Once I give money to a company in return for a service or good that same money becomes their money. What they do with it is their business not mine. At least as long as what they do is not illegal.
If they spend it in a way I dislike then it is up to me to not give them any more money.
This preety much nails it. It's no longer your money, it's theirs. All you can do is not give them the money if it bothers you how they use it.
A usual wow sub costs £7.99 a month, multiplied by 10 million people paying around that a month = £79.000 000 monthly, or 120 000 000 dollars... multiplied by 12 months for a year... 1.440.000 000....
Yeah you read right....1.4 billion dollars.....a year....
And that is on SUBSCRIPTIONS ALONE!!!!!!! I am not counting Box Sales, or their item shop....
And the corporate swine at Blizzard, cant hire a forum moderation team like some F2P MMMO's to clean up the forums???
Or Community managers for their servers like some F2P MMO's???
But I guess a single post on a forum for MMO fans wont really make any ripples, or those that are sheepishly paying Activision Blizzard ask if they are getting their moneys worth....and make some noise so they accept their role in helping make wow a better experience for all, in game and outside it....
I mean, I dunno, for 1.4 Billlion, i'd expect more from a computer game and it's role in the community it's created...Wouldnt you??
Last year they did a presentation at the GDC as to what they spend their money on. Let's just say I was surprised at all the expenses they have.
And as I've said time and time again, it takes more to run a business than just putting a product for sale and raking in the dough.
Operating costs, insurance, equipment and mainenance contracts, business meetings which can be exceptionally expensive, fringe for each employee: meaning if you get 65k per year it costs your employer MORE than 65k per year to employ you, rent or property taxes, er "taxes" in general, advertising, lawyers fees, and the list goes on.
So it's just not as simple as x amount of dollars per month per sub and then rocket cars and gold houses.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Originally posted by Banquetto According to Wikipedia, Lady Gaga has sold at least 9.6 million albums. At $17 per album, that's $163 million. I demand that she start providing me with $163 million worth of entertainment immediately, or else I'm going to post a whiny post on a forum.
Here Here!
Sent me an email if you want me to mail you some pizza rolls.
The current financial figures are on the Vivendi website. (Vivendi owns Activision/Blizzard which owns WoW.) They don't say how much revenue comes specifically from WoW, but it does break down their revenue by "business unit". Activision/Blizzard is one business unit. The financial summary shows the revenue for the Activision/Blizzard unit as being over 3 billion (not million) Euros for the year 2009. Interestingly, they showed EBITA (earnings before interest, taxes and amortization) of 484 million Euros and cash flow of 995 million Euros.
That's just for Activision/Blizzard. Vivendi overall reported revenues of over 27 billion Euros.
There's more details in the 2009 annual report, also at the Vivendi website. On page 154 it even breaks down financial figures for Blizzard without Activision. It says Blizzard's gross revenue was 1.196 billion US dollars for 2009.
It also shows revenue for the combined Activision/Blizzard unit by type of games. The figure for MMORPGs is 1.248 billion US dollars for the year 2009.
That makes it pretty clear that they are not getting $1.4 billion from WoW alone because that's more than all revenue from all MMORPGs run by Blizzard and Activision combined. But they are getting a lot.
*Sigh* The wonder of digital entertainment is that costs do not scale that way. Each new customer represents very little in actual costs, so once you hit the break-even point it's (mostly) all gold from there on in.
People that take one line of a post just to disprove that ONE statement really make it hard to continue a logical discussion. Why are you so laser focused on what multiplier I used instead of actually reading what I multiplied it to? Is your denial cap on so tight that it's warping your sight into fishbowl vision?
Every expense that I listed from the small business example is a valid example because the last time I checked, Blizzard is still cranking out box version all over the world. Also the other expenses are based on running ANY business no matter if it's revenue is coming from actual box sales or subscriptions. If you house employees in a building you are going to pay for 100% of those examples listed for a small business.
Tell you what, step back and reread my post and try to comprehend that as your business grows, so does your expenses. BTW even digital resources (i.e. developmental tools) get more expensive as time marches on. And that's a fact.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
*Sigh* The wonder of digital entertainment is that costs do not scale that way. Each new customer represents very little in actual costs, so once you hit the break-even point it's (mostly) all gold from there on in.
People that take one line of a post just to disprove that ONE statement really make it hard to continue a logical discussion. Why are you so laser focused on what multiplier I used instead of actually reading what I multiplied it to? Is your denial cap on so tight that it's warping your sight into fishbowl vision?
Every expense that I listed from the small business example is a valid example because the last time I checked, Blizzard is still cranking out box version all over the world. Also the other expenses are based on running ANY business no matter if it's revenue is coming from actual box sales or subscriptions. If you house employees in a building you are going to pay for 100% of those examples listed for a small business.
Tell you what, step back and reread my post and try to comprehend that as your business grows, so does your expenses. BTW even digital resources (i.e. developmental tools) get more expensive as time marches on. And that's a fact.
When your business grows, so does your expenses. But the big expense of a digital system (computer game, operating system, box office movie) lies in the making of the actual product. These are one-time expenses that don't scale with the number of customers. This is why Bill Gates is one of the richest people on the planet.
And what exactly am I in denial of? I'm not denying that Blizzard has expenses, I'm only arguing that these are dwarfed by their profits.
*Sigh* The wonder of digital entertainment is that costs do not scale that way. Each new customer represents very little in actual costs, so once you hit the break-even point it's (mostly) all gold from there on in.
People that take one line of a post just to disprove that ONE statement really make it hard to continue a logical discussion. Why are you so laser focused on what multiplier I used instead of actually reading what I multiplied it to? Is your denial cap on so tight that it's warping your sight into fishbowl vision?
Every expense that I listed from the small business example is a valid example because the last time I checked, Blizzard is still cranking out box version all over the world. Also the other expenses are based on running ANY business no matter if it's revenue is coming from actual box sales or subscriptions. If you house employees in a building you are going to pay for 100% of those examples listed for a small business.
Tell you what, step back and reread my post and try to comprehend that as your business grows, so does your expenses. BTW even digital resources (i.e. developmental tools) get more expensive as time marches on. And that's a fact.
When your business grows, so does your expenses. But the big expense of a digital system (computer game, operating system, box office movie) lies in the making of the actual product. These are one-time expenses that don't scale with the number of customers. This is why Bill Gates is one of the richest people on the planet.
And what exactly am I in denial of? I'm not denying that Blizzard has expenses, I'm only arguing that these are dwarfed by their profits.
This is basically true in pharmacueticals too. Congress tries to sell the fact that it costs a company 3 cents a pill to manufacture an antibiotic pill. What they fail to mention is the very first pill cost 4 billion dollars to manufacture.
In a reverse sense, a lot of 'bills' do not scale. Blizzard pays the same for their cleaning staff no matter how many subscribers they have. They pay the same for their rent and office buildings. Once a certain threshold of subscribers is acheived, a greater percentage of every subscriber is pure profit. Some things do scale though. Customer service scales.. and is usually 1 customer service person per 2000 players (in most mmorpgs)..... bandwidth scales also. I remember a UO developer saying years ago that almost $2 per subscriber went directly to the company handling their bandwidth.
But the OP is foolish for even bringing this up.. This isn't about hiring more staff to moderate the forums... because NOBODY wants Nazi moderators sifting through every post making random judgements about what is acceptable. Their solution is far better. Having players vote up or vote down comments means the posters themselves become the nazis and nobody can complain.
But the OP is foolish for even bringing this up.. This isn't about hiring more staff to moderate the forums... because NOBODY wants Nazi moderators sifting through every post making random judgements about what is acceptable. Their solution is far better. Having players vote up or vote down comments means the posters themselves become the nazis and nobody can complain.
Aye, you won't find better nazis than the current crop of players
The reason this topic interests me, though, is an exchange I once had after getting the annoying "nice try, but all instances are full" message. I said something to the tune of "Grmph. Maybe they should take some of their money and buy more servers". And a player in the group replied to the tune of "Oh, but they have so many expenses, like having to buy servers". The mind boggled. It boggles to this day.
Given, my initial post was lacking in the details,but the idea was to initiate a discussion, for the purpose of getting some views and feeback from a generally nice MMO loving community. I wrongfully belived that mostof you would see the point I was trying to make, rather than shoot the justifiable holes in my argument as you did. Thanks for the comments, views and data shared so far
Before I continue, I am fully aware that the money "trickes in", and that developments elsewhere are costing money, etc etc...Still, there is a tidy profit made.
It's understandible that on a corporate basis, making changes that concern and would potentially worry stockholders aren't going to happen. Having said this, it's clear that the already payrolled programming team, is the first port of call for programming REAL ID into WoW, and their already payrolled web admins to change the visibility of player data on their forums, as opposed to hiring Community managers and forum moderators, which would incur financial losses of a greater scale than development costs.
In my opinion at least the latter choice would help shape the community into something better that it is currently, as opposed to worrying people that are concerned about their privacy from ever contributing to their forums.
IRegards Real ID, my gripe is that the given state of real ID seems like it was rushed into existence, without all the time and thought and community feedback it should have had...it's something that concerns all us players and it's' developmnt should have included feedback from all types of users, which would have perhaps stoped a lot of this backlash.
Maybe I should have named the thread, "Shouldnt the community have more say in matters affecting their WoW privacy considering they make a lot of money from us?" :P
A usual wow sub costs £7.99 a month, multiplied by 10 million people paying around that a month = £79.000 000 monthly, or 120 000 000 dollars... multiplied by 12 months for a year... 1.440.000 000....
Yeah you read right....1.4 billion dollars.....a year....
And that is on SUBSCRIPTIONS ALONE!!!!!!! I am not counting Box Sales, or their item shop....
And the corporate swine at Blizzard, cant hire a forum moderation team like some F2P MMMO's to clean up the forums???
Or Community managers for their servers like some F2P MMO's???
But I guess a single post on a forum for MMO fans wont really make any ripples, or those that are sheepishly paying Activision Blizzard ask if they are getting their moneys worth....and make some noise so they accept their role in helping make wow a better experience for all, in game and outside it....
I mean, I dunno, for 1.4 Billlion, i'd expect more from a computer game and it's role in the community it's created...Wouldnt you??
Sub date 9/29/10, 2 posts both WoW....send WoW a note if it bothers you that much.
I have, and we all start somewhere.... it was Runes of Magic that brought me to this website, and as per my post above, I was initiating a conversation to get some views from the MMORPG.com community to see how they felt on the subject.
As to why I haven't posted on the other games I play (RoM, Warrhammer, Allods and GW) it's because they dont rub me in the wrong way as WoW does lately :P
servers cost then about 175 grand a day and then they have to pay an entire company , not defending them just you need to take in mind they have A LOT of people on their payroll and they do expand just sadly in more advertising / marketing fields
I love how people forget about employee costs as well as insurance, facility costs, etc. That knocks off a good chunk of that 1.4 million. Granted they still make a very nice profit, but without actual numbers, this conjecture is pointless and just plain inane.
Want numbers? Revenue for Vivendi Games 2004-2007, from the official financial reports (see edit):
Revenue attributable to WoW (given as "Online and other" in %):
2005: $320m, 2006: $490m 2007: ?
I assume there is a steady trickle of income from their earlier WC/SC/Diablo titles in there, but other than that Vivendi Games didn't release any other games of particular note during this time (as I know of anyway). Those figures are very much all down to WoW.
BlizziVision does even better, although there's no telling which money comes from what games anymore:
Edit: These numbers are a couple years old. I remember I had to do something to dig them up, but not sure what it was anymore. If anyone who knows more about finances than me wants to correct them, I'd be very interested in seeing the results.
According to those financial statements, Acitvision-Blizzard had a net loss of $286 Million for the year of 2009.
I give Blizz a pass since they have, and are, supporting games like Diablo 2 and Starcraft for free, STILL. I've felt all along that Blizzard deserved to get a huge payday.
Besides, wtf is the point in running a business where if you make record profits by putting the best product out there that you then need to feel guilty about it?
Also keep in mind, Blizz is likely using a lot of that profit for development of Diablo 3 and their next MMO. In particular that MMO because they know the expectations are going to be absolutely insane.
*Sigh* The wonder of digital entertainment is that costs do not scale that way. Each new customer represents very little in actual costs, so once you hit the break-even point it's (mostly) all gold from there on in.
You are talking about movies, games are totally different, especially MMORPG that can keep on going. A movie hits a break-even point due to it being finished and released, everyone got payed, sure there is royalities that go on, but you don't need to pay a full salary each month to the actors/developers/production teams etc..etc.. after the movie is released, you don't have to pay the cinema to show your movie. So as said it works for movies, the break even point doesn't work for games in this genre. As cost keep going, as servers needs to be run, as employies need to get payed each month....etc....etc.......So Ramonski seems like one of the few that actually seems to understand it.
You are talking about movies, games are totally different, especially MMORPG that can keep on going. A movie hits a break-even point due to it being finished and released, everyone got payed, sure there is royalities that go on, but you don't need to pay a full salary each month to the actors/developers/production teams etc..etc.. after the movie is released, you don't have to pay the cinema to show your movie. So as said it works for movies, the break even point doesn't work for games in this genre. As cost keep going, as servers needs to be run, as employies need to get payed each month....etc....etc.......So Ramonski seems like one of the few that actually seems to understand it.
True, but people that liked your movie don't normally keep sending you money on a regular basis out of sheer appreciation. There is the cut from the box office and then various after-sales (DVD, Blu-Ray, in some cases merchandising).
Let's say that the monthly fee is $10, and then you have to deduct the average cost of supplying the service - mainly server operation and customer service. If what's left after these deductions wasn't significant, all those companies wouldn't be falling over themselves to become the next Blizzard. Why bother with 11m subscribers if you're not seeing an increase in profits as compared to having, say, 300k subscribers? Why do companies invest so heavily in a genre where the risk of failure is so high? If the potential upside wasn't equally high, they simply wouldn't do it.
I vaguely recall that Blizzard invested something like $150m over 5 years to develop vanilla WoW. At this time 1m subs was the holy grail, and the break-even point likely set a lot lower. They never seemed depressed when they got all those extra customers.
Erm.. Vivendie gets the money and then allocates X amount to blizzard for the upkeep and development of WoW and other Blizzard projects, such as SC2, D3 and their new MMO. Michael Morhaime (Blizzard top man) does not get a cheque evey month for the total revenue of wow subscriptions. Like any other game studio they get a budget.
Erm.. Vivendie gets the money and then allocates X amount to blizzard for the upkeep and development of WoW and other Blizzard projects, such as SC2, D3 and their new MMO. Michael Morhaime (Blizzard top man) does not get a cheque evey month for the total revenue of wow subscriptions. Like any other game studio they get a budget.
What does that have to do with the profitability of *the game*? If I can make $1000 a day selling girl scout cookies, but the school bully beats me up and steals my money every day after I'm done, the cookies themselves still generate a profit.
Once that money changes hands its no longer yours, its theres, and what they do with it is there buisness.
That was never my issue, as you are quite right to a degree...however when I give them my hard earned cash I expect them to respect my privacy and make an effort to make my experience in (and outside ie forums relating to ) their game worthwhile and pleasant. It's not that they have to, but it's out of courtesy...if they want to keep getting my buck...it's about feeling appreciated as a customer.
When you buy a Mercedes, you quite frankly expect a quality of service in the aftersales. If your experience is crap you then pass that information on to your peers, and in turn that dealership gets less buissiness. How your money is spent has a baring on how you are treated afterwards. And anyone with a good buissiness model, wants repeat buissiness and favourable reviews.
On the whole when I buy a game I like....it's because I want to help the developer to keep up the good work. Therefore how I feel as a customer has huge baring on my future dealings with that company. It it becomes a matter of trust...where you expect a certain standard from a company.
As you can see from some of the posts here many people, myself influded, have generally been left with a very bitter feeling towards Blizzard for what essentially could have been thought out just a little better by them. This has led to account cancellations, pre orders of Starcraft 2 beeing pulled, and a general distrust of them in the future. I'll agree its perhaps over reaction, but it's how some people feel...Strongly.
I will say that I have a certain confidence that given that there were a fair amount of negative responses they recieved, they will tweak and improve upon the good ideas they had with REAL ID without needing to piss people off....thats what I would expect from a company I had come to respect for quality.
A usual wow sub costs £7.99 a month, multiplied by 10 million people paying around that a month = £79.000 000 monthly, or 120 000 000 dollars... multiplied by 12 months for a year... 1.440.000 000....
Yeah you read right....1.4 billion dollars.....a year....
And that is on SUBSCRIPTIONS ALONE!!!!!!! I am not counting Box Sales, or their item shop....
And the corporate swine at Blizzard, cant hire a forum moderation team like some F2P MMMO's to clean up the forums???
Or Community managers for their servers like some F2P MMO's???
But I guess a single post on a forum for MMO fans wont really make any ripples, or those that are sheepishly paying Activision Blizzard ask if they are getting their moneys worth....and make some noise so they accept their role in helping make wow a better experience for all, in game and outside it....
I mean, I dunno, for 1.4 Billlion, i'd expect more from a computer game and it's role in the community it's created...Wouldnt you??
Earning so much money and still game looks terible and plays awefull i wonder why people plays such games is beyond me:P
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009..... In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
A usual wow sub costs £7.99 a month, multiplied by 10 million people paying around that a month = £79.000 000 monthly, or 120 000 000 dollars... multiplied by 12 months for a year... 1.440.000 000....
Yeah you read right....1.4 billion dollars.....a year....
And that is on SUBSCRIPTIONS ALONE!!!!!!! I am not counting Box Sales, or their item shop....
And the corporate swine at Blizzard, cant hire a forum moderation team like some F2P MMMO's to clean up the forums???
Or Community managers for their servers like some F2P MMO's???
But I guess a single post on a forum for MMO fans wont really make any ripples, or those that are sheepishly paying Activision Blizzard ask if they are getting their moneys worth....and make some noise so they accept their role in helping make wow a better experience for all, in game and outside it....
I mean, I dunno, for 1.4 Billlion, i'd expect more from a computer game and it's role in the community it's created...Wouldnt you??
Earning so much money and still game looks terible and plays awefull i wonder why people plays such games is beyond me:P
Can't be anymore awful than your ability to communicate. But I still have it in me to read your post. ^^ And stop before you get into the whole "engrish isa notsa my fist langooage" bit. Because if you don't want to be called out in english, don't post in english.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
Comments
This preety much nails it. It's no longer your money, it's theirs. All you can do is not give them the money if it bothers you how they use it.
Last year they did a presentation at the GDC as to what they spend their money on. Let's just say I was surprised at all the expenses they have.
And as I've said time and time again, it takes more to run a business than just putting a product for sale and raking in the dough.
Operating costs, insurance, equipment and mainenance contracts, business meetings which can be exceptionally expensive, fringe for each employee: meaning if you get 65k per year it costs your employer MORE than 65k per year to employ you, rent or property taxes, er "taxes" in general, advertising, lawyers fees, and the list goes on.
So it's just not as simple as x amount of dollars per month per sub and then rocket cars and gold houses.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Here Here!
Sent me an email if you want me to mail you some pizza rolls.
The current financial figures are on the Vivendi website. (Vivendi owns Activision/Blizzard which owns WoW.) They don't say how much revenue comes specifically from WoW, but it does break down their revenue by "business unit". Activision/Blizzard is one business unit. The financial summary shows the revenue for the Activision/Blizzard unit as being over 3 billion (not million) Euros for the year 2009. Interestingly, they showed EBITA (earnings before interest, taxes and amortization) of 484 million Euros and cash flow of 995 million Euros.
That's just for Activision/Blizzard. Vivendi overall reported revenues of over 27 billion Euros.
There's more details in the 2009 annual report, also at the Vivendi website. On page 154 it even breaks down financial figures for Blizzard without Activision. It says Blizzard's gross revenue was 1.196 billion US dollars for 2009.
It also shows revenue for the combined Activision/Blizzard unit by type of games. The figure for MMORPGs is 1.248 billion US dollars for the year 2009.
That makes it pretty clear that they are not getting $1.4 billion from WoW alone because that's more than all revenue from all MMORPGs run by Blizzard and Activision combined. But they are getting a lot.
People that take one line of a post just to disprove that ONE statement really make it hard to continue a logical discussion. Why are you so laser focused on what multiplier I used instead of actually reading what I multiplied it to? Is your denial cap on so tight that it's warping your sight into fishbowl vision?
Every expense that I listed from the small business example is a valid example because the last time I checked, Blizzard is still cranking out box version all over the world. Also the other expenses are based on running ANY business no matter if it's revenue is coming from actual box sales or subscriptions. If you house employees in a building you are going to pay for 100% of those examples listed for a small business.
Tell you what, step back and reread my post and try to comprehend that as your business grows, so does your expenses. BTW even digital resources (i.e. developmental tools) get more expensive as time marches on. And that's a fact.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
When your business grows, so does your expenses. But the big expense of a digital system (computer game, operating system, box office movie) lies in the making of the actual product. These are one-time expenses that don't scale with the number of customers. This is why Bill Gates is one of the richest people on the planet.
And what exactly am I in denial of? I'm not denying that Blizzard has expenses, I'm only arguing that these are dwarfed by their profits.
This is basically true in pharmacueticals too. Congress tries to sell the fact that it costs a company 3 cents a pill to manufacture an antibiotic pill. What they fail to mention is the very first pill cost 4 billion dollars to manufacture.
In a reverse sense, a lot of 'bills' do not scale. Blizzard pays the same for their cleaning staff no matter how many subscribers they have. They pay the same for their rent and office buildings. Once a certain threshold of subscribers is acheived, a greater percentage of every subscriber is pure profit. Some things do scale though. Customer service scales.. and is usually 1 customer service person per 2000 players (in most mmorpgs)..... bandwidth scales also. I remember a UO developer saying years ago that almost $2 per subscriber went directly to the company handling their bandwidth.
But the OP is foolish for even bringing this up.. This isn't about hiring more staff to moderate the forums... because NOBODY wants Nazi moderators sifting through every post making random judgements about what is acceptable. Their solution is far better. Having players vote up or vote down comments means the posters themselves become the nazis and nobody can complain.
Anyone who still believes RealID had anything to do with trolls is gullible.
It had everything to do with integrating a social network within the game and forums (in-game RealID+facebook deal is still there).
Aye, you won't find better nazis than the current crop of players
The reason this topic interests me, though, is an exchange I once had after getting the annoying "nice try, but all instances are full" message. I said something to the tune of "Grmph. Maybe they should take some of their money and buy more servers". And a player in the group replied to the tune of "Oh, but they have so many expenses, like having to buy servers". The mind boggled. It boggles to this day.
Given, my initial post was lacking in the details,but the idea was to initiate a discussion, for the purpose of getting some views and feeback from a generally nice MMO loving community. I wrongfully belived that mostof you would see the point I was trying to make, rather than shoot the justifiable holes in my argument as you did. Thanks for the comments, views and data shared so far
Before I continue, I am fully aware that the money "trickes in", and that developments elsewhere are costing money, etc etc...Still, there is a tidy profit made.
It's understandible that on a corporate basis, making changes that concern and would potentially worry stockholders aren't going to happen. Having said this, it's clear that the already payrolled programming team, is the first port of call for programming REAL ID into WoW, and their already payrolled web admins to change the visibility of player data on their forums, as opposed to hiring Community managers and forum moderators, which would incur financial losses of a greater scale than development costs.
In my opinion at least the latter choice would help shape the community into something better that it is currently, as opposed to worrying people that are concerned about their privacy from ever contributing to their forums.
IRegards Real ID, my gripe is that the given state of real ID seems like it was rushed into existence, without all the time and thought and community feedback it should have had...it's something that concerns all us players and it's' developmnt should have included feedback from all types of users, which would have perhaps stoped a lot of this backlash.
Maybe I should have named the thread, "Shouldnt the community have more say in matters affecting their WoW privacy considering they make a lot of money from us?" :P
I have, and we all start somewhere.... it was Runes of Magic that brought me to this website, and as per my post above, I was initiating a conversation to get some views from the MMORPG.com community to see how they felt on the subject.
As to why I haven't posted on the other games I play (RoM, Warrhammer, Allods and GW) it's because they dont rub me in the wrong way as WoW does lately :P
When you say future, you mean MMOs that shutdown within less than 2 yrs of their operation? Darkfall and MO both are flatlining
servers cost then about 175 grand a day and then they have to pay an entire company , not defending them just you need to take in mind they have A LOT of people on their payroll and they do expand just sadly in more advertising / marketing fields
According to those financial statements, Acitvision-Blizzard had a net loss of $286 Million for the year of 2009.
Yeah, Blizzard saw this thread and are now making sure everything is all better.
Good? Good...
Good.
lewl
(Akiraosc)
Once that money changes hands its no longer yours, its theres, and what they do with it is there buisness.
Apparently stating the truth in my sig is "trolling"
Sig typo fixed thanks to an observant stragen001.
I give Blizz a pass since they have, and are, supporting games like Diablo 2 and Starcraft for free, STILL. I've felt all along that Blizzard deserved to get a huge payday.
Besides, wtf is the point in running a business where if you make record profits by putting the best product out there that you then need to feel guilty about it?
Also keep in mind, Blizz is likely using a lot of that profit for development of Diablo 3 and their next MMO. In particular that MMO because they know the expectations are going to be absolutely insane.
You are talking about movies, games are totally different, especially MMORPG that can keep on going. A movie hits a break-even point due to it being finished and released, everyone got payed, sure there is royalities that go on, but you don't need to pay a full salary each month to the actors/developers/production teams etc..etc.. after the movie is released, you don't have to pay the cinema to show your movie. So as said it works for movies, the break even point doesn't work for games in this genre. As cost keep going, as servers needs to be run, as employies need to get payed each month....etc....etc.......So Ramonski seems like one of the few that actually seems to understand it.
True, but people that liked your movie don't normally keep sending you money on a regular basis out of sheer appreciation. There is the cut from the box office and then various after-sales (DVD, Blu-Ray, in some cases merchandising).
Let's say that the monthly fee is $10, and then you have to deduct the average cost of supplying the service - mainly server operation and customer service. If what's left after these deductions wasn't significant, all those companies wouldn't be falling over themselves to become the next Blizzard. Why bother with 11m subscribers if you're not seeing an increase in profits as compared to having, say, 300k subscribers? Why do companies invest so heavily in a genre where the risk of failure is so high? If the potential upside wasn't equally high, they simply wouldn't do it.
I vaguely recall that Blizzard invested something like $150m over 5 years to develop vanilla WoW. At this time 1m subs was the holy grail, and the break-even point likely set a lot lower. They never seemed depressed when they got all those extra customers.
Never.
Erm.. Vivendie gets the money and then allocates X amount to blizzard for the upkeep and development of WoW and other Blizzard projects, such as SC2, D3 and their new MMO. Michael Morhaime (Blizzard top man) does not get a cheque evey month for the total revenue of wow subscriptions. Like any other game studio they get a budget.
What does that have to do with the profitability of *the game*? If I can make $1000 a day selling girl scout cookies, but the school bully beats me up and steals my money every day after I'm done, the cookies themselves still generate a profit.
That was never my issue, as you are quite right to a degree...however when I give them my hard earned cash I expect them to respect my privacy and make an effort to make my experience in (and outside ie forums relating to ) their game worthwhile and pleasant. It's not that they have to, but it's out of courtesy...if they want to keep getting my buck...it's about feeling appreciated as a customer.
When you buy a Mercedes, you quite frankly expect a quality of service in the aftersales. If your experience is crap you then pass that information on to your peers, and in turn that dealership gets less buissiness. How your money is spent has a baring on how you are treated afterwards. And anyone with a good buissiness model, wants repeat buissiness and favourable reviews.
On the whole when I buy a game I like....it's because I want to help the developer to keep up the good work. Therefore how I feel as a customer has huge baring on my future dealings with that company. It it becomes a matter of trust...where you expect a certain standard from a company.
As you can see from some of the posts here many people, myself influded, have generally been left with a very bitter feeling towards Blizzard for what essentially could have been thought out just a little better by them. This has led to account cancellations, pre orders of Starcraft 2 beeing pulled, and a general distrust of them in the future. I'll agree its perhaps over reaction, but it's how some people feel...Strongly.
I will say that I have a certain confidence that given that there were a fair amount of negative responses they recieved, they will tweak and improve upon the good ideas they had with REAL ID without needing to piss people off....thats what I would expect from a company I had come to respect for quality.
Clicky? You must be bad at pvp....
Originally posted by --Name edited out--
EX-PRO PLAYER IN WOW HERE.THIS GAME IS GOOD! TRUST ME IM USED TO BE THE BEST IN WOW BUT JUST A N00B IN AION. ITS CHALLENGEING , TRY IT!
[Sigh, watch out guys, this dude's pro.]
Earning so much money and still game looks terible and plays awefull i wonder why people plays such games is beyond me:P
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
Can't be anymore awful than your ability to communicate. But I still have it in me to read your post. ^^ And stop before you get into the whole "engrish isa notsa my fist langooage" bit. Because if you don't want to be called out in english, don't post in english.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."