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how much money and time does it take to make an mmo?
josereyna
Member Posts: 22
hi, i was wondering how much money and time it takes to make an mmorpg ?
Comments
depends.
CCP basically created EVE Online with nothing in their pockets where as Blizzard created WOW with say 50 million or so. I'd say the standard development time for a mmorpg is about 3-5 years too.
Well it depends on if you make the game engine yourself or use a engine from another game and it also depends on how big the game is supossed to be and the skill and ammount of developers
This question is meaningless. It depends on the team, whether you are paying the team before the game is made or doing some kind of profit sharing thing, what resources you pay for and what resources you make yourself, etc.
The more money spent, the less time it ought to take, although it doesn't always work out that way, and there is a point where, more money doesn't actually lower the amount of time. Also, if people aren't capable, paying them more isn't going to do much. If the leaders can't get everyone to work together, more laborers will actually be detrimental.
Let X = a vast amount of time.
Let Y = mucho dollars.
X+Y = development of an mmorpg.
X+Y is usually > than the same value of a lower scale game. But also, the income of mmorpg is usually higher, if it is sustained long enough, and doesn't fail, in which case the server costs could make you lose big as well.
If you're asking this from the standpoint of "I have an idea for an MMO", just by asking the question you've immediately disqualified yourself from the ability to make one.
If you're asking this from the standpoint of "I have an idea for an MMO", just by asking the question you've immediately disqualified yourself from the ability to make one.
Heh, oh so true.
OP: depends on the scope. If you want to make an 'MMO' that can house a few hundred and only has 1 thing to do like combat, a few mil. If you want to make a comprehensive game like WoW, 30 mil and a great team to start. If you want to make an MMO that has everything in it like Darkfall promised, you'll need over 100 mil, 5 years, and the best dev team from the coders all the way up to the leads ever assembled.
Everquest cost $3 million dollars in 1995 money to produce. World of Warcraft reportedly cost Blizzard around $50 - $75 million dollars to produce. Vanguard, the Saga of Heroes cost around $50 million dollars to produce. Roughly a development time of an AAA quality title is around 3 years although that is changing with the emergence of middleware 3D engines such as the Unreal engine and the 2D Torque Game engine (capable of 3D too) which can cut development time as much as half.
Short answer: It depends.
Long answer..
Big-time AAA MMORPGs have budgets in the tens of millions of dollars and can take about 3 or 4 years to produce. We're talking teams of hundreds, major game studios, that kind of thing. If you're just asking because you want to know what big time MMOs actually cost (say, for research purposes), then that should answer your question.
If you're interested in getting into the business yourself..
A small team (say, half a dozen people) working full time can produce something quite playable within a couple of years. Budgets for these guys are smaller, and they can produce some very strong contenders in the MMO Market. Don't be fooled; You can still turn a very nice profit if you make something good enough, and it doesn't have to compete with WoW. (And for that matter, it probably shouldn't even try to compete with WoW.) If you're an eager indie, that should answer your question.
If, however, you're interested in getting into the business alone..
There are a handful of games produced by one (or two) people, but this has prerequisites of its own; First, you have to have a lot of free time, or development will go extremely slowly. Secondly, you're going to have to be skilled in a variety of areas, such as art, music, and above all else, programming. You're also going to have to have a lot of tenacity and a real passion for the industry. This isn't for the average guy; This is for your obsessive MMO design fanatic. If you think you fall under this category, there may be more I can tell you, but if you aren't a seriously tenacious person, don't bother. The lone wolf route is not for the feint of heart.
Hope that helps.
And since WOW is a far greater success than Eve could ever hope to be I would say its better to invest more time and money like Blizz did.
1. Millions
2. Hundreds of people.
3. And alot of years.
- But hey count me in, if u in need of some
Beta:
GW, WOW, AOC, DAOC, DOD, L2, VG.
Playd:
GW necro msx, WOW never maxd, DAOC reaver-paladin-cabalist-vamp max, L2 never maxd, VG never maxd.
Play:
Daoc - Paladin. Classic.
With regards to independent developers (aka indie) there's a rising number of independent developers who worked on smaller scale projects producing viable games. On this I would like to point you to Metaplace which is a project aimed at giving indie developers the tools and platform to develop their own projects once it is running. The project is being developed by Raph Koster and his company Areae.
Lol your joking EvE is a very successfull game for its size.And since WOW is a far greater success than Eve could ever hope to be I would say its better to invest more time and money like Blizz did.
"Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god."
-- Jean Rostand
Lol your joking EvE is a very successfull game for its size.And since WOW is a far greater success than Eve could ever hope to be I would say its better to invest more time and money like Blizz did.
Eve is like having a nice house in a bad neighborhood. Wow is like having Bill Gates house.
Bren
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