EQ Never

A

a_skeleton_02

<Banned>
8,130
14,248
Quaid_sl said:
At the free to play conversion in 2012 swtor still had 500,000 paying subs. They boasted 17mil+ monthly revenue after the introduction of a cash shop, and retained their premium subscriber base.

They didn't do it because they weren't making money. They did it because they knew they could make more. Blizzard introduced limited microtransactions in Nov 2009, long before subscriptions peaked a year later in Q4 2010. Microtransactions now make up ~20% of WoW's revenues. Players willing to pay a monthly sub are dropping industry-wide, while microtransaction revenue is on the rise.

These are companies who are very aware of current consumer trends & desires, and they will continue to craft strategies that reflect them.
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+rep for posting actual numbers.


If you break it down to some business 101 shit and forget you are dealing with something you have apersonal and emotional biastowards you get this.

This widget cost 300 million to make, Once the widget is made it generates 15 million a month profit for 4 years. Is the widget a flop?

If the widget cost 300 million to make, Once the widget is made it generates 15 million a month profit for 4 years. The makers of the widget projected it to make 30 million a month profit for 4 years. Is the widget a flop?

The second situation could maybe be construed as a "flop" because of bad projections but they still turn a profit just not as much as they wanted but I doubt anyone would call it a failure. Xadion is correct with the ROI talk because they probably could of made a better a investment for their 300 million but at the time everyone was trying to get that WoW money and they got greedy.
 
Big_w_powah

Big_w_powah

Trakanon Raider
1,887
750
etchazz_sl said:
No, it's a sign of "holy fuck our game sucks and no one is going to be playing it if we don't go FTP." WoW still has a monthly sub and has been out for 10 years, and the star wars IP is a thousand times bigger than WoW's. Hell, even EQ charged a monthly sub for 13 years. I don't care how much money SWTOR makes, you can't tell me honestly that they still wouldn't be charging a monthly sub if they didn't start hemorrhaging players only a few months after launch.
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Quaid sufficiently proved you wrong.
 
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Laerazi_sl

shitlord
293
2
I know a handful of people who won't pay for an MMO but will gladly do FTP with occasional purchases here and there; for people who don't have a ton of disposable income, there's a huge stigma attached to monthly MMO payments.
 
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misery_sl

shitlord
495
0
I flat out refuse to play most sub fee games unless they are simply amazing, and I have no other options at the moment. It's also a large reason why I'm considering quitting ffxiv. I'm having an alright time, but do I want to pay 15 bucks a month to log on once a week and do ST once and cap my soldiery for the week? No, I don't. If it was F2P? No question, I would continue to play it.
 
Quaid

Quaid

Trump's Staff
11,565
7,877
I fucking love F2P. If the game grabs me I have no problem justifying $15/month in the cash shop which usually nets me sweet pay2win tasties.

WHAT SAYETH YEE DUMAR
 
A

a_skeleton_02

<Banned>
8,130
14,248
Laerazi_sl said:
I know a handful of people who won't pay for an MMO but will gladly do FTP with occasional purchases here and there; for people who don't have a ton of disposable income, there's a huge stigma attached to monthly MMO payments.
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I don't even think it's a disposable income thing anymore. Lots of people are so jaded about the last 10 or so MMOs that came out they won't give a game a chance unless they can download it and play it for free for a bit. Buying these games sight unseen or playing in an open beta weekend just isn't worth the risk anymore with the quality of the games they are releasing.

Hell with most MMOS you cant even get valid reviews because they either take 2 weeks to come out or are so heavily influenced by the publisher they get 9+ no matter what.
 
zzeris

zzeris

King Turd of Shit Hill
<Gold Donor>
19,020
74,275
I don't think it was ever about disposable income. Companies have gotten smarter and more savvy as competition has forced them to compete. It's like every market and the superior options have won out. WoW has enormous brand identity which allows it to do some things that just don't work with anyone else.
 
Siddar

Siddar

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
6,369
5,915
Quaid_sl said:
I fucking love F2P. If the game grabs me I have no problem justifying $15/month in the cash shop which usually nets me sweet pay2win tasties.

WHAT SAYETH YEE DUMAR
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The problem is that most companies are greedy fucks who want $50 are $100 a month from players. Riot with LoL is one of the few f2p games that I've found that is actually matching its f2p model with the idea of focusing on that $15 a month player. They have been rewarded immensely for it as well. Most other companies though are completely addicted to chasing more revenue per player even when they have clear knowledge that the vast majority of f2p players only spend $0 -$20 a month on f2p games.
 
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etchazz

Trakanon Raider
2,707
1,056
zzeris_sl said:
I don't think it was ever about disposable income. Companies have gotten smarter and more savvy as competition has forced them to compete. It's like every market and the superior options have won out. WoW has enormous brand identity which allows it to do some things that just don't work with anyone else.
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Yeah, because Star Wars doesn't have any brand identity.
rolleyes.png
 
E

etchazz

Trakanon Raider
2,707
1,056
Quaid_sl said:
At the free to play conversion in 2012 swtor still had 500,000 paying subs. They boasted 17mil+ monthly revenue after the introduction of a cash shop, and retained their premium subscriber base.

They didn't do it because they weren't making money. They did it because they knew they could make more. Blizzard introduced limited microtransactions in Nov 2009, long before subscriptions peaked a year later in Q4 2010. Microtransactions now make up ~20% of WoW's revenues. Players willing to pay a monthly sub are dropping industry-wide, while microtransaction revenue is on the rise.

These are companies who are very aware of current consumer trends & desires, and they will continue to craft strategies that reflect them.
Click to expand...
wow! holy shit! a whopping 500,000 players playing a game with the biggest IP in the world, coming from one of the biggest video game companies in the world! success!
 
Quaid

Quaid

Trump's Staff
11,565
7,877
etchazz_sl said:
wow! holy shit! a whopping 500,000 players playing a game with the biggest IP in the world, coming from one of the biggest video game companies in the world! success!
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...yes, yes it is success.

SWTOR made ~$126,000,000 just on box sales, and made another $130,000,000 in sub fees in its first year. They almost recovered their entire budget in the first 12 months of operation. That is something only a few other products can boast. To this day, SWTOR hangs in the top 15 most played PC games. As far as Star Wars brand equity in the video game space, SWTOR is the highest selling (box sales) Star Wars game of all time. No other Star Wars game has broken the 2 million box sales mark.

You simply don't have a leg to stand on in this argument. Your metrics for the 'success' of an MMORPG product are both ill-informed and personally biased.
 
E

etchazz

Trakanon Raider
2,707
1,056
Quaid_sl said:
...yes, yes it is success.

SWTOR made ~$126,000,000 just on box sales, and made another $130,000,000 in sub fees in its first year. They almost recovered their entire budget in the first 12 months of operation. That is something only a few other products can boast. To this day, SWTOR hangs in the top 15 most played PC games. As far as Star Wars brand equity in the video game space, SWTOR is the highest selling (box sales) Star Wars game of all time. No other Star Wars game has broken the 2 million box sales mark.

You simply don't have a leg to stand on in this argument. Your metrics for the 'success' of an MMORPG product are both ill-informed and personally biased.
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Yet you and no one else here actually plays the fucking game. If the game is so god damn great, WHY AREN'T YOU PLAYING IT???
 
Quaid

Quaid

Trump's Staff
11,565
7,877
etchazz_sl said:
Yet you and no one else here actually plays the fucking game. If the game is so god damn great, WHY AREN'T YOU PLAYING IT???
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...I played the shit out of SWTOR. Best story in any MMORPG period. It's not even a contest.

Think I ended up logging 200 hours by the time I moved on.
 
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