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how much does it actually cost to run a mmorpg each month.
hercules
Member UncommonPosts: 4,925
Well we have speculated on this for a while and debated.
Nearest I ever got was when shadowbane said they needed about 40k accounts to make a profit.
We know that each game cost different to develop-ie time spent,staff,resources.
But was is the average to actually run a couple of this servers on average each month has always been a big puzzle.
So recently a vague idea might have been given by mark howe ,president of cyber warriors, the makers of rubies of eventide.
He let out some figures explaining why the game was going under.He said he has about 1k paying clients.
Which netted him 10k a month.He said before november 2003 it was costing him 120,000 -150,000 dollars a month to run the game.
After laying off nearly all the staff he still had to an operation cost of $40,000 a month.
If I recall RoE had only 2 servers.
So basically if this figures are correct ,mmorpg do cost a huge amount of money to run per month and larger games with 10 plus servers might actually have a running cost of over $250,000(guessing).
So shadowbane might be right when they pointed out pre release that they need 40,000 accounts not to go in the red.
Considering how many new mmorpgs are coming out I can understand microsoft been reluctant to continue in this market and I am getting the feeling many will fold up soon.
Heck already we have a few mmorpgs certainly not near that 20,000 accounts even.
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This is a bit like saying "How much does a new car cost?" It all depends on the car.
You could run a MMORPG from your basement, on a frac-T1 or a dedicated IP from your cable provider for 100 bucks or so a month.
If you support the game completely yourself, you could get by with very few players, but the quality of your game would be pretty low.
Do you want to know what a "healthy" company might pay per month, or just the cheapest they can buy with? IF so it's different for every company, but most of the cost of a game is upfront, once you have a game, they could "just keep it running" for a long time with little funding.
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WEll I dunno if AC2 has 2k accounts since they never really been any published document on the numbers they have but even if it was making a lose does not mean it will shut the door.Turbine is not a small company in which a game can make or break it.
Many companies keep going despite huge losses for year upon years.
Also I am not saying this guy is given us the fact or it applies to every other mmorpg.Each game will cost different depending on staff,number of servers,parent companies etc.Also he might just be outright lying to help cover why the game is folding down so fast .He might have pumped the figures up to say heck we got to close as soon as possible and can't give a warning.
It is not easy been president of a company about to get kicked in the teeth.
However this is the first piece of information I ever seen concerning cost to run a mmorpg.Even though is subjective and vague.
I would say the bandwidth needed alone could run in the 10's of thousands if not over a $100,000.. Probably need a OC-3 at a minimum at 155MB of bandwidth, and possibly a lot more than that. An OC-1 (T-1) usually goes for $600 to $1200 per month. An OC-3 is 100 times the bandwidth.
Then you have to house the servers somewhere, which costs a chunk of change unless you do it yourself. The number of machines you have is not important though, unless they are located in different places.
You have to have Network Admins on site 24 hours a day in case something goes wrong. These poeple are probably also GM's in game. Figure a minimum of 2 guys on site per 8 hour shift. These guys make $40K-$60K a year or so. Figure that is 6 or 8 guys pullin $4k-$5k a month. $30k a month.
Not counting tech support, and customer phone support (a large game manufacturer probably has these poeple anyway, even if they are not running a MMORPG, but they would need a larger staff).
So yes, I could see the running cost being $150K plus a month. Depending on how large your MMORPG is, servers in different locations, larger customer support, more net admins, more GM's, etc.
Then you still have programmers improving the game, fixing bugs, working on expansions. Making $40k to $100k or more.
I could see a price breakdown like this:
Small MMORPG $150K per month.
Large MMORPG $400K per month (or more).
After running for a long time, many bugs knocked out, hosting their own servers, an MMORPG like UO or EQ could eventually get away with a minimal staff, but the bandwidth is still gonna cost.
Funny part of the article is the president said he not had his salary in over 1 year hehe.
Reminds me of when horizons was in trouble and the then president of the company wrote an article about selling cars and re mortgaging his house.And he got kicked out of the project.Cruel world.
Just depends on the scope of the MMORPG. If it is some small MMORPG with not many suscribers, then I'd guess 50,000 a year. A massive MMORPG like AO, UO, EQ, DAoC, I'd say alot more than that. They have to pay for
Servers
The building they are in
Developers, Coders, Artists, etc.
Computers
And alot more
I'd say Servers being most expensive
Sometimes, it is better to say nothing at all. Cause big mouths results in big words, and big words travel like bacteria.
Sometimes, it is better to say nothing at all. Cause big mouths say big words, and big words travel like bacteria.
This is a great topic, Hercules. You've gotten some excellent replies, as well.
The only other thing I want to suggest is that you consider posting this on the 'Developers Corner' boards, as well as here.
That way, you might get some more replies from the devs, who wouldn't find your post in 'General Discussion'.
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