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Did SWTOR paid for itself already?

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  • SouldrainerSouldrainer Member Posts: 1,857
    Originally posted by Garvon3
    Originally posted by Souldrainer
    Originally posted by Garvon3

    So far the most accurate estimate as to how much it cost is from EA Louse

    Can you prove this with actual documentation, or are you just randomly saying it?

    Well he actually worked for the game, and everything else he's leaked and said to be true...has turned out to be true. No hard proof, but pretty likely he wouldn't have just made up that one random thing.

    Some of his claims can't be denied, but in one part of his interview, he says $300 million was spent on the game, and in another he refers to it as a $50 million project.  Which is it, then?

    As an aside... from the time his interview came out to this very day, I never agreed with his balking at the importance of sound in the game.  Sound is extremely important in a game.

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  • AlminieAlminie Member UncommonPosts: 114
    Originally posted by Danrlei

    Did SWTOR paid for itself already?

    VG charts info on SWtor sales up to the date"14th Jul 2012 "

    are at 2.38m sold

    so do the math it is

    2,380,000 x "lets just say it sold for 50 buck on average." = 119,000,000

    and it's been stated that Development for SWtor cost           200,000,000

    so based on these facts looks like they have had a loose    -81,000,000

     

    But thats not including monthly subscriptions, lets just say they had 1/3 of the sales as consistent subscribers.

    793333x15 bucks a month = 11,899,995 x number of months since release 7 = 83,299,965

    I would say they at best have broke even.

  • JoeyMMOJoeyMMO Member UncommonPosts: 1,326
    Originally posted by lizardbones

    *snip*

    ** edit **
    But really, that question can't be answered by anyone but Bioware. Why even bother asking it here?

     You don't really bellieve that do you? You think nobody knows how much money went and goes into the project and how much money it has brought in? They're not making the numbers public for a reason, but to think nobody knows is just plain ridiculous.

    imageimage
  • JoeyMMOJoeyMMO Member UncommonPosts: 1,326
    Originally posted by Alminie
    Originally posted by Danrlei

    Did SWTOR paid for itself already?

    VG charts info on SWtor sales up to the date"14th Jul 2012 "

    are at 2.38m sold

    so do the math it is

    2,380,000 x "lets just say it sold for 50 buck on average." = 119,000,000

    and it's been stated that Development for SWtor cost           200,000,000

    so based on these facts looks like they have had a loose    -81,000,000

     

    But thats not including monthly subscriptions, lets just say they had 1/3 of the sales as consistent subscribers.

    793333x15 bucks a month = 11,899,995 x number of months since release 7 = 83,299,965

    I would say they at best have broke even.

     Seems more like guesswork than facts, but whatever. It's all they're giving us, vague numbers, smoke and mirrors. They could give us the hard facts, but I'm sure they won't until they think that doing so won't cost them their job.

    imageimage
  • everlandeverland Member Posts: 71

    Why the ridiculous math and speculations? The finacial reports are official and public, just search for it in credible source.

     

    They costs already returned doubled in first month after release... end of story.

     

    Don't act like old ladies gossiping.

  • SouldrainerSouldrainer Member Posts: 1,857
    Originally posted by everland

    Why the ridiculous math and speculations? The finacial reports are official and public, just search for it in credible source.

     

    They costs already returned doubled in first month after release... end of story.

     

    Don't act like old ladies gossiping.

    I pointed this out earlier, and bus driver called it bullshit.  I'm just saying.

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  • lotapartylotaparty Member Posts: 514
    Originally posted by Mephster

     Probably not because they are laying off people. I'm sure there is more to come.

    because blizzard laid off some people some months ago means they are going to self destruct? i dont agree with the notion .

  • AirtaeeAirtaee Member UncommonPosts: 84
    Originally posted by Souldrainer
    Originally posted by busdriver

    If they spent $200 millions making it, then not a snowballs chance in hell.

     

    Assuming they never sold a single Collector's Edition box, the game made $115 million on day 1. Additionally, there is a press statement from January/Feb time frame (hard to pull up on my phone here) where Bioware said, flat out, that the game was making them a profit. So yeah... you can think what you want to.

    So the people who sell games in the stores, the taxes and many other small costs like transport, distribution... doesn't exist.  

    The boxes spawn directly from EA in the shelves and the money goes magically from your wallet to EA. 

    i'm pretty sure the first day they did 115m $ ¬¬

  • SouldrainerSouldrainer Member Posts: 1,857
    Originally posted by Airtaee
    Originally posted by Souldrainer
    Originally posted by busdriver

    If they spent $200 millions making it, then not a snowballs chance in hell.

     

    Assuming they never sold a single Collector's Edition box, the game made $115 million on day 1. Additionally, there is a press statement from January/Feb time frame (hard to pull up on my phone here) where Bioware said, flat out, that the game was making them a profit. So yeah... you can think what you want to.

    So the people who sell games in the stores, the taxes and many other small costs like transport, distribution... doesn't exist.  

    The boxes spawn directly from EA in the shelves and the money goes magically from your wallet to EA. 

    i'm pretty sure the first day they did 115m $ ¬¬

    I posted a response to what you're saying... like 6 posts up.

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  • SlothnChunkSlothnChunk Member UncommonPosts: 788
    Originally posted by Alminie
    Originally posted by Danrlei

    Did SWTOR paid for itself already?

    VG charts info on SWtor sales up to the date"14th Jul 2012 "

    are at 2.38m sold

    so do the math it is

    2,380,000 x "lets just say it sold for 50 buck on average." = 119,000,000

    and it's been stated that Development for SWtor cost           200,000,000

    so based on these facts looks like they have had a loose    -81,000,000

     

    But thats not including monthly subscriptions, lets just say they had 1/3 of the sales as consistent subscribers.

    793333x15 bucks a month = 11,899,995 x number of months since release 7 = 83,299,965

    I would say they at best have broke even.


    It would be 2.38 million X $50 profit per copy (average of all versions) = $119,000,000

    793333 X $10 per month (roughly 1/3 goes to LA for IP) X 7 months = $55,533,310

    Total Estimated  Profit = $174,533,310

    development cost ($150 million on average) + advertising/continued development/support since launch ($50 million) = $200,000 million total spent on TOR

    Game is still a good $25 million away from breaking even. And that was being conservative on several estimates.

  • AlminieAlminie Member UncommonPosts: 114
    Originally posted by SlothnChunk
    Originally posted by Alminie
    Originally posted by Danrlei

    Did SWTOR paid for itself already?

    VG charts info on SWtor sales up to the date"14th Jul 2012 "

    are at 2.38m sold

    so do the math it is

    2,380,000 x "lets just say it sold for 50 buck on average." = 119,000,000

    and it's been stated that Development for SWtor cost           200,000,000

    so based on these facts looks like they have had a loose    -81,000,000

     

    But thats not including monthly subscriptions, lets just say they had 1/3 of the sales as consistent subscribers.

    793333x15 bucks a month = 11,899,995 x number of months since release 7 = 83,299,965

    I would say they at best have broke even.


    It would be 2.38 million X $50 profit per copy (average of all versions) = $119,000,000

    793333 X $10 per month (roughly 1/3 goes to LA for IP) X 7 months = $55,533,310

    Total Estimated  Profit = $174,533,310

    development cost ($150 million on average) + advertising/continued development/support since launch ($50 million) = $200,000 million total spent on TOR

    Game is still a good $25 million away from breaking even. And that was being conservative on several estimates.


    where does $10 per a month come from?

    pretty sure swtor costs $15 a month. ;-)

  • AirtaeeAirtaee Member UncommonPosts: 84

    Why people talks about 150$ when EALouse stated the game was over 300m$ spent.

    EALouse: And Bioware? Don’t make me laugh. They’ve spent more money making the Old Republic than James Cameron spent on Avatar. Shit you not. More than $ 300 million! Can you believe that?

    Till this moment, everything EAlouse said is proven to be right, even the Ultima forever project, talking about it 2 years before the release (yes maybe he talks about a facebook game, but is a browser game like wrath of heroes)

     

    The Times stated that the game cost 200m $ plus advertisement (some tens more) we are talking again about 250+ 

    http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2012/01/20/star-wars-the-old-republic-the-story-behind-a-galactic-gamble/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=63378#/0

     

    So why people insist in the 150m? 

    My only doubt is where those 200m go, because Rift or TSW with much lower budget are infinitely better developed than SWTOR. And try to deny it is just to be a fanatic.

    SWTOR seems like a bad copy of WAR, a unfinished theme park but with voices to mask the lack of content. Is the SW IP what is keeping the game so far, but even that is not enough.

     

    SWTOR is not a bad single player game but absolutely nothing justify the 15$ monthly fee. 

  • SouldrainerSouldrainer Member Posts: 1,857
    Originally posted by Ringbus

    Originally posted by Souldrainer
    Originally posted by busdriver
    If they spent $200 millions making it, then not a snowballs chance in hell.

     

    Assuming they never sold a single Collector's Edition box, the game made $115 million on day 1. Additionally, there is a press statement from January/Feb time frame (hard to pull up on my phone here) where Bioware said, flat out, that the game was making them a profit. So yeah... you can think what you want to.

    Boggle.

    How can anyone be dumb enough to believe developer return from retail game sales work like:

    shelf/retail price * copies sold???

     

     

    Read the post right above yours.

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  • KarteliKarteli Member CommonPosts: 2,646
    Originally posted by Souldrainer
    Originally posted by Ringbus
    Originally posted by Souldrainer
    Originally posted by busdriver

    If they spent $200 millions making it, then not a snowballs chance in hell.

     

    Assuming they never sold a single Collector's Edition box, the game made $115 million on day 1. Additionally, there is a press statement from January/Feb time frame (hard to pull up on my phone here) where Bioware said, flat out, that the game was making them a profit. So yeah... you can think what you want to.

    Boggle.

    How can anyone be dumb enough to believe developer return from retail game sales work like:

    shelf/retail price * copies sold???

     

     

    Read the post right above yours.

     If the game follows trends, then it likely made something like:

     

    (copies sold) X (% retail) X (revenue per game) + (copies sold) X (% digital sales) X (revenue per game)

    (2.4 million copies) * (%40 retail sails) * ($20) + (2.4 million copies) * (%60 digital sails) * ($60)

     

    ~ 100 mil

     

    But this was a one time deal for EA. they might increase some sales but nowhere near what came at launch.  The money they raped gamers for on a SPRPG is another story.

     

    In an ideal world, this game would have been B2P.  But EA is thirsty.

     

    Even with the monthly fees they swindled from gamers, it won't cover the cost of the game, which I believe was 200-300 mil, including advertising .. not to mention the uhh hundred million or so EA spent to acquire BioWare, of whose name is now pretty much mud.

     

     

    Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
    Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.

  • KingJigglyKingJiggly Member Posts: 777

    Hello, I am a employee from Bioware...

    But in all seriousness, I sure hope they did, I hate when games/ companies fail, but thats how it happens.

  • lucasdeislucasdeis Member Posts: 59

    EA put more of 500 millions in this game 

  • lucasdeislucasdeis Member Posts: 59

    EA put more of 500 Millions in SWTOR,

     

    I am still playing swtor and i am enjoying the game 

  • RingbusRingbus Member Posts: 36
    Originally posted by Souldrainer
    Originally posted by Ringbus
    Originally posted by Souldrainer
    Originally posted by busdriver

    If they spent $200 millions making it, then not a snowballs chance in hell.

     

    Assuming they never sold a single Collector's Edition box, the game made $115 million on day 1. Additionally, there is a press statement from January/Feb time frame (hard to pull up on my phone here) where Bioware said, flat out, that the game was making them a profit. So yeah... you can think what you want to.

    Boggle.

    How can anyone be dumb enough to believe developer return from retail game sales work like:

    shelf/retail price * copies sold???

     

     

    Read the post right above yours.

    [mod edit]

    Do you honestly think a developer gets 120 million dollars from a game that sells a couple million copies???

    Really???

    Forget the 150,200,300 million EA blew developing the SWTOR fiasco. Or the 700 million or so wasted buying Bioware. Let's just focus on post development.

    EA sells each copy to retail stores for some 20-25 dollars.

    Out of every copy sold to retailers, EA must pay for:

    * Duplication of the master disc and label printing

    * Materials for the box and assembly

    * Storage and shipment to retailers

    * EA's own internal distribution staff who contact retailers to convince them to buy copies of the game, give the game good shelf space, etc.

    Those are just the major bites out of the sales of each box.

    Before layoffs EA was still paying the salries of one of the largest development teams in the industry. Every employee's cost to EA is going to be roughly 1.5 times their salary. 50k a year dead weight employees cost the company roughly 100k a year, lead developers making 130-150k are in the 300k range. EA is paying 2,3, to 4 million dollars a month depending on what the total number of employees there are just since the game shipped.

    In addition EA is paying for 24/7 tech support/customer service staff in multiple countries/regions.

    24/7 server tech staff to run the data centers.

    Throw in digital distribution, collector edition boxes, whatever hell else you want. EA hasn't made 200 million, 100 million, 50 million in profits from this fiasco. Nor will they ever. The money EA wasted on SWTOR will never be recovered.

    EA's only goal now with SWTOR is to lessen the damage. [mod edit] and turn the game into a free to play cash shop.

     

  • SouldrainerSouldrainer Member Posts: 1,857
    Originally posted by Ringbus

    Originally posted by Souldrainer
    Originally posted by Ringbus
    Originally posted by Souldrainer
    Originally posted by busdriver
    If they spent $200 millions making it, then not a snowballs chance in hell.

     

    Assuming they never sold a single Collector's Edition box, the game made $115 million on day 1. Additionally, there is a press statement from January/Feb time frame (hard to pull up on my phone here) where Bioware said, flat out, that the game was making them a profit. So yeah... you can think what you want to.

    Boggle.

    How can anyone be dumb enough to believe developer return from retail game sales work like:

    shelf/retail price * copies sold???

     

     

    Read the post right above yours.

    What is really is mind boggling about isn't just that you thought game companies get 60 dollars in profits from a 60 dollar retail game.

    It's that in your desperation to claim this game made back the hundreds of millions wasted on by EA that you didn't even stop to think just how laughably absurd the numbers you were claiming were.

    Do you honestly think a developer gets 120 million dollars from a game that sells a couple million copies???

    Really???

    Forget the 150,200,300 million EA blew developing the SWTOR fiasco. Or the 700 million or so wasted buying Bioware. Let's just focus on post development.

    EA sells each copy to retail stores for some 20-25 dollars.

    Out of every copy sold to retailers, EA must pay for:

    * Duplication of the master disc and label printing

    * Materials for the box and assembly

    * Storage and shipment to retailers

    * EA's own internal distribution staff who contact retailers to convince them to buy copies of the game, give the game good shelf space, etc.

    Those are just the major bites out of the sales of each box.

    Before layoffs EA was still paying the salries of one of the largest development teams in the industry. Every employee's cost to EA is going to be roughly 1.5 times their salary. 50k a year dead weight employees cost the company roughly 100k a year, lead developers making 130-150k are in the 300k range. EA is paying 2,3, to 4 million dollars a month depending on what the total number of employees there are just since the game shipped.

    In addition EA is paying for 24/7 tech support/customer service staff in multiple countries/regions.

    24/7 server tech staff to run the data centers.

    Throw in digital distribution, collector edition boxes, whatever hell else you want. EA hasn't made 200 million, 100 million, 50 million in profits from this fiasco. Nor will they ever. The money EA wasted on SWTOR will never be recovered.

    EA's only goal now with SWTOR is to lessen the damage. Dump most of the incompetent and overpaid clowns at Bioware responsible for this turd of a game. Massively cut back the bloated SWTOR team down to a skeleton crew and turn the game into a free to play cash shop.

     

     

    So... just any random out-of-context personal attack will do, then?

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  • mikahrmikahr Member Posts: 1,066
    Originally posted by Ringbus

    What is really is mind boggling about isn't just that you thought game companies get 60 dollars in profits from a 60 dollar retail game.

    It's that in your desperation to claim this game made back the hundreds of millions wasted on by EA that you didn't even stop to think just how laughably absurd the numbers you were claiming were.

    Do you honestly think a developer gets 120 million dollars from a game that sells a couple million copies???

    Really???

    Forget the 150,200,300 million EA blew developing the SWTOR fiasco. Or the 700 million or so wasted buying Bioware. Let's just focus on post development.

    EA sells each copy to retail stores for some 20-25 dollars.

    Out of every copy sold to retailers, EA must pay for:

    * Duplication of the master disc and label printing

    * Materials for the box and assembly

    * Storage and shipment to retailers

    * EA's own internal distribution staff who contact retailers to convince them to buy copies of the game, give the game good shelf space, etc.

    Those are just the major bites out of the sales of each box.

    Before layoffs EA was still paying the salries of one of the largest development teams in the industry. Every employee's cost to EA is going to be roughly 1.5 times their salary. 50k a year dead weight employees cost the company roughly 100k a year, lead developers making 130-150k are in the 300k range. EA is paying 2,3, to 4 million dollars a month depending on what the total number of employees there are just since the game shipped.

    In addition EA is paying for 24/7 tech support/customer service staff in multiple countries/regions.

    24/7 server tech staff to run the data centers.

    Throw in digital distribution, collector edition boxes, whatever hell else you want. EA hasn't made 200 million, 100 million, 50 million in profits from this fiasco. Nor will they ever. The money EA wasted on SWTOR will never be recovered.

    EA's only goal now with SWTOR is to lessen the damage. Dump most of the incompetent and overpaid clowns at Bioware responsible for this turd of a game. Massively cut back the bloated SWTOR team down to a skeleton crew and turn the game into a free to play cash shop.

     

    Dont waste time, these kids have been explained many times that it isnt so, but they just repeat their mantra:

    2,38*60+6-7*15*700000= lots of money, they made crapload of profits.

    Someday they will grow up and find out it isnt so for themselves.

    Originally posted by ZigZags

    Your reasoning is flawed. Just because they are laying people off does not mean they are in the red. They could be in the black but obviously their revenues are dropping and their current structure and staff is unsustainable in the long run so the cuts could be necessary to ensure support for the game for the coming years.

     

    This game sold so many Copies including collectors editions then enjoyed a solid first couple months of subscribership. Im confident they made a hefty profit and will tone the game down to cut any future losses.

     

    Thanks to the hypsters, the pig was fed and thus we can all expect more hyped up and over spent MMOs meant for a quick profit in the near future.

    Mmm, you just said they are in the red.

    Yes, they have hefty cushion form initial sales. If that is eaten up, then they are really screwed. And drying up of THAT proves they are in the red month to month and are just on damage control. Only question is: when will cutting of expenses stop, when will they be out of the red. And yes that includes staff, and YES that includes even less content than its released now, and thats nothing to write home about already.

    I love when someone claims something is flawed and then proceeds to confirm its true :)

    And they sold only so many collectors editions, because it WAS very limited.

  • dariuszpdariuszp Member Posts: 182

    SWTOR paid for development while selling boxes. And EA told us that it will be profitable as loong as they will have more than 500k subscribers. 

    So yeah - TOR paid for itself. 

    Problem with this game right now is that - it's boring. There is nothing else to do except story and it's fun for the first time playing Reps or Imps. After that 99% of the quests are the same for every class in the faction and only difference is in personal story.

    That's it. There nothing more. And because of that they are loosing subs quite fast. From 1.7mln to 1.3mln in just 2 months and right now - who knows.

  • mikahrmikahr Member Posts: 1,066
    Originally posted by dariuszp

    SWTOR paid for development while selling boxes. And EA told us that it will be profitable as loong as they will have more than 500k subscribers. 

    So yeah - TOR paid for itself. 

    Problem with this game right now is that - it's boring. There is nothing else to do except story and it's fun for the first time playing Reps or Imps. After that 99% of the quests are the same for every class in the faction and only difference is in personal story.

    That's it. There nothing more. And because of that they are loosing subs quite fast. From 1.7mln to 1.3mln in just 2 months and right now - who knows.

    They had 300m$ budget.

    Can you  explain to all of us how exactly they made that back by selling boxes?

  • dariuszpdariuszp Member Posts: 182

    Well they sold 2mln boxes for 60$ in just 2 months from the start and they still selling quite an amount of it. And they still sell it. Last month I checked and game was stil a bestseller in biggest online shop in my country. More than half a year after release. And this was bestseller list for every game in this shop. On just "online games" they are still in top 3 after Guild Wars 2 and Secred World.

    From global bestseller list they drop out after Guild Wars 2 started beta weekends. 

  • SlothnChunkSlothnChunk Member UncommonPosts: 788
    Originally posted by Alminie
    Originally posted by SlothnChunk
    Originally posted by Alminie
    Originally posted by Danrlei

    Did SWTOR paid for itself already?

    VG charts info on SWtor sales up to the date"14th Jul 2012 "

    are at 2.38m sold

    so do the math it is

    2,380,000 x "lets just say it sold for 50 buck on average." = 119,000,000

    and it's been stated that Development for SWtor cost           200,000,000

    so based on these facts looks like they have had a loose    -81,000,000

     

    But thats not including monthly subscriptions, lets just say they had 1/3 of the sales as consistent subscribers.

    793333x15 bucks a month = 11,899,995 x number of months since release 7 = 83,299,965

    I would say they at best have broke even.


    It would be 2.38 million X $50 profit per copy (average of all versions) = $119,000,000

    793333 X $10 per month (roughly 1/3 goes to LA for IP) X 7 months = $55,533,310

    Total Estimated  Profit = $174,533,310

    development cost ($150 million on average) + advertising/continued development/support since launch ($50 million) = $200,000 million total spent on TOR

    Game is still a good $25 million away from breaking even. And that was being conservative on several estimates.


    where does $10 per a month come from?

    pretty sure swtor costs $15 a month. ;-)

    One-third of the monthly sub goes to Lucasarts for the Star Wars IP.  So Bioware makes $10 per month on subs....and I was being generous giving 100% of that profit.

    They are several months away from just breaking even.

  • gervaise1gervaise1 Member EpicPosts: 6,919

    No.

    Source: EA.

    JR, EA CEO, stated that SWTOR needs 1M recurring subs "to make a profit but nothing to write home about. Back in Feb' they only announced 1.7M "subs" and in March learnt that "about half were subscribers" - so 850k  

    OK he didn't say for how long but EA was talking about the long term back in Feb and articles subsequemtly suggested 1 to 2 years.

    And since Feb' EA has "consolidated" the servers by 90% - so we can assume that subs are still less than 1M.

     

    So on EA data : no.

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