SOE sees more free-to-play success as Clone Wars Adventures hits 10M players

Developer and publisher Sony Online Entertainment has announced that browser-based, free-to-play MMORPG Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures has surpassed 10 million since launching a year and a half ago. SOE has seen plenty of success with its free-to-play titles, especially when it comes to attracting players. Free Realms, its PC and PlayStation 3 virtual world targeting kids, has over 20 million users. And PC/PS3 MMO DC Universe crossed 1 million players a week after it switched from subscriptions to free-to-play last November. The company has seen so much success with the model, it's converting older titles to free-to-play, too. EverQuest II, released in 2004, made the switch in December, and it's seen a surge in user sign-ups and in-game item sales since. The original, 13-year-old EverQuest will also become free-to-play later this week. Clone Wars Adventures reached this new milestone six months after it hit 8 million users, and three months after Electronic Arts released Star Wars: The Old Republic, also an MMO based on LucasArts' sci-fi property. That subscription-based Windows game has over 1.7 million players, the majority of which are recurring subscribers. In fact, the last two months were Clone Wars Adventures' best in terms of attracting users since the game's launch, according to VentureBeat. Clone Wars Adventures senior producer Todd Carson, noted during a Game Developers Conference presentation last week that despite their similar themes, the two titles have different audiences, with SWTOR attracting older players interested in core experiences. Clone Wars Adventures, however, is a casual title, and 70 percent of its players are children -- unsurprising considering the game pulls its inspiration from Cartoon Network's animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The primary age group for the free-to-play title is eight to 12-year-old boys.