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World of Warcraft - How much money have we made for Blizzard? You better be guessing in the billions
DrShiZaY
Member Posts: 57
Blizzard is making BILLIONS and there's still ZERO Innovation
These are approximations, I realize that not all numbers are perfect.
Game released in November, 2004.
28 months since it was released.
Players:
-----------
~8,500,000
Boxes:
---------
retail ~$50/each
tbc ~$40/each
Subscriptions:
--------------------
~$15/month
=================================
The Math:
--------------
(8.5 million players) times (50 dollars retail) = 425 million
(8.5 million players) times (15 dollar subscription) times (28 months since release) = 3570 million
(8.5 million players) times (40 dollars tbc) = 340 million
425+3570+340=4335
$4335 million
aka
$4,335,000,000
aka
Four billion three-hundred thirty-five million dollars -- and still growing!
The number is actually somewhat lower, although not by much, because most users only play for what I would guess to be around 3-6 months before they quit; although there are probably quite a few who have subscribed since release. The other factor is that there are discounted rates by a few dollars when you subscribe for extended periods of time. Last issue is that not all users have bought tbc, but I reckon most will or already have.
Summary:
---------------
Blizzard has become a greedy company. They have all of this money and there's still absolutely zero innovation.
Now every gaming company has at least one MMO in the works; and now more business people and investors want a piece of the pie. What does this mean for gamers? This means we'll be playing EQ-Clones for at least the next decade, if not longer.
Prompt:
-----------
Are you prepared to play more EQ-Clones or will you be looking for the exit sign like me? Post your comments below.
Comments
1) TBC has only sold ~3.5mil copies
2) the retail price has dropped several times since release
3) I'm pretty sure that blizzard only counts current subs, so you would have to count on how many people have gotten the game and quit or gotten banned.
1. Blizzard got lots of employees to pay for.
2. Blizzard has TONS of servers to pay for
3. Blizzard needs to keep some of the money for themself, why? because otherwise it would fail as a company, EVERY company wants to make money for themself, not just blizzard so dont drag them down and call them greedy bastard because they are rich, we could say that even worse about microsoft and bill gates then.
"Those who dont build must burn. Its as old as history and juvenile delinquence."
-Ray Bradbury
==================================================
Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!
Regardless of the figures, the biggest issue is the money being made and how much publicity the entire thing is getting.
The most important thing you can get from understanding this is that there will be TONS and TONS of clones.
>>>>EVERY company wants to make money for themself, not just blizzard so dont drag them down and call them greedy bastard because they are rich, we could say that even worse about microsoft and bill gates then.<<<<
In my eyes, every company is greedy and every wealthy person that doesn't do something good for humanity is scum of the earth.
It's for this reason I will continue to run people who drive expensive cars off the road.
Now you know why I carry a crowbar...
Another "let's hate those who are successful" crap!
"Blizzard is making BILLIONS and there's still ZERO Innovation"
That's your opinion. Don't state it like a fact, imo it's pure bullshit, nothing else! And, Blizzard is one of the most successful game companies in the world, and they deserve every cent they have earned!
Poll option:
"Absolutely, I love grinding mobs and chasing carrots!"
This is pathetic! You can't even let us choose anything positive without being sarcastic! Immature retard!
Please no more retard-posts like this! Find some other places to puke out your bullshit. You will probably call me a Blizzard ass-licker, that's ok, it has happened before here, just because I said I love WoW.
I would agree with you there. They have so many subs they feel they dont have to offer anything new to the game. The solitary expansion after over two years is a testament to this.
I bet if the subs dropped drastically they would get off there asses and start to realise they need to start giving back to the playing (and paying) community in terms of more content etc. But as it stands now, they dont have to offer anything back so they wont. Typical greediness.
/agreed (for the most part)
World of Warcraft is a genius game but it also offers very little innovation and offering back to their paying customers who are making them hundreds of millions of dollars per year in pure profit. Regardless of the math, I guarantee you that their pure profit is easily in the hundreds of millions per year off of this one game.
Look at Asherons Call. 15,000 subs tops these days. Not 8.5 million. That means that Asherons Call has like 1/6th of 1% of the active subscriptions of WoW as of right now. That's right... ONE-SIXTH OF ONE PERCENT. Turbine, after 8 years is still offering monthly events and patches and new content to Asherons Call. FREE. There's already been many dozens of FREE monthly events, patches and new content added to the world of Dereth in Asherons Call. Surely with hundreds of millions of pure profit per year, Blizzard could atleast offer some kind of FREE new content to WoW without charging $40 for it. But they don't need to. So they won't. That's corporate greed of the worst kind.
Many of you hate Turbine and have oodles of respect for Blizzard. I can understand that from a quality of product standpoint. But watch Lord of The Rings Online closely. Even though Turbine is bound to have their biggest and most successful game by far with LOTRO, they will STILL put out all kinds of FREE downloads and content for their upcoming game. It will probably come at a monthly rate, if not even faster. It will be HUGE expansions to the LOTRO virtual world and HUGE content additions. And it will all be at absolutely no cost. That's right... zero additional cost besides their $9.99 to $14.99 monthly fee. Just watch. Just watch also at how the customer support for LOTRO will absolutely BLOW AWAY the customer support offered now by Blizzard for WOW. Just watch.
As far as treating their customers with the respect they deserve for helping to make them successful, Turbine beats up Blizzard in this area about 10,000 to 1.
Consider all that and tell me again how much greater Blizzard is then Turbine. Seriously. Just think about it.
- Zaxx
Blizzard is owned by Vivendi. Whatever profit WoW does make goes to Vivendi, not Blizzard.
Your math is way off but I agree with the point you are making. There is a huge profit being made off of that game but very little going back into it. They really need to expand their staff so they can add more content. I'm sorry but redoing the talent trees constantly is not content... Many of the dungeons that were released between the start of retail and now were supposed to be included in launch which is why I ignore the people who say "we have gotten tons of "free" content since release that was not part of an expansion." Well yes, they were just adding in what was unfinished. I am greatful that when the content comes out that it is very polished but honestly it is not hard to add items into the game. Would it kill them to add some fun little time sinks like minigames? events? (and I don't mean live events, just regular old scripted events) We get the SAME holiday events each year and most of them are bugged so they are not repeatable. It's actually pretty pathetic. It's not hard add the little things that people want like the ability to dye hair or change hairstyles. Add some diffrent craftable clothes for each holiday event that look diffrent from the last year. Honestly it does not take long to paint some new dress textures. If understaffing is the problem they need to put some of this profit toward hiring new employees.
I'm not asking for innovation!! Some people just want a little more fun content like new holiday events and quests. I can understand that they don't want to mess with the game formula but there is no excuse not to add some more time sink content.
I dislike Vivendi, they are just going to suck WoW dry and move on.
Did it ever occur to anyone that maybe we're here to continue the evolution of the human species, not to have fun and happiness?
By the same point, we should be continuing the evolution of the genre...not succumbing to the lower reptilian brain that seeks only to find enjoyment and satisfaction.
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You've got a world full of Christians who are expansionistic and preach their faith, and yet none of them follow the path that their lord, Jesus Christ set for them by example. Instead all they think about is fun, happiness and going to heaven. This is also why no one gives a damn about global warming, these people think this world doesn't matter, that god will take care of everything.
I got news for you, when you die, that's it, game over. Do what you can for the world, so your children and grandchildren and future generations can enjoy the things that you either A) turned down, or
This must be 1 of the daftest posts ever............ Give shit to a company that makes money
, Isnt that what they are there to do?
I think the OP needs to go look up the definition of starting up a successfull business.
I mean why dont we start flaming all th oil companies who make BILLIONS AND BILLIONS AND BILLIONS AND BILLIONS, and they are certainly not innovative with their product, it is simple supply and demand. This is exactly what Blizzard has done, DEMAND - a fun game to play SUPPLIED from Blizzard.
Personally i do play Wow, but i play GW, Oblivian, GTA, Tekken 5, etc.etc.etc. i play tons of games, coz i am a gamer, it is what i find fun to do in passin my time (and thanks to blizzard i get to play more than one fun game - WoW, Diablo 1+2, Warcraft 1- 3, Starcraft and Ghost Recon), some people like racing cars (and thanks to oil companies they get to do so) So i think Blizzard is doing their Job, yes they do things wrong ingame with nerfs and updates and shit like that but hey atleast they trying.
So to give a company crap because they make money has to be one of the stupidest and idiotic posts ever posted.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy
I found it hard
It's hard to find
Oh Well
Whatever
Nevermind
I would say that Blizzard does "give back" to the playerbase, they just have a strange idea of what we really want. Our "monthly content" comes in the form of minor buffs where they aren't needed, and nerfs where they often hurt the most. Every few months they drop a 'Content Patch' that is full of bugs, and usually screws up the game for weeks if not months. Finally, they now have stated a goal of releasing yearly expansions (yeah, that'll happen!). If we are to use TBC as the prototypical expansion for WoW (i.e., they'll all come out in a similar manner), then they will be delayed, but also among the smoothest new content releases for WoW.
So, what does this all mean? It means that Blizzard will torture their players with nerfs and bad patches for 1-2 years, then reward their loyalty with a semi-decent expansion. Then the cycle begins anew.
Currently playing:
LOTRO, Rift (beta) and WoW (on occasion)
My youtube MMO gaming channel
8.5m subscribers x $15 a month = $127.5m a month
$127.5m a month x 12 months = $1.53b a year
$1.53b a year / 365 days = ~$4.2m a day
Over four million dollars per day, lol...
~$4.2m a day / 24 hours = ~$175,000 an hour
~$175,000 an hour / 60 minutes = ~$2,910 a minute
~$2,910 a minute / 60 seconds = ~$48.52 a second
alouth vivendi entertainment is over a billion.
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.