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AoC reaches one million copies

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  • VantrasVantras Member Posts: 124

    There is no question that shipping or even selling 1,000,000 units is a success. Certainly a nice $50,000,000 infusion of cash is welcome after so many years in development. The tricky thing about this (and its the same for any business) is making those numbers stick. 

    And shipping so many units does present an interesting problem for them.  They have to launch a ton of servers to accomodate these new customers.  Tons of customer support people, elaborate billing software etc.  I am sure Funcom is in a rapid hiring mode or is signing very large outsource agreements to meet the demand of these 1 million boxes.  The real potential problem comes in month two, three, four-if the game doesnt have stickyness-if AOC is riding a hype and good marketing wave and we see major slippage in subscribers vs. initial buyers we will see Funcom way over extended.  They will have more servers, more employees and more outsource contracts than thier actual subscriber base can support.

    However-if there is stickyness than all wil be just fine.  So its an interesting business problem for the execs at Funcom.  They can sit and rejoice at the awesome number of boxes sold.  After celebrating that for 15 minutes they than have to turn to the real and more difficult problem of exactly how much infrastructure they have to build and maintain to support a subscriber base that could be as high as 1 million + or may be 25%-75% lower than that in the coming months-as players make thier long term committment to stay or leave the game.

    POTBS experienced a similiar problem and misread the tea-leaves.  They took the number of beta sign ups, the buzz on the forums and the number of initial pre-orders sold and decided to launch X number of servers.  They invested heavily in internal capacity to support what they thought would be a significant number of subscriptions. Two things happened to them-the buzz didnt match the game and many many many players who beta'd or logged on in that first month HATED the game.  POTBS was left with about 4x to many servers and internal capacity that far outstripped demand.  It appears as though they have survived for now-but id be shocked if they are operating month to month in the black.  It takes a while and expense to shed excess capacity.

    So..congratulations to AOC for 1,000,000 boxes. I am sure the investors are happy to see at least thier initital investment in development cash paid back.  The real test will be how Funcom balances this huge number with thier own internal capacity to support it vs. the eventual subscription rate.

    As someone that thinks AOC is a stinking pile of garbage I look forward to seeing that subscription rate plummet, servers close and Funcom bleed red for a few quarters-as they digest this over hyped piece of trash.  Id be perfectly happy for the game and the company to survive (I thought AO was awesome) but i really really really dont want anyone in the industry looking to this frankenstein of a game as a model for future MMO's.

  • neonakaneonaka Member UncommonPosts: 779

    Originally posted by warulven


     
    Originally posted by neonaka


     
    Originally posted by Nadia


    even if sub counts are dropping  (and I'm not saying they are)
    that wont be public knowledge until mid August
     

     

    Nadia please do not take this the wrong way, but if you have been hopping around the net to find out the general census of what people are doing in regards to AoC. The sub count is dropping, and it is dropping very fast. You are in denial if you think AoC is on the rise.

     

    The game will survive don't get me wrong, it is going to have it's players. Just not a large number, I am still expecting it to land somewhere next to Lord of the Rings in subs, maybe a tad less if they don't get a handle on the things that need fixed faster than what they are going. It will survive tho.

     

    We will see by the end of the year once all the more polished non rushed games hit the shelves how it's sub counts hold up. Hopefully enough to keep it going and not tank the company.

     

    And if you think the forums are a general census of what the majority of aoc players think, then you are the one who is delusional.

    Just because a minority of people are whining about aoc on the forums doesn't mean that most people aren't enjoying it.

    Seriously, everybody I know  who plays it, are having a blast. Yes, there are numerous bugs and issues, but nothing that has stopped them from enjoying it.

    We aren't talking about AoC players, we are talking about people like me who think AoC sucks ass.

    I am not in the "AoC Community" right now i'm in the MMORPG.com community.

    Your view is one sided. with the above red response.

    I don't consider people coming on this forum talking about their bad experience with a game to be whining.

    I consider it to be helpful for people not to waste money on bad products.

    You shouldn't feel threatened by my remarks if you think your game is so great. If it really is that great you have nothing to worry about right?

    AoC had 400k subs at launch. That's all fine and dandy, but I can tell you right now with the amount of bad publicity this game is getting by the users, that number is dropping not growing.

    Regardless if gamespot and all these other major gaming sites are giving this game a 8+ rating (which people know you can't trust that because they play to money not to gamers) It isn't stopping gamers who have played the game to come tell their stories of how the game really is.

    If you like it GREAT!

    Just quit thinking everyone needs to think like you and your buddies. I'm not sitting here trying to force you to quit AoC, I could care less if you play and enjoy it. It isn't going to stop me from calling it a DX10 wannabe shiny piece of shit.

  • SteamRangerSteamRanger Member UncommonPosts: 920
    Originally posted by warulven


     
    Originally posted by neonaka


     
    Originally posted by Nadia


    even if sub counts are dropping  (and I'm not saying they are)
    that wont be public knowledge until mid August
     

     

    Nadia please do not take this the wrong way, but if you have been hopping around the net to find out the general census of what people are doing in regards to AoC. The sub count is dropping, and it is dropping very fast. You are in denial if you think AoC is on the rise.

     

    The game will survive don't get me wrong, it is going to have it's players. Just not a large number, I am still expecting it to land somewhere next to Lord of the Rings in subs, maybe a tad less if they don't get a handle on the things that need fixed faster than what they are going. It will survive tho.

     

    We will see by the end of the year once all the more polished non rushed games hit the shelves how it's sub counts hold up. Hopefully enough to keep it going and not tank the company.

     

    And if you think the forums are a general census of what the majority of aoc players think, then you are the one who is delusional.

    Just because a minority of people are whining about aoc on the forums doesn't mean that most people aren't enjoying it.

    Seriously, everybody I know  who plays it, are having a blast. Yes, there are numerous bugs and issues, but nothing that has stopped them from enjoying it.

     Silly person, how do you think polls are conducted?

    "Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II
    "People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift

  • ZarraaZarraa Member Posts: 481

    While I've not played AOC personaly  I'm wondering where the Vitriol is comming from.

    If these figures are in fact true this is a huge milestone for Funcom. It's almost like people are scared of something. At anyrate congrats are in order. You don't reach that many sales by producing garbage.

    ZV

    Dutchess Zarraa Voltayre
    Reborn/Zero Sum/Ancient Legacy/Jagged Legion/Feared/Nuke & Pave.

  • The user and all related content has been deleted.

    "Freedom is just another name for nothing left to lose" - Janis Joplin
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  • neonakaneonaka Member UncommonPosts: 779

    Originally posted by Nadia


     
    Originally posted by neonaka

     tell someone who leaves a perfectly legit review post and say the cancel or they cancel for now and will wait 6 months to try again.
    These post now across all boards are in the Thousands.
    I see your point but still I would argue that the vast majority of players never visit -any- game forum

     

    (reading or posting)

     

    they see a game in the store or heard about it from their friends - and rest is history

    And Nadia this I will agree with you on, but also just think about all those we KNOW are leaving + all of those we CAN'T SEE because they quit but never go to a forum to say so.

    Then again I can't base anything off the invisible players that do not frequent game forums. I would just logically assume that there are quite a few players that have quit and I will never know it.

  • Originally posted by howardb


     
    The 700.000 initial units of Age of Conan has in large sold out.

    Nope your wrong. You post stories people already post then you make up some funny stories about how thay have sold 700k copies. Yeah, I think someones fanboism is showing.

  • neonakaneonaka Member UncommonPosts: 779

     

    Originally posted by Dethnoble


    Perspective is key.  From one perspective, 1 million boxes 'shipped', seems impressive and WoWesque.  But, from another perspective and being kind, if Funcom actually sold 1,000,000 copies total to retailers at $30 a pop that is $30,000,000 (actual amount total is probably around $20,000,000 with buybacks for unsold copies).  Even now AoC hasn't been profitable yet even when being kind and considering the $30 mil total.
    In the most probable scenario at around $20 million they are still $10 million to $30 million in the hole depending on total investment.  Couple this with the fact that customer service, hosting, maintenance, dev team and marketing all cost added money they need to sustain a healthy subscription number to eat away at that extra $10 million to $30 million.
    Before people start throwing out $15 a month per subscriber goes towards making up the rest of the development costs they have to consider that (depending on subscriber numbers) that probably half that or more goes towards the above expenses.  
    For AoC, we'll be kind, and say they retain 400,000 subscribers after the initial month and operational costs is $5.00 per subscriber.  400,000 x $10.00 = $4 million a month. ( NOTE: If endgame is as bad as people are saying it is then they will be lucky to retain 200,000).   Understand something.  If that subscription number drops to 200,000 the cost per subscriber goes up.   If that number drops to 100,000 then you are probably looking at $10 per subscriber in operational costs.  
    So let us look at the worse case scenario after a few months the subscriptions hit 100,000.  That would be 100,000 x $5 = $500,000 a month.  Though, the actual numbers maybe different depending on  how good a companies financial managers are overall it gives a general idea of WHY subscriptions are paramount in MMOs.
    Ultimately, 1 million units shipped for an MMO isn't something to base your success on.  In truth, Funcom could sell 2 million total copies then drop to 100,000 copies and be a failure.  Though, they may turn a small profit (for many investors a small profit is a failure).

     

    The above poster is smart and knows his shit. QFT

  • GishgeronGishgeron Member Posts: 1,287

    Originally posted by neonaka


     
    Originally posted by Battlekruse


    The development and production cost of Age of Conan is $70 million dollars.



    (49.99 * 400,000) - 70,000,000 = Whoops

     

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

     

    Not quite $20 million, yeah I would say funcom is in a spot of trouble soon.

    They haven't even recouped 1/3 of their production cost yet. With the subs dropping like flies, it could take them close to a year or more to even break even on this game.

      It takes MOST businesses (Not just MMO ones) at least a year to get out of the red.  Its fairly standard in market investment for the investors to expect a year, or more, wait to see a return.  Even WoW didn't make back its investment in the first 5 months. 

      I support you hating AoC, and Funcom, 100%....trust me, I do too.  The choices they made irritate me to no end, but thats neither here nor there.  You have to at least have a core understanding of how a business operates before you state things like "Funcom will be in a spot of trouble soon".  Funcom won't be in trouble until the end of the first year, and only then if they cannot manage at least 150,000+ subs.  Just that figure will net them 27 million a year, not  counting box sales.  It takes VERY little to make an MMO profitable...though I'd never expect one to reach Blizzard numbers regardless. 

      So far as I am aware, only 2 true MMO's have ever seen a massive flop.  Tabula Rasa and Vanguard both fell fatally below the 100K mark (which, I find works well for a great medium to shoot for in projecting profitability.  If someone as poorly educated as I can see that, I'm quite sure the investors think the same way...or shoot even higher.) and it crippled them from the word GO.  The problem here is that MMO's require constant investment to maintain their stability and their subscriptions.  If you score deathly low on the first months...you cannot bring new money back in to update the game.  It creates a situation in which the game starts out on life support...and has no way to afford doctors to save it.

      AoC has already managed to escape that fate, by having its initial numbers be well and above what is required to manage the investment costs and still afford to pay for programmers to keep up with it.  This could easily taper off, as has been seen by other games (SWG, I'm looking at YOU), but its still far too early to tell anything like that based on what we see here.  I've watched these markets for years now, and nothing I've seen has provided me any reason to either doubt its potential success....or overlook its potential to fail.

      Also, OP, boxes shipped means nothing.  Not even a little.  The only reason we even HAVE boxes in the digital age is to act as a buffer for the initial player loss that all games come with.  Simply put, its a way to make a little money back on their investment from players that will hate the game.  Trust me when I say this:  That buffer isn't very large at all.  Worse yet...most retailers demand a buyback program to deal with unsold software.  That means that, in any area which AoC fails to make a big sale, those boxes will end up having to be bought back by Funcom.  Box SALES is far more relevant, and even then not indicative of how well the game will do.  You have to realize that the hype machine for this game was terribly viral.  Many people do not closely follow every detail of the game, and are still expecting things from it which are noticeably absent.

      Lets all wait for the august report, and see from there.

    image

  • kaishi00kaishi00 Member Posts: 299

    Originally posted by Vantras


    There is no question that shipping or even selling 1,000,000 units is a success. Certainly a nice $50,000,000 infusion of cash is welcome after so many years in development. The tricky thing about this (and its the same for any business) is making those numbers stick. 
    And shipping so many units does present an interesting problem for them.  They have to launch a ton of servers to accomodate these new customers.  Tons of customer support people, elaborate billing software etc.  I am sure Funcom is in a rapid hiring mode or is signing very large outsource agreements to meet the demand of these 1 million boxes.  The real potential problem comes in month two, three, four-if the game doesnt have stickyness-if AOC is riding a hype and good marketing wave and we see major slippage in subscribers vs. initial buyers we will see Funcom way over extended.  They will have more servers, more employees and more outsource contracts than thier actual subscriber base can support.
    However-if there is stickyness than all wil be just fine.  So its an interesting business problem for the execs at Funcom.  They can sit and rejoice at the awesome number of boxes sold.  After celebrating that for 15 minutes they than have to turn to the real and more difficult problem of exactly how much infrastructure they have to build and maintain to support a subscriber base that could be as high as 1 million + or may be 25%-75% lower than that in the coming months-as players make thier long term committment to stay or leave the game.
    POTBS experienced a similiar problem and misread the tea-leaves.  They took the number of beta sign ups, the buzz on the forums and the number of initial pre-orders sold and decided to launch X number of servers.  They invested heavily in internal capacity to support what they thought would be a significant number of subscriptions. Two things happened to them-the buzz didnt match the game and many many many players who beta'd or logged on in that first month HATED the game.  POTBS was left with about 4x to many servers and internal capacity that far outstripped demand.  It appears as though they have survived for now-but id be shocked if they are operating month to month in the black.  It takes a while and expense to shed excess capacity.
    So..congratulations to AOC for 1,000,000 boxes. I am sure the investors are happy to see at least thier initital investment in development cash paid back.  The real test will be how Funcom balances this huge number with thier own internal capacity to support it vs. the eventual subscription rate.
    As someone that thinks AOC is a stinking pile of garbage I look forward to seeing that subscription rate plummet, servers close and Funcom bleed red for a few quarters-as they digest this over hyped piece of trash.  Id be perfectly happy for the game and the company to survive (I thought AO was awesome) but i really really really dont want anyone in the industry looking to this frankenstein of a game as a model for future MMO's.

    Your whole post is invalid because you didn't read a single thing other people already posted. They DIDN'T make their developmental investments back yet. They DON'T make $50 per box sold, that's how much stores RETAILS to the players for.

  • HumbleHoboHumbleHobo Member Posts: 116

    This has always been my standpoint on MMOs today:

    Here are the facts. There are millions more people playing MMOs than there were in 2004. It would be foolish to imply that just because an MMO has had a launch with more people WoW, it will gain WoW-like subscriber numbers. It is especially foolish to assume this based on shipped boxes, or even sold boxes.

    The point is, in 2004 the community was not nearly as big. Blizzard gained it's subscriber numbers out of a small community. AoC has released in 2008. There are plenty of people in the market already, and any game will have a much larger pool to draw from. It is far easier to get a lot of people interested in a game today. AoC has a bigger initial launch, but that is to be expected. There is no way you can imply that AoC will eventually become bigger than WoW, because it has a bigger launch.

    Now, for the obligatory "don't flame me" explanation:

    I do not play WoW now, I quit a year ago. I am not from the WoW forums. Please do not call me a fanboi of WoW because I AM NOT. I'm just noting the fact that you cannot compare launches from differing MMO generations.

  • TrashcantoyTrashcantoy Member Posts: 827

    aoc sold waaaay more then most mmos but yes they aint out of the red but that goes for every AAA mmo (at least aoc was intentend to be AAA... ill leave it up to you to if it has that quality:p)

    besides that, wheres the proof that aoc cost 70 million? i heard it cost between 22 and 39 millions. well either source is unreliable to me.

    im glad u hope that funcom goes belly up, i wish all companies to succeed, except codemasters/K2... but thats f2p crap ;)

    neonaka u know nothing of economics btw, stop talking crap

    MMOs currently playing: -
    About to play: Lord of the Rings Online
    Played: Anarchy Online (alltime favorite) and lots of f2p titles (honorable mentions: 9Dragons, Martial Heroes, Dekaron, Atlantica Online)

  • altairzqaltairzq Member Posts: 3,811

    Well I don't think they are printing copies just for hype. Probably they will sell most of them, which is quite surprising. This is really bad news for classic MMO gamers as myself.

  • SteamRangerSteamRanger Member UncommonPosts: 920

     

    Originally posted by Zarraa


    While I've not played AOC personaly  I'm wondering where the Vitriol is comming from.
    If these figures are in fact true this is a huge milestone for Funcom. It's almost like people are scared of something. At anyrate congrats are in order. You don't reach that many sales by producing garbage.
    ZV

    Most of the antagonism comes from the outright lies that Funcom perpetuated about the state of the product before release. People might have been more forgiving had the developers been more candid about what not to expect in the retail version. Instead we were encouraged to believe that there was a "Miracle Build" that would have everything ironed out. Truth is, the released game was little improved from the Open Beta version.

     

    There was what can only be interpreted as an overt attempt to deceive people into buying boxes. Case in point:  Gamespot was allowed to slip the street date on the product several days before the servers would be open. People bought games that they installed and couldn't play. They also couldn't return them since the seal was broken and the code keys compromised. Box sales which would likely not convert to regular monthly subs. Funcom's response was a negligible "Whoopsie!".

    Heck, even the packaging for the game lies. Ask anyone how the game runs on DX10.

    "Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II
    "People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift

  • DethnobleDethnoble Member Posts: 419

    Funcom's marketing department certainly did it's job.  1 million copies 'shipped' != (DOES NOT EQUAL) $50,000,000.  If there was (which there isn't) one million retail boxes sold then that would mean $50,000,000 total coming back (which Funcom would receive maybe $20 mil to $30 mil from). 

    And let me emphasize this point AGAIN. One million boxes SHIPPED isn't  one million boxes SOLD.  In all honesty, most of those extra boxes being shipped may very well be shipped right back to Funcom and become landfill and Funcom may very well have to reimburse the retailers for the ones that get shipped back.

    Marketing, so powerful that even a war mongering baffoon can be elected President. =$

    splat

  • JupstoJupsto Member UncommonPosts: 2,075

    who the hell gives a purple monkey about numbers, either subscribtions or copies sold. they dont make the game good. focus on the reviews, they are all awesome. thats what shows its a good game not the popularity. look at world of warcraft, britney spears, mc donalds. all very popular, all terrible.

    i know this has been said before, but you people need to hear it alot more. age of conan has already beaten wow.

    My blog: image

  • warulvenwarulven Member Posts: 36

    Originally posted by neonaka

    Originally posted by warulven  
     
    And if you think the forums are a general census of what the majority of aoc players think, then you are the one who is delusional.
    Just because a minority of people are whining about aoc on the forums doesn't mean that most people aren't enjoying it.
    Seriously, everybody I know  who plays it, are having a blast. Yes, there are numerous bugs and issues, but nothing that has stopped them from enjoying it.

    We aren't talking about AoC players, we are talking about people like me who think AoC sucks ass.

    I am not in the "AoC Community" right now i'm in the MMORPG.com community.

    Your view is one sided. with the above red response.

    Ahh, so MY view is one sided, while yours is what? objective?


     
    I don't consider people coming on this forum talking about their bad experience with a game to be whining.
    When the same people complain about the same thing over and over again, it's whining.
     
    I consider it to be helpful for people not to waste money on bad products.
    And this if course is pure fact and has nothing to do with your personal opinion.
     
     
    You shouldn't feel threatened by my remarks if you think your game is so great. If it really is that great you have nothing to worry about right?
    Threatened? Now isn't that cute :p
    The only reason I posted is because you're spewing unfounded crap.
    But what you're saying is, that if I don't agree with you and don't think AoC sucks, I shouldn't post?

     
    AoC had 400k subs at launch. That's all fine and dandy, but I can tell you right now with the amount of bad publicity this game is getting by the users, that number is dropping not growing.
    And of course you have numbers to back these statements up?
    Or are you just pulling opinions out your rear end and presenting them as "facts"?
     
    Regardless if gamespot and all these other major gaming sites are giving this game a 8+ rating (which people know you can't trust that because they play to money not to gamers) It isn't stopping gamers who have played the game to come tell their stories of how the game really is.
    Oh yes, all the gaming sites are paid by funcom, I see that now. you want some extra tinfoil with that hat?
     
     
    If you like it GREAT!
    Just quit thinking everyone needs to think like you and your buddies. I'm not sitting here trying to force you to quit AoC, I could care less if you play and enjoy it. It isn't going to stop me from calling it a DX10 wannabe shiny piece of shit.
    Ahh, so now I'M the one telling people what to think? I'm replying to YOUR post.
    YOU'RE the one telling people that AoC sucks and that they shouldn't play it because YOU didn't like it.

     

  • BelsamethBelsameth Member Posts: 193

    Originally posted by neonaka


     
     
    We aren't talking about AoC players, we are talking about people like me who think AoC sucks ass.
    I am not in the "AoC Community" right now i'm in the MMORPG.com community.
    Your view is one sided. with the above red response.
    I don't consider people coming on this forum talking about their bad experience with a game to be whining.
    I consider it to be helpful for people not to waste money on bad products.
    You shouldn't feel threatened by my remarks if you think your game is so great. If it really is that great you have nothing to worry about right?
    AoC had 400k subs at launch. That's all fine and dandy, but I can tell you right now with the amount of bad publicity this game is getting by the users, that number is dropping not growing.

    WoW has 11 million and it's hard to find a post not completely wrecked by whiney trolls either. Your arguement is flawed. Sorry :)

  • VantrasVantras Member Posts: 124

    Originally posted by kaishi00


     
    Originally posted by Vantras


    There is no question that shipping or even selling 1,000,000 units is a success. Certainly a nice $50,000,000 infusion of cash is welcome after so many years in development. The tricky thing about this (and its the same for any business) is making those numbers stick. 
    And shipping so many units does present an interesting problem for them.  They have to launch a ton of servers to accomodate these new customers.  Tons of customer support people, elaborate billing software etc.  I am sure Funcom is in a rapid hiring mode or is signing very large outsource agreements to meet the demand of these 1 million boxes.  The real potential problem comes in month two, three, four-if the game doesnt have stickyness-if AOC is riding a hype and good marketing wave and we see major slippage in subscribers vs. initial buyers we will see Funcom way over extended.  They will have more servers, more employees and more outsource contracts than thier actual subscriber base can support.
    However-if there is stickyness than all wil be just fine.  So its an interesting business problem for the execs at Funcom.  They can sit and rejoice at the awesome number of boxes sold.  After celebrating that for 15 minutes they than have to turn to the real and more difficult problem of exactly how much infrastructure they have to build and maintain to support a subscriber base that could be as high as 1 million + or may be 25%-75% lower than that in the coming months-as players make thier long term committment to stay or leave the game.
    POTBS experienced a similiar problem and misread the tea-leaves.  They took the number of beta sign ups, the buzz on the forums and the number of initial pre-orders sold and decided to launch X number of servers.  They invested heavily in internal capacity to support what they thought would be a significant number of subscriptions. Two things happened to them-the buzz didnt match the game and many many many players who beta'd or logged on in that first month HATED the game.  POTBS was left with about 4x to many servers and internal capacity that far outstripped demand.  It appears as though they have survived for now-but id be shocked if they are operating month to month in the black.  It takes a while and expense to shed excess capacity.
    So..congratulations to AOC for 1,000,000 boxes. I am sure the investors are happy to see at least thier initital investment in development cash paid back.  The real test will be how Funcom balances this huge number with thier own internal capacity to support it vs. the eventual subscription rate.
    As someone that thinks AOC is a stinking pile of garbage I look forward to seeing that subscription rate plummet, servers close and Funcom bleed red for a few quarters-as they digest this over hyped piece of trash.  Id be perfectly happy for the game and the company to survive (I thought AO was awesome) but i really really really dont want anyone in the industry looking to this frankenstein of a game as a model for future MMO's.

     

    Your whole post is invalid because you didn't read a single thing other people already posted. They DIDN'T make their developmental investments back yet. They DON'T make $50 per box sold, that's how much stores RETAILS to the players for.

    Will it make you feel better if i change $50,000,000 to $30,000,000?  Would that validate the rest of the post?  Silly silly...and what if...some stores pay $38 per box while Wal Mart pays $29.50  What then? 

  • GishgeronGishgeron Member Posts: 1,287

    Originally posted by Consensus


    who the hell gives a purple monkey about numbers, either subscribtions or copies sold. they dont make the game good. focus on the reviews, they are all awesome. thats what shows its a good game not the popularity. look at world of warcraft, britney spears, mc donalds. all very popular, all terrible.
    i know this has been said before, but you people need to hear it alot more. age of conan has already beaten wow.

      Review sites!?  Are you MAD!?  By the way, those review sites ALSO said that EQ2, WoW, and LoTR were the best thing since cake...but I'm willing to bet that you have a WONDERFUL reason why they were wrong about THOSE games, but right about AoC?  Hmmm?

      Only one thing shows how good a game is.  Subs, end of story.  If people aren't willing to play your game, then your game isn't good.  I don't care what idiotic, non-conformist, bullshot reason you have to disagree with me about this.  When last I checked, AoC has not yet released its august report...and as such we have no ideal how well the game is doing at all.  What we DO know is that they screwed some things up really badly, and are now rushing to fix it all before they start hemorrhaging subs.  They learned that leaving critical things out of the game is a bad ideal, and are swiftly correcting it.

      How well this works to salvage some of the initial sub loss (which every game receives) has yet to be shown.

      Also, I don't recall seeing that AoC has reached 10 million subs.  I also don't recall seeing any of WoW's 10 million subs go down because AoC released.  Until one of those two happen, making statements like your last line are just plain trolling.  By the way, being an ass isn't a good way to get people to jump ship to your game.  Most of us want a nice and intelligent community to play with.  If you REALLY want WoW to suffer, you're gonna have to at least TRY to act like someone those players want to play with.

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  • Va-leVa-le Member Posts: 61

    Originally posted by neonaka


     
    Originally posted by warulven


     
    Originally posted by neonaka


     
    Originally posted by Nadia


    even if sub counts are dropping  (and I'm not saying they are)
    that wont be public knowledge until mid August
     

     

    Nadia please do not take this the wrong way, but if you have been hopping around the net to find out the general census of what people are doing in regards to AoC. The sub count is dropping, and it is dropping very fast. You are in denial if you think AoC is on the rise.

     

    The game will survive don't get me wrong, it is going to have it's players. Just not a large number, I am still expecting it to land somewhere next to Lord of the Rings in subs, maybe a tad less if they don't get a handle on the things that need fixed faster than what they are going. It will survive tho.

     

    We will see by the end of the year once all the more polished non rushed games hit the shelves how it's sub counts hold up. Hopefully enough to keep it going and not tank the company.

     

    And if you think the forums are a general census of what the majority of aoc players think, then you are the one who is delusional.

    Just because a minority of people are whining about aoc on the forums doesn't mean that most people aren't enjoying it.

    Seriously, everybody I know  who plays it, are having a blast. Yes, there are numerous bugs and issues, but nothing that has stopped them from enjoying it.

     

    We aren't talking about AoC players, we are talking about people like me who think AoC sucks ass.

    I am not in the "AoC Community" right now i'm in the MMORPG.com community.

    Your view is one sided. with the above red response.

    I don't consider people coming on this forum talking about their bad experience with a game to be whining.

    I consider it to be helpful for people not to waste money on bad products.

    You shouldn't feel threatened by my remarks if you think your game is so great. If it really is that great you have nothing to worry about right?

    AoC had 400k subs at launch. That's all fine and dandy, but I can tell you right now with the amount of bad publicity this game is getting by the users, that number is dropping not growing.

    Regardless if gamespot and all these other major gaming sites are giving this game a 8+ rating (which people know you can't trust that because they play to money not to gamers) It isn't stopping gamers who have played the game to come tell their stories of how the game really is.

    If you like it GREAT!

    Just quit thinking everyone needs to think like you and your buddies. I'm not sitting here trying to force you to quit AoC, I could care less if you play and enjoy it. It isn't going to stop me from calling it a DX10 wannabe shiny piece of shit.

    Irony drips from this post.

    i am surprised you are so vocal in your admittance of being a whiner in all honesty, but there we go.There are a lot of things we don't like in life, if everyone whined like little babies every time that was the case then we would have a very flawed society.



    From a subjective point of view the game is a success. i would be more than surprised if the games numbers grew exponentially from here onwards, but it does not require 10 mil subs as validation of it's success.

    AoC is a niche game that will hold a respectable ammount of subs. It's mechanics of skill over gear and ffa pvp are not widely appreciated, but they have their crowds.

  • neonakaneonaka Member UncommonPosts: 779

    OK AoC has now officially become the new SWG.

    No need to hit on the AoC thing anymore.

    For the last time I don't personally care who plays AoC. If you like it great, if you don't great. Noone has said you shouldn't play it.

    I said I quit playing it, I said I know MANY others have quit playing it, I have also said MANY others will CONTINUE to quit playing it. All three of these statements are facts, regardless if you want to believe them or not.

    This game will not grow, I do not need a crystal ball to see this, it is common sense.

    This game is going down down down not up up up. I don't need god to come down from heaven and write up a statistics report for me to know how this games future will unfold, I have been in the genre long enough to know.

    The guy few post back also who said this "Age of Conan has already beaten wow"?

    Are you smoking crack? Would appear so.

    I don't even play wow, but I do know, AoC has not beaten wow in any area, WILL NOT beat wow in any area, it would be lucky if  WoW let it catch a sniff of it's success on the way down. C'mon man get serious.

    I don't know a person alive playing AoC right now, that has the audacity to make a statement like that.... except you apparently.

    Anyway, this entire mess with AoC is getting ridiculous, even more so than AoC's gameplay.

  • jimmyman99jimmyman99 Member UncommonPosts: 3,221

    Hmm, this info is a bit dubious. I mean, shipped boxes? Who cares about shipped boxes? SOLD boxes are $$$, shipped boxes is just an added cost for them, unless they sell it.

    The way they fed us that story seems to indicate they want us to believe their game is very successful. The way they blurred factual data indicates that they are having problems there. After all, its not about shipped product, its about sold product.

    Anyone has any data on relevant info? As in sold boxes or current active subs?

    I am the type of player where I like to do everything and anything from time to time.
    image
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor - pre-WW2 genocide.
    imageimage

  • neonakaneonaka Member UncommonPosts: 779

    Originally posted by jimmyman99


    Hmm, this info is a bit dubious. I mean, shipped boxes? Who cares about shipped boxes? SOLD boxes are $$$, shipped boxes is just an added cost for them, unless they sell it.
    The way they fed us that story seems to indicate they want us to believe their game is very successful. The way they blurred factual data indicates that they are having problems there. After all, its not about shipped product, its about sold product.
    Anyone has any data on relevant info? As in sold boxes or current active subs?

    Exactly, you hit it on the head. They wont post what you just said was important, because if they did, they know it would sink even further into oblivion.

    GG funcom.

  • NadiaNadia Member UncommonPosts: 11,798

    Originally posted by jimmyman99

    Anyone has any data on relevant info? As in sold boxes or current active subs?
    Funcom will not release "official" subscriber info until August 26th, when they release Q2 2008 Financials

     

    most recent press release for player accounts was over 500k for both North America and Europe

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