Star Wars: The Old Republic Subscription Numbers Fall Below 1 Million

News comes from the latest EA earning’s call that helps explains the MMO’s swift and drastic switch to a free-to-play model: subscription numbers for the MMO have dipped below one million.

Subscription numbers for Star Wars: The Old Republic have slipped below 1 million for the first time, Electronic Arts confirmed in their latest earnings call, prompting CEO John Riccitiello to call the game’s performance “disappointing.”

The high-profile MMO had 1.3 subscribers as of three months ago. Today’s update reflects the game’s downward momentum.

EA maintains that the game is doing better than the “break-even” level of 500,000 subscriptions, but it’s clear that drastic changes needed to be made. The company announced a move to free-to-play earlier today. EA’s Frank Gibeau confirmed that the goal of the F2P initiative is to get lapsed players back into the game, but admitted there are no expectations on what the response to the new program will be.

“Enormous flop” would be the appropriate term by now, considering the costs involved.