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What Killed The Secret World
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What the hell are you rambling about now?
I never disagreed with the 'original' business model but the notion that when TSW changed its model from sub to B2P it somehow lost more players. When infact, the only reason TSW is up and running now is because B2P turned out to be more profitable for them compared to sub.
They topped out at about a million people registered in various places, playing the ARGs and following the game. They sold something like 160k copies of the game. The "documentation" on the forums doesn't cover 700,000 to 800,000 or so people. When they went B2P they sold another 70k copies in about 4 weeks. This was a 30% increase in total sales, which tells us their total sales before the B2P transition. They did not sell many copies of this game.
I mean, I can definitely see it. The game was worth buying to me, but not worth spending money on a sub. I think they certainly would have gotten more people in the door if they released the game as B2P with a fairly low barrier to entry. They didn't get 700,000 people to buy the game when they went B2P though. It wasn't just the financial model.
**
Link, Linky, Linkerson
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121442-Dropping-Subscriptions-Nets-The-Secret-World-a-30-Total-Sales-Boost
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Well you know the old saying "You don't get a second chance to make a first impression".
I think anyone can see that Funcom had doubts about the game as it got close to release. Their decision to price the liftime subscription at $180.00 told you something was up. After all if they had such great confidence in it's future why make a lifetime sub that would cost less than 1 years subscription ?
I suggest you reread my post and try to comprehend . I never suggested that they lost players when they changed their business model to B2P
I quit following the game along with many others when the original business model was proposed.
If I had not read in this thread that they went B2p I would never had known what the new business model is.
http://www.entropiapartners.com/?r=22415
Oh the irony.
Spoiled? considering they have even more of a following than they had at release would suggest you are wrong.
I think you answered your own questions there.
Are all of those facts?
I seriously doubt that they have more of a following now.
Could you provide some links to substantiate your claims?
As lizardbones stated they topped out prior to release at over 1 million.
Can you prove that this game has over 1 million followers today?
http://www.entropiapartners.com/?r=22415
Of course they do. Don't let what Funcom has to say disturb you
"Even though the company continued its cost-saving
efforts in 2Q14 and realized operating cost savings
of 487 TUSD in comparison to 2Q13, the Earnings
before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization
(EBITDA) for 2Q14 decreased to -484 TUSD
compared to 1,304 TUSD in 2Q13. This is a result
of the gradual revenue decrease after the launch of
The Secret World."
And? you think that TSW can single handedly increase entire earnings of Funcom as a company? they also run Anarchy Online and Age of Conan.
It is silly to post their earnings when we are talking about a niche games like TSW which was never meant to topple WOW esque games. What has success of TSW's B2P model got anything to do with total earnings of Funcom as a company?
Once again why listen to Funcom, when you can believe whatever you like ?
"· Player numbers and revenues from Age of Conan
and Anarchy Online were relatively stable in 2Q14."
Just copy pasting what lizardbone posted..
They topped out at about a million people registered in various places, playing the ARGs and following the game. They sold something like 160k copies of the game. The "documentation" on the forums doesn't cover 700,000 to 800,000 or so people. When they went B2P they sold another 70k copies in about 4 weeks. This was a 30% increase in total sales, which tells us their total sales before the B2P transition. They did not sell many copies of this game.
As of 2014 we don't have any data as to how many more they have sold by now. Simply having one million registered followers means squat if they those followers are not PAYING CUSTOMERS.
The fact that even though one million followers only transitioned to 160K copies at release shows that your theory about 'They lost majority of followers after game went B2P' is just completely false.
The facts are . This game had over 1 million followers.
They announced the Cash Grab business model.
Followers got upset. There is one thread prior to release, over 300 pages long with followers letting Funcom know they would not support their business model.
They sold approx 160k boxes . This means that about 10% to 20% of followers actually supported them.
I have no opinion on what happened after thy went B2P.
All my posts are addressing what happened prior to release.
http://www.entropiapartners.com/?r=22415
There is a huge difference between one million and millionS.
LOL your reading comprehension is astonishing. I have never stated that they lost followers after they went B2P. please show me where I said that.
http://www.entropiapartners.com/?r=22415
Sigh.. what does your statement 'majority of original followers never gave a chance after going B2P' refers to then?
The fact that you are making such a big deal of one million registered players which is very common for any game in beta. You need to stop making claims about ridiculous numbers. The number of people who actually buy games compared to those who register for beta is always low. This is not something exclusive to TSW
I still playing TSW and have no idea what OP talking about !
sry
What killed the Secret World?
What killed Ruthie Jean?
Maybe they have the same killer......
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At this point, I'd have a hard time believing you if you told me the sun was up.
Why don't you back up that statement with some proof.
While your at it, you might want to explain how a "niche game" gets a million followers registered for it's beta.
Indeed. Goal posts are shifting. Anyway.
They had about 750K people registered as beta testers. They probably had a million people interested in the game. There were several sites with TSW sub-forums and the TSW forums were pretty active for a couple years prior to the game's release.
http://www.funcom.com/news/the_secret_world_to_launch_june_19_2012
Since the abysmal start of the game, Funcom has restructured and set much more modest goals for the company and their games. In the context of their new size and goals, TSW is doing very well. It is going to lose players over time, just like every other MMORPG in existence, and Funcom is going to focus more on whatever their latest and greatest game is, just like every other MMORPG in existence. People still play the game and people still like the game. They are still releasing updates to the game and the game's lore. It's not dead.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
LOL please quote my post. I did not even know what their new business model is when I posted, but the fact that they sold another 70k boxes after going B2P i guess is impressive from your point of view.
My posts still stands. Having over a million followers (I was one) and selling 160k boxes at release, then another 70k after the Cash grab is not impressive to me.
http://www.entropiapartners.com/?r=22415
Can someone please let me know the answer to this question.
I am under the impression that TSW is the first game that was released with
a Box fee + Subscription+ Cash Shop.
If there were others i would like to know what games those were.
I am not trying to derail the thread, due to the fact that I personally feel that
the business model at release had a lot to do with the health of the game.
http://www.entropiapartners.com/?r=22415
Dead is a hard term for MMOs.
It's especially difficult when the Fanboy community interjects itself into a discussion. I remember all to well CoH Fanboys shouting that the game was doing great right up to the point NCsoft turned off the servers.
I can't speak for the OP and his definition of dead, but for me TSW is very appropriately UNDEAD.
The servers are still on people still login out of inertia, but problems go unfixed for years and years, content doesn't get added in anything close to the rate it needs to be, and every time you look there's fewer people you know playing the game. It's just not alive.
I disagree. At the core, this is an amazing game and has one of the best stories ever featured in a MMO.
The root cause of the commercial failure (and I agree the game is a commercial failure) is twofold:
First - a lack of marketing and poor strategic decisions close to launch, e.g. using an old build of the game engine with open beta participants. While I understand what the company was trying to do, they essentially put a flawed build in front of the eyes of hundreds of thousands potential players. I also think the subscription plan was an issue here.
Second - The financials and the business plan. Funcom is a publically traded company that is riddled with debt like many tech companies. Much of the capital for this game was invested in the game engine which is modular. The plan was to launch TSW then use the engine as the basis for other titles. You can see this articulated in the financials which are available on Funcom's Investor site.
I'll throw in timing too. Launching just prior to Guild Wars 2 was a poor decision.
The core content of the game is excellent although lacking in the endgame. Nightmare dungeons are challenging. Some of them are just downright hard. I loved the mechanic of having to face the gatekeeper before being able to progress. It was pretty rewarding when I owned him
I got a real sense of accomplishment completing a lot of the game's challenges like that. I also know a number of people that rage-quit because it was "too hard" so audiance may have been an issue too which again you can tie back to poor marketing.
Seaspite
Playing ESO on my X-Box