(edited by Belenwyn.8674)
News about GW2 from NCSoft earnings call
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Thanks for sharing. It’s pretty sad to see the sales drop so hard and also surprising to see Aion do so well. seems like GW2 may drop lower than Aion (which I find shocking) in the future. I do wonder if this severe decrease in sales for GW2 may force an expansion to come out despite the denial earlier this year?
Of course sales drop, the games been out a year.
EDIT: Box sales are not the primary source of income for MMO’s.
(edited by Phy.2913)
Box sales are going to drop. It’s normal for all games. Not just MMOs. However, it is good to hear that player support via the gemstore is “solid and stable.” Depending on how much the cash shop generates, they could easily sustain the game that way. In fact, didn’t one of the devs reassure us of pretty much exactly that? That the revenue from the cash shop was ‘more than plenty’ to sustain them?
Don’t look at me like that. Whatever you’ve heard, it’s probably not true.
edit: looked at the report.
Where are you getting 22.9M for GW2 sales? the report says 24.5M for GW2.
This is a decrease from 28.9M from last quarter, implying the game is losing players, or at least players who spend money.
(edited by ZudetGambeous.9573)
Box sales are going to take a huge hit in the coming months and possibly well into the first half of next year due to the release of Ps4 and Xbox 1. So don’t expect anything more than what we are currently getting here with Gw2.
Box sales are going to take a huge hit in the coming months and possibly well into the first half of next year due to the release of Ps4 and Xbox 1. So don’t expect anything more than what we are currently getting here with Gw2.
That’s unlikely. At this stage the majority of income is more likely from the cash shop than box sales, and of the box sales there’s still a significant percent of people that are PC -or- console as opposed to both. Impacts on box sales from those new mediums should be small.
#TeamJadeQuarry
Box sales are going to take a huge hit in the coming months and possibly well into the first half of next year due to the release of Ps4 and Xbox 1. So don’t expect anything more than what we are currently getting here with Gw2.
That’s unlikely. At this stage the majority of income is more likely from the cash shop than box sales, and of the box sales there’s still a significant percent of people that are PC -or- console as opposed to both. Impacts on box sales from those new mediums should be small.
Very small frankly.
There should also be an increase in gem card sales with the holiday season coming up. They make great stocking stuffers!
Common sense is a flower that doesn’t grow in everyone’s garden. -Unknown
24million over 3 months
6 LS updates
4million per LS update
320,000,000 Gems
400,000 purchases per LS
(the value is less depending on actual box sales)
edit: looked at the report.
Where are you getting 22.9M for GW2 sales? the report says 24.5M for GW2.
This is a decrease from 28.9M from last quarter, implying the game is losing players, or at least players who spend money.
Not necessarily. Last month I simply spent less in the cash shop. No particular reason, I just did. Some future month I’ll likely spend more.
#TeamJadeQuarry
edit: looked at the report.
Where are you getting 22.9M for GW2 sales? the report says 24.5M for GW2.
This is a decrease from 28.9M from last quarter, implying the game is losing players, or at least players who spend money.
22.9 million US dollars = 24.5 billion Korean won
edit: looked at the report.
Where are you getting 22.9M for GW2 sales? the report says 24.5M for GW2.
This is a decrease from 28.9M from last quarter, implying the game is losing players, or at least players who spend money.
The currency in the report is Korean Won. 24.5 Billion Korean Won are equal to 22.9 M US $.
The decrease implies nothing about current numbers of players or players using the shop. It only tells us that the influx of new players is slowing down maybe. Keep in mind the prices for the boxes was decreased by 40%. To compensate this much more players have to by the game compared to last quarter. No wonder that the income will decrease a bit.
(edited by Belenwyn.8674)
NCSoft launched their Q3 earnings report and answered questions on the conference call.
http://www.ncsoft.net/global/ir/earnings.aspx
Some interesting points:
- Sales for the quarter 22.9 M $
- solid and stable income via store sales; decreasing box sales
- Launch in China slightly delayed
- More information about an expansion probably after launch in China
- Servers for Korea not before launch in China
We have to be patient until the first months of the next year to receive more details about an expansion. Good news is that the players supporting the game with the shop in a strong way.
It is important to note that they lost 15% of revenue quarter over quarter. And the previous quarter over quarter they lost somewhere about 20%. I am sure NCSoft looks at this with some some concern as they keep going down every quarter when there is no competition in the market. Next year when there is tons of competition the revenue drops will be higher unless we see an expansion.
The most important thing I got from the call is that the Chinese launch for GW2 is delayed. Blade&Soul is doing extremely well in China, significantly better than GW2 so NCSoft has shifted their focus to B&S and its China release. At least what I got from the NCSoft representative’s tone is GW2 isn’t going to be released anytime soon in China. Maybe end of 2014.
Box sales are going to take a huge hit in the coming months and possibly well into the first half of next year due to the release of Ps4 and Xbox 1. So don’t expect anything more than what we are currently getting here with Gw2.
Don’t forget NCsoft other game coming out spring 2014, I know many players (NA) that will be migrating there too. Good for NCsoft, not so good for GW2 holding onto some players. Time will tell, but competition is a good thing.
JQ Druid
NCSoft launched their Q3 earnings report and answered questions on the conference call.
http://www.ncsoft.net/global/ir/earnings.aspx
Some interesting points:
- Sales for the quarter 22.9 M $
- solid and stable income via store sales; decreasing box sales
- Launch in China slightly delayed
- More information about an expansion probably after launch in China
- Servers for Korea not before launch in China
We have to be patient until the first months of the next year to receive more details about an expansion. Good news is that the players supporting the game with the shop in a strong way.
It is important to note that they lost 15% of revenue quarter over quarter. And the previous quarter over quarter they lost somewhere about 20%. I am sure NCSoft looks at this with some some concern as they keep going down every quarter when there is no competition in the market. Next year when there is tons of competition the revenue drops will be higher unless we see an expansion.
The most important thing I got from the call is that the Chinese launch for GW2 is delayed. Blade&Soul is doing extremely well in China, significantly better than GW2 so NCSoft has shifted their focus to B&S and its China release. At least what I got from the NCSoft representative’s tone is GW2 isn’t going to be released anytime soon in China. Maybe end of 2014.
As long as the gem sales are steady there is no reason for NCSoft to worry. The decrease of box sales was expected caused by lower prices.
The release in China will be slightly delayed – I would guess Spring. I your estimation is true there will be no expansion this year.
As long as the gem sales are steady there is no reason for NCSoft to worry. The decrease of box sales was expected caused by lower prices.
The release in China will be slightly delayed – I would guess Spring. I your estimation is true there will be no expansion this year.
There is no chance we see a GW2 expansion next year, NCSoft has other concerns in the West next year. But less box sales = less gem sales. More players = more gem sales. If less people aren’t buying the box it translates to less players buying gems. There is a relationship there.
My point about NCSoft’s concern is that Aion and B&S are on par with GW2 in terms of revenue and their revenue comes solely from Korea which is a small market. Whereas GW2 is released in two of the biggest markets. Before, someone says China look at the revenue for China/Taiwan in the report, it is non-existent.
As long as the gem sales are steady there is no reason for NCSoft to worry. The decrease of box sales was expected caused by lower prices.
The release in China will be slightly delayed – I would guess Spring. I your estimation is true there will be no expansion this year.
There is no chance we see a GW2 expansion next year, NCSoft has other concerns in the West next year. But less box sales = less gem sales. More players = more gem sales. If less people aren’t buying the box it translates to less players buying gems. There is a relationship there.
My point about NCSoft’s concern is that Aion and B&S are on par with GW2 in terms of revenue and their revenue comes solely from Korea which is a small market. Whereas GW2 is released in two of the biggest markets. Before, someone says China look at the revenue for China/Taiwan in the report, it is non-existent.
uhh look at that chart again korea is apparently where an extremely large amount of their money comes from. looking at that graph, looks like korea brings in about twice as much as they get from NA+EU+JP+taiwan
(edited by phys.7689)
An earlier Studio (can and DID) find ways to do MORE with LESS.
That is to say… this would have still been considered a windfall profit for the Studio we all knew back around 2006… So no, they can’t just fix this by throwing out Expansions UNLESS those expansions actually focus on all the things everyone here has been begging them for…. (completely NEW weapon skills, “real” changes to Zerg-vs-Zerg, more meaningful storyline & personal story plot that branches and STAYS branched, compelling dialogue, more frequent PvE skill updates, ….and a serious look at the Ranger class in general probably wouldn’t hurt either considering it was the 2nd most rolled class but the least playable in end-game).
Welp good luck with it in any case guys. The clock is ticking…
As long as the gem sales are steady there is no reason for NCSoft to worry. The decrease of box sales was expected caused by lower prices.
The release in China will be slightly delayed – I would guess Spring. I your estimation is true there will be no expansion this year.
There is no chance we see a GW2 expansion next year, NCSoft has other concerns in the West next year. But less box sales = less gem sales. More players = more gem sales. If less people aren’t buying the box it translates to less players buying gems. There is a relationship there.
My point about NCSoft’s concern is that Aion and B&S are on par with GW2 in terms of revenue and their revenue comes solely from Korea which is a small market. Whereas GW2 is released in two of the biggest markets. Before, someone says China look at the revenue for China/Taiwan in the report, it is non-existent.
He didn’t say there would be an expansion next year lol. Also only one ratio you have there is correct. More box sales means more player which means more gem sales but it leas box sales does not not mean less gem sales lol. Idk what makes u think that. Less box sales happens with any game over time which does not translate to less people playing at the moment and less people buying gems that already are. Idk why people think if 3 million people are supposedly playing, because box sales stopped that means people. The two do not correlate at all.
I understand over time people leave games but that is natural and expected of any game. It has NOTHING to do with box sales.
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Declining revenues at this point isn’t so much about less money from box sales as it is about the gem store not picking up the slack.
The big question is how much of box sales and gem store sales goes back into gw2 and how much goes to aion 2 development?
That income stream is quite low for an MMO. Come March 2014 with 3 huge online RPG titles set to release; Arenanet better have a Hail Mary.
That income stream is quite low for an MMO. Come March 2014 with 3 huge online RPG titles set to release; Arenanet better have a Hail Mary.
what 3 huge titles is that?
As long as the gem sales are steady there is no reason for NCSoft to worry. The decrease of box sales was expected caused by lower prices.
The release in China will be slightly delayed – I would guess Spring. I your estimation is true there will be no expansion this year.
There is no chance we see a GW2 expansion next year, NCSoft has other concerns in the West next year. But less box sales = less gem sales. More players = more gem sales. If less people aren’t buying the box it translates to less players buying gems. There is a relationship there.
My point about NCSoft’s concern is that Aion and B&S are on par with GW2 in terms of revenue and their revenue comes solely from Korea which is a small market. Whereas GW2 is released in two of the biggest markets. Before, someone says China look at the revenue for China/Taiwan in the report, it is non-existent.
uhh look at that chart again korea is apparently where an extremely large amount of their money comes from. looking at that graph, looks like korea brings in about twice as much as they get from NA+EU+JP+taiwan
Korea is a small market compared to the West. SK’s population is only 50 million. It seems large because there aren’t many NCSoft games in the West and the ones that are there aren’t do so well.
(edited by Xcom.1926)
That income stream is quite low for an MMO. Come March 2014 with 3 huge online RPG titles set to release; Arenanet better have a Hail Mary.
The $23 million was revenue. Income is only a tiny fraction of that.
Stuff like this clearly shows the game needs an expansion or a big patch. Cantha or something like that would help.
(edited by Xcom.1926)
That income stream is quite low for an MMO. Come March 2014 with 3 huge online RPG titles set to release; Arenanet better have a Hail Mary.
what 3 huge titles is that?
Im guessing one of the 3 is Wildstar, which is NCsoft so they not even gonna bother with sales from that because it seams it will be successful, so this is Anet`s problem :/
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what is more fascinating to me is that Lineage is by far the biggest revenue earner. GW2 is a respectable 2nd on that list but they aren’t even close to Lineage
I’d be interested to see Lineage in comparison to the behemoth of WoW
As long as the gem sales are steady there is no reason for NCSoft to worry.
City of Heroes would like to say “hello”.
Is NCSoft worried? No, they’ve killed lots of games before, what’s one more on the list? Should ANet be worried? Yes, very.
Sarcasm, delivered with a
delicate, brick-like subtlety.
delicate, brick-like subtlety.
Box sales are going to take a huge hit in the coming months and possibly well into the first half of next year due to the release of Ps4 and Xbox 1. So don’t expect anything more than what we are currently getting here with Gw2.
That’s unlikely. At this stage the majority of income is more likely from the cash shop than box sales, and of the box sales there’s still a significant percent of people that are PC -or- console as opposed to both. Impacts on box sales from those new mediums should be small.
Very small frankly.
Extremely small, as consoles and MMOs don’t compete against each other directly. No major MMO runs on a console. It’s a very indirect competition the sort of “Should I spent my $60 on a new PC game or a new console game”, but the MMO industry is otherwise fairly unaffected by anything happening in the console market.
And GW2 is doing pretty well, given the huge competition in the MMO market, which is probably the most intense ever.
Tarnished Coast
That income stream is quite low for an MMO. Come March 2014 with 3 huge online RPG titles set to release; Arenanet better have a Hail Mary.
what 3 huge titles is that?
1. Wildstar
2. EQ Next
3. ESO
EQN is probably a little further off, but the other two are both set to launch by spring 2014.
EQN is more like spring of 2015
Theres also the western release of Blade and Soul….. if anyone is still interested in that game. Yeah.
I’m quite sure Wildstar won’t be too successful. Its got nothing to really sell itself on, its a nice traditional MMO but, its pretty much WoW-in-space, down to the graphics. Its competing right on WoW’s own turf, which never ends well.
ESO is a bit iffy. Its certainly unique, but we don’t really know what the endgame’s going to be like.
EQN is promising a lot. If it can deliver on that, we got a hell of a MMO.
Theres also the western release of Blade and Soul….. if anyone is still interested in that game. Yeah.
I’m quite sure Wildstar won’t be too successful. Its got nothing to really sell itself on, its a nice traditional MMO but, its pretty much WoW-in-space, down to the graphics. Its competing right on WoW’s own turf, which never ends well.
ESO is a bit iffy. Its certainly unique, but we don’t really know what the endgame’s going to be like.
EQN is promising a lot. If it can deliver on that, we got a hell of a MMO.
Well Zenimax Online aren’t going to have a lot of work to do with ESO beating the end game of GW2 that’s for sure.
“Your face is funny. All squished and weird.”
That income stream is quite low for an MMO. Come March 2014 with 3 huge online RPG titles set to release; Arenanet better have a Hail Mary.
what 3 huge titles is that?
1. Wildstar
2. EQ Next
3. ESOEQN is probably a little further off, but the other two are both set to launch by spring 2014.
EQ Next may be late 2014 perhaps early 2015 but EQN Landmark will likely be here before both Wildstar and ESO. In fact you could add EQ Next Landmark to the 3 listed to make it 4. ArenaNet better have a Hail Mary set up for 2014, that’s for sure.
“Your face is funny. All squished and weird.”
Theres also the western release of Blade and Soul….. if anyone is still interested in that game. Yeah.
I’m quite sure Wildstar won’t be too successful. Its got nothing to really sell itself on, its a nice traditional MMO but, its pretty much WoW-in-space, down to the graphics. Its competing right on WoW’s own turf, which never ends well.
ESO is a bit iffy. Its certainly unique, but we don’t really know what the endgame’s going to be like.
EQN is promising a lot. If it can deliver on that, we got a hell of a MMO.
Well Zenimax Online aren’t going to have a lot of work to do with ESO beating the end game of GW2 that’s for sure.
So far, we don’t even know what the endgame actually is in ESO. They showed no raids, and the one dungeon they showed is basically the ESO equivalent of AC.
At least GW2 had a plan for its endgame. It was a bit of a flop but at least there was a plan….
^ I don’t really count EQ Landmark as competition, its too far out to be a MMO. Its more like Minecraft.
edit: looked at the report.
Where are you getting 22.9M for GW2 sales? the report says 24.5M for GW2.
This is a decrease from 28.9M from last quarter, implying the game is losing players, or at least players who spend money.
Converted to US dollars from KrW (average for the 3rd quarter, 1106 KrW per $1) which would place it at $22.1 million (you would get $22.9 million if you used today’s exchange rate).
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RIP City of Heroes
RIP City of Heroes
That income stream is quite low for an MMO. Come March 2014 with 3 huge online RPG titles set to release; Arenanet better have a Hail Mary.
$22.1 million in sales (I used the average exchange rate for 3rd quarter Vs today’s rate) for a quarter would translate into 490,000 $15 a month subscriptions. And you think that’s low?
We are heroes. This is what we do!
RIP City of Heroes
RIP City of Heroes
As long as the gem sales are steady there is no reason for NCSoft to worry.
City of Heroes would like to say “hello”.
Is NCSoft worried? No, they’ve killed lots of games before, what’s one more on the list? Should ANet be worried? Yes, very.
Hello.
At it’s peak, CoH had 194,000 and in the last reported quarter it had income under $3 million. GW2 income 3rd quarter is over $22 million and if it was a $15 a month subscription based game that would have been 490K paying users.
GW2 has a long way to drop before it gets into CoH, Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault, Dungeon Keeper income territory before the ax swings.
GW2 BTW is still NCSOFT’s 2nd biggest earner for the quarter behind Lineage.
We are heroes. This is what we do!
RIP City of Heroes
RIP City of Heroes
That income stream is quite low for an MMO. Come March 2014 with 3 huge online RPG titles set to release; Arenanet better have a Hail Mary.
$22.1 million in sales (I used the average exchange rate for 3rd quarter Vs today’s rate) for a quarter would translate into 490,000 $15 a month subscriptions. And you think that’s low?
We don’t know what their cost of operations are, but there’s quite a few things to consider. As a comparison, World of Warcraft’s costs of operations is in the 50 million per year ballpark and I’m not certain if they have reduced it since 2008.
Even if Arenanet’s costs are half WoW’s costs, GW2 would have to keeping rolling in that kind of money for at least another year or 2 before they can take on another big project.
Competition is going to be very fierce in the online RPG space in 2014. I can tell you for certain that, for the RPG fan, it’s going to be a very interesting year.
(edited by Calae.1738)
And what will Arena Net do to keep player in GW2 once clearly more superior Everquest Next comes? Continue their 2 week 1 hour checklist content?
And what will Arena Net do to keep player in GW2 once clearly more superior Everquest Next comes? Continue their 2 week 1 hour checklist content?
Clearly superior? A game that will not be out for probably a year and a half is clearly superior? Wish and dreams do not make good comparisons.
Still, the future looks much more promising for that game, but then again, trailers have lied about games before, like Manifesto. I love the idea Sandbox MMO + Minecraft idea.
As long as the gem sales are steady there is no reason for NCSoft to worry.
City of Heroes would like to say “hello”.
Is NCSoft worried? No, they’ve killed lots of games before, what’s one more on the list? Should ANet be worried? Yes, very.
Hello.
At it’s peak, CoH had 194,000 and in the last reported quarter it had income under $3 million. GW2 income 3rd quarter is over $22 million and if it was a $15 a month subscription based game that would have been 490K paying users.
GW2 has a long way to drop before it gets into CoH, Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault, Dungeon Keeper income territory before the ax swings.
GW2 BTW is still NCSOFT’s 2nd biggest earner for the quarter behind Lineage.
My point is that saying “It’s making a profit from the online store” doesn’t equate to “It’s safe from being shut down.” Where’s the kill point? We don’t really know, but the moment NCSoft feels they can get more for their money by investing it in their more popular games, we have a problem.
With more big MMOs on the way, GW2 might go from “we’re fine” to “we’re screwed” pretty quickly. If ANet’s doing a “wait and see” approach, then any drastic response they may have to make will be rushed.
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delicate, brick-like subtlety.
delicate, brick-like subtlety.
You guys are missing the point. Aion is not comparable to GW2. Why? It has been released worldwide. Gw2 has only been released in NA/EU. So it has less revenue because it hasn’t been released in many regions. If you want to compare numbers, you have to look at all of those games NA/EU numbers only. You would notice that all of those games: Lineage, Lineage II, Aion etc do absolutely horrible in western regions.
So there is nothing to worry about, if GW2 is keeping up with games that have been released worldwide, then its doing very well.
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Still, the future looks much more promising for that game, but then again, trailers have lied about games before, like Manifesto. I love the idea Sandbox MMO + Minecraft idea.
It’s a superior game if they can meet their promises. Fully dynamic events with consequences, totally emergent AI, fully destructive environment, and on top of that making use of all it’s features unlike what Vindictus did is a tall, tall, order.
I would love to see how it turns out. I’m quite skeptical at the moment because I don’t think that’s actually possible.
You guys are missing the point. Aion is not comparable to GW2. Why? It has been released worldwide. Gw2 has only been released in NA/EU. So it has less revenue because it hasn’t been released in many regions. If you want to compare numbers, you have to look at all of those games NA/EU numbers only. You would notice that all of those games: Lineage, Lineage II, Aion etc do absolutely horrible in western regions.
So there is nothing to worry about, if GW2 is keeping up with games that have been released worldwide, then its doing very well.
Just playing the devil’s advocate here but those games are targeted at the Korean/Asian market. GW2 targets a western audience so it’s hard to say how well it’s going to do in Asia. The lack of character progression and a solid engame won’t do te game favor there in a culture which heavily emphasis progression.
NCSoft didn’t shut down GW1, and I can’t imagine it’s just raking in the money…so why would they shut down GW2 any time soon? It makes little sense to me.
NCSoft didn’t shut down GW1, and I can’t imagine it’s just raking in the money…so why would they shut down GW2 any time soon? It makes little sense to me.
Ah, that is because you are not blindly panicking nor have you been saying the game is dead since release. If you would do either of those things I am sure it would be clear why they would shut the game down.
NCSoft didn’t shut down GW1, and I can’t imagine it’s just raking in the money…so why would they shut down GW2 any time soon? It makes little sense to me.
Ah, that is because you are not blindly panicking nor have you been saying the game is dead since release. If you would do either of those things I am sure it would be clear why they would shut the game down.
Ha ha. Truer words were never spoken, my good Sir or Madam! =P
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