Old Republic will sell 3m by March, predicts analyst

By Andy Robinson for computerandvideogames.com

Star Wars: The Old Republic will shift around 3 million units by the end of EA's fiscal year in March, analyst group Baird Equity Research has predicted.

Reflecting on the BioWare MMO's record-breaking launch, which saw more than a million players sign up, analyst Colin Sebastian said EA's early success proves the MMO market is still healthy.

"We view the early success of Star Wars as an indication of a healthy MMO market," he said. "While there is likely some shifting of usage from Activision's World of Warcraft, we see a viable market for multiple million-user MMOs in the U.S. and Europe."

While the analyst expects EA to quickly shift a few million more boxes, he added that, "we think Street expectations for 1.5-2 million paid monthly users through 2012 may be too optimistic."

Sebastian estimated that Old Republic hit around 350,000 concurrent users at its peak last month.

Blizzard's market-leading World of Warcraft still dominates the MMO genre with 10.3 million players as of November 2011.

Part one of our Star Wars: The Old Republic review went live before Christmas. Expect the second half (and a score) in the coming days.