Originally posted by Vortigon

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There is no wayyyyyy!!! Funcom requires 500k monthly subscribers just to break even, it's complete fabrication.

...

Actually, of everything said this is the one approximation I could actually believe.

MMOs are not cheap to make.  How many staff did / does Funcom have working on AoC?

MMOs in general cost $10,000,000 or more to develop: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/mmorpg8.htm
(which is on the conservative side I think)

TR rumored to cost $100,000,000 to develop: http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/13489

with many in the middle of that range.

Running a business with tens of staff is expensive.
For a start Google salaries in the US and a programmer can get $50000+ per annum.
As a rule of thumb multiply that by at least a factor of two to cover overheads.

Then these people work for 2+ years (5 on AoC?) on a project with no revenue?

The numbers start to get really big by the end of all that.

Yeh, actually VG 30$mil was below average in compare to other mainstreamed titles.

Originally posted by Thillian

Mature rating 18+ is actually a way to lure all the 14-17 years old kids. Together with the console release, yes I believe AoC target audience is partially wow-kids, partially console genre newkidscomming kids ehm.

Two separate surveys among European and US players indicates that less than 4% are below 18 years of age.

Approximately 6000 players answered the surveys, which can be found stickied on the official forums.

Originally posted by Gyrus

Originally posted by Vortigon

...

There is no wayyyyyy!!! Funcom requires 500k monthly subscribers just to break even, it's complete fabrication.

...

 

Actually, of everything said this is the one approximation I could actually believe.

MMOs are not cheap to make.  How many staff did / does Funcom have working on AoC?

MMOs in general cost $10,000,000 or more to develop: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/mmorpg8.htm
(which is on the conservative side I think)

TR rumored to cost $100,000,000 to develop: http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/13489

with many in the middle of that range.

Running a business with tens of staff is expensive.
For a start Google salaries in the US and a programmer can get $50000+ per annum.
As a rule of thumb multiply that by at least a factor of two to cover overheads.

Then these people work for 2+ years (5 on AoC?) on a project with no revenue?

The numbers start to get really big by the end of all that.

 

 

 

u cant say that they have no revenue at all, AO is the holy cashcow of funcom and they have a lot of other sources of revenue, just check their financial reports on funcom.com, i dont see any report with them in the red..
 

and yes that chart is funny, the truth is theres already more then 500.000 active accounts. i dont have a link to back this up i have this link which too proves the chart is false http://www.funcom.com/wsp/funcom/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&func_id=1297&table=CONTENT that kid claims to have insiders.. who then? it can only be the highest fc employees, that just isnt going to happen :) its like seeing a chart right now that says that WoWs 10 million is like 1 million.... he made the chart up to get attention and it worked since theres now numerous threads about it on mmorpg.com alone

Originally posted by bjornarg

Originally posted by Thillian

Mature rating 18+ is actually a way to lure all the 14-17 years old kids. Together with the console release, yes I believe AoC target audience is partially wow-kids, partially console genre newkidscomming kids ehm.

Two separate surveys among European and US players indicates that less than 4% are below 18 years of age.

Approximately 6000 players answered the surveys, which can be found stickied on the official forums.

And they think the people under 18 aren't going to lie their asses off? Or will answer surveys at all?

That  analyis is a prime example of misinformation. Not only his maths are wrong, but also he does not state his sources even though he mentions "FACTS" (capitalized) over and over again.

Originally posted by bjornarg

Originally posted by Thillian

Mature rating 18+ is actually a way to lure all the 14-17 years old kids. Together with the console release, yes I believe AoC target audience is partially wow-kids, partially console genre newkidscomming kids ehm.

Two separate surveys among European and US players indicates that less than 4% are below 18 years of age.

Approximately 6000 players answered the surveys, which can be found stickied on the official forums.

haha this survey is a joke.

In fact it takes into consideration who owns the credit card. Dont you think that 98% of the 14-17 years old pay the subscribtion with their dad's credit card?

Really can't link the Funcom financial report because they posted it in account information. ^

Anyway.. a blog on a WoW fan site is definitely not a valid source.

Originally posted by Thillian

Originally posted by bjornarg

Originally posted by Thillian

Mature rating 18+ is actually a way to lure all the 14-17 years old kids. Together with the console release, yes I believe AoC target audience is partially wow-kids, partially console genre newkidscomming kids ehm.

Two separate surveys among European and US players indicates that less than 4% are below 18 years of age.

Approximately 6000 players answered the surveys, which can be found stickied on the official forums.

 

haha this survey is a joke.

In fact it takes into consideration who owns the credit card. Dont you think that 98% of the 14-17 years old pay the subscribtion with their dad's credit card?

Oh yes, I did not think of that. I was wrong and you were right obviously.

This seems a little fake...

40% was returned... Since when the heck were you able to return PC games. And the keys were already used saying that they 'insuficient system requirments.' Sure....

i hate AoC but this is written by wow kids i wouldnt trust this site for anything

Originally posted by Mordria

Originally posted by TheSheikh

Originally posted by Mordria

 Do a search on the AoC website. Funcom just released the official sub numbers and it's 500,000 active accounts.

I'm sure Briyan's Blog is really credible lol

 

Maybe you should link it.

 

Okay... the official numbers are:

img501.imageshack.us/img501/7751/mmoshareti9.png

ROFLMFAO!!! good one! :)

the sadest thing about this entry are the comments about his math, trying to discredit him by calculating percentages of intermediate results, which is obviously total bullshit, if you're trying to flame someone, at least get your math skills straight and don't fabricate as much crap as the blogger does...