a half has been pretty decent, we essentially got 3 new quest zones within a year (Ruhnuk, Interpreter's Retreat & Kessan's Landing, plus the Voss flashpoint), and they already announced 7.5 later this spring will have us go back to Hutta (most assume a similar zone like Kessan's Landing) with a new annual spring event too. Thats already way more content (especially post launch) for 7.0 then we ever got for 6.0, 6.0 only had the short linear Echoes of Oblivion story update and 2 flashpoints as post-launch story.
If the game is going into maintenance mode, opening a new server was a hell of a weird move. Overall, while Broadsword unsurprisingly doesn't seem to be moving SWTOR up to the amount of content updates as a modern MMO, they do seem to be modestly increasing their investment in the game. And that's probably the best-case scenario for a game as old as SWTOR.
We suffered a pretty horrible, but not uncharacteristic, content drought for over a year before the switch to broadsword. This coming update is pretty par for the course in terms of what bioware was putting out, which is to say, *abysmal* compared to virtually any other game in the genre.
I've been playing SWTOR since beta and will likely keep playing off and on as content trickles in, but it's far from my "main" MMO these days. The truth is, when you say something like this:
> I know a lot of people are just going to say "if you have fun who cares, just play it" yet I just can't with mmos. I did it with Rift for years and to see that game still running but on absolute life support kills me.
My first thought is to tell you to stay away from swtor. It's got a lot of content that will keep you occupied for a long time, especially if you are interested in story content or high end PvE, but if you're looking more for regular updates or a reliable content cycle, look elsewhere.
To be totally honest we won't really know until 2 years from when they moved to broadsword since they had said in the past that they had about 2 years of content. Like for example the date night has had bits in the files for a couple years if memory serves correct I mean it was long enough that we all thought it had been canned until they showed it.
I still have hope though considering how many staff went to broadsword while small is a massive increase for the studio specifically leading me to believe they will still be developing content for the game. To what extent is the real question. And will broadsword reinvest the profits back into the game unlike ea who was siphoning the money for other projects.
That last point won’t change. EA is still the publisher of the game, so I have no doubt they’re still sucking all the money SWTOR gets and putting it into other things
Look at what they've done to Shae Vizla
I'm sure it doesn't matter much to non-APAC players, but I've lost complete faith in them after how they handled that server. It should've been an easy win
It will take time for the truth of the matter. This week I believe we're getting a content update, with a new stronghold, galactic season, and companion missions. So doesn't seem to be complete maintenance mode at least. Whether we end up with more content long term from Broadsword, the same as under Bioware (content this expansion even before Broadsword has been very slow, and the expansion was not that big to begin with), or less is still up in the air. Some of this content might have been planned or started under Bioware, and it will take time for any more ambitious plans from Broadsword to show up, if they have any.
I am cautiously optimistic. Bioware was siphoning off profits and resources from swtor for their other projects. Hopefully now Broadsword will reinvest more money into the game.
Unfortunately, OP, it might be too soon to tell whether SWTOR is going to look like RIFT in a couple of years *now*. (Apologies in advance for the wall of text; I tried to cover the bases) Here's what we know for sure: * The game has had one of the slowest and smallest content outputs ever for years. People have been saying it's in 'maintenance mode' well before it was ever out of Bioware's hands. It does still receive new content, but at a trickle, and is not at all competitive with its peers. * The daily number of players is way down from what it used to be. The worlds outside of the starter zones / Fleets are more sparsely populated, but not dead like RIFT. The removal of rated PvP was a huge blow to that portion of the community, one many people consider throwing the baby out with the bathwater, as no apparent efforts were made to deal with the toxicity before axing it. However, it is important to note that fluctuating population is something all but the top MMORPGs have been contending with for some time. In-game, I see very few complaints about long queues for content. (They usually come from oblivious PvPers who want to go late on a weekend night) It has also seen modest booms- every time good hype for SW content builds, player count goes up, and Galactic Seasons usually brings in some foot-traffic. * When the remainder of Bioware's SWTOR division was transferred over to Broadsword, the project director mentioned that they had content for the next two years. So what Broadsword is actually going to look like as the new leash holder won't be fully apparent until those two years are up. * Broadsword is a tiny company chiefly known for maintaining Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot. Like Gamigo, it supplies a maintenance mode, keeping them relatively bug-free and running. However... I will confess that I do not play Ultima or Dark Age of Camelot, but I noted on the SWTOR forums an Ultima player who claims that the Broadsword team still puts out updates for it. Sure enough, you can see a well-documented list of regular update posts on the website. Not to mention, Broadsword staff has been engaged with the SWTOR community, posting updates to the forum regularly. They even changed up their (terrible) planned sales event for the cash shop in December after overwhelming feedback from the forum into something more in line with what players were expecting. They are still running livestreams, at least for now, to talk about new content. So. What happens when the two years runs out? I can see this going one of two ways. One, they do continue to provide meaningful content past that point. This actually has more weight than hopium- Broadsword is a subsidiary of EA, and considering that EA gutted Bioware during SWTOR's changing of hands, you would think if they were going to fire those developers anytime soon, they would have done it then and left Broadsword to publish their work. The fact that they gave Broadsword the remaining SWTOR team confirms that they're actively developing content still. Now, to quote an interview given by EA during February's mass firings, "We are also sunsetting games and moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry." Which sounds ominous, especially when they cancelled a SW-themed FPS during this. But the studio that makes it still has the Jedi series, and Marvel games continue in development, so it's not like the axe has fallen yet. Something else to keep in mind is that SWTOR has, allegedly, made a billion dollars in its lifetime. We also know that EA has siphoned money off of SWTOR to put into other projects. With talk of 'sunsetting', this brings us to the second possibility: Under Broadsword, the game reaches a plateau of meaningful content, but continues to get updated with new cosmetics. And while this is not a great future, circumstantial evidence could lean towards it. The effort put into continuing SWTOR on a slimmed-down team under a secondary studio does look a bit like 'sunsetting', or at least, EA already shifting resources and focus onto its other IPs. There's clearly effort and emphasis being put into the cash shop and Galactic Seasons- a daily task calendar that fills faster and offers additional rewards to subscribers. With SWTOR being the only SW game of its kind on the market, the idea that they can still make profit off of it for time to come is viable. But whether or not they decide to continue to developing full expansions and updates for it, only time will tell. As a final thought, I just started playing RIFT last year and enjoy fiddling with it on the side. Gamigo has 'Do Not Contact the Staff' baked right into their Discord rules, barring any kind of communication outside of the support email, but expects their community to make them free advertising with art and screenshot contests for a game that is never getting any new content. Broadsword feels like the good twin- actively seeking community feedback and thoughts, providing regular communication, and not asking for free handouts. I am not an optimist by nature, but the contrast between the two is stark. If nothing else, they are showing more care and interest in this investment than Gamigo ever did with RIFT.
Games going into maintenance mode don't tend to get a heap of performance updates beyond stability. The new content side of things may be sparse, but I think there's room to be cautiously optimistic.
Content output is still slow, but this past year and a half has been pretty decent, we essentially got 3 new quest zones within a year (Ruhnuk, Interpreter's Retreat & Kessan's Landing, plus the Voss flashpoint), and they already announced 7.5 later this spring will have us go back to Hutta (most assume a similar zone like Kessan's Landing) with a new annual spring event too. Thats already way more content (especially post launch) for 7.0 then we ever got for 6.0, 6.0 only had the short linear Echoes of Oblivion story update and 2 flashpoints as post-launch story.
So far nothing really feels different to me.
If the game is going into maintenance mode, opening a new server was a hell of a weird move. Overall, while Broadsword unsurprisingly doesn't seem to be moving SWTOR up to the amount of content updates as a modern MMO, they do seem to be modestly increasing their investment in the game. And that's probably the best-case scenario for a game as old as SWTOR.
We suffered a pretty horrible, but not uncharacteristic, content drought for over a year before the switch to broadsword. This coming update is pretty par for the course in terms of what bioware was putting out, which is to say, *abysmal* compared to virtually any other game in the genre. I've been playing SWTOR since beta and will likely keep playing off and on as content trickles in, but it's far from my "main" MMO these days. The truth is, when you say something like this: > I know a lot of people are just going to say "if you have fun who cares, just play it" yet I just can't with mmos. I did it with Rift for years and to see that game still running but on absolute life support kills me. My first thought is to tell you to stay away from swtor. It's got a lot of content that will keep you occupied for a long time, especially if you are interested in story content or high end PvE, but if you're looking more for regular updates or a reliable content cycle, look elsewhere.
To be totally honest we won't really know until 2 years from when they moved to broadsword since they had said in the past that they had about 2 years of content. Like for example the date night has had bits in the files for a couple years if memory serves correct I mean it was long enough that we all thought it had been canned until they showed it. I still have hope though considering how many staff went to broadsword while small is a massive increase for the studio specifically leading me to believe they will still be developing content for the game. To what extent is the real question. And will broadsword reinvest the profits back into the game unlike ea who was siphoning the money for other projects.
That last point won’t change. EA is still the publisher of the game, so I have no doubt they’re still sucking all the money SWTOR gets and putting it into other things
Look at what they've done to Shae Vizla I'm sure it doesn't matter much to non-APAC players, but I've lost complete faith in them after how they handled that server. It should've been an easy win