For those who are still not clear about WoW profits

max2008

Ok i noticed a lot of talk about the numbers of WoW and how everyone rushs to do the simple maths of 7.5m x $15= $112.5m a month yeah woohoo!

Folks its not as simple as you think by a mile and the money is nowhere that close.

First its estimated of the 7.5m that 6m are based in Asia and mostly in china.Of which the chinese DO NOT pay the standard $15 a month.

The9 the company that runs WoW china which has this 6m got pre paid tax profits of $29m for the last quarter(3months) which comes out to $9.6m a month which is actually fallen significantly as it made $32m just the quarter before a lose of 10%.

Blizzard gets 39% of inital fee for the box and revenues of 22% .So of the $9.6m a month blizzard gets $2.1m a month from the chinese market of 6m.Again china does not pay your standard monthly fee and comes out to something much less then the NA/EU $15  a month.Its estimated on average the chinese pay only 25% of what we in europe/NA pay.

This deal is till mid 2009 then subject for review.

Leaving blizzard with the europe/NA market of about 1.5m which comes up to about  $22.5m pre tax per month.And this is where the market is hurting faster then the china market.This is assuming ofc blizzard still has that many in EU/NA market .

So this amounts to about $24,6m a month which is extremely healthy and great profit by all standards but a far cry of the $112.5m a month many seems to think .

for further reading pls use this link

http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=42582&src=site-marq

Again i wish to state vivendi(owners of blizzard) are making a huge profit with WoW raking in close to $300m a year but certainly not the billions i seen posting.

LordSlater

if correct 300million profit is stil a lot of money. Money they can spend making a real MMORPG.

Helldog

they deserve to get a good income, they have done a good accomplishment in MMORPG-terms in the USA/EU



also people should realise how many millions were put in the development of the game



the developers don't work on old commodore's either, and the wage of a single employee is a lot higher with taxes than what they get. Multiply that by all the people involved and the number of years they have been working on this game...



Also the server cost must be pretty immense with all that processing power and bandwith required! it does not cost billions but it does cost a couple of millions at least!

It's just a shame that even with this income the current development team is probably less than a quarter of what it was!

I would have loved to see more monthly content for example!! wich is entirely possible with this kind of income.



But I guess they want to make as much profit with as little as possible expenses on it now that the game is "finished",

imho a common mistake made by most mmorpgs

Anofalye

Originally posted by LordSlater

if correct 300million profit is stil a lot of money. Money they can spend making a real MMORPG.

If we are "lucky", Blizzard will release 1 MMO every 10 years or so.  That is the way of Blizzard...

Anofalye

Originally posted by Helldog



Also the server cost must be pretty immense with all that processing power and bandwith required! it does not cost billions but it does cost a couple of millions at least!

It's just a shame that even with this income the current development team is probably less than a quarter of what it was!

I would have loved to see more monthly content for example!! wich is entirely possible with this kind of income.

As long as they fire the raiding-designers and keep the good part of the team! 

ste2000

Originally posted by LordSlater

if correct 300million profit is stil a lot of money. Money they can spend making a real MMORPG.

Lol, I agree.

But then again people likes it and it is not such a bad game after all.



Going back to WoW revenues, I have to say that all the money the game make, it s not going in Blizzard pokets but in Vivendi bank.

Vivendi is the world second biggest entertainment company therefore it s used to see big numbers, 300 millions are nothing compared to the billions the French company makes from movies (Universal) and Music.



Don't expect them to pour all the profits from WoW in improving the game or making another more challenging MMORPG, most probably that money will go to fund the new Tom Cruise movie sadly.

max2008

Originally posted by ste2000

Originally posted by LordSlater

if correct 300million profit is stil a lot of money. Money they can spend making a real MMORPG.

Lol, I agree.

But then again people likes it and it is not such a bad game after all.



Going back to WoW revenues, I have to say that all the money the game make, it s not going in Blizzard pokets but in Vivendi bank.

Vivendi is the world second biggest entertainment company therefore it s used to see big numbers, 300 millions are nothing compared to the billions the French company makes from movies (Universal) and Music.



Don't expect them to pour all the profits from WoW in improving the game or making another more challenging MMORPG, most probably that money will go to fund the new Tom Cruise movie sadly.

Yes it goes into its parent company vivendi same as EQ revenues goes into another cooperate giant Sony.But its excellent profit.

The whole purpose of the article was not to say the profits are slim far from it !It was to end the rumours that blizzard is raking in bliions every year.

Brainy

Originally posted by ste2000



Lol, I agree.

But then again people likes it and it is not such a bad game after all.



Going back to WoW revenues, I have to say that all the money the game make, it s not going in Blizzard pokets but in Vivendi bank.

Vivendi is the world second biggest entertainment company therefore it s used to see big numbers, 300 millions are nothing compared to the billions the French company makes from movies (Universal) and Music.



Don't expect them to pour all the profits from WoW in improving the game or making another more challenging MMORPG, most probably that money will go to fund the new Tom Cruise movie sadly.

Ya the sad reality is Vivendi was losing billions per year.  Most likely all the profits blizzard is making is going to stem thier losses at Vivendi.  Its really too bad that blizzard couldnt just take those profits and reinvest them into making another game, more employee's, better infrastructure.  Vivendi has them as thier cash cow thou.