Anyone have any numbers on Vanguard? Wasn't it around 250,000 at the start? Just wondering..
200k with more than half from US i think. As i said in other thread It looks AoC will have 2nd largest non F2P MMO population in US of around 300k (if you do not include GW), Lotoro or eq 2 ever reached those number in states.
This 800k is NOT how many were sold to consumers. It counts as preorders (and a lot of people were lame enough to preorder from up to 4 different places for the different incentives), so this is very much so an inflated number.
Only Funcom knows how many were actually sold and how many subscribers they have right now. Anything else is just speculation... just understand that the number of actual subs is much, much less than 800k.
The user and all related content has been deleted.
"Freedom is just another name for nothing left to lose" - Janis Joplin
AmazingAveryAge of Conan AdvocateMemberUncommonPosts: 7,188
Originally posted by solareus
IF the game sells well , they can slash the price into the 2nd or third month, if the game does not so good they have to continue with a 50 dollars tag to generate the production costs of this over due project. LotrO was able to cut prices a little after 5 months because they made up in production value, and they pass on the savings to the costumers, we will see if Eidos and Funcom will follow this new positive trend or just be another lame blood sucker.
shipped and sold are 2 different things ....
EB games had a few copies in my local store regular editions going for $39.99... hardly bloodsucking.
Impressions from our talk with SCi Entertainment's CEO Phil Rogers
Below we have outlined some of the points we discussed with Phil Roger, CEO of SCi Entertainment. (Please note, this note was originally published in Danish on 8 May 2008)
Age of Conan may contribute significantly to EBIT in 2008/2009
Phil Rogers shared our expectations that Age of Conan may turn into a major hit. However, he did not want to reveal the impact of any financial success of Age of Conan for SCi. He did, however, indicate that the game may make a meaningful contribution to the 2008/2009 accounting year.
Normally a distribution agreement justifies about 20 % of the sales price; we are under the impression that the level is lower in connection with Age of Conan. We assess, however, that SCi gets about 9-15% of the sales price of each unit sold. Rogers did, however, state that SCi also receives a modest proportion of the monthly payment for additional game time, which came as a positive surprise to us.
Despite many unknown factors, we have attempted to estimate the possible effect from Age of Conan on SCi’s EBIT. Our basic scenario presupposes that Age of Conan can contribute GBP 12m to EBIT during the first twelve months of the game’s life. The central presuppositions behind the estimate include: 1) Age of Conan sells 7 million units; 2) the average sales prices will amount to GBP 17, of which SCi receives 12%; 3) on average, the customers buy four months of additional game time at GBP 10 a month – SCi will receive 4% of this amount.
Given a more optimistic scenario presupposing that Age of Conan will sell 10 million units, we estimate that the game can contribute GBP 26.1m to EBIT in the 2008/2009 accounting year.
Given a more pessimistic scenario presupposing that ”only” 3.5 million units are sold, we expect a positive EBIT effect of GBP 3.5m.
It should be noted that right now the consensus estimate for SCi in 2008/2009 points to GBP 14m. This estimate may soon seem conservative if Age of Conan turns out to be successful.
true numbers will show 3 months from now with their subscription numbers. Remember, Vanguard was smoking for the first month or so and then went from 450K subscribers to 20K in 90 days.
Now...Im not saying that will happen in AoC. Im just saying true numbers are felt 90 days down the road under the substaining numbers.
800K is great and it tells me they advertised it very well. We'll see if they can hold that hype and transfer it to customer retention.
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
It will do well but in the end i think they would be lucky to have 300-500k long term subs. Thats still good but i m really finding it hard to believe 1 mill subs for a long stretch.
I think Funcom would be very, very happy with 300-500k subs long term. Did I mention VERY happy? That would make them a major player in the MMO field, and making a healthy profit on the side.
Question though. Do you think that 300-500k would include Xbox subs? Cause Xbox will literally double sub numbers, unless I am very very wrong. If it took off among the 10s of millions Xbox users, it is very feasible to see it hit and stick at the 1 million mark.
It will do well but in the end i think they would be lucky to have 300-500k long term subs. Thats still good but i m really finding it hard to believe 1 mill subs for a long stretch.
I think Funcom would be very, very happy with 300-500k subs long term. Did I mention VERY happy? That would make them a major player in the MMO field, and making a healthy profit on the side.
Question though. Do you think that 300-500k would include Xbox subs? Cause Xbox will literally double sub numbers, unless I am very very wrong. If it took off among the 10s of millions Xbox users, it is very feasible to see it hit and stick at the 1 million mark.
Not sure only a guess I think 500 k with x box seems reasonable. I agree thats a great number, and i m sure they ll do that. It could go either way but i think to assume it will tank or the polar opposite hit 1 Mill is a little off.
AmazingAveryAge of Conan AdvocateMemberUncommonPosts: 7,188
I think that the interest is there, more so than any mmorpg before.
I think that people have to make their own mind up too. There will be over a million buddy keys out there and when they let them on the servers shouldnt be too long now. Only been out 3 days in EU.
SCi is Eidos parent company, just read above to see what they are forecasting.
Many player like me buyed AoC and think game is good becouse hypes and nice fatality videos in youtube and they promice HUGE hundreds player pvp... it was all bullshit. Game never have over 48v48 pvp,loots sucks,way too instance based,pvp totally broken (no combos while moving), hard find quest mobs becouse small zones and 2-3 player camp mobs.
Shortly; game never beat WoW or be any better combat side. Biggest ripoff game tis year. Candy looking game, rot inside.
Reason why so many game was sold is that WoW opened mmorpg business. Many player will find AoC dump becouse WoW was they first mmorpg and its run smooth and have open world.
if they dont get their shit together, they wont have many subs for very long.
I agree, the game was obviously waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over hyped. As far as im concerned is goes into the lotro pile.
You do realize that Funcom would LOVE to put AoC into the LoTRO pile if that means it can have the success that LoTRO has had. But I do get your point; You were looking for something more orginal perhaps?
There is more kids in AoC. General chat in game is full jackasses. or maeby its just true that whole mmorpg community is some what retard. I dont know i dont care, its summer now, i wont spend my time anymore to AoC becouse its still BETA.
DID YOU PLAY IT? Its even beter in beta than Wow .Here we go again lol.
Originally posted by Arskaaa
Originally posted by CavemanBE
Well go back to WoW and play whit the kids
There is more kids in AoC. General chat in game is full jackasses. or maeby its just true that whole mmorpg community is some what retard. I dont know i dont care, its summer now, i wont spend my time anymore to AoC becouse its still BETA.
Well you guys can pay 15$ a month for a multiplayer game while I go and play real mmo's.
In my opinion this was a hoax and I do not believe AoC will have more then 200k players in 6 months time. I actually think its really important that AoC isn't a big success because that could spell the beginning of the end for true mmo's.
At least Guild Wars didn't try to charge a monthly fee for their multiplayer game.
Also please don't be as ignorant as to compare AoC's launch to WoW's. People should be aware that there were less then 300k people that actually played mmo's in Europe before WoW and now WoW alone has 3million subs in Europe. The market is completely different today then it was pre wow. In order for AoC to have the same impact on the MMO community that WoW did they would have needed around 10million sales at launch and 100million players within the first 2 years. Of course that is ridicules as is comparing the two releases.
Hitler sold the millions of people on the holocost, didn't make it a good thing. Sales are sheep numbers and you can't gauge a nything by them because it is your own personal preference that matters. I'm glad I learned to play what I like , instead having a game critic choice the games I play for me.
Think AoC is one of the worst concepts to hit the gaming market, and the only reason gaming critics are giving it high scores is to bridge the market into consoles. The game is linear, there is no open world and absolutely nothing will change that. Vanguard I think will actually do better , slowly with more people that give it another go, the is massive and the quality of the world is beyond AoC.
I think its alot of fun, taste differe. You didn't state why you thought it was the worst thing ever so maybe its the setting or maybe it offends your moral values.<shrug> Doesn't matter though as you can play what you like and i can play what I like. I won't try and change your mind, and fortunately you are not stating your opinion as the one true universal truth as many posters here try to
Bringing Hitler into the post of course lost any arguement you were aiming to win (per online rules )
Take care, good gaming (whatever your playing) and peace
comparing the holocaust to sales numbers?! wtf.. fkin weirdo, go see a shrink or something
btw it was 6 million..
MMOs currently playing: - About to play: Lord of the Rings Online Played: Anarchy Online (alltime favorite) and lots of f2p titles (honorable mentions: 9Dragons, Martial Heroes, Dekaron, Atlantica Online)
You can present much better and more appropriate examples than this one, if you want to argue mass market appeal and sheep mentality. Forgetting for a second that you insult people's intelligence based merely on the premises of their preferences in gaming, people in general tend to play what they think is the most fun.
Personally I would wait at least for the first couple months to pass before I call AoC mainstream, and I like AoC. You don't like it, but you still think you'll do a lot better sales wise than I do (how else it will become mainstream?).
Currently at lvl 37 on my Conquerer Rp-Pvp guild and so far things have been solid, not to mention what I expected to happen.
my take on instances: Subjective -- been spoiled by playing NeverWinter Nights 1 and 2, so i am fairly immune to this feature. During my travels ( nwn series had zones from what i am told) i come across other player characters, a good number of them actually so the world doesnt really feel like a open wasteland. however on a rp pvp server, a area of isolation just for a brief period of time is welcoming despite everybody (player) you encounter is deemed hostile with extreme prejudice ( pking and etc.) there were some cases out of no where i would stumble upon a guild vs. guild battle, something about a feeble turf war about xp camping, spawn camping, or ganking; i do what i can to steer away from such battles and go about my business; if not more than likely youd be the next one to die.
One thing i like about instances: Unfortunately it involves around pking so whenever somebody needs to vent and cry "carebear" do so freely.
Whenever you are in a pvping mood you can go out of your way, all out and slaughter the first person you see (aside if being lower lvl or a non threat), if at times your getting spawn camped, or repeatedly ganked with no form of chance to escape or win in a fight, OR even not in the mood to hear the nerdy rages of how they owned you while you were afk, One could simply toggle the instance button, select the instance with another set of people that are in that particular instance, and go on your way, away from that kind of conflict. funny thing is , even the "roll pve noob" crowd uses this method.
What i do not like about Instances:
Unfortunately this is a cumilation of problems stacked into one so forgive me.
1. the first stacked issue---With the limitations of the map and pinpointing your team mates on the huge map. one would have to speak to the other to ask for their coordinates of their location ( if your not close enough to your team mate at a certain proximity they will not show up on the map) so that takes some time to sort out.
2. the second stacked issue--- When completing the part of finding the coordinates of your team mate, there is a chance that your team mate maybe in another instance, if so then all was in vain. HOWEVER, the team leader can summon the other team mates to teleport them selves in the same instances area that the leader is in, so it is not a complete loss, but still a loss of time when wanting to hit up a quest at a certain time table ( you know, before the other players get to it first) . . the second however though, is that the summon members to the same instance is to be said to be bugged, making members not appear in the same instance, even though that is yet to be a problem for me, those with this bug i can certainly relate on how annoying it can be.
3. the third stacked issue--- if this one happens, it is the most painful one. (if possible funcom should raise the instance level to another couple hundred) when your party members are playing, and suddenly you happen to crash, or the server crashes ( just for 3 seconds then it comes back up again hella fast). IF by chance you happen to crash and come back in game (takes 30 seconds to come back in game on average for me) when you come back in the game there is a chance that you are in a different instance from your other team mates, from their the only fix would be to have everyone join in the same instance and start from the beginning. After making a long long long long trek from one area to the next only to start over because the server scattered the team in different instances is annoying imo.
Like all things, Companies aim to make their games better and have more options over time. I learned that while playing planetside ( err.......ya, dont bother to ask why i just wont answer) So for funcom to not improve on the game while coming this far is unrealistic.
What is this poin to think.. u don´t know.. realy wtf
this is all one big speculation.
and what u get for coming here and yelling that this game sucks?! Orgasm?
don´t freaking play if u don´t like?
If I don´t like game I JUST LEAVE...
I have 7 EVE accounts, 2 tabula rasa accounts, lineage II, WOW with expansion... I DON´T yell in forum that those games are fucking rippoff and is not worth to play.
Comments
This 800k is NOT how many were sold to consumers. It counts as preorders (and a lot of people were lame enough to preorder from up to 4 different places for the different incentives), so this is very much so an inflated number.
Only Funcom knows how many were actually sold and how many subscribers they have right now. Anything else is just speculation... just understand that the number of actual subs is much, much less than 800k.
"Freedom is just another name for nothing left to lose" - Janis Joplin
.jpg)
EB games had a few copies in my local store regular editions going for $39.99... hardly bloodsucking.
Impressions from our talk with SCi Entertainment's CEO Phil Rogers
Below we have outlined some of the points we discussed with Phil Roger, CEO of SCi Entertainment. (Please note, this note was originally published in Danish on 8 May 2008)
Age of Conan may contribute significantly to EBIT in 2008/2009
Phil Rogers shared our expectations that Age of Conan may turn into a major hit. However, he did not want to reveal the impact of any financial success of Age of Conan for SCi. He did, however, indicate that the game may make a meaningful contribution to the 2008/2009 accounting year.
Normally a distribution agreement justifies about 20 % of the sales price; we are under the impression that the level is lower in connection with Age of Conan. We assess, however, that SCi gets about 9-15% of the sales price of each unit sold. Rogers did, however, state that SCi also receives a modest proportion of the monthly payment for additional game time, which came as a positive surprise to us.
Despite many unknown factors, we have attempted to estimate the possible effect from Age of Conan on SCi’s EBIT. Our basic scenario presupposes that Age of Conan can contribute GBP 12m to EBIT during the first twelve months of the game’s life. The central presuppositions behind the estimate include: 1) Age of Conan sells 7 million units; 2) the average sales prices will amount to GBP 17, of which SCi receives 12%; 3) on average, the customers buy four months of additional game time at GBP 10 a month – SCi will receive 4% of this amount.
Given a more optimistic scenario presupposing that Age of Conan will sell 10 million units, we estimate that the game can contribute GBP 26.1m to EBIT in the 2008/2009 accounting year.
Given a more pessimistic scenario presupposing that ”only” 3.5 million units are sold, we expect a positive EBIT effect of GBP 3.5m.
It should be noted that right now the consensus estimate for SCi in 2008/2009 points to GBP 14m. This estimate may soon seem conservative if Age of Conan turns out to be successful.
Danish Bank http://www.jyskebank.dk/finansnyt/aktier/aktier/selskaberfordeltpaasektorer/it/sci/272012.asp?SiteID=3
GBP 14 = about $30 too.
true numbers will show 3 months from now with their subscription numbers. Remember, Vanguard was smoking for the first month or so and then went from 450K subscribers to 20K in 90 days.
Now...Im not saying that will happen in AoC. Im just saying true numbers are felt 90 days down the road under the substaining numbers.
800K is great and it tells me they advertised it very well. We'll see if they can hold that hype and transfer it to customer retention.
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
I think Funcom would be very, very happy with 300-500k subs long term. Did I mention VERY happy? That would make them a major player in the MMO field, and making a healthy profit on the side.
Question though. Do you think that 300-500k would include Xbox subs? Cause Xbox will literally double sub numbers, unless I am very very wrong. If it took off among the 10s of millions Xbox users, it is very feasible to see it hit and stick at the 1 million mark.
I think Funcom would be very, very happy with 300-500k subs long term. Did I mention VERY happy? That would make them a major player in the MMO field, and making a healthy profit on the side.
Question though. Do you think that 300-500k would include Xbox subs? Cause Xbox will literally double sub numbers, unless I am very very wrong. If it took off among the 10s of millions Xbox users, it is very feasible to see it hit and stick at the 1 million mark.
Not sure only a guess
I think 500 k with x box seems reasonable. I agree thats a great number, and i m sure they ll do that. It could go either way but i think to assume it will tank or the polar opposite hit 1 Mill is a little off.
keep an eye on Metacritics too: http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/ageofconanhyborianadventures#critics
92
metascore
BUY!
SELL!
In assocation with:
http://www.thesimexchange.com/metacritic_intro.php?id=394
I think that the interest is there, more so than any mmorpg before.
I think that people have to make their own mind up too. There will be over a million buddy keys out there and when they let them on the servers shouldnt be too long now. Only been out 3 days in EU.
SCi is Eidos parent company, just read above to see what they are forecasting.
Many player like me buyed AoC and think game is good becouse hypes and nice fatality videos in youtube and they promice HUGE hundreds player pvp... it was all bullshit. Game never have over 48v48 pvp,loots sucks,way too instance based,pvp totally broken (no combos while moving), hard find quest mobs becouse small zones and 2-3 player camp mobs.
Shortly; game never beat WoW or be any better combat side. Biggest ripoff game tis year. Candy looking game, rot inside.
Reason why so many game was sold is that WoW opened mmorpg business. Many player will find AoC dump becouse WoW was they first mmorpg and its run smooth and have open world.
I agree, the game was obviously waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over hyped. As far as im concerned is goes into the lotro pile.
You do realize that Funcom would LOVE to put AoC into the LoTRO pile if that means it can have the success that LoTRO has had. But I do get your point; You were looking for something more orginal perhaps?
There is more kids in AoC. General chat in game is full jackasses. or maeby its just true that whole mmorpg community is some what retard. I dont know i dont care, its summer now, i wont spend my time anymore to AoC becouse its still BETA.
There is more kids in AoC. General chat in game is full jackasses. or maeby its just true that whole mmorpg community is some what retard. I dont know i dont care, its summer now, i wont spend my time anymore to AoC becouse its still BETA.
Well you guys can pay 15$ a month for a multiplayer game while I go and play real mmo's.
In my opinion this was a hoax and I do not believe AoC will have more then 200k players in 6 months time. I actually think its really important that AoC isn't a big success because that could spell the beginning of the end for true mmo's.
At least Guild Wars didn't try to charge a monthly fee for their multiplayer game.
Also please don't be as ignorant as to compare AoC's launch to WoW's. People should be aware that there were less then 300k people that actually played mmo's in Europe before WoW and now WoW alone has 3million subs in Europe. The market is completely different today then it was pre wow. In order for AoC to have the same impact on the MMO community that WoW did they would have needed around 10million sales at launch and 100million players within the first 2 years. Of course that is ridicules as is comparing the two releases.
"Freedom is just another name for nothing left to lose" - Janis Joplin
.jpg)
Vanguard shipped 500,000 boxes. Very few of those were sold.
Bringing Hitler into the post of course lost any arguement you were aiming to win (per online rules
)
Take care, good gaming (whatever your playing) and peace
comparing the holocaust to sales numbers?! wtf.. fkin weirdo, go see a shrink or something
btw it was 6 million..
MMOs currently playing: -
About to play: Lord of the Rings Online
Played: Anarchy Online (alltime favorite) and lots of f2p titles (honorable mentions: 9Dragons, Martial Heroes, Dekaron, Atlantica Online)
To solareus :
You can present much better and more appropriate examples than this one, if you want to argue mass market appeal and sheep mentality. Forgetting for a second that you insult people's intelligence based merely on the premises of their preferences in gaming, people in general tend to play what they think is the most fun.
Personally I would wait at least for the first couple months to pass before I call AoC mainstream, and I like AoC. You don't like it, but you still think you'll do a lot better sales wise than I do (how else it will become mainstream?).
WOW numbers are hard to beat - for any mmo
WOW North America on first day
findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2004_Dec_1/ai_n7584110
WOW Europe on first day
www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php
regardless, AOC did sell well
only time will tell for AOC subscriber retention
EQ2 fan sites
Ninja edit thread header for correction.
Currently at lvl 37 on my Conquerer Rp-Pvp guild and so far things have been solid, not to mention what I expected to happen.
my take on instances: Subjective -- been spoiled by playing NeverWinter Nights 1 and 2, so i am fairly immune to this feature. During my travels ( nwn series had zones from what i am told) i come across other player characters, a good number of them actually so the world doesnt really feel like a open wasteland. however on a rp pvp server, a area of isolation just for a brief period of time is welcoming despite everybody (player) you encounter is deemed hostile with extreme prejudice ( pking and etc.) there were some cases out of no where i would stumble upon a guild vs. guild battle, something about a feeble turf war about xp camping, spawn camping, or ganking; i do what i can to steer away from such battles and go about my business; if not more than likely youd be the next one to die.
One thing i like about instances: Unfortunately it involves around pking so whenever somebody needs to vent and cry "carebear" do so freely.
Whenever you are in a pvping mood you can go out of your way, all out and slaughter the first person you see (aside if being lower lvl or a non threat), if at times your getting spawn camped, or repeatedly ganked with no form of chance to escape or win in a fight, OR even not in the mood to hear the nerdy rages of how they owned you while you were afk, One could simply toggle the instance button, select the instance with another set of people that are in that particular instance, and go on your way, away from that kind of conflict. funny thing is , even the "roll pve noob" crowd uses this method.
What i do not like about Instances:
Unfortunately this is a cumilation of problems stacked into one so forgive me.
1. the first stacked issue---With the limitations of the map and pinpointing your team mates on the huge map. one would have to speak to the other to ask for their coordinates of their location ( if your not close enough to your team mate at a certain proximity they will not show up on the map) so that takes some time to sort out.
2. the second stacked issue--- When completing the part of finding the coordinates of your team mate, there is a chance that your team mate maybe in another instance, if so then all was in vain. HOWEVER, the team leader can summon the other team mates to teleport them selves in the same instances area that the leader is in, so it is not a complete loss, but still a loss of time when wanting to hit up a quest at a certain time table ( you know, before the other players get to it first) . . the second however though, is that the summon members to the same instance is to be said to be bugged, making members not appear in the same instance, even though that is yet to be a problem for me, those with this bug i can certainly relate on how annoying it can be.
3. the third stacked issue--- if this one happens, it is the most painful one. (if possible funcom should raise the instance level to another couple hundred) when your party members are playing, and suddenly you happen to crash, or the server crashes ( just for 3 seconds then it comes back up again hella fast). IF by chance you happen to crash and come back in game (takes 30 seconds to come back in game on average for me) when you come back in the game there is a chance that you are in a different instance from your other team mates, from their the only fix would be to have everyone join in the same instance and start from the beginning. After making a long long long long trek from one area to the next only to start over because the server scattered the team in different instances is annoying imo.
Like all things, Companies aim to make their games better and have more options over time. I learned that while playing planetside ( err.......ya, dont bother to ask why i just wont answer) So for funcom to not improve on the game while coming this far is unrealistic.
Everyone thinks.. everyone knows...
What is this poin to think.. u don´t know.. realy wtf
this is all one big speculation.
and what u get for coming here and yelling that this game sucks?! Orgasm?
don´t freaking play if u don´t like?
If I don´t like game I JUST LEAVE...
I have 7 EVE accounts, 2 tabula rasa accounts, lineage II, WOW with expansion... I DON´T yell in forum that those games are fucking rippoff and is not worth to play.