It sounds as though Star Wars: The Old Republic is doing quite a good job of keeping players interested. In a conference call reported by CVG , EA's CEO John Riccitiello mentioned that almost 1.7 million people are currently subscribed to the high-budget MMO, suggesting that TOR has dodged the one month slump that can happen when the subscription charge hits players for the first time.
It helps that Bioware have been so vocal about the updates they're planning. The Legacy patch is set to hit in April, bringing with it a new flashpoint, warzone and operation, expanding the legacy system, improving character textures, adding armour colour customisation and more.
In the long term, it'll be interesting to see whether Bioware plan to expand class storylines. The fully voiced narratives, full of cut scenes and moral decisions, are one of TOR's most unique features, but are time consuming and expensive to produce. They're one of the reasons that Bioware ended up recruiting hundreds and hundreds of staff to put TOR together. Will we see paid-for story expansions arriving in the future, will more story sections be added in far future patches, or will the rest of TOR's story be told through flashpoints and operations alone?