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800,000 Subscribers in Four Months!!
observer
Member RarePosts: 3,685
Privately held Turbine refuses to reveal the number of actual subscribers, who pay $50 for game software and a monthly subscription fee of around $15. But since each LOTRO subscription lets the player create up to five characters, the game has attracted at least 800,000 subscribers in just four months. That would give Turbine, and its publishing partner Midway Games Inc. of Chicago, subscription revenue of at least $12 million a month or $144 million a year, plus $40 million for the game software sold so far.
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/09/08/turbine_stakes_its_online_game_turf/
Comments
That isnt entirely accurate unless it takes into account that out of 4 million characters created how many were deleted? I know I have deleted quite a few characters that werent what I expected them to be...
I play the game. I like the game, but what "new" math did the writer use to make the leap in logic from "5" characters per account, to... that means 800,000 subscriptions?
The foundation of his presumption is flawed too. Its five characters per server, not account. Your account has the capability to hold a total of 35 characters on the seven servers.
So according to the formula that the writer used, it would mean that there could be 5.6 million subscriptions?
Or would you divide the 800,00 by 7, getting 114,285?
That writer better go check his facts again.
"Don't corpse-camp that idea. Its never gonna rez"
Bladezz (The Guild)
This writer is totally out in left field.... doesn't have a clue but the most of his readers won't realize it so I guess it doesn't matter.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Hate LOTRO, fine. Start your own thread, but don't hijack this one.
"Don't corpse-camp that idea. Its never gonna rez"
Bladezz (The Guild)
Gawd, next Turbine will be quoting this article in ads to show how well LotRO is doing.
I R statistics man , these R no Good statistics.
Really tho i think people have posted the flaws to this logic, also what about trail characters opps another 5, at least, characters per one of those down the drain.
"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one ..." - Thomas Paine
I didnt read the article, but I'd be willing ot bet the free week long trial that is going on was not taking into account for those number either. I tried the game for a couple days on a free account, it seemed to me a lot of people were trying it, but not many stayed it would seem.
Anyways the trails (buddies and open) DO COUNT TOWARD the 4 million characters. However the article ignored this, along with an account having more than 5 character via characters on multiple servers, and deleted characters.
So the missed a lot. and i think this is what you were saying.
"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one ..." - Thomas Paine
I wonder how the reporter managed to do enough research to figure out that you get five toons per server. but not enough to realize that you can have toons on as many servers as you like? Yet again all we can conclude is that we have no real idea how many subs the game has. . . .
I don't want to write this, and you don't want to read it. But now it's too late for both of us.
-sigh-
Poor, poor dead horse.
I'm going to write an open letter to all major publications imploring them to please stay the hell away from trying to determine how many subscribers or characters, or any other form of stats to indicate how well LoTRO is doing.
When Turbine decides they want to make those numbers publically known, they'll do so (and some people will still accuse them of lying, or inventing numbers, of course... but I digress).
Until that day comes, I wish people would just leave it alone.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
If you had bothered to read the box when you bought it or read up on the game you would of known that the game at this time is only in eraidor and the places you wanted to see are not in the game yet. That is your fault not turbines cause they did not claim you would see those places yet.
I guess no one can put 2 and 2 together here. Boston Globe... Turbine based in Boston... doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out.
Perception is Reality.
please, not again one of those "LOTRO HAS 3452346 BILION MILIONS OMF" blind fanboy posts.
learn to calculate&think, or how to use search.
Anyways the trails (buddies and open) DO COUNT TOWARD the 4 million characters. However the article ignored this, along with an account having more than 5 character via characters on multiple servers, and deleted characters.
So the missed a lot. and i think this is what you were saying.
Can you back that up? Nothing iv'e read has said that trials dont't count... they've jsut said that 4 million characters have been created.. not 4 million on paid for accounts
The OP is not a fanboy, far from it.
Anyone who has an intellect of a 10 year old or better, can imemdiately find out that the author of the linked article has absolutely and totally no clue what he/she is talking about. This person heard about "4 million characters" somewhere, did a "a lot of" investigation about the game, found out about the 5 chars/server, and then took his/her calculator and divided 4 mil by 5. That's all we can expect - utter ignorance
. Didn't even know what a "server", an "account "and a "character" is.
To argue in this topic is as worthwile as trying to kill a sand dune by poking a sharp stick into it, for a whole day. Or banging our heads to the wall for hours.
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
"Turbine said this week that its Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) game is now the second-most popular massively multiplayer online game, after World of Warcraft, which claims 9 million subscribers."
Ok, I have LotR and play it on occassion, its a good game no question I also betaed for a year.
BUT
Where the f*&% did these guys get their info? It is not accurate from what I can see.
First, there has been no offical anouncement at all
http://www.thelordoftheringsonline.com/index.php?page_id=55&siid=5
Or in other sites that track the game industry like Gamespot for example
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/middleearthonline/index.html?tag=tabs;summary
Second, 800k does not make it the second most played. Not that there are 800k.
This line also doesn't jive with a Midway press release on Aug 2 2007
its publishing partner Midway Games Inc. of Chicago, subscription revenue of at least $12 million a month or $144 million a year, plus $40 million for the game software sold so far.
v.s.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/middleearthonline/news.html?sid=6176030&om_act=convert&om_clk=newsfeatures&tag=newsfeatures;title;3
Midway's shortcoming comes on the heels of several high-profile second-quarter launches. With solid reviews, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar sold over 172,000 copies during the quarter, including the special edition of the game. (GameSpot originally reported erroneous NPD Group data putting the number at 71,000 units, and regrets the error.) Meanwhile, the Wii edition of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon only moved about 38,500 units, and the critically drubbed Hour of Victory sold just 16,456 units at retail domestically.
Since Aug 2 did they suddenly sell another 650,000 olus units and added supporting servers? I played last night and there were only 12 servers and no log in queue.
ha that quote is great too.. it doesnt say anything about its numbers.. just that its popular.. i could argue that I am the 2nd most popular game.. my hair is waay cooler and the girls dig me
I think we're now beating the dust of the dead horse's skeleton here...
Who the hell cares about # of subscribers ??? C'mon, there is a FREE TRIAL going on, I can hardly play the game anymore on Snowbourn, the "server overload" icon is out there 90% of the time....
My only problem is that now it's quite easy to find total noobs and morons for PUG's, due to the many many kids and MMO virgins flooding LOTRO. (I'm trying to level my minstrel with fellowship quests, but boy, some ppl have just 0 idea how NOT to aggro
Subscriber number is not an issue for Turbine, that I can tell...
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
I think we're now beating the dust of the dead horse's skeleton here...
Who the hell cares about # of subscribers ??? C'mon, there is a FREE TRIAL going on, I can hardly play the game anymore on Snowbourn, the "server overload" icon is out there 90% of the time....
My only problem is that now it's quite easy to find total noobs and morons for PUG's, due to the many many kids and MMO virgins flooding LOTRO. (I'm trying to level my minstrel with fellowship quests, but boy, some ppl have just 0 idea how NOT to aggro
Subscriber number is not an issue for Turbine, that I can tell...
DB
Thats true, personally I don't care but I feel quarrelsome
Its a solid game but not doing this well. All it means overall is MMOs will continue to be the same and some CEO will be getting a big fat bonus this year while we pull our puds over how large its gonna be.
ha that quote is great too.. it doesnt say anything about its numbers.. just that its popular.. i could argue that I am the 2nd most popular game.. my hair is waay cooler and the girls dig me
What really bothers me about how these guys spin the numbers is this. Its ok to report that WoW has 9 million subs even though only about 2 to 2.5 million are U.S. but its not "ok" to report that L2 has 1.2 million or L1 has 2 million because the U.S. sub base is under 100k each. L1 and L2 still hold the number 2 and 3 spots. FFXI taking the fourth spot. (paid anyway, there are several free to play that can claim far more active players)
LotR simply does not have enough servers to show 800k subs.
EDIT
I still stand by guess of 250k subs by the end of its first year. A more then respectible number for a western MMO. (I am beginning to have my doubts though as no new servers are being added to support any substancial growth dispite free trials and discounted monthly fees.
Someone on the VN boards actually did a /who on all US servers at different hours. This was when the game was only around a month or less old too.
There was around 2000-3000 on 11 US servers. It didn't add up any /afk or /anonymous people though, so it was probably even more.
Gamespot derived their numbers of boxes sold from Midway's quarterly report... which made no mention of Lotro or boxes sold. It did mention a $10 million dollar profit... but that's it. Gamespot then used some kinda magic mojo formula to come up with the box sales.
Here is the link to Midway's sales # :
www.midway.com/rxpage/mpr_12064.html
To see the table I have included below... you'll have to go to the PDF that they have a link for in the above link, I've included a link to the PDF here as well:
www.midway.com/assets/press/documents/MWY_Q2_2007.pdf
MIDWAY GAMES INC. Net Revenues by Platform (in thousands)
Three Months Ending June 30, 2007
If you don't believe me... look on the internet for as long as you want to try and find an official release of box sales. You won't find it. The box sales number is just like Boston Globes 800k subs. number... a complete guess without any clue as to it's accuracy.
Hey, just got an idea. Perhaps someone smarter than I could come up with a formula or a program that would analyze the amount of gold selling spam and translate that into reliable subscription numbers. Bingo! A way to find out sub. #'s for any MMO we want.
3000 on 11 server is 33.000. considering peak population usually represent about 1/3 of the total, we have 100K on Us server. that is a quite nice number.
With EU combined, that mean they could have 200K subscriptions, quite the rarity nowadays. It would make LOTRO a succesful game.
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
Sorry but I just can't see 800k playing the game. I played for 10 days on the trial an did not like it at all. I never saw anybody. I thinkI heard 4 guys on chat in that time. Something I was not used to coming over from WoW and FFXI.