MARCH 10, 2010 • Electronic Arts chief financial officer Eric Brown told a gathering of financial analysts  in New York City that Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO was the most expensive and largest ever development project, period, in the history of the company.  Brown said a packaged game usually costs around $30 million to make at EA, but “any MMO costs significantly more than that.”

Impact: DFC Intelligence has estimated that a high-end MMO product designed to compete on the level of World of Warcraft would probably require a development budget of $100 million or more.  Of course, if this product is successful that development budget is easily justified as World of Warcraft now brings in over $1 billion a year at very high operating margins.  The problem Electronic Arts faces is Star Wars: The Old Republic is looking to come out at a time when consumer willingness to commit to a high-end subscription is on the decline.  With the growth of free-to-play games, that offer consumers a more gradual payment option to get introduced to a product, the Star Wars MMO will be an introducing marker of the future of consumer spending for PC online games.