Actually, it's not. So, while EA said it, they didn't put on proof of their claims and the evidence suggests that World of Tanks has twice the unique-player log-ins of SWTOR and that League of Legends is clearly the #1 MMO in the West, having three-times the unique-logins of WoW.
Wow, you just claimed WoT and LoL were MMOs.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
We all know the free month give away and waht not is the only reason theyare saying they have 1. whatever subs. Idoubt they have even 500k real subs at the moment and how many of those are 6 month subs that don't even play any longer?
The subs were as of 3/31 they gave away the free month in april.
What EA said in their prepared statement was:
Let me provide you with an update on Star Wars:
Through the end of the quarter, approximately 2.4 million units have sold through. In our last
call we indicated that we had 1.7 million active subscribers, and as of the end of April we ow
have 1.3 million, with a substantial portion of the decrease due to casual and trial players
cycling out of the subscriber base, driving up the overall percentage of paying subscribers.
So the 1.3M is at the end of April. Anyone know what a trial player who is also a subscriber is? Or how many of the 1.3M are on a free 30 days?
(Saves people checking the link above.)
Yep, the 1.3m at the end of April includes everyone who they gave a free month to whether they wanted it or not.
We all know the free month give away and waht not is the only reason theyare saying they have 1. whatever subs. Idoubt they have even 500k real subs at the moment and how many of those are 6 month subs that don't even play any longer?
The subs were as of 3/31 they gave away the free month in april.
What EA said in their prepared statement was:
Let me provide you with an update on Star Wars:
Through the end of the quarter, approximately 2.4 million units have sold through. In our last
call we indicated that we had 1.7 million active subscribers, and as of the end of April we ow
have 1.3 million, with a substantial portion of the decrease due to casual and trial players
cycling out of the subscriber base, driving up the overall percentage of paying subscribers.
So the 1.3M is at the end of April. Anyone know what a trial player who is also a subscriber is? Or how many of the 1.3M are on a free 30 days?
(Saves people checking the link above.)
Yep, the 1.3m at the end of April includes everyone who they gave a free month to whether they wanted it or not.
People refuse to acknowledge that little part of this whole numbers thing.
We all know the free month give away and waht not is the only reason theyare saying they have 1. whatever subs. Idoubt they have even 500k real subs at the moment and how many of those are 6 month subs that don't even play any longer?
The subs were as of 3/31 they gave away the free month in april.
What EA said in their prepared statement was:
Let me provide you with an update on Star Wars:
Through the end of the quarter, approximately 2.4 million units have sold through. In our last
call we indicated that we had 1.7 million active subscribers, and as of the end of April we ow
have 1.3 million, with a substantial portion of the decrease due to casual and trial players
cycling out of the subscriber base, driving up the overall percentage of paying subscribers.
So the 1.3M is at the end of April. Anyone know what a trial player who is also a subscriber is? Or how many of the 1.3M are on a free 30 days?
(Saves people checking the link above.)
Yep, the 1.3m at the end of April includes everyone who they gave a free month to whether they wanted it or not.
So the Wall Street Journal did get it wrong then? That's interesting. That makes their number a hell of a lot worse then if that truly is the case.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Multiplying 1 mil by 15 a month, for 3 months is 45,000,000 and they have had more subs than that, that's not even including 2mil units sold at varying prices starting at $60. That's a crap ton of money in the first few months. For the health of the service that's pretty darn good.
This math never adds up as you have to take into account the massive costs of developing the game in the first place before it made any money at all ($150m - $200m if you take wiki seriously), which would mean that it would be massively surprising if it was anywhere near covering half of that cost yet, let alone making any money. Add to that support costs before and since release and the fact that share holders will be expecting a huge share of the pie as well and you have EA execs now pondering the reality of cutting their losses and running.
I was one of the victims of EA's MMO thinking a long long time ago when they cut Earth & Beyond which although in a different time and at a fraction of the subs we are talking about here, hadn't made anywhere near the percentage of loss that this game has and after a little investigation of the facts had actually made a profit, all be it a small one, but they dumped it anyway as it wasn't the 1m sub game they wanted.
The harsh truth is that if this doesn't hold up to EA's expactations they will just dump it and move to whatever they consider to be their next shining jewel, loyal players be damned
It must be Thursday, i never could get the hang of Thursdays.
People refuse to acknowledge that little part of this whole numbers thing.
In all fairness, a Wall Street Journal article that was even posted here in another topic had EA quoted as saying 1.3 million stating it specifically as being as of the March 31st end of the quarter. So it isn't simply people refusing to accept it or be dismissive about it.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Must be some rich people on this forums, cause I know you all can predict the lottery numbers, why we have people just pulling numbers outta their arse all the time here!
I don't have to run complicated math formulas. All one has to do is log in during prime time and count between 40-60 players on either fleet go to the different planets add them all up and come up with 200-400 players per server playing during prime time to realize that we got a problem. I would guess there are still folks with subs who are not logging in waiting for the clock to count down on the canceled subscription.
It does not take rocket science, algebra, complicated boolean math equations to realize we got diminishing returns on players. I am not playing the math game and debating those numbers, I am talking card hold facts of what I see logged in.
I have to wonder what the ROI returns on invest has been.
I don't have to run complicated math formulas. All one has to do is log in during prime time and count between 40-60 players on either fleet go to the different planets add them all up and come up with 200-400 players per server playing during prime time to realize that we got a problem. I would guess there are still folks with subs who are not logging in waiting for the clock to count down on the canceled subscription.
It does not take rocket science, algebra, complicated boolean math equations to realize we got diminishing returns on players. I am not playing the math game and debating those numbers, I am talking card hold facts of what I see logged in.
We all know the free month give away and waht not is the only reason theyare saying they have 1. whatever subs. Idoubt they have even 500k real subs at the moment and how many of those are 6 month subs that don't even play any longer?
The subs were as of 3/31 they gave away the free month in april.
What EA said in their prepared statement was:
Let me provide you with an update on Star Wars:
Through the end of the quarter, approximately 2.4 million units have sold through. In our last
call we indicated that we had 1.7 million active subscribers, and as of the end of April we ow
have 1.3 million, with a substantial portion of the decrease due to casual and trial players
cycling out of the subscriber base, driving up the overall percentage of paying subscribers.
I'm pretty sure the Folks in My Guild that quit...Which is just about everyone in my Guild...Would be pretty insulted if someone refered to them as casual, or worse yet trial players...If that's what they want the public to believe, so be it...But it's SO much more than that IMHO...SO much more...
I don't have to run complicated math formulas. All one has to do is log in during prime time and count between 40-60 players on either fleet go to the different planets add them all up and come up with 200-400 players per server playing during prime time to realize that we got a problem. I would guess there are still folks with subs who are not logging in waiting for the clock to count down on the canceled subscription.
It does not take rocket science, algebra, complicated boolean math equations to realize we got diminishing returns on players. I am not playing the math game and debating those numbers, I am talking card hold facts of what I see logged in.
I have to wonder what the ROI returns on invest has been.
The sold 12 million copies, many purely digital with a higher margin, so I am guessing the initial return was quite good.
I am not argueing that your server is like that but the three I have been playing on are not. The most populated for me is The Harbringer (known to have good population, I know) which last night (Monday, 7pm CST) had 230ish on the empire fleet, 200 + on the republic fleet, 93 on Dromund-Kass, 87 on Alderaan, so on and so on.
I can see where they have lost 400k in subs but 1.3 or even 1 million is still successful by any other MMO but WOW.
It will be interesting to see what turns up in the next few months.
The game has payed for it's development already and is currently turning a nice profit and so long as they don't dip below their target which was 400k they'll continue to make money on their investment.
Even if the worst case senario plays out for the game they can cut the dev team and bleed out the remaining subs and as long as they shut it down at the right time the game would still be a business success.
I'm sure they would prefer to have a successful game with all of the subscription profits that go with it but while you haters are giggling in your pants over their number losses don't forget that the game is a $ucce$$.
It would not have even remotley come close to paying its development costs let alone its on goings.
People seem to forget interest on investor loans, the IP from Lucas, the hero engine, tax, dev staff, customer service staff, web development staff, community managers, middle management, finance staff servers, bandwidth, real estate, utilities and on and on the list goes.
Interest,tax and the IP license alone would of eaten the entire launch box sales.
They also forget that the retail chain takes half the money up. EA, according to their figures, sells 67% of this game at wholesale. They don't get one-half of 67% of the gross revenue. And Lucas Arts, the PUBLISHER, takes 30% of every thing Star Wars. From Jelly Beans to the SWG license, to phony lightsabers. I doubt SWTOR is any different.
So, post Lucas Arts, they get 70% of Origin store and 35% of retail (70% of 50%). That $150 million revenue stream from 2.4 million box sales, by the time it gets to EA... $35 million from the Origin store. Another $35 million from the retailers.
You've now got $70 million in your pocket. For a $200 million (minimum) game. You're not profitable. You haven't even covered development costs.
Then the marketing. Wow, the marketing campaign was huge. Ricetello said BF3's was $50 million. I've read media experts who say SWTOR's is broader in scope, but less expensive since it was mostly post-holiday. With estimates anywhere from $35 million to $50 million. And considering EA's marketing went up close to $100 million last year thanks to the impact of BF3, SWTOR and ME3 on marketing... I believe those estimates.
There is a reason the average fortune 500 company, over the past 40 years, has had an annual average profit margin of 5%. Things cost money to make. They cost money to operate. Other people get a piece of your pie.
Games are no different. There is no special magic that all the money gets to the developer.
And yet people who clearly don't understand business or accouting tell us the game is profitable. It's clearly not even close at this point.
Are you really saying that EA Origin billed EA bioware for the retail sales of an EA game and EA somehow lost 50% on those sales?
<< Not too long ago people claimed Swtor will go f2p by this time. >>
$15/mo is practically free. There's definitely no way to make a profit charging 1.3 million people that little. The game is done. It's a tax writeoff, nothing more. Bioware, EA, the Star Wars franchise and George Lucas are all being taken out into a rugby field in Australia somewhere and being used for target by a visiting eagle scout troup earning their final badge (euthanasia). $20 million/mo is chump change; it couldn't keep a lone Starbucks in the black nevermind pay for the power to keep a few servers plugged in. Heck, they barely made Underworld I with $20 million...
<< Not too long ago people claimed Swtor will go f2p by this time. >>
$15/mo is practically free. There's definitely no way to make a profit charging 1.3 million people that little. The game is done. It's a tax writeoff, nothing more. Bioware, EA, the Star Wars franchise and George Lucas are all being taken out into a rugby field in Australia somewhere and being used for target by a visiting eagle scout troup earning their final badge (euthanasia). $20 million/mo is chump change; it couldn't keep a lone Starbucks in the black nevermind pay for the power to keep a few servers plugged in. Heck, they barely made Underworld I with $20 million...
I agree in sentiment, but to play devil's advocate....
Imagine there were two cars. One had 1/4 tank of gas. The other had a full tank. The first car is structurally sound. The second has a hole in the gas tank as big as a golf ball. Which car will you drive?
SWToR is fine, atm. What the detractors are saying is that there is a hole in the gas tank. Some think the tank will drain.
I however believe that they are scrambling for the right patch job to fix the hole, and they are looking at the map for the closest gas station.
The real question is, can they succeed before the gas tank is empty or is their patch job going to end up creating a bigger hole.
Most of what I see is the normal trend of populations finding their 'plateau'. All mmo's in this market start with a much larger number than they are going to keep. But at this point, SWToR's population should start to stabilize - and there are some indicators that it isn't. So there's the argument......
<< Not too long ago people claimed Swtor will go f2p by this time. >>
$15/mo is practically free. There's definitely no way to make a profit charging 1.3 million people that little. The game is done. It's a tax writeoff, nothing more. Bioware, EA, the Star Wars franchise and George Lucas are all being taken out into a rugby field in Australia somewhere and being used for target by a visiting eagle scout troup earning their final badge (euthanasia). $20 million/mo is chump change; it couldn't keep a lone Starbucks in the black nevermind pay for the power to keep a few servers plugged in. Heck, they barely made Underworld I with $20 million...
I agree in sentiment, but to play devil's advocate....
Imagine there were two cars. One had 1/4 tank of gas. The other had a full tank. The first car is structurally sound. The second has a hole in the gas tank as big as a golf ball. Which car will you drive?
SWToR is fine, atm. What the detractors are saying is that there is a hole in the gas tank. Some think the tank will drain.
I however believe that they are scrambling for the right patch job to fix the hole, and they are looking at the map for the closest gas station.
The real question is, can they succeed before the gas tank is empty or is their patch job going to end up creating a bigger hole.
Most of what I see is the normal trend of populations finding their 'plateau'. All mmo's in this market start with a much larger number than they are going to keep. But at this point, SWToR's population should start to stabilize - and there are some indicators that it isn't. So there's the argument......
Lol nice metaphor. Though I think they should have focused less on the backseat mini-displays and DVD-player, and spent a bit more on the paint job and horsepowers. Also I'd prefer manual transmission over automatic.
Anyway, I think they are on the right track patching up what they have currently, but I wish what they have currently would have been a little bit different from the start.
After you have watched all the movies in the car through those mini-displays it's just a 1.6 litre automatic transmission car with default paint job, and that's not very exciting to drive, sure it's convenient when going to shop or work and there's no big problems with it, just not that exciting on the long run.
The game has payed for it's development already and is currently turning a nice profit and so long as they don't dip below their target which was 400k they'll continue to make money on their investment.
snip
Are you really saying that EA Origin billed EA bioware for the retail sales of an EA game and EA somehow lost 50% on those sales?
There are a lot of costs involved; Amazon, tax etc etc. When Funcom reported their AoC sales they said they got c. 20% (varied by region a bit) of the box price. These days there is Origin etc. but even so analysts reckoned that EA would make $60M on sales of 2M. So on 2.4M - maybe $66M. The sentiment , therefore, that the game will not have paid for itself is true. EA themselves said that the payback is in th elong term subs .... shame about the free month!
EA Origin could indeed have billed EA - its called inter-company trading in big company speak - but it comes out on the wash. Companies cannot 'double count' sales.
As to EA's target well according to EA the target is 500k for break even and 1M for 'some period of time assumed to be 1 - 2 years' in order to recover their costs. 500k will be 'making money on their running costs; 1M will be 'making money on their investment - eventually'. The 500k and 1M are the num bers EA gave out in Feb by the way; didn't / haven't seen any new numbers from yesterday - was there a 400k?
The most amusing thing of the whole thing , is that EA is even beginning to distance themselves from SWTOR mattering in the long run. They know the internal numbers and have seen the writing on the wall.
You don't have an EA exec publically stressing that SWTOR is not one of its top 5 important franchises just for the heck of it. EA puclically letting investors know that TOR doesn't rank up there with FIFA is hilarious.
The most amusing thing of the whole thing , is that EA is even beginning to distance themselves from SWTOR mattering in the long run. They know the internal numbers and have seen the writing on the wall.
You don't have an EA exec publically stressing that SWTOR is not one of its top 5 important franchises just for the heck of it. EA puclically letting investors know that TOR doesn't rank up there with FIFA is hilarious.
They are going to have to distance themselves from a lot of their products. Today NPR's "Marketplace" named two (and only two) companies who's stock is doing poorly....McDonald's and, you guessed it, EA.
Perhaps instead of distancing themselves from their failing products, they should actually try a little love.
We all know the free month give away and waht not is the only reason theyare saying they have 1. whatever subs. Idoubt they have even 500k real subs at the moment and how many of those are 6 month subs that don't even play any longer?
The subs were as of 3/31 they gave away the free month in april.
What EA said in their prepared statement was:
Let me provide you with an update on Star Wars:
Through the end of the quarter, approximately 2.4 million units have sold through. In our last
call we indicated that we had 1.7 million active subscribers, and as of the end of April we ow
have 1.3 million, with a substantial portion of the decrease due to casual and trial players
cycling out of the subscriber base, driving up the overall percentage of paying subscribers.
So the 1.3M is at the end of April. Anyone know what a trial player who is also a subscriber is? Or how many of the 1.3M are on a free 30 days?
(Saves people checking the link above.)
Yep, the 1.3m at the end of April includes everyone who they gave a free month to whether they wanted it or not.
People refuse to acknowledge that little part of this whole numbers thing.
No, people aren't refusing to acknowledge that bit of the statement.
What they're discussing (and what even I'm confused about) is whether that part was accurately stated.
The quarterly report itself (which is audited by independent 3rd parties, and any non-factual information would risk potential securities fraud violations) clearly states the 1.3m number is through the end of March (end of the fiscal quarter).
On the other hand, its in the "notes" section where the April date comes up. So which is right? Who knows...
I quit playing less than a month after release. Unfortunately I'm still subbed because my 6 year old loves to play it. I keep threatning him that I'll delete it and cancel the sub if he's bad... and oddly enough he keeps doing better after that. : I just cant get rid of TOR.
Yeah...that's about right.
Currently playing SWTOR and it's MUCH better than it was at launch.
a substantial portion of the decrease due to casual and trial players cycling out of the subscriber base
I just read that report again and this part stuck out.
Werent "Casual" players the main focus? I could have sworn thats what EA/Bio was aiming at.
So how can losing 400 Thousand of your target audience be a good thing?
Tried: EQ2 - AC - EU - HZ - TR - MxO - TTO - WURM - SL - VG:SoH - PotBS - PS - AoC - WAR - DDO - SWTOR Played: UO - EQ1 - AO - DAoC - NC - CoH/CoV - SWG - WoW - EVE - AA - LotRO - DFO - STO - FE - MO - RIFT Playing: Skyrim Following: The Repopulation I want a Virtual World, not just a Game. ITS TOO HARD! - Matt Firor (ZeniMax)
Comments
Wow, you just claimed WoT and LoL were MMOs.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
The subs were as of 3/31 they gave away the free month in april.
What EA said in their prepared statement was:
Let me provide you with an update on Star Wars:
Through the end of the quarter, approximately 2.4 million units have sold through. In our last
call we indicated that we had 1.7 million active subscribers, and as of the end of April we ow
have 1.3 million, with a substantial portion of the decrease due to casual and trial players
cycling out of the subscriber base, driving up the overall percentage of paying subscribers.
So the 1.3M is at the end of April. Anyone know what a trial player who is also a subscriber is? Or how many of the 1.3M are on a free 30 days?
(Saves people checking the link above.)
Yep, the 1.3m at the end of April includes everyone who they gave a free month to whether they wanted it or not.People refuse to acknowledge that little part of this whole numbers thing.
So the Wall Street Journal did get it wrong then? That's interesting. That makes their number a hell of a lot worse then if that truly is the case.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
This math never adds up as you have to take into account the massive costs of developing the game in the first place before it made any money at all ($150m - $200m if you take wiki seriously), which would mean that it would be massively surprising if it was anywhere near covering half of that cost yet, let alone making any money. Add to that support costs before and since release and the fact that share holders will be expecting a huge share of the pie as well and you have EA execs now pondering the reality of cutting their losses and running.
I was one of the victims of EA's MMO thinking a long long time ago when they cut Earth & Beyond which although in a different time and at a fraction of the subs we are talking about here, hadn't made anywhere near the percentage of loss that this game has and after a little investigation of the facts had actually made a profit, all be it a small one, but they dumped it anyway as it wasn't the 1m sub game they wanted.
The harsh truth is that if this doesn't hold up to EA's expactations they will just dump it and move to whatever they consider to be their next shining jewel, loyal players be damned
It must be Thursday, i never could get the hang of Thursdays.
ok so swtor maybe failing....did you ever see SWG after the NGE...it had the same effect
so ya aslong as it is star wars im gonna like it
In all fairness, a Wall Street Journal article that was even posted here in another topic had EA quoted as saying 1.3 million stating it specifically as being as of the March 31st end of the quarter. So it isn't simply people refusing to accept it or be dismissive about it.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Must be some rich people on this forums, cause I know you all can predict the lottery numbers, why we have people just pulling numbers outta their arse all the time here!
Any game that loses around 400k subs in a quarter probably isn't doing so hot.
Enter a whole new realm of challenge and adventure.
I don't have to run complicated math formulas. All one has to do is log in during prime time and count between 40-60 players on either fleet go to the different planets add them all up and come up with 200-400 players per server playing during prime time to realize that we got a problem. I would guess there are still folks with subs who are not logging in waiting for the clock to count down on the canceled subscription.
It does not take rocket science, algebra, complicated boolean math equations to realize we got diminishing returns on players. I am not playing the math game and debating those numbers, I am talking card hold facts of what I see logged in.
I have to wonder what the ROI returns on invest has been.
Exactly!
I'm pretty sure the Folks in My Guild that quit...Which is just about everyone in my Guild...Would be pretty insulted if someone refered to them as casual, or worse yet trial players...If that's what they want the public to believe, so be it...But it's SO much more than that IMHO...SO much more...
The sold 12 million copies, many purely digital with a higher margin, so I am guessing the initial return was quite good.
I am not argueing that your server is like that but the three I have been playing on are not. The most populated for me is The Harbringer (known to have good population, I know) which last night (Monday, 7pm CST) had 230ish on the empire fleet, 200 + on the republic fleet, 93 on Dromund-Kass, 87 on Alderaan, so on and so on.
I can see where they have lost 400k in subs but 1.3 or even 1 million is still successful by any other MMO but WOW.
It will be interesting to see what turns up in the next few months.
Are you really saying that EA Origin billed EA bioware for the retail sales of an EA game and EA somehow lost 50% on those sales?
<< Not too long ago people claimed Swtor will go f2p by this time. >>
$15/mo is practically free. There's definitely no way to make a profit charging 1.3 million people that little. The game is done. It's a tax writeoff, nothing more. Bioware, EA, the Star Wars franchise and George Lucas are all being taken out into a rugby field in Australia somewhere and being used for target by a visiting eagle scout troup earning their final badge (euthanasia). $20 million/mo is chump change; it couldn't keep a lone Starbucks in the black nevermind pay for the power to keep a few servers plugged in. Heck, they barely made Underworld I with $20 million...
EA is lying, they actually dont have 1.3 mil subs at the moment, they have 1.7 mil subs.
I agree in sentiment, but to play devil's advocate....
Imagine there were two cars. One had 1/4 tank of gas. The other had a full tank. The first car is structurally sound. The second has a hole in the gas tank as big as a golf ball. Which car will you drive?
SWToR is fine, atm. What the detractors are saying is that there is a hole in the gas tank. Some think the tank will drain.
I however believe that they are scrambling for the right patch job to fix the hole, and they are looking at the map for the closest gas station.
The real question is, can they succeed before the gas tank is empty or is their patch job going to end up creating a bigger hole.
Most of what I see is the normal trend of populations finding their 'plateau'. All mmo's in this market start with a much larger number than they are going to keep. But at this point, SWToR's population should start to stabilize - and there are some indicators that it isn't. So there's the argument......
Lol nice metaphor. Though I think they should have focused less on the backseat mini-displays and DVD-player, and spent a bit more on the paint job and horsepowers. Also I'd prefer manual transmission over automatic.
Anyway, I think they are on the right track patching up what they have currently, but I wish what they have currently would have been a little bit different from the start.
After you have watched all the movies in the car through those mini-displays it's just a 1.6 litre automatic transmission car with default paint job, and that's not very exciting to drive, sure it's convenient when going to shop or work and there's no big problems with it, just not that exciting on the long run.
There are a lot of costs involved; Amazon, tax etc etc. When Funcom reported their AoC sales they said they got c. 20% (varied by region a bit) of the box price. These days there is Origin etc. but even so analysts reckoned that EA would make $60M on sales of 2M. So on 2.4M - maybe $66M. The sentiment , therefore, that the game will not have paid for itself is true. EA themselves said that the payback is in th elong term subs .... shame about the free month!
EA Origin could indeed have billed EA - its called inter-company trading in big company speak - but it comes out on the wash. Companies cannot 'double count' sales.
As to EA's target well according to EA the target is 500k for break even and 1M for 'some period of time assumed to be 1 - 2 years' in order to recover their costs. 500k will be 'making money on their running costs; 1M will be 'making money on their investment - eventually'. The 500k and 1M are the num bers EA gave out in Feb by the way; didn't / haven't seen any new numbers from yesterday - was there a 400k?
The most amusing thing of the whole thing , is that EA is even beginning to distance themselves from SWTOR mattering in the long run. They know the internal numbers and have seen the writing on the wall.
You don't have an EA exec publically stressing that SWTOR is not one of its top 5 important franchises just for the heck of it. EA puclically letting investors know that TOR doesn't rank up there with FIFA is hilarious.
They are going to have to distance themselves from a lot of their products. Today NPR's "Marketplace" named two (and only two) companies who's stock is doing poorly....McDonald's and, you guessed it, EA.
Perhaps instead of distancing themselves from their failing products, they should actually try a little love.
No, people aren't refusing to acknowledge that bit of the statement.
What they're discussing (and what even I'm confused about) is whether that part was accurately stated.
The quarterly report itself (which is audited by independent 3rd parties, and any non-factual information would risk potential securities fraud violations) clearly states the 1.3m number is through the end of March (end of the fiscal quarter).
On the other hand, its in the "notes" section where the April date comes up. So which is right? Who knows...
Yeah...that's about right.
Currently playing SWTOR and it's MUCH better than it was at launch.
I just read that report again and this part stuck out.
Werent "Casual" players the main focus? I could have sworn thats what EA/Bio was aiming at.
So how can losing 400 Thousand of your target audience be a good thing?
Tried: EQ2 - AC - EU - HZ - TR - MxO - TTO - WURM - SL - VG:SoH - PotBS - PS - AoC - WAR - DDO - SWTOR
Played: UO - EQ1 - AO - DAoC - NC - CoH/CoV - SWG - WoW - EVE - AA - LotRO - DFO - STO - FE - MO - RIFT
Playing: Skyrim
Following: The Repopulation
I want a Virtual World, not just a Game.
ITS TOO HARD! - Matt Firor (ZeniMax)
Still one of the best games out there. haters gonna hate.