Star Wars: The Old Republic had a strong launch, reaching over a million and half subscribers initially, but has since lost over 400,00 subscribers after hitting its 1.7 million peak. The game was heavily anticipated, leaving many to wonder why players began to leave the game. The most recent numbers still put it as the number 3 MMO by paying subscribers, behind Aion at 2.4 million and World of Warcraft at 10.2 million.
Vogel, the executuve producer who oversaw nearly all aspects of the game’s development, is confirmed to be leaving among layoffs from Bioware Austin. Bioware’s layoffs as they relate to SWTOR are to restructure the team to provide development and service going forward. They are rumored to be looking at free-to-play, an increasingly popular model for monetizing MMOs.
Vogel was instrumental in building some of the biggest and most important MMOs in history, including Ultima Online, Meridan 59, and Star Wars: Galaxies. We wish him the best and hope to see him leading more successful MMO products in the future.