Guild Wars 2

BlueZone.4236:

Vayne.8563:

BlueZone.4236:

Vayne.8563:

BlueZone.4236:

Domino.1359:

I hope something big is being worked on – 2 years for planning is long gone – LS is just too stale to keep some in-game. It takes 1 day to finish a new LS chapter. Content is very small to justify this long of a wait for an expansion.

What?! The Dry Top map is so massive, it’s like they’re squeezing water out of dry rocks! You should be like “whoa, ANet, slow down! You’re releasing too much content again!”.
On a more realistic note, I think it took them over a year to get this map developed (it around one year for the EotM map), so their big project on display.
Here, right now.

Interesting theory. It may be one of the things they were working on. But since Anet did say they had multiple teams working on big projects, it might not be all of them. I suspect it’s not.

Map development is a big task for them. Not a theory. It’s a fact.
And of course they’re working on multiple projects, big and small.
Fact is this was a big project for them.

You say in your first post “so their big project is on display”. In any English I know, that means this is their one big project. You may not have meant it, but you certainly said it.

If you think there might be more, it might have been better to say this was one of their big projects (which might or might not be the case).

Wow…smh.
Is your fanbase really that dumb to need such a clarification? Jesus.
This is their big project on display.

No, it really does mean something other than you’re saying. Saying their big project is very different than saying one of them. This means it’s over. We’ve seen it. There’s nothing else.

Given your post history not sure why you’d think I’d assume anything else.

There’s an LS going on?

Oh, there was something a month or two back where it expected me to do platforming in order to access the content. I ported back to LA. Was there content behind that platforming?

I cannot possibly believe that they blew all their art resources for the last 8 months on Dry Top. It’s a great (if half-size compared to usual) map, sure – but if they developed all the original maps at that pace, it would have taken them decades (something like 20-30 years considering their size?) to build them – and my impression is they have more staff now, not less.

If the pipeline from start to finish is 8 months, that’s a different deal and fairly believable – but would mean they have to have been able to work on other maps in the meantime as well.

Vayne.8563:

BlueZone.4236:

Vayne.8563:

BlueZone.4236:

Vayne.8563:

BlueZone.4236:

Domino.1359:

I hope something big is being worked on – 2 years for planning is long gone – LS is just too stale to keep some in-game. It takes 1 day to finish a new LS chapter. Content is very small to justify this long of a wait for an expansion.

What?! The Dry Top map is so massive, it’s like they’re squeezing water out of dry rocks! You should be like “whoa, ANet, slow down! You’re releasing too much content again!”.
On a more realistic note, I think it took them over a year to get this map developed (it around one year for the EotM map), so their big project on display.
Here, right now.

Interesting theory. It may be one of the things they were working on. But since Anet did say they had multiple teams working on big projects, it might not be all of them. I suspect it’s not.

Map development is a big task for them. Not a theory. It’s a fact.
And of course they’re working on multiple projects, big and small.
Fact is this was a big project for them.

You say in your first post “so their big project is on display”. In any English I know, that means this is their one big project. You may not have meant it, but you certainly said it.

If you think there might be more, it might have been better to say this was one of their big projects (which might or might not be the case).

Wow…smh.
Is your fanbase really that dumb to need such a clarification? Jesus.
This is their big project on display.

No, it really does mean something other than you’re saying. Saying their big project is very different than saying one of them. This means it’s over. We’ve seen it. There’s nothing else.

Given your post history not sure why you’d think I’d assume anything else.

BlueZone.4236:

Nick.6972:

That reminds me of.
Remember the last year (summer) when people said they disliked Living Story and asked Arena Net to work on other stuff instead? Remember how Arena Net commented that only smart percentage ot company is actually working on Living STory and how there are huge “secret” background projects? What happened to that?

EotM, wardrobe, Dry Top map, mega servers…
EotM took one whole year to develop.
It’s a guess, however it’s logical these were the so called big projects.

Learn to remember? Smh.

Vayne.8563:

Let’s be logical for one second. You called it. Guild Wars 2 is one of NCsofts most popular games. It’s still making money as of last quarter. No company just abandons their most popular product. We already see signs that Wildstar is slowing down and it’s only out a couple of months. It’s taken a big hit already.

So what is NcSoft going do to, really? Abandon Guild Wars 2.

Take a look at NCsoft’s financials. Yes, it’s a Korean company, the accounting rules are different, but their investor relations people do publish quarterly in English.

NCsoft is still Lineage. The original Lineage. They have a number of other games, but none of them have made it big. GW2 was a big chunk of revenue for boxes back two years ago, but that dried up after a couple of quarters. It’s a few million dollars a quarter now, I assume mostly from gem sales but a few boxes are still being sold.

I don’t see a liability on NCsoft’s balance sheet for its commitment to continue operating GW2 (indefinitely?) for people who’ve bought the game. Under U.S. accounting rules my assumption (I’m an engineer, not an accountant) is that they would be required to reserve part of the revenue from box sales, recognizing it over a period of years, matched to the cost of running servers, paying their ISP, keeping a few employees around, etc. I can’t find anything like this on NCsoft’s balance sheet so speculate that under Korean accounting standards they were allowed to recognize all of the revenue from box sales when the boxes were sold. This means the only money available to keep the servers up (much less provide new content) is from ongoing gem sales.

Under these circumstances, customers who don’t buy gems are a liability (they consume server resources but provide no revenue) and neglecting the issue of deserted worlds driving away potential new customers, ArenaNet is more profitable if people who don’t buy gems all leave the game.

Anyone think I’ve missed something here?

Sirius.4510:

If the pipeline from start to finish is 8 months, that’s a different deal and fairly believable – but would mean they have to have been able to work on other maps in the meantime as well.

What makes you think they’re budget is big enough to have their whole staff working on the game full time? And if one believes that they’re making a lot of profit, they’re either having most of the money the game makes siphoned away towards other NCSoft games, or have been working on a major project since launch without telling anyone even the slightest thing about it in the last two years. If you’re asking me, the last option looks like the least likely one.

So after all the conspiracy theories about how the game is dying because there’s no LS update, in three weeks after this release, there’ll be a release of a new feature pack, or one week later than an LS patch would have been out.

Looks like maybe people talking about someone trying to kill the game may have been premature.

waaaaaaaay too many complainers, cant say i understand why, living story has been top notch since season 2 started and even though season 1 had its flaws there was a lot to appreciate there as well.

ASB.4295:

Sirius.4510:

If the pipeline from start to finish is 8 months, that’s a different deal and fairly believable – but would mean they have to have been able to work on other maps in the meantime as well.

What makes you think they’re budget is big enough to have their whole staff working on the game full time? And if one believes that they’re making a lot of profit, they’re either having most of the money the game makes siphoned away towards other NCSoft games, or have been working on a major project since launch without telling anyone even the slightest thing about it in the last two years. If you’re asking me, the last option looks like the least likely one.

ive seen it mentioned in interviews that there were 2 big projects cooking in the background that were not the bi weekly living story updates or the feature packs

Goatjugsoup.8637:

ASB.4295:

Sirius.4510:

If the pipeline from start to finish is 8 months, that’s a different deal and fairly believable – but would mean they have to have been able to work on other maps in the meantime as well.

What makes you think they’re budget is big enough to have their whole staff working on the game full time? And if one believes that they’re making a lot of profit, they’re either having most of the money the game makes siphoned away towards other NCSoft games, or have been working on a major project since launch without telling anyone even the slightest thing about it in the last two years. If you’re asking me, the last option looks like the least likely one.

ive seen it mentioned in interviews that there were 2 big projects cooking in the background that were not the bi weekly living story updates or the feature packs

I’d love to see that quote if you have a link, because I’ve never seen Anet give a number. The closest thing I heard was seven teams working on projects that weren’t LS.

Just pointing out that I called the feature pack before I saw anything about it perhaps even before it was posted. Here’s hoping my other ideas pan out.

Darkorical.9213:

see Im kinda looking at it like this … this is the mid season finale of LIVING STORY. Which doesn’t mean necessarily that its the end of game updates. I’m actually hoping to see something like this happen.

In two weeks instead of another living story update we will get a 2nd anniversary thing. (August 26th)

2 weeks later we will see a feature update, and maybe SAB returns to give them time to iron out any bugs from the feature update. (September 9th)

Another 2 weeks and we could see the end of the WvW season and a update to ready for the next season. (September 23rd)

Then October 7th living story returns with the beginning of fall.

bewhatever.2390:

Vayne.8563:

Let’s be logical for one second. You called it. Guild Wars 2 is one of NCsofts most popular games. It’s still making money as of last quarter. No company just abandons their most popular product. We already see signs that Wildstar is slowing down and it’s only out a couple of months. It’s taken a big hit already.

So what is NcSoft going do to, really? Abandon Guild Wars 2.

Take a look at NCsoft’s financials. Yes, it’s a Korean company, the accounting rules are different, but their investor relations people do publish quarterly in English.

NCsoft is still Lineage. The original Lineage. They have a number of other games, but none of them have made it big. GW2 was a big chunk of revenue for boxes back two years ago, but that dried up after a couple of quarters. It’s a few million dollars a quarter now, I assume mostly from gem sales but a few boxes are still being sold.

I don’t see a liability on NCsoft’s balance sheet for its commitment to continue operating GW2 (indefinitely?) for people who’ve bought the game. Under U.S. accounting rules my assumption (I’m an engineer, not an accountant) is that they would be required to reserve part of the revenue from box sales, recognizing it over a period of years, matched to the cost of running servers, paying their ISP, keeping a few employees around, etc. I can’t find anything like this on NCsoft’s balance sheet so speculate that under Korean accounting standards they were allowed to recognize all of the revenue from box sales when the boxes were sold. This means the only money available to keep the servers up (much less provide new content) is from ongoing gem sales.

Under these circumstances, customers who don’t buy gems are a liability (they consume server resources but provide no revenue) and neglecting the issue of deserted worlds driving away potential new customers, ArenaNet is more profitable if people who don’t buy gems all leave the game.

Anyone think I’ve missed something here?

ohh yeah you missed quite a few things really…

1. China release.. Box sales dried up? nope box sale surge as Gw2 is released in the biggest MMO market more likely.

2. you make it sound as if gem sales are a pittance. Its still making over 100m a year thats just US and Euro, with the Asian release thats likely to at least double. 200m a year will more then pay for any expensive they have. 100m payed expense and left enough left for them to expand their team. There is a reason why most mmo shrink their team after release while arenanet kept expanding it and thats certainly not because it was a financial failure.

3. Sure Lineage 1 is definitely NCSoft’s golden goose. Then comes Gw2 and before they start cutting it out they got Lineage 2, Aeon, Blade and Soul as well as the original guild wars. Since release quarter after quarter Gw2 has been the 2nd best earner for NCsoft. We still have to see if Wildstar changed that but so far gw2 hasnt been a burden for NCsoft.. which is why if you check out ever quarter financial report you’ll see them mention both lineage and gw2 strong performances as the reason for the successful quarter.

Now as for your statement of recognizing box sales over a number of years thats called differed income. You do that when you’re selling something thats prepaid. The only thing Gw2 has that may be differed income is actually gem sales not box sales. When you’re buying the box you’re given the product there and then so from a financial perspective that income was earned and should show during that financial quarter. When you’re buying gems however so long as you dont use those gems what the company has given you is credit so to speak so they might have to wait for you to use those gems before they record it as income. This is a bit of a grey area though. Something more clear would be if you buy say a 1 year subscription. In that case even though you gave the publisher $150 on day 1. they have to record it as $15 income month after month for the whole year because you essentially prepaid for a service that will not be fully delivered to you until a year from the day of purchase.

One of the biggest complaints last time was that the season was TOO LONG! Apparently, people tend to forget about such ’’minor’’ things on these forums. The change is what players asked for and I would assume it would look like that:

Season 2 first half > feature pack > season 2 second half > christmas festivals > season 3 first half > feature pack > season 3 second half > expansion

People in these forums never believe in any positive change happening in GW2 and whenever it happens they complain about some details while if it doesn’t happen, they complain about the lack of content. -Sigh- at least be realistic and stop the assumptions. But hey since you have your assumptions of Anet not doing anything but these maps during that period of time, I also have mine, that I already metnioned. I will remind you of this post someday, because I know its what gonna happen somehow..

I remember that actually. They were discussing making the stories shorter but closer together, or something like that. I don’t have the exact wording but the impression was having stories that didn’t go for as long and weren’t spaced out quite as far apart between them.

Anyway, in the break we’re getting a much needed feature patch. I’m sure the PvP and WvW people would like some love too.

And there’s bound to be some PvE stuff in there as well.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Morsus.5106:

Behellagh.1468:

Just don’t complain about free content.

So I can’t complain about air pollution either? Air is free, so I guess I have to pretend to be 100% satisfied with it. I’m allowed to not like the content, and the forums are to discuss the game, so I am allowed to let people know I am displeased with the content included in the past four episodes.

I’m not sure anyone is forced to play the content in this game, free or not.

Still, this may prove helpful: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/How-to-Give-Good-Feedback/first#post3383470

Good luck.

Every two weeks, ArenaNet adds content to the game. This schedule they’ve been keeping up is incredible. I’m sorry to say however, that I’m not a fan of this content for a few reasons. 1) It’s too short. After last season, I’ve burnt out on back items and achievement hunting. The only other content that is added is a few story instances that take me around an hour to beat. While ArenaNet can never develop content as fast as players can play it, only an hour of play time is very short. 2) The dialog, and text. The first time I tried to go back and play the storyline, I was shocked at just how much dialog was. I can’t skip much of it either, and I lost all desire to play the content again. 3) The rewards feel lacking. I might be tempted to play the content again if it offered some amazing rewards, but all I ever get are a few champion bags. If I really wanted champion bags, I would just play a dungeon because that offers less text and more action, as well as a gold reward at the end. I’m not saying that story content should be the newest farm, but it should offer something of value. Personally, my favorite Living Story content was Flame & Frost. The Molten Facility was, and is, my favorite dungeon. It offers a little more challenge than much of what we see in the game, and also offers great rewards for the time put in. I would very much like to see more content like that.

Was that good enough?

Morsus.5106:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Morsus.5106:

Behellagh.1468:

Just don’t complain about free content.

So I can’t complain about air pollution either? Air is free, so I guess I have to pretend to be 100% satisfied with it. I’m allowed to not like the content, and the forums are to discuss the game, so I am allowed to let people know I am displeased with the content included in the past four episodes.

I’m not sure anyone is forced to play the content in this game, free or not.

Still, this may prove helpful: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/How-to-Give-Good-Feedback/first#post3383470

Good luck.

Every two weeks, ArenaNet adds content to the game. This schedule they’ve been keeping up is incredible. I’m sorry to say however, that I’m not a fan of this content for a few reasons. 1) It’s too short. After last season, I’ve burnt out on back items and achievement hunting. The only other content that is added is a few story instances that take me around an hour to beat. While ArenaNet can never develop content as fast as players can play it, only an hour of play time is very short. 2) The dialog, and text. The first time I tried to go back and play the storyline, I was shocked at just how much dialog was. I can’t skip much of it either, and I lost all desire to play the content again. 3) The rewards feel lacking. I might be tempted to play the content again if it offered some amazing rewards, but all I ever get are a few champion bags. If I really wanted champion bags, I would just play a dungeon because that offers less text and more action, as well as a gold reward at the end. I’m not saying that story content should be the newest farm, but it should offer something of value. Personally, my favorite Living Story content was Flame & Frost. The Molten Facility was, and is, my favorite dungeon. It offers a little more challenge than much of what we see in the game, and also offers great rewards for the time put in. I would very much like to see more content like that.

Was that good enough?

Actually yes, that’s far far better. Much better than your first comments. It gives an understanding of what Anet can do in the future to make the game better for players like you.

Yes, it is. Glad you took the suggestion to heart! =)

Romek.4201:

problem is more like people wait for CONTENT since livingstory 1 ends for 8 months and now we had only stupid cutscenese and textlines for another 2 months and they make a break …..

Are we playing the same game? Your take-away from the LS2 thus far is that it is only “stupid cutscenes and textlines”? Did you even complete it? Actually don’t answer that, I wouldn’t believe you anyway.

Draknar.5748:

Romek.4201:

problem is more like people wait for CONTENT since livingstory 1 ends for 8 months and now we had only stupid cutscenese and textlines for another 2 months and they make a break …..

Are we playing the same game? Your take-away from the LS2 thus far is that it is only “stupid cutscenes and textlines”? Did you even complete it? Actually don’t answer that, I wouldn’t believe you anyway.

I completed it and I felt like I spent half of the time clicking through dialog.

Morsus.5106:

Draknar.5748:

Romek.4201:

problem is more like people wait for CONTENT since livingstory 1 ends for 8 months and now we had only stupid cutscenese and textlines for another 2 months and they make a break …..

Are we playing the same game? Your take-away from the LS2 thus far is that it is only “stupid cutscenes and textlines”? Did you even complete it? Actually don’t answer that, I wouldn’t believe you anyway.

I completed it and I felt like I spent half of the time clicking through dialog.

Well at the very least your description gives it a 50/50 ratio action/dialog, which is quite different from the person I quoted who was saying it was only cut-scenes and text-lines.

Living Story is not what you guys wanted for content, we get it, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t content. Ok so you wanted SAB, or guild halls, or capes, or mounts, or multiple new zones, or dueling, or new dungeons, or instanced raids, we get it, we all get it, the LS isn’t your guys’ cup of tea. But some of us actually do like it and you have to realize that people have worked hard to create this content and to dismiss it as not content because it isn’t what you wanted is insulting to the writers and development team.

Vayne.8563:

Let’s be logical for one second. You called it. Guild Wars 2 is one of NCsofts most popular games. It’s still making money as of last quarter. No company just abandons their most popular product. We already see signs that Wildstar is slowing down and it’s only out a couple of months. It’s taken a big hit already.

So what is NcSoft going do to, really? Abandon Guild Wars 2.

Businesses plan stuff over months and even years, not weeks. Things like expansions. They make annoucements when they do when it makes sense to make them. Now if the game is still earning money at a constant rate, they have less reason to make annoucements. Anet is tracking who logs in and for how long they play. And how many players log on.

So much panic from people who really have nothing to go on. All we really have to go on is NcSoft quarterly reports, which show the game profitable, and stuff like Raptr which shows that the game has pretty much remained in the top 20 games (not just MMOs games either) since release. That’s not easy to do. ESO has already fallen off the top 20 and it’s much newer. Why would anyone abandon this game? It makes no real sense.

The problem is Anet isnt’ telling us what’s going on. That’s the problem. But you know, if Anet is still paying voice actors to do voices for content that comes out every two weeks, that says something too. Voice actors don’t come cheap. You don’t let games die and then pay voice actors lots and lots of money.

Anet needs to say something. That much is certain. Too many people with too much time to worry about what’s not happening, not because it’s not happening, but because Anet hasn’t said anything. That’s why I posted a thread about Anet needs to have someone talking to us.

But realistically, when SWToR wasnt’ doing as well as it was supposed to half the staff was laid off. When TSW didnt’ do as well as it was supposed to, a third of the staff was laid off. If that happened, we’d hear about it. It’s not happening. The game isn’t dying. There’s no reason to believe it’s dying.

Lack of information doesn’t mean that nothing is happening.

Now that you put this way, it does make sense. Still, it just seems too soon to have another break when Season 2 was off to such a great start. The frequent breaks, along with Anet’s lack of communication is leaving many people worried and assuming the worst. I hope Anet improves their communication while the release updates and news about the September feature pack announcements because it’s never good to leave the players out of touch, especially when so many are being drawn back into the game thanks to season 2.

Vayne.8563:

You say in your first post “so their big project is on display”. In any English I know, that means this is their one big project. You may not have meant it, but you certainly said it.

If you think there might be more, it might have been better to say this was one of their big projects (which might or might not be the case).

\

The company could have many projects, but only one considered to be, “big.”

Today, at work, I finished my big project. The one I have been prepping for and working towards for months. Throughout the period I have worked on my big project I have begun and completed dozens of other, lesser, projects.

I certainly hope that is what is happening in GW2.

Vayne.8563:

No company just abandons their most popular product.

Is GW2 their most popular product ?

Ashen.2907:

Vayne.8563:

You say in your first post “so their big project is on display”. In any English I know, that means this is their one big project. You may not have meant it, but you certainly said it.

If you think there might be more, it might have been better to say this was one of their big projects (which might or might not be the case).

\

The company could have many projects, but only one considered to be, “big.”

Today, at work, I finished my big project. The one I have been prepping for and working towards for months. Throughout the period I have worked on my big project I have begun and completed dozens of other, lesser, projects.

I certainly hope that is what is happening in GW2.

Vayne.8563:

No company just abandons their most popular product.

Is GW2 their most popular product ?

Considering that ANet only has two products, I’d say yes. If you’re talking about NCSoft, that’s another matter.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Ashen.2907:

Vayne.8563:

You say in your first post “so their big project is on display”. In any English I know, that means this is their one big project. You may not have meant it, but you certainly said it.

If you think there might be more, it might have been better to say this was one of their big projects (which might or might not be the case).

\

The company could have many projects, but only one considered to be, “big.”

Today, at work, I finished my big project. The one I have been prepping for and working towards for months. Throughout the period I have worked on my big project I have begun and completed dozens of other, lesser, projects.

I certainly hope that is what is happening in GW2.

Vayne.8563:

No company just abandons their most popular product.

Is GW2 their most popular product ?

Considering that ANet only has two products, I’d say yes. If you’re talking about NCSoft, that’s another matter.

Vayne referred tp NCSoft. I am curious as to whether or not GW2 has become NCSoft’s most popular product.

La Goanna.8142:

Vayne.8563:

Let’s be logical for one second. You called it. Guild Wars 2 is one of NCsofts most popular games. It’s still making money as of last quarter. No company just abandons their most popular product. We already see signs that Wildstar is slowing down and it’s only out a couple of months. It’s taken a big hit already.

So what is NcSoft going do to, really? Abandon Guild Wars 2.

Businesses plan stuff over months and even years, not weeks. Things like expansions. They make annoucements when they do when it makes sense to make them. Now if the game is still earning money at a constant rate, they have less reason to make annoucements. Anet is tracking who logs in and for how long they play. And how many players log on.

So much panic from people who really have nothing to go on. All we really have to go on is NcSoft quarterly reports, which show the game profitable, and stuff like Raptr which shows that the game has pretty much remained in the top 20 games (not just MMOs games either) since release. That’s not easy to do. ESO has already fallen off the top 20 and it’s much newer. Why would anyone abandon this game? It makes no real sense.

The problem is Anet isnt’ telling us what’s going on. That’s the problem. But you know, if Anet is still paying voice actors to do voices for content that comes out every two weeks, that says something too. Voice actors don’t come cheap. You don’t let games die and then pay voice actors lots and lots of money.

Anet needs to say something. That much is certain. Too many people with too much time to worry about what’s not happening, not because it’s not happening, but because Anet hasn’t said anything. That’s why I posted a thread about Anet needs to have someone talking to us.

But realistically, when SWToR wasnt’ doing as well as it was supposed to half the staff was laid off. When TSW didnt’ do as well as it was supposed to, a third of the staff was laid off. If that happened, we’d hear about it. It’s not happening. The game isn’t dying. There’s no reason to believe it’s dying.

Lack of information doesn’t mean that nothing is happening.

Now that you put this way, it does make sense. Still, it just seems too soon to have another break when Season 2 was off to such a great start. The frequent breaks, along with Anet’s lack of communication is leaving many people worried and assuming the worst. I hope Anet improves their communication while the release updates and news about the September feature pack announcements because it’s never good to leave the players out of touch, especially when so many are being drawn back into the game thanks to season 2.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/announcing-the-september-2014-feature-pack/ If you havent’ already seen this is 1 of TWO articles they posted today. So news sites slipped out the Mid-season break info early it happens. I think ANet communicates very well with its players at the very least as much as any other company communicates.

Ashen.2907:

Vayne.8563:

You say in your first post “so their big project is on display”. In any English I know, that means this is their one big project. You may not have meant it, but you certainly said it.

If you think there might be more, it might have been better to say this was one of their big projects (which might or might not be the case).

\

The company could have many projects, but only one considered to be, “big.”

Today, at work, I finished my big project. The one I have been prepping for and working towards for months. Throughout the period I have worked on my big project I have begun and completed dozens of other, lesser, projects.

I certainly hope that is what is happening in GW2.

Vayne.8563:

No company just abandons their most popular product.

Is GW2 their most popular product ?

It’s their most popular product in the West, which is one of their subsidiaries and their second most profitable product. It’s not NcSoft’s most popular product in Korea.

Since NcSoft East and West are two different subsidaries, as far as NcSoft West goes yes, Guild Wars 2 is it’s most profitable product in the West.

It’s still making money. Decent money. Why would you walk away from it?

Ashen.2907:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Ashen.2907:

Vayne.8563:

You say in your first post “so their big project is on display”. In any English I know, that means this is their one big project. You may not have meant it, but you certainly said it.

If you think there might be more, it might have been better to say this was one of their big projects (which might or might not be the case).

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The company could have many projects, but only one considered to be, “big.”

Today, at work, I finished my big project. The one I have been prepping for and working towards for months. Throughout the period I have worked on my big project I have begun and completed dozens of other, lesser, projects.

I certainly hope that is what is happening in GW2.

Vayne.8563:

No company just abandons their most popular product.

Is GW2 their most popular product ?

Considering that ANet only has two products, I’d say yes. If you’re talking about NCSoft, that’s another matter.

Vayne referred tp NCSoft. I am curious as to whether or not GW2 has become NCSoft’s most popular product.

NcSoft has two companies, East and West. They’re run seperately. Unless NcSoft want’s to close up it’s entire West operation (and most companies tend not to want to do that sort of thing because it looks like they’re turning tail and running and it often hurts stocks at least short term), in NCsoft West, Guild Wars 2 is their only really profitable game.

It’s not as popular as Lineage is in Korea. However it’s more popular than Lineage in the US and Europe.

Now, I tend not to think in terms of what happens just in Korea, because I happen to live in Australia, and I was born in the US.

From a western point of view, Guild Wars 2 is by far NcSoft’s most popular product. And in the west it’s their most profitable as well.

Galen Grey.4709:

bewhatever.2390

(snip)

I don’t see a liability on NCsoft’s balance sheet for its commitment to continue operating GW2 (indefinitely?) for people who’ve bought the game.

(snip)

This means the only money available to keep the servers up (much less provide new content) is from ongoing gem sales.

Under these circumstances, customers who don’t buy gems are a liability (they consume server resources but provide no revenue) and neglecting the issue of deserted worlds driving away potential new customers, ArenaNet is more profitable if people who don’t buy gems all leave the game.

Anyone think I’ve missed something here?

ohh yeah you missed quite a few things really…

1. China release.. Box sales dried up? nope box sale surge as Gw2 is released in the biggest MMO market more likely.

2. you make it sound as if gem sales are a pittance. Its still making over 100m a year thats just US and Euro, with the Asian release thats likely to at least double. 200m a year will more then pay for any expensive they have. 100m payed expense and left enough left for them to expand their team. There is a reason why most mmo shrink their team after release while arenanet kept expanding it and thats certainly not because it was a financial failure.

3. Sure Lineage 1 is definitely NCSoft’s golden goose. Then comes Gw2 and before they start cutting it out they got Lineage 2, Aeon, Blade and Soul as well as the original guild wars. Since release quarter after quarter Gw2 has been the 2nd best earner for NCsoft. We still have to see if Wildstar changed that but so far gw2 hasnt been a burden for NCsoft.. which is why if you check out ever quarter financial report you’ll see them mention both lineage and gw2 strong performances as the reason for the successful quarter.

Now as for your statement of recognizing box sales over a number of years thats called differed income. You do that when you’re selling something thats prepaid. The only thing Gw2 has that may be differed income is actually gem sales not box sales. When you’re buying the box you’re given the product there and then so from a financial perspective that income was earned and should show during that financial quarter. When you’re buying gems however so long as you dont use those gems what the company has given you is credit so to speak so they might have to wait for you to use those gems before they record it as income. This is a bit of a grey area though. Something more clear would be if you buy say a 1 year subscription. In that case even though you gave the publisher $150 on day 1. they have to record it as $15 income month after month for the whole year because you essentially prepaid for a service that will not be fully delivered to you until a year from the day of purchase.

Concur that China market is really important, given I just said GW2 makes money off the initial game sale, and after that only to the extent players buy gems.

If you look at the most recent quarter’s financials for NCsoft
http://global.ncsoft.com/global/ir/quarterly.aspx
and translate the revenue numbers on slide 5 from Korean Won to US Dollars, the total revenue for GW2 last quarter was about US$22M, down from $25M the quarter before that and $28M the quarter before that. That’s a bit higher than I thought. And yes, Wildstar surpassed GW2 in revenue.

In a big company hiring technical people in the U.S., you get about a person per $20K/month (remember the total cost of having a person on the payroll is usually double their salary). ArenaNet tends to hire entry level people and pay under the prevailing wage, even in the gaming industry, so maybe they can stretch further. But that $80M/year or so run rate, after they take out the cost of running servers and paying their ISP bill, would barely pay for the people they have.

Perhaps the accounting rules have changed since I studied it in college almost 40 years ago. Back then there was a basic principle called “matching”, which said the revenue should be recognized when the expense occurred. There was also a principle that the revenue wasn’t recognized before the product or service was shipped (product) or delivered (service). I stand by my assertion that when I buy a copy of GW2, I am buying a license to a software product (recognize revenue immediately) and a service which is the servers being available over a period of years (defer revenue to be recognized over a period of years, at the judgment of the accountants). So, regardless of what actually happened both in reality and in the accounting of both ArenaNet and NCsoft, I stand by my assertion that money to run servers should have been set aside from the initial product sale, and I don’t see that liability on NCsoft’s balance sheet.