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EA profits are up and SWTOR gets mentioned
jpnz
Member Posts: 3,529
To further provide evidence that the numbers 'SuperData' was giving for 2013 were accurate, EA released their financials for April and June of 2014 and they both largely line up.
Actual news article: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28415508
"Extra content and free-to-play contributed $211 million, up 19% over the prior year, led by sustained momentum and approaching 90% growth in our Ultimate Team business. We saw NHL Ultimate Team grow 50%, FIFA Ultimate Team grow nearly 80% and Madden Ultimate Team grow over 350% year-over-year. Star Wars: The Old Republic and FIFA Online 3 also continue to be significant contributors ."
Course, one can believe that EA are lying in their financials in which case you have way bigger issues than 'hating on a video game'. Like 'understanding how real-life works' etc.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
Comments
Heh, welcome to MMORPG.com forums ;p
This is a pool of people who don't seem to understand how real-life works. I'm not surprised to see EA doing well. If nothing else, they know their business models to a T. They're a company that focuses almost entirely on established profit models, instead of good game design, and that's why myself (and a lot of others) dislike them as a company.
It's sad that it works so well, but such is life. If SWTOR had a better F2P model I would probably have gone back to play that game. The game itself was fun, but I don't like how it's being run anymore =/
See how the ones in red have numbers telling us how much they have grown but SWTOR and FIFA online 3 has no number but only mention of "significant contributiors"? From my experience when no numbers are given in board meetings but an item is mentioned as "good contribution to our success" or "significant contribution have been observed" it means the said item is not doing as expected. From my experience at this point cutting fund and producing at a very minimal yet cost effective way is the solution for such items. Summary of what i want to say is : we won't have much content realease in near future in swtor. we will have some but not as much as a 3 years old game should have. you can bring out the argument regarding stronghold but housing currently is considered a standard feature for every new mmorpg on release. swtor gets it nearly 3 years later on august. but i guess it really doesn't matter as long as they have the name "Star Wars", this name is teh only standard some of you guys need right?
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
My bet is they'll say that even if SWTOR is profitable, it must not be much since that last line kept it vague compared to the percentages the other titles get.
Ah well, at the end of the day the important thing is that the game's doing well. And the haters blowing a cap each time there's good news is just icing on the cake.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
LOL, and just as I was typing my other message... it started already!
There we go.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
Add up the numbers in the pdf and you will see that there is no way in hell SWTOR made 165 million, as Superdata claimed.
Specifically SWTOR is included in the 211m from 'extra content' and the 71 million of new downloads, yet is only a 'contributor' in the former and not even mentioned in the latter. So of the total 282m, it certainly didn't make 165 (over half!).
True, the raw revenue number is not necessarily the net revenue EA is reporting (non-GAAP!), but close enough.
EDIT: I have nothing against SWTOR, but I do against SuperData, who are bullshit artists.
SWTOR should be doing well for revenue
another report from Superdata said SWTOR made $139m in 2013 in China market alone for Free to play revenue
http://www.pcgamesn.com/leagueoflegends/china-s-free-play-shooter-crossfire-earns-more-league-legends-and-world-warcraft-combined
EQ2 fan sites
I may not completely understand a massive entity like EA, or 'real life' as you guys state it. What I do know is I do not support or play any EA games. I cannot support a company who will continue to rehash the same garbage over and over.
They are basically selling a product that people love, the people eat it all up and shit it all out. EA recycles it and relabels it, adds a new flavour and bam you have the next installment of Battlefield.
It works, it definitely makes them money. People play the games regardless. You could say I am stubborn, or shitheaded about it but hey - I don't want to be 75 years old and see Battlefield 27 ads.
I am glad, however that TOR is doing well for the sake of TOR fans and Star Wars fans.
Originally posted by Arskaaa
"when players learned tacticks in dungeon/raids, its bread".
It's actually worldwide, not Chinese Market only. You can even see the image in the article you posted is cropped poorly with "WO" cut off at the top corner. Not a reputable version of that particular story. Try:
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=715619
EA profits may be up, but zero hard numbers or statistics were given regarding SWTOR, just a vague "You're doin' great, champ!" thrown in at the end. It's not news for SWTOR, positive or negative. It's suspicious that they wouldn't bother giving numbers or percentages like they did with other titles, but that could just be steering focus on new titles. I'm still confident in my math that subs are in the 127K range from my post in the other thread, and there's no recent data to estimate preferred or F2P logins.
Agreed with this post. A pat on the back doesn't constitute anything really. I did find it interesting that most of the posts on the swtor forum claim the game is dead though. And people get mad at others on this website when their official forums are swarmed in it. That's amusing.
I do hope SWToR continues to do well for those that enjoy the game, at least well enough to not shut it down.
Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
Have played: You name it
If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.
As someone who bought collectors the edition and has played the game from day one and have watched the CoD nonsense year after year this shit is so true it's not even funny. i've lost track how many people i played with in swtor that will bitch and moan about the content or lack there of but spend hundreds weekly on the cartel market,well thats showing bioware/EA guys smh.
I've actually got to the point that having a decent game isnt enough,the way the company does business and treats there customers holds just as much weight with me as does game design.good customer service is part of that as well.
I still don't understand how this game produces as little content as it does, if it is making as much money as it does. Its befuddling.
I know people are throwing money at it hands over first as they do in most every F2P game, but something doesn't add up.
1. It's a money laundering scheme by some big drug cartel;
2. The numbers really don't add up; or,
3. The people who actually play the game, don't make posts about the game.
My vote is for number 3.
Dem whales man.
But seriously, my guess is most people that are enjoying it aren't bothering to post anywhere.
Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
Have played: You name it
If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.
I never said it didn't make money, or that it wasn't making money. It just seems odd to me that despite several posts saying the game is doing well and making money (which is more than likely true, no doubt about it) that there is as little new content as there is, no?
Other smaller companies that are (supposedly) making much less money produce content at a much faster pace. Its puzzling.
It's just the way EA operates. Do as little as possible to keep the cash flow going. As long as money is being made, they don't care about their players. Do you really expect something different out of a company that would charge Battlefield players by the bullet if they could get away with it? It's the worst company in America, they are generally disliked by a large portion of gamers because of their greed.
Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
Have played: You name it
If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.
The dev team is just that small, and not particularly talented. I don't say this as an insult, but as a companion statement to the very real observation that other development teams on other games can make more content, more regularly, on less revenue. I think there's a real lack of passion too.
Personally, I feel pretty spoiled playing Marvel Heroes, which not only gets really regular updates across the board(characters, gameplay modes, quality of life features) but has the devs answering a lot of questions openly and asking for feedback & genuinely interacting on the forums, AND their in-game accounts are well known and they actually chat in /social about Comics, the game, and the insanity of a punch-based build for Cyclops.
I enjoy SWTOR as a part-time mmo. It has certainly imrpoved hugely since release, although some of the additions have been a little hit and miss. Whenever I go on there it is rammed full of people, and my guild has remained steady for a long time. Particularly with the gambling boxes in the cs (which I loathe) I am not surprised it is making money.
All that I would say is that it is forever hamstrung by the fact that only huge success could have warranted the cost of a fully voice acted/ cut-scene'd expansion. Without that huge success we are stuck with these half-arsed efforts.
If it's any help the disclaimer from superdata back when they released those numbers was essentially that they had gotten some information from some people about how much they spend in unknown games from an unknown source. Then created some form of average from this and multiplied it by an unknown estimate/guess at the playerbase. There is the distinct possibility that they had no information on swtor meaning that the numbers they release are not accurate and could be off by quite large amounts.
Why it's getting so little work done in regards to how much it makes is easy. Every piece of actual evidence suggests that the number of players are continually dropping(like most mmos) and to keep monthly profit margins high while income is dropping they'll have cut monthly costs.
As a fairly long term SW;TOR player/subscriber i tend to agree, SuperData's 'guesstimates' are rarely all that accurate. But i guess if you churn out enough of them, eventually you hit the bullseye, its the old what happens if you put a monkey in front of a typewriter, most of it will be rubbish, and it eats the paper, but there is a slight chance it might spell a word right
Would you care to quantify the amount of content produced for SWToR? We know how many updates there have been, because they are listed on their website, but you seem to be over simplifying the process of comparing updates between games.
So which smaller companies are producing more actual content than EA is for SWToR, and how are you quantifying that content? Just curious.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
We have all the info we need to see that it is making money. And no, not the BS super data.
We are talking EA here. they drop ANYTHING that will not make them cash. They have been looting other game companies, and games for a long, long, time. And they could care less about the players or dev's. They care about cash.
That's it. Long as it adds to positive cash, they will keep it going. Where that line is, well no one but the bean counters know that:P And i bet you they are not sharing it with anyone.