Its been a rocky start for EA’s MMO challenger Star Wars: The Old Republic so far, and things aren’t looking to get any better soon. While there was much crowing about the game’s impact on the subscriber numbers of certain other MMO’s, analysts were speculating that it may be losing a significant amount of subscribers.

EA’s just-released earnings report [PDF] reveals that the game has 1.3 million subscribers, down from the 1.7 million peak they announced in January. This is despite assurances from BioWare writer Daniel Erickson that the game was not losing subscribers, despite players seeing significant falls in server populations.

The good news is that EA believe the game can be profitable with as few as half a million subscribers, and that BioWare are working on several content packs over the coming months to provide high-level players with more to do (a common complaint right now is the lack of end-game content in SW:TOR), as well as expanded guild features and improved player-vs-player modes.

With a WoW expansion on the horizon, plus two hotly anticipated new MMO titles in the form of Guild Wars 2 and TERA, SW:TOR is going to have to give players compelling reasons to continue logging in.