But "star wars – the old republic" had already cracked this mark one week after its launch last december.
The free offer is to come in the fall, announced electronic arts in the night to wednesday. Playing with all the features in the "star wars" universe still costs 14.99 dollars a month. The decision to dramatically expand free access confirms the trend that expensive subscriptions for online games are a hard sell in a competitive market. For example, the building block company lego first had to make its "lego universe" game, which was also developed with great care, free of charge – and then discontinued it altogether.
At the same time, electronic arts announced a drop in sales and profits. Revenue fell four percent to $955 million in the first quarter ended june, while profit slumped nine percent to $201 million.
It is not the first time that problems with the "star wars" game become known. Already at the beginning of july the number of levels you can play for free was increased to 15, after about 400 000 subscribers had migrated.