DARKSIDE DEFENDERS

Wednesday, May 4, 2011
2:00 pm Pacific Time (5:00 pm Eastern Time ) -> 23Uhr MEZ

Dial-in numbers:
U.S. and Canada: (877) 418-3422; International: (706) 643-3915
Access code: 59719140

Webcast: http://ir.ea.com

http://investor.ea.com/releasedetail...leaseID=569309

1 These forward-looking statements are valid as of May 4, 2011 only. The Packaged Goods title release schedule excludes Star Wars: The Old Republic, which is expected to launch in either Q2 FY12 or Q3 FY12.

Q2 FY12 is July through September 2011, and Q3 FY12 is October through December 2011.

UPDATE: Stephen Reid sent a reminder via Twitter about the release date window.

In "Release window for Star Wars: The Old Republic", Stephen Reid said:
Star Wars: The Old Republic is expected to launch in the second half of 2011.

Reaffirmed Star Wars: The Old Republic will ship in CY 2011.

Star Wars: The Old Republic will be launched as a Digital Service.

Subscription revenue expected to rise with the launch of SWTOR.

"While we fully anticipate launching Star Wars: The Old Republic in Q2 or Q3, the low end of our guidance range assumes the outside possibility of a January launch."

Server infrastructure for Star Wars: The Old Republic is a significant FY12 cost investment.

SWTOR mentioned as a Subscription based MMO.

Over 1 million testers (signed up)

We're holding the date for two reasons:
1. Don't want to tip off the competition.
2. To get more information from testing.

Question: "On a beta test for Star Wars, it sounds like you guys are already ongoing with that, but how long does a test like that before full product launch can actually take place?"

Response: Frank: "With regard to your question on Star Wars, typically MMOs have about a six month run in terms of beta testing. We've been continuously testing STar Wars already and have already embarked on that process, so we feel very good about the type of telemetry and feedback that we've got coming in from that, and we have a very sizable signup list of beta testers that are actively engaged with making the game better."

Question: "Just a quick question to follow up on the beta, if I could, for a moment. Can you give us a little bit of color as to what the level of interest is at this point in the Star Wars beta, and then if we're looking at your guidance for the year and the range of your guidance, can you comment a little bit about what's at the high end in terms of the assumptions behind Star Wars--is that kind of what the timing may be with the launch of the game, or if you could give brackets around what we might be thinking of in terms of a sub-level."

Response: Eric: "So this is Eric, and I'll take the second part of the question first. So, our guidance range at the high end of 90 cents. We give it a ship date range of fiscal Q2 to fiscal Q3 for Star Wars, and so Star Wars shipping earlier, ie Q2 vs. Q3 is factored into the 90 cent upper range. We are not giving any specidifc subscription or subscriber targets or ARPU. The only thing we've said about business models is that it's expected to be a monthly subscription based, but beyond that we haven't given any specific metrics for that. . . . if the ship date should slip by a couple months from Q2 into the latter portion of Q3, it's north of 5 cents, 10 centes in terms of variability based on the ship date of Star Wars. In terms of your first question about interest in the beta, it's exceedingly high. The demand metrics for this franchise are amongst the highest we've ever seen at Electronic Arts, and in fact the customer data coming in from the beta test of intent to purchase, quality rating, desirability, are all at the very high end of what our partners in the testing groups have seen. We're very excited and confident that we've got the right game."
Interest in beta is exceedingly high. The customer data coming in from the beta test are at the high end. We're very excited and confident we have the right game. Demand metrics among the highest EA has ever seen. (paraphrase)
The customer data coming in from the beta test are at the high end. We're very excited and confident we have the right game.
Expect to sell the client via Digital Download. SWTOR will lead to digital growth.

Question: "So, Eric, the Star Wars game: can you talk maybe about the difference in run rate before and after the game ships in terms of pre-build and then ongoing service beyond that?"

Response: Eric: "Well, I think here's the way to look at it (and we made some specific comments about what our year looks like when measured with a portion of the year with Star Wars versus where we exit the year where Star Wars is fully in operation): So, we open the year with Fiscal 12 with Star Wars still in development, with us incurring expense to our P&L's with fairly significant R&D expenses. At the end of the year, Star Wars will be live, and we'll have some of the costs shift from R&D into cost of goods as we activate the live services--you know, the game masters, the customer care, etc. But all in, the Star Wars P&L flips from beind dilutive at the beginning of the year to being highly accretive at the end of the year."

When I told you that Black Talon was tied for my favorite thing from the Fansite Summit, surely you asked yourself "well, what is the other one?" You may have guessed it, it was PVP. Remember all of those times I made assumptions about what PvP was like, especially when it related to damage and crowd-control? Yeah, I wasn't even close. Way to make me wrong again BioWare.


The way the PvP event worked was pretty interesting, so I want to explain that and then I will get into the specifics. BioWare had half of the Fansites sit and play the game in just a simple practice round, halfway through we would rotate with the people that we were shadowing. Samm and I were shadowing two of our German friends who were using the Jedi Sentinel and Sage. We finished out the practice round and the re-queued us for PvP to let the real match begin.

Overview

Before I get into the specifics of my three rounds I want to cover some of the basics of PvP in this game to give you an idea of what it is like. BioWare also threw in some interesting innovations. Most of you I am sure have heard of diminishing returns. The way diminishing returns works is that as you use a crowd control skill it becomes less and less effective. As an example if I have an 8 second stun. The first time I use it, it will stun for 8 seconds. The second time perhaps for 4, then 2, and then they will be immune.

BioWare has an interesting system in place which I am sure has a fancy adjective riddled name that I cannot remember. Underneath each players health bar (which is seen above their heads in a nameplate) you can see a secondary bar which as a players is hit by crowd control, continually fills up. In my experience once crowd control spell would fill the bar by about half, so two consecutive CC spells would make them immune. You can then see the bar slowly "un-filling" itself. This is a great visual form of diminishing returns and is one less thing a player would need to track.

I think this system will have huge implications in competitive PvP vs PuG groups. If two players stun the same player, that person now just became immune even though they were only hit once, whereas a coordinated group can make sure to not overlap CC in order to abuse the diminishing returns. Pretty awesome.

The one thing that stood out to me more than any other is the pacing of combat. For anyone who hated WoW's "I 3-shot you" PvP, I introduce you to SWTOR. The PvP in this game has a much slower pace than any WoW player may be used to. I didn't time it but I am positive my 1-on-1 fights took 30-60 seconds. This may not sound like a lot, but it is way longer than you think. Try it, stop reading this and time 45 seconds. Go on, I will wait.
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Not that fast is it? Yet what is great is that it still felt very action packed. It wasn't like a 20 minute raid encounter with eleventy-billion health where you keep asking yourself "when will this thing die!?" It was a rush from start to finish.

There are a few other things I want to cover but honestly they are best served while talking about the classes, so let's talk about what I got to play!

The Jedi Sentinel

For those unaware, the Jedi Sentinel is the Jedi Knight advanced class which is a DPS class who dual wields lightsabers. I had great interest in this class since I am still torn on my Sith Warrior AC choice of Juggernaut or Marauder. Just like when I played Taral, the first issue -- I am level 20 with a ton of skills that I have no idea how to use.

Well this time I decided to do things my way and get a little crafty. I read over all of my skills during the intro wait time and rearranged my skill bar. I had about 20 skills in total (including 2-3 buffs) which I took what I assumed would be 5-6 most used skills and placed them on 1-6. This included two builders (Jedi Knights use a rage mechanic), two rage skills, an AoE attack, force charge and a Stun. I decided since the pace of combat was fairly slow and I couldn't really coordinate CC I wouldn't need more than a single stun. This would be for either interrupting casting, escaping from near death or stopping a runner. In retrospect I also had a movement snare which I should have been using as people really liked to run away from my lightsabers and it was difficult at times to catch them.

Since this was my first real match on Alderaan, I decided I was going for the epeen spectacular, get as many kills as I could and largely ignore objectives. I figured that most people were going to follow this approach and there would be plenty of killing to be had. What was nice is that Samm was sitting next to me and playing the Jedi Sage, meaning I had a little pocket healer. Even though he spent 99% of his time healing he would throw up a heal if I was near death and near him.

With this in mind I went through and played exactly as I planned. Use builders/force charge into my rage costing skills to burst players down. I always aimed for healers or those crafty people hiding off to the side "glares at the Imperial Agent." By far my favorite moment of my playtime with the Sentinel was some accidental yet awesome teamwork between Samm and I.

We were all fighting at the middle capture point which if you recall from the Alderaan video has a circular balcony which surrounds it, above it. A Sniper was sitting up there just raining pain down upon my team in the middle yet because of the angle, I think most people didn't notice him. As soon as I spotted him, I targeted him and pressed my force charge button. Unbeknownst to me, Samm had Stasis Fielded him, which had removed him from cover. I jumped from the farside of the capture point, vertically one story and over a balcony to punch that Agent right in the face.

I literally yelled, very loudly, "HOLY F*CK" when that happened. I have never seen a game which had pathing smart enough to not have the game explode when you try charging around terrain like that. So awesome!

By the end of the match I had done quite well for myself achieving top kills along with Zach of Mos Eisley Radio as a Smuggler. I actually went around the room yelling "Who played (insert character name here)" so I could discuss their playtime with them. I will come back to Zach in my Trooper writeup as well. As a note I died twice during my Sentinel playtime. I got a little over anxious sometimes deciding it would be smart to try to take on 3 players at one time.

We won the match which surprised me since I never once paid any attention to capping points. I totally just ran around hit people in the face having a good time. Way to go all of you other round 1 Republic players for carrying the team and doing actual objectives!

Imperial Operative

This round took place during lunch and so not only had some of the fansite members already left to catch flights, many people were out eating and not playing. This meant BW employees took up the reigns of some of the computers and when I returned I was able to steal a seat from Stephen Reid (thanks Stephen) and play the Imperial Operative.

I will make this amazingly brief, just like my Operative playtime. I sat down, had about enough time to look at my skills and we won. Easiest win I have ever gotten in PvP. 2 - 0 on the day!

Republic Commando

This was the biggest surprise of the event for me. I had the opportunity to play the Trooper back at PAX West and although the class was fun, it wasn't exactly my favorite. What I felt it lacked especially was a passive ammo regen, which would have helped greatly in the flow of the class. Great news, BioWare agreed and now there is one!

My Commando was spec'd into healing so I decided I was going to play correctly this time. I did the same rearranging of skills I spoke of earlier and then I chose one of the capture points and decided I was going to act like Leonidas, "this is where I stand." Like that famous battle at Thermopylae, stand I did!

I went to the East capture point and over the course of a very long and extremely exciting match, I made sure we held that point. Throughout the whole battle I never died a single time. Certainly at times things got a bit dicey, like when it was 4 vs 1, but with some creative use of line-of-site, heals and some good cardio I was able to survive.

Arranging my skills took me some time as I wasn't exactly sure how I wanted to play. Certainly I was spec'd as a healer but if I was going to roam alone, killing would need to happen. I decided to only have one heal on my bar, my primary direct cast heal and then have my healing grenade (yes you read that right) in clickable range. Yes I said clicking! I couldn't rebind my keys so I only had limited hand range, don't judge me!

My attack skills were a rotation of 4 skills. A channeled high damage skill, something called I believe "Burst Shot" which was a 1-2s cast high damage skill, sticky grenade and then my regular attack which didn't cost ammo. My last bind was of course reload.

Standing and fighting on that east point was amazing. With creative use of the terrain I was very often able to kite people or LoS them in order to get a timely heal off and not die. With my damaging capability combined with healing I was able to mow down foe after foe. I certainly had some very, very close calls in which running away ruled the day. The Empire took the east point more than once but usually this would be in 2v1 or 3v1 situations where one would cap while I fought another.

What I found most interesting about healing is that it actually scaled down to meet the damage down. As I stated previously fights took a long time, a big crit might take away, 10% or so of your health (totally a random guess) and by retrospect my heals would only heal by about an equivalent amount. This created some interesting scenarios where I would really need to spam heal to top allies off. However, it is very, very smart of BioWare to have the healing scaled down otherwise players would simply never die if they were being healed.

By the end of the warzone I had done exceptionally well and it really showed me how hybrids, at least at low levels, are extremely viable and dangerous. I checked each row and I finished:

1st in kills with 29
1st in deaths with 0
1st in healing done
6th in total damage done
2nd in badges earned with 7

That is a lot of things for one healer to accomplish. I am not showing this as some epeen stroke, I want to show how incredibly viable hybrids in multiple roles are! I should mention that again Zach of MER tied me for most kills and badges and our own Samm had the most badges with 8.

Two quick notes about PvP, and these are things you will find out more about in the Gabe Q/A is badges and commending other players and note I could be calling these things with incorrect names. Badges are almost like mini-achievements you earn throughout the warzone. I am making these up, but things like "defend a control point 5 times" etc. These increase your rewards given at the end of the event.

The other thing, which I am still a little unsure about, is the ability to commend a player on their performance. Basically what you do is anytime during the warzone or at the end score screen you can pick a player and be like "this person did awesome," which will also increase the rewards they earn. I asked a question to Gabe about this in the Q/A cause I had some concerns but he answers it very well, look for that.

PvP is a terrific experience. Many people, including myself have said that SWTOR is WoW in space and I would like to 100% revoke that statement after this weekend. You know what PvE plays like? It plays like SWTOR. Yes, it is an MMO and so it has similarities to other games but truly this is a game apart.

PvP is much more akin to WAR (if it was done correctly) which should greatly appeal to many of you whom I know are huge DAoC fans like I am. I had a terrific time in Austin and I cannot wait until all of you get your hands on SWTOR as well. I will see you on the battlefield! You can head to the discussion thread and talk about this along with the rest of my Fansite Summit coverage. As always you can comment below or poke me on Twitter. Thanks for reading!

-eric