NCsoft on the verge of shutting Guild Wars 2 down?!?!?!

TheScavenger

Outside of Wildstar that they ignore for some reason....

NCsoft closed city of heroes when sub was going down, but still making money
They shut down Tabula Rasa very fast without giving it a chance
They shut down auto assault very fast without giving it a chance (though more than TR)

Any time one of their games goes into decline or barely makes enough money (like city of heroes didn't make them enough money despite it being in the red) they shut the game down

With their track record, unless GW2 sales pickup, the vast decrease in revenue makes me believe NCsoft is in the thinking stages of "if next expansion does bad, we'll have to close GW2 or put it on lifesupport like Wildstar". And then they'll focus mostly on mobile games since that makes them a ton more money for much cheaper cost

What do you guys think?

TheScavenger

Rhoklaw said:

While I personally don't play GW2, I haven't heard anything about it doing poorly. Last I heard, it still had like a million or more active players.

Here, maybe this will shed some light on the subject since it's less than a month old...

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/36235/is-the-game-dying

Couldn't find the MMORPG.com article on it, so maybe they didn't report it or I just can't find it in the news section

http://massivelyop.com/2018/05/10/revenues-for-all-ncsoft-mmorpgs-are-down-in-q1-2018-except-aion/

Revenue across all their games is down except Aion and mobile games. For GW2 one can argue its because of the expansion isn't new anymore, but NCsoft is pretty quick to kill any game that starts doing poorly. So hopefully GW2 has an expansion up their sleeve to boost revenue.

It is however 3k more than it was last year. So it has that going for it. But the revenue has dropped quite a lot.


The big surprise in that report is how good Aion is doing, despite it being pretty old and I don't think I've heard any expansions for it have come out.

Octagon7711

If they kept GW1 going I don't see a reason to close GW2.

Alteiir

I would like to point this out because NCSoft does not publish Guild Wars 2 and they haven't for some time. Anet bought out the rights to publish their own game and utilize NCSoft Servers. What you are seeing on their revenue is from the Black Lion Trading, which NCSoft has right to.

Source:https://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/Meleagar/112012/24237_NCSoft-Sold-Arenanet-and-GW2-Out-For-Nexon-Investment

http://massivelyop.com/2015/09/01/pax-prime-2015-president-mike-obrien-addresses-rumors-about-business-model-and-the-arenanet-base-on-the-moon/

maskedweasel

I'd also point out that in terms of revenue, despite being "down" from when the expansion released, GW2 is still making more money than most of NCSofts catalog... so I wouldn't count that out just yet.

Plus, yes, there is another xpac on the way.

Albatroes

Well they did randomly shut down MxM and I think that was doing better than WS. But one reason they might not be shutting down WS is because it was reported either last year or the year before that carbine is working on a new project. GW2 HoT was doing poorly and numbers fell quite a bit as well before PoF, so who knows. The market is oversaturated as it is so everyone's numbers are taking kind of a hit across the board the more new stuff pops up.

maskedweasel

Albatroes said:

Well they did randomly shut down MxM and I think that was doing better than WS. But one reason they might not be shutting down WS is because it was reported either last year or the year before that carbine is working on a new project. GW2 HoT was doing poorly and numbers fell quite a bit as well before PoF, so who knows. The market is oversaturated as it is so everyone's numbers are taking kind of a hit across the board the more new stuff pops up.

I think it has to do with earning expectations.  MxM didn't make it even a year from launch, which, if it wasn't pulling its weight directly from release, it ran the same risk that Tabula Rasa did.. which I personally liked as a game, but supposedly costs were too high and it wasn't hitting the mark financially, I think that one didn't hit the two year mark. 

I guess in those cases operating costs were more than revenue for the game?  Dunno.. but I never liked the way NCSoft treated some of the development studios.

Ridelynn

Chicken Little.

NCSoft has closed some games. Others (WS) are inexplicably still open.

ArenaNet seems to be able to do their own thing - GW1 is still around and kicking, after all.

I think the OP's opinion has some merit, certainly, but by and large does not reflect my own opinion about the situation. And no one apart from board members at NCSoft and ANet would be able to have anything other than just an opinion on the matter.

BalianWolfie

GW2 isn't under the same subordinates that shut down everything within NCSoft. I mean, in general people don't even relate GW series to NCSoft.

sassoonss

ANET can take the game to aother publisher . NCSOFT does not own the game they publish it. Nah GW2 is not getting closed  

JeroKane

The shutdown of Tabula Rasa was a political move by NCSoft, after their fallout with Richard Garriott.

They just didn't want anything to do with it anymore and I honestly can't blame them after all the shit that Richard Garriott pulled at that time. 

Even though I loved the game and was sad seeing it being shutdown, I fully understand why NCSoft did it.

That is why I will never ever touch any game anymore by that high horse imbecile Richard Garriott. /facepalm

Xiaoki

TheScavenger said:

Rhoklaw said:

While I personally don't play GW2, I haven't heard anything about it doing poorly. Last I heard, it still had like a million or more active players.

Here, maybe this will shed some light on the subject since it's less than a month old...

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/36235/is-the-game-dying

Couldn't find the MMORPG.com article on it, so maybe they didn't report it or I just can't find it in the news section

http://massivelyop.com/2018/05/10/revenues-for-all-ncsoft-mmorpgs-are-down-in-q1-2018-except-aion/

Revenue across all their games is down except Aion and mobile games. For GW2 one can argue its because of the expansion isn't new anymore, but NCsoft is pretty quick to kill any game that starts doing poorly. So hopefully GW2 has an expansion up their sleeve to boost revenue.

It is however 3k more than it was last year. So it has that going for it. But the revenue has dropped quite a lot.


The big surprise in that report is how good Aion is doing, despite it being pretty old and I don't think I've heard any expansions for it have come out.

Mobile games are down by 11% quarter on quarter.

Aion is up because it finally went Free to play(re: full on Cash Shop) in Korea.

GW2 is up year on year because this quarter still had some sales from the expansion.

There is a third expansion being planned for GW2. At this point they should try for annual expansions. It seems the only time they are over $15 million a quarter is around an expansion.

Also, they are going to have to do something drastically different for the third expansion. Despite being a much better expansion Path of Fire sales are well below Heart of Thorns.

Ridelynn

Xiaoki said:

Also, they are going to have to do something drastically different for the third expansion. Despite being a much better expansion Path of Fire sales are well below Heart of Thorns.

I visit this site almost every day. I played GW2 a good bit upon release, but hadn't played it much since. I remember hearing about Heart of Thorns, and thinking that I should come back and check it out sometime. Honestly, I didn't even know they had a second expansion.

simsalabim77

Dakeru

TheScavenger said:

What do you guys think?

I think among all the click bait titles you made over the years this is by far the cheapest.

So empty and with the only purpose to rile up people that I consider it a foul troll thread.

sgel

There's shitloads of people playing GW2.
It's not closing down anytime soon.

barasawa

Got bored quickly with GW2. 

It never imported my trophies and whatnot from GW1 like they said it would. 

To much mario platforming in places for me. 

Why bothering to level up when you won't ever exceed the mobs levels of the zone because it downgrades you to match. (Makes travelling through zones, and collecting resources annoying.)

There were other things that bugged me, but I can't remember what they were now. 
I wouldn't want to see it get the bugzapper, but I'm not playing it either.

ramdy

I could never get immersed into GW2, and that auto-adjust (downgrade) of your char level depending on the zone, make things even worse.

Regarding continuity of GW2, IMHO this is just another speculative thread.

Rain_Deathraven

Don't think so 

cheyane

WTH! How can you post something like this?

SirAgravaine

Their revenue is up 88% Y/Y and stock is up 5.5% in the last 24 hours. Net Income is up 75%. Revenue is $499M, cost of Revenue is $58M. I think are doing just fine, and I think GW2 is doing just fine pulling in $23M. If you assume that GW2 is accounting for about 1/5th of their cost ($58M/5 = $11.6M) they are still making a profit of $12M off of GW2.

Mikeha

Guild Wars 2 is done. 

MaxBacon

There is absolutely no way GW2 would be shutdown, GW1 is still running to this day, it will be maintained.

btdt

To the OP,

If Guild Wars 2 shuts down, it would be ANet's doing, not NCSoft's.

Stop following the financials of corporations (unless you have stock options with them).  Your time would be better spent worrying about your own retirement funding than that of some company that makes 500 times more than you on an very bad day.  

You want to see really scary numbers?  Just look at your own financial situation.  They say we all should have accumulated 2 million dollars by the time we retire.  That we should be putting aside the maximum each year in our 401Ks (that's 18.5K per year for you youngin's and 24K for those past 50 years).   Most people haven't.  A bean counter would say you were financially in terrible shape.  See how easy it is to look at numbers and get a dismal opinion?

Maurgrim

Troll thread please close it.

Scot

I am seeing some of the usual suspects including the OP for this sort of wind up. GW2 is not going anywhere.