Star Wars: The Old Republic subscriptions not dropping, says BioWare

It's easy to look at the recent promotions BioWare has been running for Star Wars: The Old Republic as a sign of desperation.  Free 30 days here, free weekend there, it doesn't take much to form a conclusion that subscriptions are dropping.

According to BioWare lead writer Daniel Erickson, however, Star Wars: The Old Republic subscriptions are not dropping.  Speaking to PC Gamer, Erickson explained that the number of concurrent users at peak times has declined resulting in a lot of "light" server populations.

“Nothing is off the table when it comes to making sure our communities are strong and active on each server," Erickson said.  He assured that BioWare is doing "anything and everything" to increase concurrent user numbers – even entertaining the idea of server merges.

Last week, analyst group Cowen and Company said it believes player subscriptions for Star Wars: The Old Republic have already begun to decline.  Cowen's Doug Creutz estimated that by the end of the current fiscal year in March 2013, subscriptions will have fallen to 1.25 million subscribers.

So who do you believe?  Some analyst or someone working for BioWare?  I can't speak of the 1.2 Legacy changes because I haven't played for quite a while.  For me, the end game was just something I had already seen in tons of MMOs before this one.