The crystal ball bearer Michael Pachter is at it again. This time during an interview for the MSNBC blog In-Game he gave a rather bold prediction about the future of the massively anticipated MMOPG Star Wars: The Old Republic and its potential as a competitor for World of Warcraft.

Pachter says that SWTOR will probably get a third of its playerbase from WoW and two third from other games. According to the talkative analyst all of those that will leave Blizzard's successful MMORPG will be back in Azeroth after a year. 

His argument is based on the fact that Blizzard will inundate players that will leave for the space-faring MMORPG with "offers and new stuff", and on the notion that this is what happens with every other MMORPG:

The Bioware guys would have to do something magical to keep 'em"

Personally, while I think that it could go one way or the other, I'd say that with the WoW fanbase in constant decline and Blizzard's offering weakening year over year, this prediction is a tad too bold and one-sided. While it did happen with almost every other MMORPG, none of those had the budget and the marketing power SWTOR has to back them, and while it's true that Blizzard can and will send a lot of offers to the quitters, it's not like Bioware and Electronic Arts can't do the same.

So far Blizzard always managed to keep the competition at bay, but this is the first time the WoW bully goes against a kid his size. I, for one, won't make any prediction. I'll just say that I get the gut feeling that a whole lot more people are about ready to leave Azeroth for good, than say a couple years ago.

Other than that, I'll leave the crystal ball to the ones that think it works.

You can see the full interview embedded below: