NC Soft just shared their quarterly report: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...n-last-quarter
GW2 seems to be generating solid revenue despite reclining sales numbers. Work on an expansion was hinted-at.
NC Soft just shared their quarterly report: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...n-last-quarter
GW2 seems to be generating solid revenue despite reclining sales numbers. Work on an expansion was hinted-at.
Oh NCsoft.... just shut up and take your free money.
Hopefully that expansion gives some reason for me to ever log on to my level 80 characters on a somewhat frequent basis.
I don't know why they're so concerned about the sales of the boxes declining, that happens to all games out there. I mean how many units of older games for example Guild Wars 1 actually get bought now, probably not many because most of the people who wanted it already have it. It's the gem store purchases they really need to look at, because that's how money keeps getting pumped into the company after the initial box is sold. I do like the sound of an expansion though, I expect it wont be out anytime soon though.
It's obvious that the box sales would decrease. There is not enough new entrants into the MMO space to keep sales high. The whole article is a bit confusing. Any company would have recognise their revenue in a way to cater for the maintenance of the system. So they might take 10% of the box sales and assign that to maintenance along with the micro-transactions.
I can't believe that they are not already working on an expansion. If you look at what the game came out with at launch and the size of the staff and compare that to the number of people now working at A/Net and the content that has been pushed out since release you will see that there is a big discrepancy. In 7 years of development they created 31 zones, 8 professions, dungeons, etc. Since release they have added fractals, 1 zone, holiday events, living story, etc. There has been quite a few changes but certainly not in line with what was created in the first place.
The revenue push from NCSoft is probably also a reason why they are entering the Chinese market. That market would probably have a more constant revenue stream depending on how they charge for the game.
Would be very surprised if Anet wasn't working on expansion already, since GW1 had expansion nearly every year.
I suspect (and it was hinted during the investor call) that NCSoft will only release an expansion if gem store and box sales tail off significantly.
Actually, their game isn't complete. I am only assuming this but they still have to finish on what they wanted their game to have. Originally, ascended items were suppose to be higher than exotics, fractals were supposes to come with the game, and there were supposed to be more beta testings. Its just NCSOFT got impatient and told them to hurry up or else we fire your ass. Their game is profitable because, lets face it, its Guild Wars 2. The game is still probably the best mmo out right now, but of course, their game wasn't done.
A new expansion won't come out for a long time, a very long time.
Wasn't it just like 1-2 months ago they said they weren't worrying about any expansions yet.
NCSoft has now clarified those remarks...
"In regards to your recent post on a Guild Wars 2 expansion, there is a slight misunderstanding when interpreting the answer from the NCsoft earnings call. We are considering an expansion, but we are taking a wait-and-see stance. We are evaluating the performance of the game and deciding on when would be the best time to launch an expansion. But right now, our living story approach is very successful in keeping players engaged with new and exciting content. Launching boxed expansions are a great way to package content, but if we can do this on a more regular basis, something we've been doing since launch, it provides players with new content to explore and experience every time they log into the game."
Thank you for that update, carnifex. That actually addresses my point of view directly. Whether I'm allowed to be skeptical or not is of course my choice, but at least they've come out and directly said something, which is a straight forward bonus over other similar companies.
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I myself is in no hurry to get an expansion released. I pretty much like where Guild Wars 2 is now and what ArenaNet adds to it with monthly updates.
While I do like temporary content to some degree, it can get "too much" of it, and I hope ArenaNet adds more content to stay. I really like the crab tossing.
New expansion ?, honestly - why not. It wont be soon anyway and i still remember expansions from original Guild Wars and how packed with content they were.
Obviously they'd be working on an expansion you don't wait till your profits in the crapper to start planning and working out the lore, and basics of zones. They work on it sit on it, and then when numbers start hitting a point they're not happy with they drop the expansion.
As much as I'd like to see an expansion my interest has been wavering for quite some time. Guild Wars 2 advertised itself as a game I could pick up and play, yet the focus upon temporary content and gambling for weapon/armour skins is a direct contradiction to that.
The method of releasing mini patches and steady changes to the game- in particular time limited content, is a likely strategy for bringing in players repeatably. Last 4 months or so have had a fairly reliable pattern of development for the game as a whole.
Which isn't too shabby actually. The patches generate enough buzz, new CS items are almost always introduced to coincide with the patches/events and most of them are time limited or speculative some fashion.
This is a smart course to bolster retention and entrenchment in a B2P player base. I think Everquest and The Secret World probably should have come to this type of strat sooner as Arena.net have/did.
Very savvy.