Q4 and 2014 NCSOFT results.
1 2
@phys
Anet didn’t say they had no plans for expansions. They said that they were working on the kind of content you’d see in expansions and they didn’t yet know how they were going to deliver that content. Expansion type content can be delivered as an expansion, it can be delivered as DLC.
But NcSoft for a long time now, at their stock holders meetings were talking about an expansion. The very first time they mentioned it they said, there would be an expansion when it makes sense to release one.
You will not find an Anet quote where they said there will never be an expansion. All they said was we’re focusing on our living story content for now. That’s all they were willing to talk about.
At the time, I said why too. Because expansion announcements are like gold. They are timed very carefully. Some companies time them so that they overshadow something the competition is doing. Some time it so it comes out in a vacuum of other titles that might detract from it. You don’t just say your’e going to have one, because that takes the wind out of the sales (pun intended). That’s business.
No the business model isn’t a failure, because no one was fired. The business model is a success because it’s self sustaining. If the company is making enough money to support itself and make profit, it’s a success.
How anyone can even conceivably argue that a company that’s laid off no one is a failure, and continues to hire, I can’t imagine.
The strategy was a success, they were always planning an expansion, they did what every business does and timed the announcement to strategically maximize profit.
As for Life the Board game, I’m not sure that game makes significantly or any more money during Christmas than any other time. Do you have some figures on that. Either way, it depends on what the competition is doing.
So if WoW launches their huge expansion in time for Christmas, of course that’s going to affect the sales of other competitors. That’s precisely what I mean by expectation. It’s why Anet waited till they did to even mention an expansion.
yes they did say no expansion, more than once
I pressed him to tell me whether there would be a Guild Wars 2 expansion this year and he shook his head to indicate no. What about next year, I asked?
“If we do this right,” he answered, “we will probably never do an expansion and everything will be going into this Living World strategy.”
from a eurogamer interview in 2013
But what about making money? Guild Wars 1 survived on paid expansions, editions, add-ons, whatever you want to call them – are we to believe that the boxed sales of Guild Wars 2 and micro-transactions are enough to sustain such a large operation?“Yes,” responded Zadorojny. “It absolutely is enough.”
business plans change, people adapt, but no this wasnt their business plan, and no no matter how you slice it that was an underperforming Q4.
These people are just people, like you and me, they cant know the whole future, things don’t always go as they plan, they are not infallible masterminds who never miss a beat. They have setbacks, they have failures, in the long term its not about whether they had a perfect plan, but how well they can adapt.
trust and believe that this is not according to plan. Thats primarily why the plan changed. They needed to do something different and rebrand the product. Renew interest, and show people gw2 has a future, as well as make more money from their existing playerbase.
If it wasn’t their business plan, why has NcSoft been talking about expansions since year 1?
NCSoft probably forced the GW2 team to create an expansion, as they were very unhappy with the financial development of the game and the living story.
The last quarter of 2014 is abysmal in regards to an online game. Holiday season is prime time for micro transactions, and additional box sales.
The living story failed, that is why we get a boxed expansion. It is as simple as that. NCSoft wants it that way. I doubt that it was a free decision of ANet.
For them the boxed expansion is proof that their business plan failed.
Mesmer PvE Guide
The Leveling & Open World Compendium
The Leveling & Open World Compendium
@phys
Anet didn’t say they had no plans for expansions. They said that they were working on the kind of content you’d see in expansions and they didn’t yet know how they were going to deliver that content. Expansion type content can be delivered as an expansion, it can be delivered as DLC.
But NcSoft for a long time now, at their stock holders meetings were talking about an expansion. The very first time they mentioned it they said, there would be an expansion when it makes sense to release one.
You will not find an Anet quote where they said there will never be an expansion. All they said was we’re focusing on our living story content for now. That’s all they were willing to talk about.
At the time, I said why too. Because expansion announcements are like gold. They are timed very carefully. Some companies time them so that they overshadow something the competition is doing. Some time it so it comes out in a vacuum of other titles that might detract from it. You don’t just say your’e going to have one, because that takes the wind out of the sales (pun intended). That’s business.
No the business model isn’t a failure, because no one was fired. The business model is a success because it’s self sustaining. If the company is making enough money to support itself and make profit, it’s a success.
How anyone can even conceivably argue that a company that’s laid off no one is a failure, and continues to hire, I can’t imagine.
The strategy was a success, they were always planning an expansion, they did what every business does and timed the announcement to strategically maximize profit.
As for Life the Board game, I’m not sure that game makes significantly or any more money during Christmas than any other time. Do you have some figures on that. Either way, it depends on what the competition is doing.
So if WoW launches their huge expansion in time for Christmas, of course that’s going to affect the sales of other competitors. That’s precisely what I mean by expectation. It’s why Anet waited till they did to even mention an expansion.
yes they did say no expansion, more than once
I pressed him to tell me whether there would be a Guild Wars 2 expansion this year and he shook his head to indicate no. What about next year, I asked?
“If we do this right,” he answered, “we will probably never do an expansion and everything will be going into this Living World strategy.”
from a eurogamer interview in 2013
But what about making money? Guild Wars 1 survived on paid expansions, editions, add-ons, whatever you want to call them – are we to believe that the boxed sales of Guild Wars 2 and micro-transactions are enough to sustain such a large operation?“Yes,” responded Zadorojny. “It absolutely is enough.”
business plans change, people adapt, but no this wasnt their business plan, and no no matter how you slice it that was an underperforming Q4.
These people are just people, like you and me, they cant know the whole future, things don’t always go as they plan, they are not infallible masterminds who never miss a beat. They have setbacks, they have failures, in the long term its not about whether they had a perfect plan, but how well they can adapt.
trust and believe that this is not according to plan. Thats primarily why the plan changed. They needed to do something different and rebrand the product. Renew interest, and show people gw2 has a future, as well as make more money from their existing playerbase.
And here is the update to that article and quote (perhaps you missed it, it was at the bottom):
[Update]: Game director Colin Johanson has posted a clarification on the GW2 forums.
Just to clarify a bit, as Mike said there are numerous teams beyond our Living World teams, and some of them are working on much longer term projects which we’ll go into details on much further down the road.
It’s entirely possible some of the types of content which you might traditionally find in expansions would be released through an expansion in the future for Gw2, and it’s possible we’d try something different when it comes to integrating those type of releases.
We have no final plans one way or another about expansions at this time, and certainly haven’t ruled them out, it’s something we’ll discuss more in the future.
@phys
Anet didn’t say they had no plans for expansions. They said that they were working on the kind of content you’d see in expansions and they didn’t yet know how they were going to deliver that content. Expansion type content can be delivered as an expansion, it can be delivered as DLC.
But NcSoft for a long time now, at their stock holders meetings were talking about an expansion. The very first time they mentioned it they said, there would be an expansion when it makes sense to release one.
You will not find an Anet quote where they said there will never be an expansion. All they said was we’re focusing on our living story content for now. That’s all they were willing to talk about.
At the time, I said why too. Because expansion announcements are like gold. They are timed very carefully. Some companies time them so that they overshadow something the competition is doing. Some time it so it comes out in a vacuum of other titles that might detract from it. You don’t just say your’e going to have one, because that takes the wind out of the sales (pun intended). That’s business.
No the business model isn’t a failure, because no one was fired. The business model is a success because it’s self sustaining. If the company is making enough money to support itself and make profit, it’s a success.
How anyone can even conceivably argue that a company that’s laid off no one is a failure, and continues to hire, I can’t imagine.
The strategy was a success, they were always planning an expansion, they did what every business does and timed the announcement to strategically maximize profit.
As for Life the Board game, I’m not sure that game makes significantly or any more money during Christmas than any other time. Do you have some figures on that. Either way, it depends on what the competition is doing.
So if WoW launches their huge expansion in time for Christmas, of course that’s going to affect the sales of other competitors. That’s precisely what I mean by expectation. It’s why Anet waited till they did to even mention an expansion.
yes they did say no expansion, more than once
I pressed him to tell me whether there would be a Guild Wars 2 expansion this year and he shook his head to indicate no. What about next year, I asked?
“If we do this right,” he answered, “we will probably never do an expansion and everything will be going into this Living World strategy.”
from a eurogamer interview in 2013
But what about making money? Guild Wars 1 survived on paid expansions, editions, add-ons, whatever you want to call them – are we to believe that the boxed sales of Guild Wars 2 and micro-transactions are enough to sustain such a large operation?“Yes,” responded Zadorojny. “It absolutely is enough.”
business plans change, people adapt, but no this wasnt their business plan, and no no matter how you slice it that was an underperforming Q4.
These people are just people, like you and me, they cant know the whole future, things don’t always go as they plan, they are not infallible masterminds who never miss a beat. They have setbacks, they have failures, in the long term its not about whether they had a perfect plan, but how well they can adapt.
trust and believe that this is not according to plan. Thats primarily why the plan changed. They needed to do something different and rebrand the product. Renew interest, and show people gw2 has a future, as well as make more money from their existing playerbase.
If it wasn’t their business plan, why has NcSoft been talking about expansions since year 1?
NCSoft probably forced the GW2 team to create an expansion, as they were very unhappy with the financial development of the game and the living story.
The last quarter of 2014 is abysmal in regards to an online game. Holiday season is prime time for micro transactions, and additional box sales.
The living story failed, that is why we get a boxed expansion. It is as simple as that. NCSoft wants it that way. I doubt that it was a free decision of ANet.
For them the boxed expansion is proof that their business plan failed.
I guess the question is WHO made the business plan and what was in it from the start. Business plans are made before projects start. The Living Story wasn’t even a seed then. We know that came later. The business plan predates the living story.
It is completely 100% irrelevant to my argument whether the living story succeeded or failed. The business plan, most likely always called for an expansion and Anet may have wanted to try something else.
That said, the business plan didn’t likely fail because the expansion was likely always supposed to come. Whether the living story was a success or not we’ll likely never know. I’m not so sure the Living Story is over.
I think Anet would have liked to stick with just the living story and no expansions released at any point. Earnings dropping every quarter likely gave them no choice but to do the same thing that other mmos have done and release a traditional expansion.
I still want to know what happened to their spiel about changing the way that mmos are expanded upon yada yada yada? From what I can tell, this expansion is the exact same type of thing that other mmos expansions do.
I think Anet would have liked to stick with just the living story and no expansions released at any point. Earnings dropping every quarter likely gave them no choice but to do the same thing that other mmos have done and release a traditional expansion. What happened to their spiel about changing the way that mmos are expanded upon yada yada yada?
How many MMO expansions have no new tier of gear and no raised level cap. Not too many from my experience.
You can change the way expansions are done and still charge for an expansion.
Again again, NcSoft has been talking about an expansion from the first year. In my opinion it was always the plan.
I think Anet would have liked to stick with just the living story and no expansions released at any point. Earnings dropping every quarter likely gave them no choice but to do the same thing that other mmos have done and release a traditional expansion. What happened to their spiel about changing the way that mmos are expanded upon yada yada yada?
How many MMO expansions have no new tier of gear and no raised level cap. Not too many from my experience.
You can change the way expansions are done and still charge for an expansion.
Again again, NcSoft has been talking about an expansion from the first year. In my opinion it was always the plan.
“setting up a new framework for how an MMO can grow its universe. The Living World was just the beginning.”
All that for no level cap increase and no new gear tier? I was actually expecting something creative and unique. Some kind of expansion that releases a substantial amount of content over a 6 month period or something. Not just no new level cap or tier of gear, which has been done before.
I’m probably just reading too much into it.
Either way, I’m happy with how things are going. I can’t wait to explore Maguuma and venture further into the story. The new zone from the PoI looks spectacular.
I think Anet would have liked to stick with just the living story and no expansions released at any point. Earnings dropping every quarter likely gave them no choice but to do the same thing that other mmos have done and release a traditional expansion. What happened to their spiel about changing the way that mmos are expanded upon yada yada yada?
How many MMO expansions have no new tier of gear and no raised level cap. Not too many from my experience.
You can change the way expansions are done and still charge for an expansion.
Again again, NcSoft has been talking about an expansion from the first year. In my opinion it was always the plan.
“setting up a new framework for how an MMO can grow its universe. The Living World was just the beginning.”
All that for no level cap increase and no new gear tier? I was actually expecting something creative and unique. Some kind of expansion that releases a substantial amount of content over a 6 month period or something. Not just no new level cap or tier of gear, which has been done before.
I’m probably just reading too much into it.Either way, I’m happy with how things are going. I can’t wait to explore Maguuma and venture further into the story. The new zone from the PoI looks spectacular.
I think it will be more unique than you think. When you start playing it, I want you to think about other MMO expansions as you go through it. People are looking at a bunch of individual features. I don’t think most people are putting those features together yet.
It’s like the base game. Feature by feature, it’s not something that people freak out about. It’s how you combine those features that make this game what it is. That’s the truth of good design. When the sum of the parts make something greater.
Colin said that’s how the expansion is, and I think I can see it. Of course that remains to be seen.
But I don’t think this is going to feel anything like a traditional MMO expansion.
And here is the update to that article and quote (perhaps you missed it, it was at the bottom):
[Update]: Game director Colin Johanson has posted a clarification on the GW2 forums.
Just to clarify a bit, as Mike said there are numerous teams beyond our Living World teams, and some of them are working on much longer term projects which we’ll go into details on much further down the road.
It’s entirely possible some of the types of content which you might traditionally find in expansions would be released through an expansion in the future for Gw2, and it’s possible we’d try something different when it comes to integrating those type of releases.
We have no final plans one way or another about expansions at this time, and certainly haven’t ruled them out, it’s something we’ll discuss more in the future.
yes, and colin johansson also says they had no plans for an expansion. They sent mike out there based on what their current plan was, the plan was being re examined when colin amended that statement, and at some point after, reached the point where they actually had plans.
but it definately wasnt their plan from the go, or else colin is also lying
“We have no final plans one way or another about expansions at this time, and certainly haven’t ruled them out, it’s something we’ll discuss more in the future”
my point was expansion has not always been their plan, and colins quote essentially says the same thing. What it suggests is they around that time shifted from a no expansion plan (what they told mike when he went on tour) to a possible expansion plan (what colin corrected some time after that statement) and finally commiting to an expansion (At some undetermined point inbetween colins speech and the announcement.
So we have my explanation, which has both people being truthful
and Vaynes explanation which has both people lying.
he could be right, however i doubt it, because honestly, there was no advantage to say no expansion plans, if they had expansions planned, it actually would have been advantageous to say that they would eventually do one.
I guess the question is WHO made the business plan and what was in it from the start. Business plans are made before projects start. The Living Story wasn’t even a seed then. We know that came later. The business plan predates the living story.
It is completely 100% irrelevant to my argument whether the living story succeeded or failed. The business plan, most likely always called for an expansion and Anet may have wanted to try something else.
That said, the business plan didn’t likely fail because the expansion was likely always supposed to come. Whether the living story was a success or not we’ll likely never know. I’m not so sure the Living Story is over.
the point is the intention was to make money, and expand the game through the living story, that part of the living story is over. Living story as something else? that may continue, but they are no longer looking at it as the primary way to introduce new content and develop the game.
imo, this is probably for the best, the old monetization strategy essentially would have over time made gw2 into an f2p property, box sales will always dwindle as you hit most of your market. f2p builds a certain type of game, that i dont think fits with guild wars overall idea
And here is the update to that article and quote (perhaps you missed it, it was at the bottom):
[Update]: Game director Colin Johanson has posted a clarification on the GW2 forums.
Just to clarify a bit, as Mike said there are numerous teams beyond our Living World teams, and some of them are working on much longer term projects which we’ll go into details on much further down the road.
It’s entirely possible some of the types of content which you might traditionally find in expansions would be released through an expansion in the future for Gw2, and it’s possible we’d try something different when it comes to integrating those type of releases.
We have no final plans one way or another about expansions at this time, and certainly haven’t ruled them out, it’s something we’ll discuss more in the future.
yes, and colin johansson also says they had no plans for an expansion. They sent mike out there based on what their current plan was, the plan was being re examined when colin amended that statement, and at some point after, reached the point where they actually had plans.
but it definately wasnt their plan from the go, or else colin is also lying
“We have no final plans one way or another about expansions at this time, and certainly haven’t ruled them out, it’s something we’ll discuss more in the future”my point was expansion has not always been their plan, and colins quote essentially says the same thing. What it suggests is they around that time shifted from a no expansion plan (what they told mike when he went on tour) to a possible expansion plan (what colin corrected some time after that statement) and finally commiting to an expansion (At some undetermined point inbetween colins speech and the announcement.
So we have my explanation, which has both people being truthful
and Vaynes explanation which has both people lying.he could be right, however i doubt it, because honestly, there was no advantage to say no expansion plans, if they had expansions planned, it actually would have been advantageous to say that they would eventually do one.
There is every indication that Anet had different opinions on the matter from the beginning than NcSoft. I don’t think they agree on everything. So Colin could say we have no plans for an expansion even though NcSoft planned for an expansion. It’s not a lie. It’s a perspective. He’s talking for Anet, not NcSoft.
NcSoft probably was the one that made the business plan, because they’re the ones with the investors. So they did have plans.
The game’s success was always going to be based on the business plan. As long as NcSoft keeps saying the game is meeting expectations, then it’s successful.
Okay…they never had a plan for an expansion. They have just been working on it for the past 2+ years (their words). Whether they wanted to call it an expansion or expansion-like content, I guess it doesn’t really matter. It was their plan to release it, and I am sure they expected to realize some income from it.
And now, it will soon be here. Yay!
I clearly prefer a paid expansion where you can see what you get before you buy it to an expansion worth of content as a promise with the Living Story that in the end fails to deliver.
Fact is, without the expansion on the horizon, these numbers would be alarming. With the expansion revealed, people will just say it will be all good when the expansion releases. There is the difference.
The paid expansion is good for the game. It is the hope for GW2 that was lost with what we got with the Living Story. The hope that this game can still be more than an average F2P game with suppar game updates to keep you visiting the gem store.
This makes me and probably many players happy. And it makes NCSoft happy too.
Good.
Mesmer PvE Guide
The Leveling & Open World Compendium
The Leveling & Open World Compendium
Posting due to forum bug.
Why? Just ignore it and your post goes through anyway.
Posting due to forum bug.
Why? Just ignore it and your post goes through anyway.
Because you can’t click back to read the other posts when you go to the page. There’s a blank box with no numbers.
I wanted to go back and check something and had to post to do it.
Wildstar flopped because of poor engine optimization and bad pvp. Ppl with high end machines could not get more than 40 fps in some areas that are empty. I tried it and when I got 15 fps in starting zone I quit and deleted the game. I am getting 25+ fps in huge battles in wvw and I cant get more than 15 fps in wildstar → uninstall.
Decreasing revenue and pressure from Nexon to generate returns on their investment are what caused HoT to be a boxed expasion and not what I believe would’ve been season 3 of the living story. The small map increase and no New race which would’ve taken serious development hours for racial city and story are more like an entire season 2 dropping at once.
I’m pleased with a New class and masteries that finally take the RNG out of precursors but would this be a paid expansion if they were still making 2013 gem sales revenue? I doubt it.
Buy To Play Guild Wars 2 2012-2015 – RIP
Unlucky since launch, RNG isn’t random
PugLife SoloQ
Unlucky since launch, RNG isn’t random
PugLife SoloQ
Decreasing revenue and pressure from Nexon to generate returns on their investment are what caused HoT to be a boxed expasion and not what I believe would’ve been season 3 of the living story. The small map increase and no New race which would’ve taken serious development hours for racial city and story are more like an entire season 2 dropping at once.
I’m pleased with a New class and masteries that finally take the RNG out of precursors but would this be a paid expansion if they were still making 2013 gem sales revenue? I doubt it.
The moment you mentioned Nexon you lost credibility. Nexon publicly tried to get more control over NcSoft and NcSoft gave them the finger. Publicly.
Looks like GW2 is still steadily churning money, which is a good thing. Should be secured to have updates in the future, too. And the expansion will undoubtly boost sales for Q3 (or whenever it launches).
The popularity of Lineage and AION are baffling, but I guess we just don’t understand what makes the Koreans tick.
One – Piken Square
Decreasing revenue and pressure from Nexon to generate returns on their investment are what caused HoT to be a boxed expasion and not what I believe would’ve been season 3 of the living story. The small map increase and no New race which would’ve taken serious development hours for racial city and story are more like an entire season 2 dropping at once.
I’m pleased with a New class and masteries that finally take the RNG out of precursors but would this be a paid expansion if they were still making 2013 gem sales revenue? I doubt it.
The moment you mentioned Nexon you lost credibility. Nexon publicly tried to get more control over NcSoft and NcSoft gave them the finger. Publicly.
Nexon own 15% of NcSoft which is significant. Credibility is important if I claim to state fact, which I did not. The moment you claim that what a company says publicly indicates what is said internally you demonstrate naivety
Buy To Play Guild Wars 2 2012-2015 – RIP
Unlucky since launch, RNG isn’t random
PugLife SoloQ
Unlucky since launch, RNG isn’t random
PugLife SoloQ
Decreasing revenue and pressure from Nexon to generate returns on their investment are what caused HoT to be a boxed expasion and not what I believe would’ve been season 3 of the living story. The small map increase and no New race which would’ve taken serious development hours for racial city and story are more like an entire season 2 dropping at once.
I’m pleased with a New class and masteries that finally take the RNG out of precursors but would this be a paid expansion if they were still making 2013 gem sales revenue? I doubt it.
The moment you mentioned Nexon you lost credibility. Nexon publicly tried to get more control over NcSoft and NcSoft gave them the finger. Publicly.
Nexon own 15% of NcSoft which is significant. Credibility is important if I claim to state fact, which I did not. The moment you claim that what a company says publicly indicates what is said internally you demonstrate naivety
I know you can’t believe every you read in the media but I just read an interesting article that does indicate that the finger was given. English language article from the Korea Times.
Fire up the Hyperbowl ma, we’re going to town!
Would you like some hard cheeze with your sad whine?
Would you like some hard cheeze with your sad whine?
Decreasing revenue and pressure from Nexon to generate returns on their investment are what caused HoT to be a boxed expasion and not what I believe would’ve been season 3 of the living story. The small map increase and no New race which would’ve taken serious development hours for racial city and story are more like an entire season 2 dropping at once.
I’m pleased with a New class and masteries that finally take the RNG out of precursors but would this be a paid expansion if they were still making 2013 gem sales revenue? I doubt it.
The moment you mentioned Nexon you lost credibility. Nexon publicly tried to get more control over NcSoft and NcSoft gave them the finger. Publicly.
Nexon own 15% of NcSoft which is significant. Credibility is important if I claim to state fact, which I did not. The moment you claim that what a company says publicly indicates what is said internally you demonstrate naivety
I know you can’t believe every you read in the media but I just read an interesting article that does indicate that the finger was given. English language article from the Korea Times.
You don’t believe what’s said publicly but there are things that are said publicly that wouldn’t be said under specific circumstances.
For example, if a company says everything is fine, that doesn’t mean everything’s fine. But if a rival company tries to publicly gain control, it really can be assumed they don’t already have control. Because if they did, there would be zero reason to try to convince others they didn’t.
Wasn’t Wildstar geared toward hard-cores? Considering how few of them there are overall, why did anyone think that an MMO made mainly for them would be a good idea?
not sure if that is the reason, seeing as eg. Eve has been growing steadily since launch and is very healthy in economic terms. Wildstar felt strangely clunky and was cluttered with a lot of rather unnecessary gating of content. It was also a rather bold move to launch a game today with a subscription only model I guess.
Wasn’t Wildstar geared toward hard-cores? Considering how few of them there are overall, why did anyone think that an MMO made mainly for them would be a good idea?
not sure if that is the reason, seeing as eg. Eve has been growing steadily since launch and is very healthy in economic terms. Wildstar felt strangely clunky and was cluttered with a lot of rather unnecessary gating of content. It was also a rather bold move the launch a game today with a subscription only model I guess.
Eve is a sandbox MMO, Wildstar is a themepark MMO.
Hard core means completely different things in those contexts. Even has never had more than about half a million people, which is a pretty big success for a western sandbox game, but it’s still very very niche.
Wildstar’s hard core was meant to mean raids, not PvP battles.
Where did you get those numbers from ?
I would like to post these somewhere else , but i would need a source to give credence to those numbers . ( not that i doubt on your word op )
Hopefully not from VGchartz :p
Where did you get those numbers from ?
I would like to post these somewhere else , but i would need a source to give credence to those numbers . ( not that i doubt on your word op )
Hopefully not from VGchartz :p
[TAO] Founder/Owner and Administrator for the NSP Server Website
Decreasing revenue and pressure from Nexon to generate returns on their investment are what caused HoT to be a boxed expasion and not what I believe would’ve been season 3 of the living story. The small map increase and no New race which would’ve taken serious development hours for racial city and story are more like an entire season 2 dropping at once.
I’m pleased with a New class and masteries that finally take the RNG out of precursors but would this be a paid expansion if they were still making 2013 gem sales revenue? I doubt it.
The moment you mentioned Nexon you lost credibility. Nexon publicly tried to get more control over NcSoft and NcSoft gave them the finger. Publicly.
Nexon own 15% of NcSoft which is significant. Credibility is important if I claim to state fact, which I did not. The moment you claim that what a company says publicly indicates what is said internally you demonstrate naivety
And if you didn’t notice, Nexon published a letter, publicly, listing all the changes they want to see done for them to backoff. NCSOFT the day the earning were posted said quite publicly no to every one of them and said negotiations are over, you want change, get the votes.
So 15% doesn’t do squat. Also last time we talked about these two fighting the thread was deleted, lets not take this route.
We are heroes. This is what we do!
RIP City of Heroes
RIP City of Heroes
Where did you get those numbers from ?
I would like to post these somewhere else , but i would need a source to give credence to those numbers . ( not that i doubt on your word op )
Hopefully not from VGchartz :p
From NCSOFT’s quarterly reports posted on NCSOFT’s corporate website in the Investor Relations area. I have them going back to 2005 I think.
We are heroes. This is what we do!
RIP City of Heroes
RIP City of Heroes
(edited by Behellagh.1468)
I think it will be more unique than you think.
I hate that unique has become a synonym for ‘different’. Used to be, something was unique, or it wasn’t Absolutely. Here’s something funny: the forum’s spellchecker is a-okay with uniquer and uniquest. This is uniquer than that, but this other thing is the uniquest thing of all.
Sorry. Pet peeve.
Back on topic, and without any evidence at all, I, too, believe this expansion (which I, too, don’t expect to be very ‘expansive’ in the traditional sense) is the direct result of the Living World not turning out to be all that it was touted to be. I say this because I, personally, have not been won over by the Living World concept; in fact, I bailed on the first season before it ended because I thought it was, ahem, toxic. Moreover, I believe my assessment is correct not because I have boatloads of evidence, but because I believe I’m not particularly (here it comes) unique, meaning I am one of the many as opposed to one of the few — or the one! — and therefore, my disdain for the Living World is surely not singular.
The table is a fable.
Well I hope these numbers are good wake up call for devs.
Wildstars problem was the huge amount of bugs and the art style which turned many of the people of its target audience away. Cartoonish graphics arent for many people nowadays.
One of my 30 accounts (Malediktus.9250).
Well I hope these numbers are good wake up call for devs.
What do you mean? It’s been essentially flat for the year. Other than Lineage, their other major games all had income in the 59.5 to 94.4 billion (short) KrW range for the year with GW2 at 85.6.
We are heroes. This is what we do!
RIP City of Heroes
RIP City of Heroes
(edited by Behellagh.1468)
If you guys are interested in supporting NCSoft more, now is the time to buy Gems.
Best Buy (in the United States, only) is selling Gem Cards for 10% off. I don’t believe we’ve ever had a sale on Gems, so now’s the time to stock up.
Personally, I bought a LOT of Gems and am holding onto them until a good deal shows up on the Gem Store.
Sales were pretty consistent across the whole of 2014, so thats good, probably been going up this quarter with the announcements.
Guild Wars2 25,170 21,506 19,686 19,272 85,634
Well I hope these numbers are good wake up call for devs.
What do you mean? It’s been essentially flat for the year. Other than Lineage, their other major games all had income in the 59.5 to 94.4 billion (short) KrW range for the year with GW2 at 85.6.
Flat is not good enough in business world. You are either growing or doing something wrong unles whole industry is in some sort of crysis which is not.
Well I hope these numbers are good wake up call for devs.
What do you mean? It’s been essentially flat for the year. Other than Lineage, their other major games all had income in the 59.5 to 94.4 billion (short) KrW range for the year with GW2 at 85.6.
Flat is not good enough in business world. You are either growing or doing something wrong unles whole industry is in some sort of crysis which is not.
And that’s the problem with people with MBAs. They don’t realize that growth in not unlimited. The MMO market is mature. Other than China, there’s not untapped customers out there. Which means all you can do is try to steal share from one another. And the industry accepts that there’s churn among MMOs. That’s why Sony has their Station Pass subscription model for instance and why MMOs don’t release character names anymore.
The problem is trying to pull customers from other games by including features they may find attractive simply makes all MMOs similar, eliminating the uniqueness that drew your original player base. So do you alienate them in an attempt to grow players and end up actually losing numbers or do you accept that you carved out your little niche and with the occasional sale and announcement hope to fill those churning out with players looking for a unique experience rather than a reskin of the game they had been playing and grew bored of?
We are heroes. This is what we do!
RIP City of Heroes
RIP City of Heroes
Flat is not good enough in business world. You are either growing or doing something wrong unles whole industry is in some sort of crysis which is not.
what MMO is growing non stop except for WoW and Runescape? Boom happens, then the population slowly falls until it gets shut down years later. Or are 99% MMOs doing it wrong?
Wasn’t Wildstar geared toward hard-cores? Considering how few of them there are overall, why did anyone think that an MMO made mainly for them would be a good idea?
The vanilla WoW founders of Carbine felt their voice about hard core raiding was being ignored by Blizzard and left. They thought it was an underrepresented part of the MMO playerbase and would flock to an MMO that had it as a core feature.
Unfortunately they didn’t realise that what 80% of people who claimed to be hard core gamers liked was not hard core gaming, but telling everyone how the games they play are too easy. I do feel sorry for the genuine 20% though because it looks like Wildstar had a lot of great elements.
More like they thought that raiding players presence and activity on forums was representative for the whole MMO gaming community. It wasn’t.
Actions, not words.
Remember, remember, 15th of November
Remember, remember, 15th of November
Well I hope these numbers are good wake up call for devs.
What do you mean? It’s been essentially flat for the year. Other than Lineage, their other major games all had income in the 59.5 to 94.4 billion (short) KrW range for the year with GW2 at 85.6.
Flat is not good enough in business world. You are either growing or doing something wrong unles whole industry is in some sort of crysis which is not.
Flat is fine for some business plans. I don’t know why people make these generalizations.
MMOs being flat after two years on the market without an expansion isn’t just good enough, it’s very strong. WoW doesn’t remain flat for that amount of time, and no one says anythign against them.
Youre right that growth is what you look for, but not necessarily every year, depending on your business plan. WoW doesn’t grow every year. Why not go to their forums and tell them they’re not successful. lol
Flat is not good enough in business world. You are either growing or doing something wrong unles whole industry is in some sort of crysis which is not.
what MMO is growing non stop except for WoW and Runescape? Boom happens, then the population slowly falls until it gets shut down years later. Or are 99% MMOs doing it wrong?
WoW doesn’t always grow either. WoW when from 10,000,000 subs to 6.4 million in a couple of years. That means they were going down for two years in a row, steadily until the next expansion comes out. It’s their business plan and they expect that.
Just like Guild Wars 2’s profits will surge when HoT hits again, for a while, until it starts dropping again, and then two years later it’ll be much lower until another expansion hits.
That’s the business plan for most MMOs.
As people finish content, many of them stop playing. It’s not rocket science.
I think Anet would have liked to stick with just the living story and no expansions released at any point. Earnings dropping every quarter likely gave them no choice but to do the same thing that other mmos have done and release a traditional expansion. What happened to their spiel about changing the way that mmos are expanded upon yada yada yada?
How many MMO expansions have no new tier of gear and no raised level cap. Not too many from my experience.
You can change the way expansions are done and still charge for an expansion.
Again again, NcSoft has been talking about an expansion from the first year. In my opinion it was always the plan.
To add to that, Arenanet also stated they have other teams working on some big projects, and they stated that in 2012 or 2013. I to believe an expansion at some point has always been in the plans.
GW2 made 17 million usd in Q4 2014. Is that a lot or a little?
GW2 made 17 million usd in Q4 2014. Is that a lot or a little?
That is equivalent to ~377K subscribers paying $15 a month in a subscription based MMO. In today’s MMO market, that is still pretty good.
GW2 made 17 million usd in Q4 2014. Is that a lot or a little?
That is equivalent to ~377K subscribers paying $15 a month in a subscription based MMO. In today’s MMO market, that is still pretty good.
For a 2.5 year old game that hasn’t had an expansion yet, it’s kitten good.
Flat is not good enough in business world. You are either growing or doing something wrong unles whole industry is in some sort of crysis which is not.
what MMO is growing non stop except for WoW and Runescape? Boom happens, then the population slowly falls until it gets shut down years later. Or are 99% MMOs doing it wrong?
WoW doesn’t always grow either. WoW when from 10,000,000 subs to 6.4 million in a couple of years. That means they were going down for two years in a row, steadily until the next expansion comes out. It’s their business plan and they expect that.
Just like Guild Wars 2’s profits will surge when HoT hits again, for a while, until it starts dropping again, and then two years later it’ll be much lower until another expansion hits.
That’s the business plan for most MMOs.
As people finish content, many of them stop playing. It’s not rocket science.
Well this is exactly what am I talking about. Expansions are way to go because expansions are content worth of money. I hope they will start releasing expansions more frequently.
Except WoW expansions come with level and gear bumps, basically setting the player onto the leveling and end game raiding for BIS gear yet again.
Here’s 10 more levels, your current BIS gear that took you a month raiding to get is now worthless compared to basic gear drops as you level and all for $30 plus $12-15 a month. Not a treadmill I’m will to pay through the nose to “enjoy”.
We are heroes. This is what we do!
RIP City of Heroes
RIP City of Heroes
Except WoW expansions come with level and gear bumps, basically setting the player onto the leveling and end game raiding for BIS gear yet again.
Here’s 10 more levels, your current BIS gear that took you a month raiding to get is now worthless compared to basic gear drops as you level and all for $30 plus $12-15 a month. Not a treadmill I’m will to pay through the nose to “enjoy”.
Look, it is a different model. People expect an expansion in WoW to be this way. They like it, they want it, they get it. They won’t be disappointed.
We will have to wait and see on what the GW2 expansion really has to offer. If I am through most of the content in a week and just some artificially gated stuff (by masteries) is not completable, than it is no better than what people get with WoW expansions.
I hardly see any difference in:
A) Get to a higher gear level (which is just a number) to do the endgame content.
or
B) Get to a higher mastery level (which is just a number) to do the endgame content.
Artificial gating is artificial. A stretching of content that could otherwise be completed way faster.
On the other hand, an expansion is what I have asked for for two years, so yeah, I and probably many other players will buy it that otherwise wouldn’t spend money on the game. Which will pushing the numbers on those reports in a good way.
Mesmer PvE Guide
The Leveling & Open World Compendium
The Leveling & Open World Compendium
Except WoW expansions come with level and gear bumps, basically setting the player onto the leveling and end game raiding for BIS gear yet again.
Here’s 10 more levels, your current BIS gear that took you a month raiding to get is now worthless compared to basic gear drops as you level and all for $30 plus $12-15 a month. Not a treadmill I’m will to pay through the nose to “enjoy”.
Look, it is a different model. People expect an expansion in WoW to be this way. They like it, they want it, they get it. They won’t be disappointed.
We will have to wait and see on what the GW2 expansion really has to offer. If I am through most of the content in a week and just some artificially gated stuff (by masteries) is not completable, than it is no better than what people get with WoW expansions.
I hardly see any difference in:
A) Get to a higher gear level (which is just a number) to do the endgame content.
or
B) Get to a higher mastery level (which is just a number) to do the endgame content.Artificial gating is artificial. A stretching of content that could otherwise be completed way faster.
On the other hand, an expansion is what I have asked for for two years, so yeah, I and probably many other players will buy it that otherwise wouldn’t spend money on the game. Which will pushing the numbers on those reports in a good way.
To me it would still be better than a WoW expansion.
Because WoW expansions funnel people into a type of content I have no interest in. If this expansion funneled me into open world content instead of raids, to me it would be better….depending on how it’s done of course.
Except WoW expansions come with level and gear bumps, basically setting the player onto the leveling and end game raiding for BIS gear yet again.
Here’s 10 more levels, your current BIS gear that took you a month raiding to get is now worthless compared to basic gear drops as you level and all for $30 plus $12-15 a month. Not a treadmill I’m will to pay through the nose to “enjoy”.
Look, it is a different model. People expect an expansion in WoW to be this way. They like it, they want it, they get it. They won’t be disappointed.
We will have to wait and see on what the GW2 expansion really has to offer. If I am through most of the content in a week and just some artificially gated stuff (by masteries) is not completable, than it is no better than what people get with WoW expansions.
I hardly see any difference in:
A) Get to a higher gear level (which is just a number) to do the endgame content.
or
B) Get to a higher mastery level (which is just a number) to do the endgame content.Artificial gating is artificial. A stretching of content that could otherwise be completed way faster.
On the other hand, an expansion is what I have asked for for two years, so yeah, I and probably many other players will buy it that otherwise wouldn’t spend money on the game. Which will pushing the numbers on those reports in a good way.
To me it would still be better than a WoW expansion.
Because WoW expansions funnel people into a type of content I have no interest in. If this expansion funneled me into open world content instead of raids, to me it would be better….depending on how it’s done of course.
Yeah, I bought GW2 because I love the concept of open world. I grew tired of dungeoneering years ago.
I don’t say that gating is a bad thing, just that there is not much difference as long as there is gating in the first.
As long as ANet does not send me into dungeons or fractals for some important mastery in open world, I am OK with the system.
Mesmer PvE Guide
The Leveling & Open World Compendium
The Leveling & Open World Compendium
1 2