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Biggest. Launch. Ever?
Skatty2007
Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 231
Looks like Age of Conan is in for a massive launch.
If this article turns out to be a foreshadow of what is to come during the launch of Age of Conan, do you think it will help the launch? Hurt the launch? Have no effect?
Do you think this is the Funcom propoganda machine trying to boost up the hype meter more? Maybe fudge some numbers in hope to generaste more interest, or do you take that article at face value?
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Comments
I m sure alot of people signing up for beta were seeing if they liked it, could run it, want to keep pre order etc. I know at least 20 people in my EQ2 guild that cancelled so no i don t think it will be the biggest, i could be wrong though.
AoC looks very promising on the sales front, can't be bad news can it?
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
“How all of our strong figures convert into later sales and subscription figures is still unknown,” continued Larssen. “But our pre-order numbers in some important retail chains track as among the highest for any MMO launched.”
Website hits and beta sign-ups and forum posts reflect the effectiveness of their online ad placement and nothing else.
There is a big difference between clicking a link and opening your wallet and forking over your credit card.
The only number that would indicate how successful their launch will be, would be the number of pre-sales, which is conspicuously missing from these other, less meaningful numbers.
I'm pretty sure the AoC launch will be relatively successful, but these numbers don't really mean anything.
for record breaking comparisons
WOW sold 240,000 on the 1st launch day for North America
www.gamershell.com/companies/blizzard_entertainment/188228.html
WOW sold 280,000 on the 1st launch day for Europe
www.gamershell.com/companies/blizzard_entertainment/214238.html
EQ2 fan sites
I doubt anyone will break that record any time soon.
Maybe WAR as preorder will be available for like 10month before release.
Futilez[Do You Have What It Takes ?]
I expect a big and laggy launch. HOwever, that should be expected and I dont believe that we can fault Funcom for server troouble if they get 100K people on opening day.
I myself plan to play the game....a WEEK after it releases
Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)
Yep its going to be laggy but an interesting launch week. My wifes whole kinship from LotrO has preordered / played beta and will be trying the retail game out. I expect alot of games to dip in people online for a short while. Maybe the mmo chart website will show this in the months ahead.
Beta application dont mean anything. Most people probably apply with 5-6 different e-mails, myself included
True, but 5 million unique hits to the website in just this year....
5 million unique hits isn't all that much if you understand what a unique hit really is. We are 4 and a half months into the year. We are 134 days in so far, if you break out unique hits per day that only comes out to just shy of 38,000 unique hits per day. A unique hit is tracked based on a cookie, most reset the counter after a hour of inactivity. What this means is one person could potentially account for multiple unique visits in a single day. When you look at it closely, 5 million unique hits in a 4 and a half month period of time isn't overly impressive. It is still a lot of hits and that's great. But when you compare that to other sites, 38,000 unique visitors a day is hardly ground breaking.
Here's the thing.True, but 5 million unique hits to the website in just this year....
These stats, while apropriate for generating hype and a marketing angel, are pretty useless in determining sales predictions.
If they really wanted to make a subtantial claim, they would say "So far we have X amount of pre-orders, which is a record breaking figure."
Until that happens, I wouldn't place too much meaning into these figures.
I am pretty sure the release will be a success, but I also work in a marketing department and I write pieces like this for a living. These stories are written for one reason only: to instigate threads like this.
Wow, I don't even think Rockstar has beaten these numbers with their games (GTA series for starters)... I might be mistaken though. anyone have the statistics for those games?
According to Take Two GTA 4 sold about 3.6 million units world wide in its first day totalling about $310 million dollars. Basically the largest entertainment release ever.
Deserved, I'm sure. I'm waiting for the GTA MMO...which is undoubtedly the next logical move for the series. Rockstar knows what fun is about...I wish others would pay attention to their success.
They may have a sucessful launch and sell alot of games. But this is a MMO so keeping big subscriber base is what counts. The MMO market is looking for the next big game and most MMOs just don't keep people interested. So really people looking into AOC through beta signups or info on AOC site isn't surprising since this is the next hyped game soon to be released. I checked it out and no really as hyped myself so just going wait for WAR personally.
Deserved, I'm sure. I'm waiting for the GTA MMO...which is undoubtedly the next logical move for the series. Rockstar knows what fun is about...I wish others would pay attention to their success.
heh i love GTA series too but with all the cut scenes in that game GL making an MMO that keeps the flavortbh AoC is the only game i have played that is an MMO that has detailed cut scenes and did a good job with it
i am also waiting for a gta mmo but aoc is doing a kick a$$ job bringin something new to the genre
I play a lot of games...
I bet it will do well, but all the negative press as of late might cause alot of people to adopt a "wait and see attitude" toward it. We shall see next week.
Deserved, I'm sure. I'm waiting for the GTA MMO...which is undoubtedly the next logical move for the series. Rockstar knows what fun is about...I wish others would pay attention to their success.
heh i love GTA series too but with all the cut scenes in that game GL making an MMO that keeps the flavortbh AoC is the only game i have played that is an MMO that has detailed cut scenes and did a good job with it
i am also waiting for a gta mmo but aoc is doing a kick a$$ job bringin something new to the genre
Cut scenes weren't really what developed the flavor...it DID bring the flavor to obvious light though. The flavor came from vibrant, alive worlds. Worlds which show the darkest faces of humanity...and allow you to walk through the paths and taste the essence of lives you both never could, or ever would, in real life. Even in the older games...gangs would make war on each other in sections of the world you were no where near. Territory would change hands...cars would chase, lives would be lost, even if you had no involvement in the matter at all. Living worlds...worlds more alive than anything the MMO market has given us EVER.
Which brings me right round to my point! GTA offers more MMO material than any MMO on the market, and thats without other players at all. If they simply added the other players, they have a hit! Naturally, some backpedaling would need to occur in GFX to REALLY pull it off (AoC will be the only game even allowed to have such division through instancing...players, as always, will expect more from the next game.), but I think the material is there and that the mature audience is willing. The REAL hurdle is running the programs which control the vibrant NPC's, while NOT rendering the latency unbearable. Just having a debugger running the background causes major hell, obviously. I can't imagine a system which controls thousands of individuals at once AND transmits the data to the user.
I kind of hope it isn't the biggest launch ever. In a sick and twisted way I hope it just moves along successfully under the radar. Look at WoW with it's millions of players.. What does that do for me? Makes there be 500 servers to choose from, forums that are completely useless and zerged, and a game that is shaped by the millions of people that cry the loudest...
I do wish for it's success for the devs though. I just hope it doesn't go too mainstream.
I kind of agree. but also if it did awe'd see tons of expansions, expansions for aoc could be really interesting since theres so much more of the world, plus if it went mainstream people I know might play it.
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I kind of agree. but also if it did awe'd see tons of expansions, expansions for aoc could be really interesting since theres so much more of the world, plus if it went mainstream people I know might play it.
I can't see how a large playerbase can really be such a bad thing, it surely can only be beneficial for the game long term.
"Trump is a blunt force, all-American, laser-guided middle finger to everything and everyone in Washington, D.C." - Wayne Allyn Root
WOW 2 will be the biggest launch ever.
The marketing guys get a budget for launch - typically an expected percentage of the game first number of months revenue curve expectations. For instance, GTA4 was expected to be one of the highest selling games ever, therefore the marketing guys get a huge budget to spead across as many mediums as possible to ensure the expectation is fulfilled and surpassed.
A title with lesser established fan base and/or from a developer with lesser proven mainstream credentials has a far lesser expectation of the revenue that will be generated in the first few weeks or months and therefore has to take a massive risk on whether to spend lots on marketing to get the biggest buzz possible or to restrict the spend to media that will target existing MMO users and hopefully increase the poaching from other established titles.
Remember how much these games take to make and support - typically the dev company may be funded by outside investors or finance houses who are not related to the gaming industry. The devs have to convince the finance house to give them money based on sensible projections on revenue.
To err is human....to play is divine
Looking good so far for a very strong launch...
Thank you and look forward to seeing you all in Hyboria very shortly!
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