Is Guild Wars 2 a runaway success without even having had a single public beta event?

[charlieprince]

I been thinking about this a while.. first of let me say this upfront, Guild Wars 2 is in no way shape or form a competitor or rival of World of Warcraft simply by the fact that IT IS NOT A SUBSCRIPTION MMO.

That alone doesn't make it a rival or hurt wow in any way shape or form because there's no price at all to play GW2.. that out of the way let me get to the point.

It is undeniable at this point of the intense buzz and "Hype" if you will around ArenaNET's Guild Wars 2. We all know the game of the year, most innovative, game of the decade, etc etc awards it's been gathering like pokemon which shows this Juggernaut no weaknesses whatsoever

We know of the million+ signups within minutes for their beta.. there are facts we know and from that this entire thread stems from.

QUESTION: Is Guild Wars 2 already a success without even having launched a single beta event yet?

Let me get down to some numbers here people.. and let me be clear, these numbers are purposely lowballed as the reality is actually much higher than this

- ArenaNET was given $15,000,000 operating budget and extreme leeway to develop GW2 because of GW1's success
- 500,000 Collector's Edition WorldWide gone within minutes. Every single physical copy sold in every country it has launched: Slovenia, meh just Europe, etc it's gone. It's just gone! gobbled everything up
- 500,000 digital copies (I'm only counting standard, not even counting DDE so again I am purposely lowballing these numbers)

ArenaNET has gone on record saying if they break even on pre-purchase, it's already a success.. that's what they wanted when they began this endeavour and is what their baseline goal was.. to break even and return the initial investment given to them and more importantly the Faith and Trust handed to their team to make the game they want to make

$15,000,000 initial fund

500,000 x $150 = $75,000,000
500,000 x $60 = $30,000,000

I'll stop there.. in my opinion there were more standard/dde units sold and more actual Collector's Edition supply but like I said I've been lowballing these..

so already their $15mil initial capital has returned over $100million.. without a single beta event (press beta doesn't count).

What are your thoughts guys? is GW2 a success considering the response they've been getting in terms of money people are throwing at them?

[Dreary]

Yea its a success. It's a great game. But threads like this are just gonna rile people up, just be patient and wait for release it will all be worth it

Also they have had numerous betas already. And have they yet announced how many they sold?

[charlieprince]

It's a great game. But threads like this are just gonna rile people up, just be patient and wait for release it will all be worth it

it's already made money back.. that's my entire point :O their initial budget was only $15million.. their team was given 15million and said here, go make the game you want to make..

i'm over simplifying it of course.. it's not just $15,000,000.. they were also given the complete trust and faith to make their game without pressure to "Get it released and get us our money back!"

[endersblade]

Guild Wars is a damned good game. Guild Wars 2, unlike 99% of the games on the market lately with a sequel, is actually EXPANDING on the original, rather than completely changing it (I'm looking at you, Dragon Age!). I've watched countless videos for this game, and I'm legitimately looking forward to it, hype or no. I really enjoyed the first one, though I stopped really playing it years ago...I just log in every year or so to collect my pets lol.

[Dreary]

it's already made money back.. that's my entire point :O their initial budget was only $15million.. their team was given 15million and said here, go make the game you want to make..

i'm over simplifying it of course.. it's not just $15,000,000.. they were also given the complete trust and faith to make their game without pressure to "Get it released and get us our money back!"

Well it's good for them! I hope the recent success doesn't get to their heads, they still have a game to make!

[cleveland4life]

GW 2 will just be another rift/SWTOR, the hype train is so old and played out at this point. Jesu

[Delias]

Will Arenanet make profit off of GW2?
Yes.
Does this thread, with completely random sales numbers, not accounting for the large cut that retailers get and taxes prove it? (especially considering, like I said, the sales numbers are random, we have NO idea how many copies of GW2 were pre-purchased. Yes, it's selling out in a lot of places, but we don't know how many copies were sent to each retailer)
No.

[Deleted]

why is gw2 no rival for wow because there is no subscription? they target both for the same kind of persons, mmorpg players. ok you can play both, but will the people do that if they really like gw2? dont get me wrong, gw2 has only to build a good and healthy community with populated servers, it's not his task to kill wow.

i hope it will be a success and show the people you can play good highclass onlinegames without subscription and without must haves in the item shop.

[Dreary]

If GW2 comes out before MOP, then it's gonna be hard for WoW players to return to WOW after playing gw2. It's gonna be hard returning to play the same content in the same game you've seen the last 8 months, after seeing gw2.

If GW2 comes out after MOP then idk cuz I haven't been following MOP so not sure how innovative it is...

[Delias]

"play the same content in the same game you've seen the last 8 months".

... people don't like change,
are there people still not aware of this fact? :P

A large portion of people will beg for change, then complain about that change when it happens.

[Meebo]

Unless you're into working on your own instanced farm and playing pokemons in WoW then GW2 will not have to worry about MoP at ALL.

[Dreary]

... people don't like change,
are there people still not aware of this fact? :P

Yea but everyone gets bored eventually... and especially with RFD, removal of attunements and other barriers, the ability for players to see endgame content in WoW has never been greater.. I think you'd be hardpressed to find many players right now who aren't finding the current content in WoW a bit stale and who aren't anticipating MOP or gw2 or something else...

[Badpaladin]

Guild Wars is a damned good game. Guild Wars 2, unlike 99% of the games on the market lately with a sequel, is actually EXPANDING on the original, rather than completely changing it (I'm looking at you, Dragon Age!). I've watched countless videos for this game, and I'm legitimately looking forward to it, hype or no. I really enjoyed the first one, though I stopped really playing it years ago...I just log in every year or so to collect my pets lol.

I suppose views differ, but I think GW2 is in incredibly different game, arguably more so than DA2 was from DAO. The key difference is they don't seem to be rushing a release date, so hopefully it'll be as advertised.

[charlieprince]

If GW2 comes out before MOP, then it's gonna be hard for WoW players to return to WOW after playing gw2. It's gonna be hard returning to play the same content in the same game you've seen the last 8 months, after seeing gw2.

If GW2 comes out after MOP then idk cuz I haven't been following MOP so not sure how innovative it is...

you make an excellent point.. the only way I see GW2 hurting WoW is when people "get the taste" so to speak

best example would be Yogscast. Simon and Lewis have a huge following and they've played Guild Wars 2 and got into the MoP beta..

the disgust and boringness of the stale repetitive horribly dead state of Warcraft couldn't be denied in their videos

I mean they still tried to make it entertaining considering youtube is their revenue/job but you can clearly see WoW's dead to them after playing a much more fun and better GW2

but even then I doubt WoW's playerbase would hurt in subscription terms. Never underestimate the lazyness of people $15 is too little to be bothered to cancel your account.. hell my sub was kept alive 8 months after I stopped playing simply because I couldn't be bothered to finally cancel it

when Blizzcon announced Pandas.. that did it for me I was like "what the hell is my sub even alive for?"

[Delias]

the disgust and boringness of the stale repetitive horribly dead state of Warcraft

Not an opinion everyone in the world shares, believe it or not.
This will sound crazy, I know, but people have different tastes.

And I'm not sure if you're aware, but questing has never been WoW's strong point.
They were questing.
Questing =/= all of WoW.

I'm all for GW2 and all ('Guild Wars 2 1,884', this is pretty much the only place I post), but that's no reason to be blindly assume it's the best thing ever, everything else is shit, and anyone who doesn't play it is wrong.

[shadowmatrix]

why is gw2 no rival for wow because there is no subscription? they target both for the same kind of persons, mmorpg players. ok you can play both, but will the people do that if they really like gw2? dont get me wrong, gw2 has only to build a good and healthy community with populated servers, it's not his task to kill wow.

i hope it will be a success and show the people you can play good highclass onlinegames without subscription and without must haves in the item shop.

GW2 is not a real rival for WOW because they are focusing on two different game subdivisions. WOW is a PvE game with PvP added in but GW2 is set to be a PvP game with PvE added in. Each game will be able to have their own community side by side. Whether or not the community for GW2 is good is still to be decided.

As far as it being a success, that is still up in the air. We won't really know till we actually see how the game handles things when it goes live.

[Badpaladin]

GW2 is not a real rival for WOW because they are focusing on two different game subdivisions. WOW is a PvE game with PvP added in but GW2 is set to be a PvP game with PvE added in. Each game will be able to have their own community side by side. Whether or not the community for GW2 is good is still to be decided.

As far as it being a success, that is still up in the air. We won't really know till we actually see how the game handles things when it goes live.

I don't think that's a legitimately assessment. Both WoW and GW2 are aiming to be as balanced as possible as far as PvP and PvE accessibility goes, they're just going about it in different ways.

[primusl0l]

Okay this is a really bad way to look at success my friend.

According to people WoW is dying and dead, yet it's bringing in more per year than it ever has in history. Does that mean its successful to a business person focused on profits? Yes, most definitely. But for a GAMERS point of view? $$ doesn't mean shit.

You can't honestly sit here and talk GW2 up by saying about how it's a success before the games even out just because they've already broken even and profited from preorders.......then turn around and say "OMG WOWS FAILING, EVEN THOUGH ITS BRINGING IN MORE CASH THAN EVER BEFORE!"

You know what I mean? it's pretty stupid....b/c a WoW hater will come in here and be like "YEH MAN, I AGREE WITH OP, ALREADY BROKEN EVEN NOT EVEN OUT, WOW WHAT A SUCCESS" then they'll go into a WoW thread and be like "YEH MAN, I AGREE WITH OP, WOW IS DYING AND DEAD, REGARDLESS OF HOW MUCH ITS EARNING BRAH"

[Razeo]

GW2 is set to be a PvP game with PvE added in.

/sigh

No...... just.............. NO

I really wish people would stop with these statements.

[Delias]

GW2 is set to be a PvP game with PvE added in

Aaaand all credibility lost in one swing, good job!
If you think that Arenanet is prioritizing PvP over PvE or PvE over PvP, you haven't really been paying much attention.
Saying GW2 is a PvP game is the easiest way to get a room to simultaneously facepalm.

And saying it's not a real rival is also pretty silly, you seem to be forgetting that games take time.
While GW2 and WoW may not be competition for each other wallet-wise, they are still competition time-wise.
Not everyone has time to play two MMOs. And saying that 'Each game will be able to have their own community side by side.' is silly as hell to, that's not how MMOs work.