I'll get the admissions out of the way first: 1. Funcom did better than I thought they would. By a good million dollars. By every indication I had the company losing ~25% of its revenue. That number was apparently ~12.5%. Good for Funcom. Now to the facts: 1. Funcom is not keeping trial players. You really only get one kick at the cat with a free trial, and Funcom failed miserably here. The technical term for this is 'talking out of your ass'. The report actually says "this combined with an increase in new customers in Q1 2009 has lead to a stable and solid subscriber base for the game". 2. The situation is only getting worse. Funcom is losing revenue from AO (whatever amount of the $1 million/quarter it was earning in 2007-2008 being a mystery) and from Age of Conan. How can you know this? Well you don't, but history makes it pretty clear. Funcom has NEVER missed its guidance and its guidance is anywhere from $700,000 to $2,700,000 lower. That means Funcom is anticipating losing anywhere from 10% of its revenue to nearly one third. You can spin a 10-33% loss in revenue ANYWAY YOU WISH, but it is still a horrible situation. Remember, Funcom has 6 weeks of the 12 week data already in. They know. Here in the real world Funcom had an EAT of about 1.5 million USD. 3. They still have 14 million dollars in short term debt (or equivalents). As those come due over the next year, it will continually eat at their supposed "strong cash position". Not to mention to have any hope of being viable they will need to spend heavily on advertising The Secret World and the AoC expansion. A lot of stupid things here. You're complaining about their revenue but then telling them to spend money on advertising The Secret World - which brings in no additional revenue. They have 14 million in STD, and 39 million in cash. 39-14= 25 million, which at their current rate of operating expenses plenty to pay for 5 years of supporting two games and making a third. 4. No doubt they are making a US profit...their operating expenses are plunging as the currency gets hammered. But it also eats at their cash position. Cash that is increasingly becoming hard to find as revenues decrease EVERY QUARTER. A significant part of their revenue (I would actually guess the majority of their revenue) is in USD, which they then have to convert to pay for their servers and employees, so most of this is already reflected in their report. You don't know what currency their 'cash position' is held in. Assuming that it is held in USD because they do their reporting in USD is stupid. Almost every consumer goods company has revenues decrease from the 4th quarter to the 1st quarter. Have you ever heard of something called 'Christmas'? 5. A game can't grow if they can't afford to advertise it. And the continual cost cutting (in two quarters Funcom has cut its operating expense by 60%). At some point you can't cut your operating expense anymore and you are left with spending and going into debt or cutting staff. For someone who is so quick to throw up a wall on nonsense text, it's really amazing that you can't read. "The average customer acquisition cost through marketing for Age of
Conan has been lower than the estimated customer value, and the
Company will increase marketing spend in the next months to test if it
can grow the game profitably." Let me try to make that even more simple for you "We spend $10 to get a new customer, and we get $40 for spending that $10". So sure, spin this quarterly report anyway you want. To me it looks dismal. I agree something is dismal, but it's your business acumen, not Funcom's viability. Since the beginning of the month, Funcom's stock price has climbed by 20%, and it rose after the quarterly report was released. You know why? Because professionals who evaluate companies for a living read the Q1 report and were pleased with what they saw. If you litigate as well as you go through financials, you should be disbarred.
the truth hurts huh?
ppl playing the aoc trial are not seeing a fun game rather they are seeing a broken game filled with cybering gms and lies from funCON unlike swg pre-cu where everyone who downloaded the trial stayed cuz the pre-cu was one of the best systems in gaming history funCON just fails with aoc
2 funCON is losing money left and right and will have no money by the end of the year then again most of the planet will be out of work by the end of the year thanks in part to the greater depression and that world war 3 is about to start
3 owing money means that they will not make money
4 the dollar is going to be dead by years end so anything funCOM makes in the u.s. is worthless already
5 i have yet to see any ads for aoc
if aoc had gone with a skill point system and made the game more about pvp then aoc could stay around however as i have said we are in the greater depression and the opening of the next world war
When the hell did everyone become a Financial expert all of a sudden? Cant we just blast game mechanics of games we dont like? Must we pull out the spread sheets with annual profits? Aren't we geeky enough for playing God damn MMOs? Must we add onto that and add stock market lackies also? AoC suxs ass. I hope AoC dies and when AOs graphics Revamp Failcom realizes that they made a massive mistake by pulling the devs off a much better MMO. AO>AoC Easily!!!!
Yes for the love of all thats holy, let it die and every other MMO should die as well, they all suck, they are all clones, they all fail. How many will go into orgasm spaz mode at the death of this one?
I hate to add to the negativity (though I dislike Funcom as a company, I do wish only the best for their rank and file), but I'm surprised Funcom hasn't yet realized that this insular market is unforgiving and has a long memory. Forget their current financial status: none of their future MMOs stand a chance because their potential market will simply not buy it. Do I sound alarmist and trite? Maybe. But I bet I'm right.
They need to pack it up, sell off whatever IP that's still useful, and regroup under a an inconspicuous flag. And they need to trim the dead weight that's been contributing to their recent failures in the process.
Ugh, I really do hate to post such vitriol, but if ever a MMO developer deserved it, it's Funcom right now.
AoC will survive and continue to grow. Funcom will continue to expand their projects. So shut the f*ck up with this stupid discussion. Just kidding. It will all go to hell. It has been predicted by all the Wich orangutang Wins profets on this forum. All hail WoW and all that is stupid!
I'll get the admissions out of the way first: 1. Funcom did better than I thought they would. By a good million dollars. By every indication I had the company losing ~25% of its revenue. That number was apparently ~12.5%. Good for Funcom. Now to the facts: 1. Funcom is not keeping trial players. You really only get one kick at the cat with a free trial, and Funcom failed miserably here. The technical term for this is 'talking out of your ass'. The report actually says "this combined with an increase in new customers in Q1 2009 has lead to a stable and solid subscriber base for the game". Funcom's version of stabilization is "reduced attrition". So they are losing subscribers, albeit slower than before. Or perhaps you can explain how these "new customers" combined with a "stable...subscriber base" equals a loss of revenue in Q2? 2. The situation is only getting worse. Funcom is losing revenue from AO (whatever amount of the $1 million/quarter it was earning in 2007-2008 being a mystery) and from Age of Conan. How can you know this? Well you don't, but history makes it pretty clear. Funcom has NEVER missed its guidance and its guidance is anywhere from $700,000 to $2,700,000 lower. That means Funcom is anticipating losing anywhere from 10% of its revenue to nearly one third. You can spin a 10-33% loss in revenue ANYWAY YOU WISH, but it is still a horrible situation. Remember, Funcom has 6 weeks of the 12 week data already in. They know. Here in the real world Funcom had an EAT of about 1.5 million USD. And in the real world, if your revenue drops another ~1-3 million dollars, that means continued and unending losses from this point forward. 3. They still have 14 million dollars in short term debt (or equivalents). As those come due over the next year, it will continually eat at their supposed "strong cash position". Not to mention to have any hope of being viable they will need to spend heavily on advertising The Secret World and the AoC expansion. A lot of stupid things here. You're complaining about their revenue but then telling them to spend money on advertising The Secret World - which brings in no additional revenue. They have 14 million in STD, and 39 million in cash. 39-14= 25 million, which at their current rate of operating expenses plenty to pay for 5 years of supporting two games and making a third. I'm not telling Funcom to do anything. I'm describing the reality of their situation. With shrinking Age of Conan revenues (estimated to be down 11-13 million dollars year over year) they will need to spend a boatload of cash to even have a chance of making The Secret World viable (or an AoC expansion, or another project). Otherwise they are going to shrink into obscurity or go bankrupt. And sorry, Funcom at a minimum burns through 15 million + a year...take 4 million dollars a quarter as a minimum. EXCLUDING DEPRECIATION Funcom's operating expenses were 36 million dollars last year. They needed that to ship and market Age of Conan by itself. As a parallel, it means they probably have an AoC expansion and The Secret World left. So...get real. 4. No doubt they are making a US profit...their operating expenses are plunging as the currency gets hammered. But it also eats at their cash position. Cash that is increasingly becoming hard to find as revenues decrease EVERY QUARTER. A significant part of their revenue (I would actually guess the majority of their revenue) is in USD, which they then have to convert to pay for their servers and employees, so most of this is already reflected in their report. You don't know what currency their 'cash position' is held in. Assuming that it is held in USD because they do their reporting in USD is stupid. Almost every consumer goods company has revenues decrease from the 4th quarter to the 1st quarter. Have you ever heard of something called 'Christmas'? Funcom itself said it benefited from the plunge in currency...and considering it raised a good chunk of its cash position from sale of stock, there is a good chance much of it is in NOK. And as for revenues decreasing because it is not Christmas? MMO's are not seasonal...people don't sign up for a month and then quit. BUT if they did, that revenue would roll over into Q1 to the exclusion of Q4. Which...if your tangent is true...means Funcom's situation is even worse. But I don't wish to use your own line of argument against you...especially when it is based on flawed premises. Consider that a friendly reminder that you aren't going to sneak nonsense past me. 5. A game can't grow if they can't afford to advertise it. And the continual cost cutting (in two quarters Funcom has cut its operating expense by 60%). At some point you can't cut your operating expense anymore and you are left with spending and going into debt or cutting staff. For someone who is so quick to throw up a wall on nonsense text, it's really amazing that you can't read. "The average customer acquisition cost through marketing for Age of
Conan has been lower than the estimated customer value, and the
Company will increase marketing spend in the next months to test if it
can grow the game profitably." Let me try to make that even more simple for you "We spend $10 to get a new customer, and we get $40 for spending that $10". Oh please. The "estimated customer value"? You mean some mythical number based on how long they think new subscribers will now stay? In addition, the cost based on their evaluation of the single "kick at the cat" free trial that they offered? Good Lord. If they use that metric they will be in a world of trouble...after offering that free trial, beyond offering free time to old players, every single subscription past that will cost them WAY more money. And that fact is based on something called common sense. Offering free trials to new players and free time to old players is the most cost efficient way to bring in new players. But it works best the first time...and after that the returns will be diminishing. Funcom has used one of these already and it doesn't look like it worked well. What are they going to do after that? So sure, spin this quarterly report anyway you want. To me it looks dismal. I agree something is dismal, but it's your business acumen, not Funcom's viability. Since the beginning of the month, Funcom's stock price has climbed by 20%, and it rose after the quarterly report was released. You know why? Because professionals who evaluate companies for a living read the Q1 report and were pleased with what they saw. If you litigate as well as you go through financials, you should be disbarred. I'll ignore the ad hominem and focus on the facts. Funcom stock was trading at 47 NOK last year at this time...it's now at 6. Sure its tracking off its lows of 3-4...big deal. Perhaps when it trades at 50% of its IPO we can talk. Until then the stock is a lightly traded gamble based on investors and professionals who obviously look at balance sheets instead of the company. Its balance sheet gets a C+, maybe a B-, but its product line gets an F. Lit
Truly, anyone who "personally" hopes for a game to fail is a s*ck f**k.........
If you are paying it is one thing but if you are not, and spend time typing screeds against a game, you need to re-evaulate your life.
In that case I guess every restaurant, movie, book, and music critic on the planet needs to reevaluate along with anyone who reviews cars, appliances etc.
I always thought these forums were for discussions about the game, not just a place for shills and fanbois to post bogus information, astroturf ( ohmygawd I am so happy I resubbed) posts and free advertising like 20 has it changed posts a month
Truly, anyone who "personally" hopes for a game to fail is a s*ck f**k.........
If you are paying it is one thing but if you are not, and spend time typing screeds against a game, you need to re-evaulate your life.
In that case I guess every restaurant, movie, book, and music critic on the planet needs to reevaluate along with anyone who reviews cars, appliances etc.
I always thought these forums were for discussions about the game, not just a place for shills and fanbois to post bogus information, astroturf ( ohmygawd I am so happy I resubbed) posts and free advertising like 20 has it changed posts a month
No your right. Its a place for self appointed experts to pick apart every game on the market and tell us what is wrong with each one. Boy those dummies that play AOC sure need to come here and get clued in.
A quick glance through Grimfalls post history shows that he is a Diehard, incapable of accepting Funcoms / AoCs faults. You would be better off spending your time giving those of us that enjoy your "style" your predictions on the next quarter :P.
i gave it a try recently. pvp servers are kind of unplayable because you'll get assasined every few minutes unless your in a group. next time i go hyboria I'll try a pve server. directx 10 mode is impressing though. i guess they now have a slight advantage over vanguard from the visual view.
I honestly don't think the game is dying, because it really hasn't had a chance to truly live and become the game it was meant to be. I played a couple months ago and got to 60 pretty quickly (by that point I needed a break) and was roleplaying every day with my guild and I had a ton of fun.
I don't think AoC is the game it needs to be yet though and it'll take some more time for that to happen. You can't really call the game dead until either nobody is subscribed any longer or if the devs officially shut the doors. I hope for the best and I think it can be a great game if they work out some of the less appealing features (crafting for me was utterly bland).
I'll ignore the ad hominem and focus on the facts. Funcom stock was trading at 47 NOK last year at this time...it's now at 6. Sure its tracking off its lows of 3-4...big deal. Perhaps when it trades at 50% of its IPO we can talk. Until then the stock is a lightly traded gamble based on investors and professionals who obviously look at balance sheets instead of the company. Its balance sheet gets a C+, maybe a B-, but its product line gets an F. Lit
The reason for the stock being traded at 47 NOK wasn't because there was a real value in the company that made it worth this much. financial analyst's in Norway at that time said the stock was hyped up, they estimated the real value to be around 16-18 NOK not 46+++. But the hype surrounding the game made a huge amount of people in terested in the stock and it kept climbing until it fell like a bomb.
Playing: Battlefield - Bad company (Xbox360) Arma2, DFO (PC) On my radar: TSW, MO MMO's played: SWG (pre cu/cu), WoW, AoC, WAR, DFO, Planetside MMO's that I have tested: Lotro, L2, Aion, Ryzom
I'll ignore the ad hominem and focus on the facts. Funcom stock was trading at 47 NOK last year at this time...it's now at 6. Sure its tracking off its lows of 3-4...big deal. Perhaps when it trades at 50% of its IPO we can talk. Until then the stock is a lightly traded gamble based on investors and professionals who obviously look at balance sheets instead of the company. Its balance sheet gets a C+, maybe a B-, but its product line gets an F. Lit
The reason for the stock being traded at 47 NOK wasn't because there was a real value in the company that made it worth this much. financial analyst's in Norway at that time said the stock was hyped up, they estimated the real value to be around 16-18 NOK not 46+++. But the hype surrounding the game made a huge amount of people in terested in the stock and it kept climbing until it fell like a bomb.
Don't confuse the issues with facts.
The fact that this rocket surgeon hasn't played their games recently if at all, but grades them at an 'F', is also a joke.
Professionals = good report, buy the stock.
Litigator = The game I haven't played in a year sucks, even though I haven't played it and I don't really know what I am talking about. I make suppositions and try to cast them in the light of facts, when they're really just BS to support my demented agenda, the company is going bankrupt.
Funcom itself said it benefited from the plunge in currency...and considering it raised a good chunk of its cash position from sale of stock, there is a good chance much of it is in NOK. So, you've contradicted yourself here. They didn't benefit from the flucuating currency rates ('plunge in currency doesn't make any sense'), but it makes their USD numbers look better. The facts that I pointed out, are still all accurate, while yours still don't make any sense. If their revenue comes in a weak currency, and their expenses are in a strong currency... well, ask someone who took an Economics 101 class to explain to you why that's bad.
And as for revenues decreasing because it is not Christmas? MMO's are not seasonal...people don't sign up for a month and then quit. Box sales are seasonal. Duh!
BUT if they did, that revenue would roll over into Q1 to the exclusion of Q4. Which...if your tangent is true...means Funcom's situation is even worse. The work that has gone into making the boxes is done. The money they get from box sales is profit-manufacturing and distribution. But I don't wish to use your own line of argument against you...especially when it is based on flawed premises. That people buy computer games for Christmas? Yes, that's a flawed premise. You're a sharp one. Consider that a friendly reminder that you aren't going to sneak nonsense past me. Duh!
"The average customer acquisition cost through marketing for Age of
Conan has been lower than the estimated customer value, and the
Company will increase marketing spend in the next months to test if it
can grow the game profitably."
Let me try to make that even more simple for you "We spend $10 to get a new customer, and we get $40 for spending that $10".
Oh please. The "estimated customer value"? You mean some mythical number based on how long they think new subscribers will now stay? Yes, almost every single company does this. Did you take any business classes when you were getting your universtiy of Phoenix online degree? This is how you forcast sales, you don't just lick your finger and stick it in the air,
In addition, the cost based on their evaluation of the single "kick at the cat" free trial that they offered? Good Lord. If they use that metric they will be in a world of trouble...after offering that free trial, beyond offering free time to old players, every single subscription past that will cost them WAY more money. It's really amazing that you could spend times on these forums and be so blatantly ignorant of the business model of MMO's. MMO's spend money in developement and start up costs, then make a shit load of profit with very little additional overhead. The variable cost for a new subscriber is surely less than $1 a month, unless you want to add in new servers, but since they don't need to buy any servers at this point, that doesn't apply. Seriously, what do you think costs so much money?
And that fact is based on something called common sense. Offering free trials to new players and free time to old players is the most cost efficient way to bring in new players. But it works best the first time...and after that the returns will be diminishing. Funcom has used one of these already and it doesn't look like it worked well. What are they going to do after that? This is the reading part. Right there in the report, which I quoted to you, it says it did work well, and that they are going to... focus here, all of your 34 functioning synapses please... increase spending on advertising. If it didn't work, why would they do that? Seriously.
I don't know how anyone can spin this. It is very simple
Revenues, which are almost entirely AOC subscriptions, decreased by 13% when comparing Nov-Dec to Jan-Mar. Funcom is also predicting that revenues will decrease another 20% when comparing Jan-Mar to Apr-June. That means at the end of June, Funcom is expecting AOC to have about 40% less subscribers than it did in December. These are all numbers given by FUNCOM.
I don't know how anyone can spin this. It is very simple Revenues, which are almost entirely AOC subscriptions, decreased by 13% when comparing Nov-Dec to Jan-Mar. Funcom is also predicting that revenues will decrease another 20% when comparing Jan-Mar to Apr-June. That means at the end of June, Funcom is expecting AOC to have about 40% less subscribers than it did in December. These are all numbers given by FUNCOM.
Funcom keeps generating less and less money from Age of Conan. Is anyone surprised? Funcom surely is not as they keep predicting it.
They made money from lowering costs, Firing people, cutting back on electricity, whatever. If they fire a bunch of people this month they will probably make money next quarter too. They are never making their 33 million they wasted making this game back but it wouldn't hurt cutting more costs.
The advertising dollars spent on the expansion and the next game is what will kill them not making less money every quarter from AoC, though that is tragic too, don't you find?
Funcom keeps generating less and less money from Age of Conan. Is anyone surprised? Funcom surely is not as they keep predicting it. They made money from lowering costs, Firing people, cutting back on electricity, whatever. If they fire a bunch of people this month they will probably make money next quarter too. They are never making their 33 million they wasted making this game back but it wouldn't hurt cutting more costs. The advertising dollars spent on the expansion and the next game is what will kill them not making less money every quarter from AoC, though that is tragic too, don't you find?
There are just too many people that can't understand why the financials matter. Look at dx10 right now. it is semi-implemented with a ton of bugs and most people have turned it off. Is it ever going to get fixed and fully implemented? maybe by the 2nd anniversary. Let's look at the 'big patch' that is coming. Where is it? how many months til it gets put on a test realm? How long will it linger on a test realm with no QA team actually testing it, only players.
The only way TSW will ever get launched is if Funcom continues to drastically cut the dev team of AOC. the amount of content added to AOC over this first year is tiny compared to most games and as the subscriptions fall (again, Funcom is predicting 20% decline this quarter), the dev team will just keep disappearing also.
The content being added is like a free2play game (AO), no reason to pay $15/month if nothing is being added to the game. the most significant things done to the game since last September have been the server mergers and the free trial, not content.
It's really amazing that you could spend times on these forums and be so blatantly ignorant of the business model of MMO's. MMO's spend money in developement and start up costs, then make a shit load of profit with very little additional overhead. The variable cost for a new subscriber is surely less than $1 a month, unless you want to add in new servers, but since they don't need to buy any servers at this point, that doesn't apply. Seriously, what do you think costs so much money?
Interesting, FC themselves claimed that almost 50% of the subscription fee goes directly to cover the cost of bandwidth and the server leases. (they sub out for both of those services)
Your theory that all MMO costs are incured upfront and than they 'sit back and rake it in' seems to forget that EVERY MMO has to continually add content free or paid for ( expansions ) to keep its population from getting bored and heading to another game for newer challenges. Not to mention that every Dev house continues to debug their game code long after launch ( In FC case they are still trying to write the second half of that's missing from the game).
Upkeep for an MMO is certainly more expensive than what Sally Struthers needs a day to feed the starving kids in Africa
I'll get the admissions out of the way first: 1. Funcom did better than I thought they would. By a good million dollars. By every indication I had the company losing ~25% of its revenue. That number was apparently ~12.5%. Good for Funcom. Now to the facts: 1. Funcom is not keeping trial players. You really only get one kick at the cat with a free trial, and Funcom failed miserably here. 2. The situation is only getting worse. Funcom is losing revenue from AO (whatever amount of the $1 million/quarter it was earning in 2007-2008 being a mystery) and from Age of Conan. How can you know this? Well you don't, but history makes it pretty clear. Funcom has NEVER missed its guidance and its guidance is anywhere from $700,000 to $2,700,000 lower. That means Funcom is anticipating losing anywhere from 10% of its revenue to nearly one third. You can spin a 10-33% loss in revenue ANYWAY YOU WISH, but it is still a horrible situation. Remember, Funcom has 6 weeks of the 12 week data already in. They know. 3. They still have 14 million dollars in short term debt (or equivalents). As those come due over the next year, it will continually eat at their supposed "strong cash position". Not to mention to have any hope of being viable they will need to spend heavily on advertising The Secret World and the AoC expansion. 4. No doubt they are making a US profit...their operating expenses are plunging as the currency gets hammered. But it also eats at their cash position. Cash that is increasingly becoming hard to find as revenues decrease EVERY QUARTER. 5. A game can't grow if they can't afford to advertise it. And the continual cost cutting (in two quarters Funcom has cut its operating expense by 60%). At some point you can't cut your operating expense anymore and you are left with spending and going into debt or cutting staff. So sure, spin this quarterly report anyway you want. To me it looks dismal.
when you present facts you need links that back them up otherwise you're just a waste of air
it is clear aoc will be dead by the end of summer along with failCON and good riddens fc should have learned that you do not lie to your player base if i remember $OE did that and now swg has like 3 people playing
I wondered how long it would be before SOE somehow made it into this thread. So much anger over video games. I wonder what some here will do when something important happens in their lives.
Comments
the truth hurts huh?
ppl playing the aoc trial are not seeing a fun game rather they are seeing a broken game filled with cybering gms and lies from funCON unlike swg pre-cu where everyone who downloaded the trial stayed cuz the pre-cu was one of the best systems in gaming history funCON just fails with aoc
2 funCON is losing money left and right and will have no money by the end of the year then again most of the planet will be out of work by the end of the year thanks in part to the greater depression and that world war 3 is about to start
3 owing money means that they will not make money
4 the dollar is going to be dead by years end so anything funCOM makes in the u.s. is worthless already
5 i have yet to see any ads for aoc
if aoc had gone with a skill point system and made the game more about pvp then aoc could stay around however as i have said we are in the greater depression and the opening of the next world war
Yes for the love of all thats holy, let it die and every other MMO should die as well, they all suck, they are all clones, they all fail. How many will go into orgasm spaz mode at the death of this one?
I hate to add to the negativity (though I dislike Funcom as a company, I do wish only the best for their rank and file), but I'm surprised Funcom hasn't yet realized that this insular market is unforgiving and has a long memory. Forget their current financial status: none of their future MMOs stand a chance because their potential market will simply not buy it. Do I sound alarmist and trite? Maybe. But I bet I'm right.
They need to pack it up, sell off whatever IP that's still useful, and regroup under a an inconspicuous flag. And they need to trim the dead weight that's been contributing to their recent failures in the process.
Ugh, I really do hate to post such vitriol, but if ever a MMO developer deserved it, it's Funcom right now.
AoC will survive and continue to grow. Funcom will continue to expand their projects. So shut the f*ck up with this stupid discussion. Just kidding. It will all go to hell. It has been predicted by all the Wich orangutang Wins profets on this forum. All hail WoW and all that is stupid!
I like turtles
Truly, anyone who "personally" hopes for a game to fail is a s*ck f**k.........
If you are paying it is one thing but if you are not, and spend time typing screeds against a game, you need to re-evaulate your life.
I always thought these forums were for discussions about the game, not just a place for shills and fanbois to post bogus information, astroturf ( ohmygawd I am so happy I resubbed) posts and free advertising like 20 has it changed posts a month
I miss DAoC
I always thought these forums were for discussions about the game, not just a place for shills and fanbois to post bogus information, astroturf ( ohmygawd I am so happy I resubbed) posts and free advertising like 20 has it changed posts a month
No your right. Its a place for self appointed experts to pick apart every game on the market and tell us what is wrong with each one. Boy those dummies that play AOC sure need to come here and get clued in.
Lit,
A quick glance through Grimfalls post history shows that he is a Diehard, incapable of accepting Funcoms / AoCs faults. You would be better off spending your time giving those of us that enjoy your "style" your predictions on the next quarter :P.
MMO Strategy Guides
So you finally admit that you are just guessing.
What happened to your "inside source"....:-p
i gave it a try recently. pvp servers are kind of unplayable because you'll get assasined every few minutes unless your in a group. next time i go hyboria I'll try a pve server. directx 10 mode is impressing though. i guess they now have a slight advantage over vanguard from the visual view.
I honestly don't think the game is dying, because it really hasn't had a chance to truly live and become the game it was meant to be. I played a couple months ago and got to 60 pretty quickly (by that point I needed a break) and was roleplaying every day with my guild and I had a ton of fun.
I don't think AoC is the game it needs to be yet though and it'll take some more time for that to happen. You can't really call the game dead until either nobody is subscribed any longer or if the devs officially shut the doors. I hope for the best and I think it can be a great game if they work out some of the less appealing features (crafting for me was utterly bland).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deYn_efItS0
The reason for the stock being traded at 47 NOK wasn't because there was a real value in the company that made it worth this much. financial analyst's in Norway at that time said the stock was hyped up, they estimated the real value to be around 16-18 NOK not 46+++. But the hype surrounding the game made a huge amount of people in terested in the stock and it kept climbing until it fell like a bomb.
Playing: Battlefield - Bad company (Xbox360) Arma2, DFO (PC)
On my radar: TSW, MO
MMO's played: SWG (pre cu/cu), WoW, AoC, WAR, DFO, Planetside
MMO's that I have tested: Lotro, L2, Aion, Ryzom
The reason for the stock being traded at 47 NOK wasn't because there was a real value in the company that made it worth this much. financial analyst's in Norway at that time said the stock was hyped up, they estimated the real value to be around 16-18 NOK not 46+++. But the hype surrounding the game made a huge amount of people in terested in the stock and it kept climbing until it fell like a bomb.
Don't confuse the issues with facts.
The fact that this rocket surgeon hasn't played their games recently if at all, but grades them at an 'F', is also a joke.
Professionals = good report, buy the stock.
Litigator = The game I haven't played in a year sucks, even though I haven't played it and I don't really know what I am talking about. I make suppositions and try to cast them in the light of facts, when they're really just BS to support my demented agenda, the company is going bankrupt.
Funcom itself said it benefited from the plunge in currency...and considering it raised a good chunk of its cash position from sale of stock, there is a good chance much of it is in NOK. So, you've contradicted yourself here. They didn't benefit from the flucuating currency rates ('plunge in currency doesn't make any sense'), but it makes their USD numbers look better. The facts that I pointed out, are still all accurate, while yours still don't make any sense. If their revenue comes in a weak currency, and their expenses are in a strong currency... well, ask someone who took an Economics 101 class to explain to you why that's bad.
And as for revenues decreasing because it is not Christmas? MMO's are not seasonal...people don't sign up for a month and then quit. Box sales are seasonal. Duh!
BUT if they did, that revenue would roll over into Q1 to the exclusion of Q4. Which...if your tangent is true...means Funcom's situation is even worse. The work that has gone into making the boxes is done. The money they get from box sales is profit-manufacturing and distribution. But I don't wish to use your own line of argument against you...especially when it is based on flawed premises. That people buy computer games for Christmas? Yes, that's a flawed premise. You're a sharp one. Consider that a friendly reminder that you aren't going to sneak nonsense past me. Duh!
"The average customer acquisition cost through marketing for Age of
Conan has been lower than the estimated customer value, and the
Company will increase marketing spend in the next months to test if it
can grow the game profitably."
Let me try to make that even more simple for you "We spend $10 to get a new customer, and we get $40 for spending that $10".
Oh please. The "estimated customer value"? You mean some mythical number based on how long they think new subscribers will now stay? Yes, almost every single company does this. Did you take any business classes when you were getting your universtiy of Phoenix online degree? This is how you forcast sales, you don't just lick your finger and stick it in the air,
In addition, the cost based on their evaluation of the single "kick at the cat" free trial that they offered? Good Lord. If they use that metric they will be in a world of trouble...after offering that free trial, beyond offering free time to old players, every single subscription past that will cost them WAY more money. It's really amazing that you could spend times on these forums and be so blatantly ignorant of the business model of MMO's. MMO's spend money in developement and start up costs, then make a shit load of profit with very little additional overhead. The variable cost for a new subscriber is surely less than $1 a month, unless you want to add in new servers, but since they don't need to buy any servers at this point, that doesn't apply. Seriously, what do you think costs so much money?
And that fact is based on something called common sense. Offering free trials to new players and free time to old players is the most cost efficient way to bring in new players. But it works best the first time...and after that the returns will be diminishing. Funcom has used one of these already and it doesn't look like it worked well. What are they going to do after that? This is the reading part. Right there in the report, which I quoted to you, it says it did work well, and that they are going to... focus here, all of your 34 functioning synapses please... increase spending on advertising. If it didn't work, why would they do that? Seriously.
6- who cares?
im playing a cool game, i dont have problems grouping up for any reason, i have a huge patch comming up... so i dont really care about any of that.
I don't know how anyone can spin this. It is very simple
Revenues, which are almost entirely AOC subscriptions, decreased by 13% when comparing Nov-Dec to Jan-Mar. Funcom is also predicting that revenues will decrease another 20% when comparing Jan-Mar to Apr-June. That means at the end of June, Funcom is expecting AOC to have about 40% less subscribers than it did in December. These are all numbers given by FUNCOM.
Did you get it from this source? http://www.funcom.com/funcom/frontend/files/CONTENT/FUNCOM-Q109-presentation.pdf
Funcom keeps generating less and less money from Age of Conan. Is anyone surprised? Funcom surely is not as they keep predicting it.
They made money from lowering costs, Firing people, cutting back on electricity, whatever. If they fire a bunch of people this month they will probably make money next quarter too. They are never making their 33 million they wasted making this game back but it wouldn't hurt cutting more costs.
The advertising dollars spent on the expansion and the next game is what will kill them not making less money every quarter from AoC, though that is tragic too, don't you find?
Funcom has reviewed all of its assets relevant for
impairment testing. This process has led to
recognition of an impairment loss of around
3,1 MUSD for Age of Conan due to a decrease in
numbers of subscribers for the game. Funcom Q4 10 report.
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=2926123&postcount=7 500 mains/alts on Tyranny in past 30 days - instead of merge servers let's open a new PvP server, again! http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=106427
There are just too many people that can't understand why the financials matter. Look at dx10 right now. it is semi-implemented with a ton of bugs and most people have turned it off. Is it ever going to get fixed and fully implemented? maybe by the 2nd anniversary. Let's look at the 'big patch' that is coming. Where is it? how many months til it gets put on a test realm? How long will it linger on a test realm with no QA team actually testing it, only players.
The only way TSW will ever get launched is if Funcom continues to drastically cut the dev team of AOC. the amount of content added to AOC over this first year is tiny compared to most games and as the subscriptions fall (again, Funcom is predicting 20% decline this quarter), the dev team will just keep disappearing also.
The content being added is like a free2play game (AO), no reason to pay $15/month if nothing is being added to the game. the most significant things done to the game since last September have been the server mergers and the free trial, not content.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/Blade111/KingSpray.gif
Poor funcom, they try and they try but the damage has been done.
Interesting, FC themselves claimed that almost 50% of the subscription fee goes directly to cover the cost of bandwidth and the server leases. (they sub out for both of those services)
Your theory that all MMO costs are incured upfront and than they 'sit back and rake it in' seems to forget that EVERY MMO has to continually add content free or paid for ( expansions ) to keep its population from getting bored and heading to another game for newer challenges. Not to mention that every Dev house continues to debug their game code long after launch ( In FC case they are still trying to write the second half of that's missing from the game).
Upkeep for an MMO is certainly more expensive than what Sally Struthers needs a day to feed the starving kids in Africa
when you present facts you need links that back them up otherwise you're just a waste of air
it is clear
aoc will be dead by the end of summer along with failCON and good riddens fc should have learned that you do not lie to your player base
if i remember $OE did that and now swg has like 3 people playing
I wondered how long it would be before SOE somehow made it into this thread. So much anger over video games. I wonder what some here will do when something important happens in their lives.