I don't think Korea uses subscriptions either. They use the time card thing.
I don't think Korea uses subscriptions either. They use the time card thing.
$15 a month in sub, x amount in cards they still cost money, money which goes to Blizzard, i dont know how much they are in China, but here in Aus a gaming card is $38AUD for 2 months sub is actually more money in there pocket $19 per month that works out to be (probably to cover the cost of the massive box the tiny card comes in) LOL
Point in case no matter how you pay blizzard they are still making cash and the fact that the prepaid cards are dearer than paying by credit card/paypal = more $$$
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...In-DG-c#t=110s
So around $2 per player each month. And we can all agree that WoW is a rather large MMO. The costs were probably a lot higher back in the days when WoW just been released, but that's just not the cast anymore.
If each player also costs Arenanet around $2 per month, and they sell the GW2 box for $60 then they break even after 30 months. I think it's safe to assume we'll see expansions more frequently than that. And we totally ignore the GW2 store now, which was a large revenue source in GW1.
Why do you think Blizzard has a net income of 335 million each quarter?
If they couldn't pull this off they wouldn't have tried it in the first place. Contrary to popular belief companies are not stupid.
Worth pointing out that final fantasy's profits pretty much tripled overnight when it dropped sub fees. Dropping subs reduces the barrier of entry for players, and then many micro transactions really do make a lot of money. You'd be surprised how inclined you'd feel to spend on a cash shop when you have no sub to pay.
Fencers is probably right that tor will be the last or one of the last sub MMOs. The business model has been proven to be fundementally less profitable. Gaming companies are now waking up to it.
Last edited by Squirrelbanes; 2012-02-17 at 11:30 PM.
Cant wait!! No sub means 3 nigths raid & arena in Wow, and rest on this
Bring It!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Asura's are often stereotyped as brainy, cantankerous and rat-people with gross feet/teeth. But I find Mif and Squirrelbanes are usually on the money in just about every thread.
+1 for reasonable rats.
Haha, you people are funny =]. It's almost cute how you try to discuss things you have no idea about ^_^.
OK, let me enlighten you, Server costs are VERY minor. I work for a company that provides business solution software for over 500 000 people. Our services are live 24/7 without ANY downtime or maintenance - we actually outsource our technology in this department cause we've come up with innovative way of updating our framework and software without rolling restarts.
Server costs, maintenance etc is very cheap to the point it's negligible. You know what's expensive? Building the framework. After that expanding, upgrading and upkeep is dirt cheap.
So yeah, blizzard's server hosting costs should be around 5% of their income (and that's assuming they have very ineffective grid and software >_>).
Last edited by mmocbaf9e94c6f; 2012-02-17 at 11:27 PM.
So it turns out I'm greatly overestimating server costs, and the first reply with the video was quite brilliant.
Thanks for sharing. It helps to know I had the wrong idea about things.
You or someone else can find a source, but if you look on the quarterly expenses sheets Blizz has to legally show to all of their investors, you'll see that running servers and making sure that they're free of bugs costs such a relatively low amount of money that it's not even included in the main list. It's included as a footnote on the bottom of the page.
Ok I will make really basic maths here it's not scientific, I'm just trying to figure their business model.
3 millions copies sold x 40$ profit on each copy = 120 millions$ profit + let's say 100 more millions for various products = 220 millions$ profit
250 employees paid 50k a year for 6 years = 72 millions$ in salary for development (wich is probably less than that)
3 millions per year for server maintenance for 8 years (approximately the life span of the game) = 24 millions
They still have 124 millions left for future developments and investments. It's not that bad. I know I forgot a lot of other expenses and incomes, but I don't think A-Net will be in the minus with this game.
Also, it's refreshing to have the feelling of not being exploited by a big corporation.
Theyll pull it off with their eyes closed.
They will even EARN on it quite often.
Well, SWTOR had roughly a million copies by the 2nd day of release. Can't get much higher profile than that game for MMOs. Are you guesstimating 3mil copies sold over a year or so? Because I don't think they will have close to 3 million even in the first year.3 millions copies sold x 40$ profit on each copy = 120 millions$ profit + let's say 100 more millions for various products = 220 millions$ profit
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ney-go-article
So from retail money alone, probably not so much. The micro transactions are going to keep it alive. Expect them to push online sales of the game and it's expansions and for good reason.If you bought a game in the run-up to Christmas and it cost £39.99 to buy, approximately £7 (17.5 per cent) went on VAT (that figure increased to 20 per cent as of 4th January), while £10.50 (27 per cent) went to the shop and £12 (30 per cent) to the publisher.
The rest goes on what's called cost of goods: the nuts and bolts of videogame publishing. 65 pence (two per cent) goes on distribution, £1.75 (four to five per cent) on marketing, and an £8 (20 per cent) licence fee goes to the platform holder (Microsoft, Nintendo or Sony). All these costs are paid for by the game's publisher. If a third-party is behind the game, approximately £3 goes to the developer, or 25 per cent of the publisher's revenue after deductibles, although developers are often paid in a series of advances as they meet milestones.
Perhaps. But I find it hard to believe a license as big as Star Wars would comparatively speaking move less units than Guild Wars 2 after a year. Retained subs is another matter. But just box sales? Star Wars is one of the largest brands in history.First day sales are a common lie in the games industry.
They always fail to mention that they count the months of pre-orders as day 1.
What's bigger? McDonald's? Walt Disney? Star Wars is on a whole other level from Guild Wars.