You know, i feel sorry for the people that want to base everything on numbers... Why does everything have to be about looks or how much money is pouring in on the heads of the developers? That is why AC is going to stick around. They know what the people playing thier games needs and wants. That is why they havent updated the graphics to a standard where the graphics are today. They even said when they were realesing the expantion pack Throne of Destiny, that they did not want to update the graphics in a way that people with not that state of the art computers cant play the game they know and love. Could AC update to the standards of the games out now a days? It sure can... but why? Why be like everyone else? That is what serperates this game from all the other games trying to bring in ALOT of cash and fame instead of good non stop action gameplay. That is why everyone is saying that they dont like games like WoW and CoH... that is because the gameplay is lacking in ways that AC is strongest in. And that is why alot of people that played the game before is coming back to it when they realize that fact. Hell, i have played CoH (got bored in about 2 weeks) WoW (stoped playing after i got 60... nothing to do) EQ (didnt even like the feel of the game) and UO (got bored within a month) and also DDO (Not enough content and Guild Wars( Not enough content/level advancements). And yet i keep coming back to AC. They have PLENTY of content and PLENTY of customization. Customazation is what alot of games now a days are lacking big time. Why play a game that dosent give you a choice? Why play a game that TELLS you how to make your character and MAKES you do certain quests in order to advance. In closing, AC is still IMO the best MMO made, and there is alot of qualities to prove it. Turbine is NOT going to shut it down anytime soon. In fact, they are just putting more hardware and love into it then ever before. Go to http://ac.turbine.com/ and see what they are doing with AC before you give out false information that is more than a year old. See for yourself that they are putting more into AC and they know that it still has room to grow. I will continue to play AC until they shut it down. And that wont be for many more years.
Look me up! I am Cool Magi Dude of Morningthaw! Level 170.
The bottom line is that while it's a decent game it is *old* and it's numbers have dipped (or are very close to it) to the point where it costs more to run the game than it brings in from subscriptions. Turbine is a business. They aren't going to run the game at a loss. That is just a fact.
Firstly, your numbers about how many players make AC profitable could be easily way off. Nobody know the operating costs, and Turbine seems to keep subscribers of this game a closely guarded secret. In addition to the advertising and direct2drive, they are also going to be upgrading server hardware for the game. Turbine is not treating the game as if it was going to be shut down. The investment of a server upgrade suggests that this game has a long future yet. It's sad to see so many posters so out of touch with the latest news about AC. Most posters are going off information over a year old. For example, there was the guy who didn't know about the customizable chat windows. If you want to make a comment about features in the game, do your homework.
My numbers are based on industry averages. No we don't know turbine's operating costs but based on the industry averages and accepted business NORMS you need at least 25k *subscribers* to 'break even' on a game for cost of maintenance, bandwidth, development of new content and fixing of bugs, etc. Unless Turbine's AC Dev Team is EXTREMELY efficient or is running on a skeleton crew or is working only part time there is only so much they can cut costs to lower that number. Thus I say they are knocking on the door, if not already there, of being in the red as far as cost to income goes.
As far as number of subscribers Turbine made a statement that their subscribers are "closer to 30,000 than 10,000" Now you can take that any number of ways. You could take it to mean that they're up around 29k players or you could take it to mean that they're around 20-25k players. No matter how you slice it, however, it represents a drop of 20,000 players since last year (when they were at about 47,000 subscribers, confirmed).
Once you start stacking that up against expected cost of ownership based on industry AVERAGES (yes, their costs MIGHT be lower than normal but odds are not by much) they are at the very least DANGEROUSLY Close to being in the red or are already there (depending on which numbers you believe). Either way the game is looking down the barrels of a really big shotgun unless subscribers start to climb.
I already said it's not a bad game. It's a decent game. But based on number of subscribers one of my concerns with the game is whether Turbine will continue to support it if the numbers continue to dip. They exhibited very little reluctance to cancel AC2 when it dropped below 20k players, even though they had just released a patch for it.
Based on their track record I would be nervous sinking any money into a game that has so few players and is being run by a company that has astronomical debt from developing two MMORPG's simultaneously. And in the case of LOTRO I believe they are running that project solo so they can't even share the debt with another large company like they can with DDO.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online. Sig image Pending Still in: A couple Betas
I've set a reminder in my calander to check back on this board in a year, and post one way or the other about AC. I'm betting it is still around, as new content is still being added monthly. If they had no plans for AC, I doubt they'd be working on getting game keys downloadable. I enjoy playing AC, and like in real life, I don't worry about the future. I can't change it, I might as well enjoy life as it comes.
Well, It's been a year, and although I'm not playing AC still (haven't played any mmorpg's lately) It seems that it is still around. Go figure.
Comments
That is why AC is going to stick around. They know what the people playing thier games needs and wants. That is why they havent updated the graphics to a standard where the graphics are today. They even said when they were realesing the expantion pack Throne of Destiny, that they did not want to update the graphics in a way that people with not that state of the art computers cant play the game they know and love.
Could AC update to the standards of the games out now a days? It sure can... but why? Why be like everyone else? That is what serperates this game from all the other games trying to bring in ALOT of cash and fame instead of good non stop action gameplay. That is why everyone is saying that they dont like games like WoW and CoH... that is because the gameplay is lacking in ways that AC is strongest in. And that is why alot of people that played the game before is coming back to it when they realize that fact.
Hell, i have played CoH (got bored in about 2 weeks) WoW (stoped playing after i got 60... nothing to do) EQ (didnt even like the feel of the game) and UO (got bored within a month) and also DDO (Not enough content and Guild Wars( Not enough content/level advancements). And yet i keep coming back to AC. They have PLENTY of content and PLENTY of customization. Customazation is what alot of games now a days are lacking big time. Why play a game that dosent give you a choice? Why play a game that TELLS you how to make your character and MAKES you do certain quests in order to advance.
In closing, AC is still IMO the best MMO made, and there is alot of qualities to prove it. Turbine is NOT going to shut it down anytime soon. In fact, they are just putting more hardware and love into it then ever before. Go to http://ac.turbine.com/ and see what they are doing with AC before you give out false information that is more than a year old. See for yourself that they are putting more into AC and they know that it still has room to grow. I will continue to play AC until they shut it down. And that wont be for many more years.
Look me up! I am Cool Magi Dude of Morningthaw! Level 170.
As far as number of subscribers Turbine made a statement that their subscribers are "closer to 30,000 than 10,000" Now you can take that any number of ways. You could take it to mean that they're up around 29k players or you could take it to mean that they're around 20-25k players. No matter how you slice it, however, it represents a drop of 20,000 players since last year (when they were at about 47,000 subscribers, confirmed).
Once you start stacking that up against expected cost of ownership based on industry AVERAGES (yes, their costs MIGHT be lower than normal but odds are not by much) they are at the very least DANGEROUSLY Close to being in the red or are already there (depending on which numbers you believe). Either way the game is looking down the barrels of a really big shotgun unless subscribers start to climb.
I already said it's not a bad game. It's a decent game. But based on number of subscribers one of my concerns with the game is whether Turbine will continue to support it if the numbers continue to dip. They exhibited very little reluctance to cancel AC2 when it dropped below 20k players, even though they had just released a patch for it.
Based on their track record I would be nervous sinking any money into a game that has so few players and is being run by a company that has astronomical debt from developing two MMORPG's simultaneously. And in the case of LOTRO I believe they are running that project solo so they can't even share the debt with another large company like they can with DDO.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas