blizzard got so rich off of WoW

[ussfletcher]

by blizzards own count they have sold some 3.5 million copies well even though they dont get all $50 from every sale that is what i will go with because i dont know how much they really get.. so 3.5m x $50 = $175,000,000
say you pay $120 a year to play it which is low.. its really about $156 but lets say you didnt have it a year alright? so its $120 well
$120 x 3.5m=$420,000,000
add those figures together and for the first year blizz makes a grand total of $595,000,000
does that justify having a $13 a month charge? no.
i dont think it costs that much for development and running the servers or am i dead wrong?

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: ussfletcher

i dont think it costs that much for development and running the servers or am i dead wrong?

You're pretty much dead wrong. Don't forget you have to take into account marketing, promotions, all that garbage.

 

[PHiuR]

that's why they're a business...
they are here to make your money!

and you are leaving A LOT of figures out.

but in the end of it all they are still making a crapload of $

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: ussfletcher
by blizzards own count they have sold some 3.5 million copies well even though they dont get all $50 from every sale that is what i will go with because i dont know how much they really get.. so 3.5m x $50 = $175,000,000
say you pay $120 a year to play it which is low.. its really about $156 but lets say you didnt have it a year alright? so its $120 well
$120 x 3.5m=$420,000,000
add those figures together and for the first year blizz makes a grand total of $595,000,000
does that justify having a $13 a month charge? no.
i dont think it costs that much for development and running the servers or am i dead wrong?

You are dead wrong. I billed them $550 million just for my consulting services.

 

[newbiepcuser]

Originally posted by: BigJ

Originally posted by: ussfletcher

i dont think it costs that much for development and running the servers or am i dead wrong?

You're pretty much dead wrong. Don't forget you have to take into account marketing, promotions, all that garbage.

Beyond dead wrong, but I do agree that WoW is good cash cow for Blizzard.

 

[kogase]

3 years of development, extremely powerful servers, a full maintenance, development, and marketing staff, promotional materials... and then, when it comes down to it, money to line the pockets of CEOs. You get what they give you, cog of capitalism.

 

[Mo0o]

I think at this point its a big cash cow since they're just selling subscriptions and maintaining servers. But everything leading up to it, R&D of the game, promotions, marketing, setting up the servers, those cost quite a lot. Its a lot like drug companies.

 

[Fenixgoon]

yeah.. now they are getting uber money.. god bless capitalism

 

[MidasKnight]

This is America ! .......


...................... more power to em. $$$$$

 

[wfbberzerker]

i believe nearly all of the monthly fee that you pay goes into maintaining the servers. not to mention that blizzard gets a VERY small percentage of the retail sales.

 

[LeetViet]

Originally posted by: kogase
3 years of development, extremely powerful servers, a full maintenance, development, and marketing staff, promotional materials... and then, when it comes down to it, money to line the pockets of CEOs. You get what they give you, cog of capitalism.

5. They started in 1999.

 

[zainali]

well they made a good game . they deserve to get paid. its the entertainment industry. tom cruise and will smith make $20 million per movie. let the programmers make money too.

(i know CEO gets a lot of money but am pretty sure there is some kind of profit sharing done with programmers/artists/etc).

 

[Mojoed]

Your figures assume every copy sold is still active. I'd be willing to bet a few hundred thousand people bought and tried the game, and cancelled after 1 or 2 months.

 

[csyberblue]

There was an article recently in the newest issue of IEEE Spectrum that talked about what it takes to run Everquest. Now, I know WoW isn't as popular as Everquest, but the things that go into running these games are amazing. Every update takes up bandwith costs, they have amazingly fast servers, they are adding content to their game all the time. It's crazy stuff. So paying $13 a month I would imagine doesn't earn them as much profit as one might think.

 

[chuckywang]

Nobody who told the OP he was dead wrong provided a figure for how much it costs blizzard to maintain the game per month.

 

[Shlong]

I know someone who quit their job because of this game, WoW a helluva drug.

 

[Mojoed]

Originally posted by: Shlong
I know someone who quit their job because of this game, WoW a helluva drug.

This is much more common than most people think. I know several people on AT alone who have lost their jobs due to EQ or WoW. It's something most people aren't proud of, and something they'd probably never post.

 

[MrBond]

Originally posted by: Mo0o
I think at this point its a big cash cow since they're just selling subscriptions and maintaining servers. But everything leading up to it, R&D of the game, promotions, marketing, setting up the servers, those cost quite a lot. Its a lot like drug companies.

There's still people working on the game, new content is added in most patches now. For a while after launch there was hardly any new content, but the last three patches have all added something

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: chuckywang
Nobody who told the OP he was dead wrong provided a figure for how much it costs blizzard to maintain the game per month.

Maybe Blizzard don't go around announcing that kind of thing?

 

[gsaldivar]

Those eval corporate bastages!! they're getting TOO RICH!

How can they justify charging the proletaria... I mean the public, $13 a month!

:roll:

 

[dabuddha]

Originally posted by: BigJ

Originally posted by: ussfletcher

i dont think it costs that much for development and running the servers or am i dead wrong?

You're pretty much dead wrong. Don't forget you have to take into account marketing, promotions, all that garbage.

Considering you can still play starcraft and Diablo 2 free on battle.net, I don't think he's too wrong. At least about the cost of running the servers.

 

[CVSiN]

Originally posted by: ussfletcher
by blizzards own count they have sold some 3.5 million copies well even though they dont get all $50 from every sale that is what i will go with because i dont know how much they really get.. so 3.5m x $50 = $175,000,000
say you pay $120 a year to play it which is low.. its really about $156 but lets say you didnt have it a year alright? so its $120 well
$120 x 3.5m=$420,000,000
add those figures together and for the first year blizz makes a grand total of $595,000,000
does that justify having a $13 a month charge? no.
i dont think it costs that much for development and running the servers or am i dead wrong?

dead wrong...

 

[CVSiN]

Originally posted by: csyberblue
There was an article recently in the newest issue of IEEE Spectrum that talked about what it takes to run Everquest. Now, I know WoW isn't as popular as Everquest, but the things that go into running these games are amazing. Every update takes up bandwith costs, they have amazingly fast servers, they are adding content to their game all the time. It's crazy stuff. So paying $13 a month I would imagine doesn't earn them as much profit as one might think.

Um your wrong too.. you do know WoW broke EVERY single sales and subscription record to date..
it eclipsed even EQ1 within its first 4 months...
for having the most active subscriptions

 

[Gibsons]

Originally posted by: dabuddha

Originally posted by: BigJ

Originally posted by: ussfletcher

i dont think it costs that much for development and running the servers or am i dead wrong?

You're pretty much dead wrong. Don't forget you have to take into account marketing, promotions, all that garbage.

Considering you can still play starcraft and Diablo 2 free on battle.net, I don't think he's too wrong. At least about the cost of running the servers.

WoW uses up a ton of bandwidth though. I don't have a number for how much, but I suspect it's impressive.

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: dabuddha

Originally posted by: BigJ

Originally posted by: ussfletcher

i dont think it costs that much for development and running the servers or am i dead wrong?

You're pretty much dead wrong. Don't forget you have to take into account marketing, promotions, all that garbage.

Considering you can still play starcraft and Diablo 2 free on battle.net, I don't think he's too wrong. At least about the cost of running the servers.

Running battle.net is child's play compared to WoW.
The Nordic battle.net server cluster consists of 4-6 racks(don't remember exactly) of servers, that's not a whole lot, hosting where they keep it isn't THAT expensive, and considering the hosting company gets their logo displayed when you login on b.net, I have a feeling they get it pretty cheap.