This article was submitted by a member of our community, Justin Taylor. We are happy to publish him and we hope that you the SWTOR community enjoy him as well, thank you Justin!   🙂
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With multiple beta testing sessions and some positive reviews already flowing in, Star Wars The Old Republic has already been tabbed as one of the major releases of the holiday season. Even though previews have mostly been positive, there was a bit of skepticism coming in focused on the profits for the game by the president of Activision. The assessment looks somewhat misguided; especially considering some industry analysts doubt it already.

In an interview with Eurogamer, an industry analyst predicted that LucasArts will only take about 35 percent of the revenue from the release of SWTOR following December. The game itself could be expected to generate almost $300 million in revenue, making the pot very healthy for both LucasArts and Electronic Arts.

Part of the reason expectations are so high is because of the December 20 release coinciding perfectly with the holiday season. Many families are using that release date to their advantage, choosing to pre order Star Wars the Old Republic instead of waiting until after the holidays.

Since EA is set to receive about 30 percent of the total revenue for SWTOR, they would be looking at somewhere around $80 million in profits for the year, which is pretty impressive. Multiple industry analysts have predicted the subscriber totals to be heavy as well.

Numbers from about 1.5 million people and even up to 3 million have been estimated thus far with those who are predicting how many will subscribe in 2012. If the game is able to experience subscribers anywhere near the level of 3 million in the first year, that could drive up total revenue to somewhere in the area of $500 million, sweetening the pot for both developers.

The doubt that has come in has been primarily based off the license share between Electronic Arts and LucasArts. A quick glance at the early reviews and reactions from the beta testing sessions have been generally positive, especially with improvements to the story and game play in tow.

Aside from a generally positive review from the testing weekends, analysts are mostly saying that the game will have only a small risk of failure at all. From the outset, the initiative for The Old Republic has been to compete on the same level as traditional MMO powerhouses such as World of Warcraft. While it remains to be seen if the franchise can have that much success in the long term, its ability to mix die hard Star Wars fans with casual PC gamers should help to determine the possibility of it getting to the forefront of the MMO market.