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New Mount in Blizz Store = $2,000,000 in 4 hours
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Agreed. I'm amazed at the number of people that besmirch a company for wanting to make money :::gasp!::
This is the same attitude that thinks that companies exist just to provide jobs and benefits for employees and making money is just a bonus. AND...Wow is not requiring any player to HAVE to buy this mount in order to play the game so stop the whining.
Currently playing SWTOR and it's MUCH better than it was at launch.
Jeez... i'm not sure what the problem is... has anyone looked at Activision-Blizzard's financial reports?
-------------------------------------------
Name and Principal Position
Year(1)
Salary
($)
Bonus(2)
($)
Stock
Awards(3)(5)
($)
Option
Awards(4)(5)
($)
Non-Equity
Incentive Plan
Compensation(6)
($)
All Other
Compensation(7)
($)
Total
($)
Robert A. Kotick
9MO 08
743,980
5,000,000
11,258,801
10,491,618
1,433,550
3,990
28,931,939
President and Chief
FY2008
899,560
5,000,000
—
5,959,994
3,079,798
10,750
14,950,102
Executive Officer
FY2007
797,200
—
—
1,156,610
881,571
8,990
2,844,371
-------------------------------------------------------
There is quite a bit of information there on where their cash went, and just how much it costs to operate...Just go look at previous years in terms of costs and expenses, (in millions)
-------------------------------------------------------
For the years ended December 31,
2009
2008
2007
Net revenues:
Product sales
$
3,080
72
%
$
1,872
62
%
$
457
34
%
Subscription, licensing, and other revenues
1,199
28
1,154
38
892
66
Total net revenues
4,279
100
3,026
100
1,349
100
Costs and expenses:
Cost of sales—product costs
1,432
33
1,160
38
171
13
Cost of sales—software royalties and amortization
348
8
267
9
52
4
Cost of sales—intellectual property licenses
315
7
219
7
9
1
Cost of sales—massively multi-player online role-playing game ("MMORPG")
212
5
193
7
204
15
Product development
627
15
592
20
397
29
Sales and marketing
544
13
464
15
172
13
General and administrative
395
9
271
9
166
12
Impairment of intangible assets
409
10
—
—
—
—
Restructuring
23
1
93
3
(1
)
—
Total costs and expenses
4,305
101
3,259
108
1,170
87
Operating income (loss)
(26
)
(1
)
(233
)
(8
)
179
13
Investment and other income (loss), net
18
1
46
2
(4
)
—
Income (loss) before income tax benefit
(8
)
—
(187
)
(6
)
175
13
Income tax benefit
(121
)
(3
)
(80
)
(2
)
(52
)
(4
)
Net income (loss)
$
113
3
%
$
(107
)
(4
)%
$
227
17
%
-------------------------------------------------
I'm sure the bonuses that are given out are covered when they release a few pets/fluff items every year
http://investor.activision.com/reports.cfm
I suppose Blizzard has Cryptic to thank for being the first (?) to take the bold step of going sub + RMT.
While paid services like server transfers have been generally seen as okay, the sub + cash shop/item mall model hasn't been, in my opinion. Whether we like it or not or whether it's considered acceptable or not doesn't matter. This is the future. Now that Blizz is doing it with their prized MMO, companies that have been trying to emulate their success since the beginning will begin to follow suit. You can say I'm jumping to conclusions or call me a doomsayer, but this is the direction the ~15 year-old genre is heading...
Personally I don't like this since I feel F2P and P2P should be strictly RMT and sub respectively; which I guess is an old-school way of seeing things now. But either way, I can't and won't tell people how to spend their money nor can I tell developers not to seek different ways of generating revenue.
I will say that I believe WoW is a solid, fully-fleshed MMO, with or without RMTs. My only hope is that the genre doesn't evolve (or devolve?) into pushing out money-making skeletons disguised as games, only to hold back on developing respectable content and selling bits and pieces of their "game" to squeeze every cent they can out of consumers.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
Wow $25.00 on top of re-occurring monthly subscription? Blizzard could have sold the things for $1.00 and made 16,000,000 in 2 hours. Is this one shot $25.00 going to give that much advantage in speeds???
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
It gives NO advantage in speeds. It will be as fast as what your TRAINING is, so...for people who can ride the fastest mounts...it will be THAT fast. For people who are only trained to ride the slower mounts...it will be that fast, etc.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
To prevent a mass flood of threads on the topic, please continue the discussion in the General Celestial Steed thread here:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/275672/page/1
Fortune favours the bold.