More of a sign of sales tapering off with the previous quarter showing the spike, seems to me that it is a fair indication of good sales of the HoT expansion in NA/EU tbh, its not a subscription game so maintaining that level of sales would have been unrealistic, the next few quarters will indicate the level of income from NA/EU, so not really an 'ouch' situation.
It shows something some might not realize:
Expansions don't grow the playerbase (as in adding NEW players) - they target existing players primarily and some former players.
They do virtually nothing for getting completely new blood into the game.
This is why over time studios face a question on how much to invest into further expansions - as they get fewer and fewer players back every time with each new expansion - so at some point it actually makes more sense to start investing into a completely new game.
Thats undoubtedly the reason why they gave away the base game, it was a smart move imo and may well have generated a significant percentage of those sales. You may well be correct in your reasoning, perhaps at some point we will see an announcement that they are working on GW3 ?
GW2 isnt pay to win. That is a huge disadvantage for them. Their sales go by purchases of the game and cosmetic items. I'm sure if they made it grindy and p2w it would pull in the whales and make a ton more money at the expense of the entire Western playerbase.
GW2 isnt pay to win. That is a huge disadvantage for them. Their sales go by purchases of the game and cosmetic items. I'm sure if they made it grindy and p2w it would pull in the whales and make a ton more money at the expense of the entire Western playerbase.
That may be their only option in the not too distant future.
The revenue from game sales and cash shop has been dropping steadily, showing an almost 30% decline between 2Q 2015 and 2Q 2016.
If HoT hadn't happened, GW2 may well have been on the ropes by now...
GW2 isnt pay to win. That is a huge disadvantage for them. Their sales go by purchases of the game and cosmetic items. I'm sure if they made it grindy and p2w it would pull in the whales and make a ton more money at the expense of the entire Western playerbase.
That may be their only option in the not too distant future.
The revenue from game sales and cash shop has been dropping steadily, showing an almost 30% decline between 2Q 2015 and 2Q 2016.
If HoT hadn't happened, GW2 may well have been on the ropes by now...
Given their track record. They will keep it up like they have done with GW1. Might have to close some servers but they seem to be very good at keeping the doors open and running a company.
It's as if the steady downward trend in 2Q/3Q 2015 simply resumed at the same same point in 2Q 2016, almost like HoT never happened.
If that is the case, GW2 revenue will soon be under heavy pressure. They cannot keep pumping out HoT-sized expansions to keep their numbers up, it will eat all the profit...
2Q/3Q 2015 was the content drought* before HoT released and despite that revenue was stable and higher than after HoT sales spike.
*Anet added nothing to the game outside of pre-patches for HoT from January 2015 to HoT release in October 2015. There was another content drought (one raid wing every 3 months isn't content) after HoT release which ended only on July 26th 2016.
The Carbine of today is not the Carbine that launched the game. The current crew (more or less) had operational discipline beaten into them. Yes there are still regressions but the magnitude and frequency are a mere shadow of the disasters that happened during the drop-a-month regime. This crew also gets that dailies aren't the kind of content that appeals to casuals.
Yes, Carbine was to blame for many, many issues at launch but IMO the author of Wildstar's current ills is NCSoft. Players in Europe could not get a stable connection for months due to their data centers being served by Level3 who have a very poor service reputation. The Steam launch was on track to being a huge boost got torpedoed by the brain dead edict that they implement a new IP Verification scheme that emails a one-time key every time your IP changes. Even if you have 2FA or Steam.
They laid off too much staff and they don't market. At all.
Once you get past the corporate BS Wildstar is super fun. The best thing that can happen would be if NCSoft spun it off to a reputable publisher that had a clue how to operate an MMO for NA/European markets.
More of a sign of sales tapering off with the previous quarter showing the spike, seems to me that it is a fair indication of good sales of the HoT expansion in NA/EU tbh, its not a subscription game so maintaining that level of sales would have been unrealistic, the next few quarters will indicate the level of income from NA/EU, so not really an 'ouch' situation.
It shows something some might not realize:
Expansions don't grow the playerbase (as in adding NEW players) - they target existing players primarily and some former players.
They do virtually nothing for getting completely new blood into the game.
This is why over time studios face a question on how much to invest into further expansions - as they get fewer and fewer players back every time with each new expansion - so at some point it actually makes more sense to start investing into a completely new game.
GW2 had huge initial box sales. Right now, recapturing even a fraction of that would go very far for ANET.
Aion at least its up on GW2. Neither game I play anymore, but definitely had more fun in Aion during its prime.
Blade and Soul has more staying power then I thought it would, pretty steady for a market filled with game hobos like me moving from one spot to the next.
One day, the decline in content of mmorpg titles together with the sheer number of them splitting playerbase will have to be adressed, or mmorpg's will after the f2p->p2w/b2p phase shut down ,and developers might lose the interest of gamers.
Only few developer houses are doing it right, from the sea of fakes.
There were plenty of groups that wanted City of Heroes, and NCsoft still didn't let it go. What will they do with a game that would require a ton of work to be desirable to the masses?
The world is going to the dogs, which is just how I planned it!
GW2 lowest quarter so far. On the other hand it is after the third and sixth best quarters ever and there has been no new content for 3 quarters until recently.
Will be interesting to see if the HoT 50% sale plus the start of season 3 rebounds the sales.
Still $474M total revenue so far and it is likely it will reach $500M by the end of 2016.
Arena Net needs to take Guild Wars 2 back to the roots of what made GW1 so popular.
They need to throw us a bone and reopen L1 servers in the west. Not going to happen because, but I wish they would.
People have been saying this about WoW for a long time now, and they/we get labled dinosaurs and old shoolers. Among other things. Now the same suggestion about GW2 going back to the roots og GW2 (Same time period) and it's a good idea?
@Torval, for the record, I agree with you and this post, I'm just pointing out how this forum can run hot and cold on the same topic depending on who says it and what game it's said about.
GW2 lowest quarter so far. On the other hand it is after the third and sixth best quarters ever and there has been no new content for 3 quarters until recently.
Will be interesting to see if the HoT 50% sale plus the start of season 3 rebounds the sales.
Still $474M total revenue so far and it is likely it will reach $500M by the end of 2016.
Someone also made the list with what was released into the game in those quarters on reddit(? I saw it on the official forum, but the posters says it come from reddit):
3Q12 – 45,841 (Pre-sales)
4Q12 – 119,013 (Launch, Southsun, Fractals)
1Q13 – 36,382 (LS Season 1 starts, Flame and Frost)
2Q13 – 28,889 (SAB, Molten Facility, Dragon Bash)
3Q13 – 24,481 (Bazaar of the Four Winds, Queen’s Jubilee, Tequatl revamp, SAB2)
4Q13 – 33,555 (Aetherpath, Tower of Nightmares, WvW Season 1)
1Q14 – 25,142 (Marionette, Battle for Lion’s Arch, LS Season 1 ends)
2Q14 – 21,506 (Feature Pack ((Account wardrobe, dyes, megaservers)), Bazaar 2)
3Q14 – 19,686 (LS Season 2 begins, Drytop, Feature Pack ((NPE, global guilds, TP Revamp), WvW Season 2)
4Q14 – 19,272 (Silverwastes)
1Q15 – 20, 026 (LS Season 2 ends, HoT announced at PAX, HoT Closed Beta 1)
2Q15 – 22,470 (HoT Closed Beta 2) 3Q15 – 20,699 (Stronghold / Desert BL test weekends, BWE 1 & 2)
4Q15 – 37,331 (BWE 3, Heart of Thorns release, Spirit Vale, PVP Leagues)
1Q16 – 30,667 (Winter Quarterly Update ((Tyria Gliding, Shatterer Revamp), Salvation Pass) 2Q16 – 15,894 (SAB, Spring Quarterly Update ((Fixing HoT, WvW linking, Level 80 boost)), Stronghold of the Faithful)
wild star wont survive to see 2017 imo gw2 can increase revenue by regularly adding living world episodes to the game.
"Wildstar won't survive in 2015 imo" "Wildstar won't survive in 2016 imo" "Wildstar wont survive in 2017 imo"
Its still here
Let's be honest here. Wildstar was in serious trouble until it went F2P. It probably would've shut down if it didn't.
Survive? maybe. Thrive? Definitely not. Did you know that Diablo2 servers are still up? Some games dont need to make very much money at all in order to keep it running.
wild star wont survive to see 2017 imo gw2 can increase revenue by regularly adding living world episodes to the game.
"Wildstar won't survive in 2015 imo" "Wildstar won't survive in 2016 imo" "Wildstar wont survive in 2017 imo"
Its still here
carbine seems to be thinking about tip-toeing into P2W with the amp/ability point items datamined to be sold in the store...honestly P2W is probably the only thing left that will save the game other than going into maintenance mode with a focus nearly solely on housing and events to sell items.
wild star wont survive to see 2017 imo gw2 can increase revenue by regularly adding living world episodes to the game.
"Wildstar won't survive in 2015 imo" "Wildstar won't survive in 2016 imo" "Wildstar wont survive in 2017 imo"
Its still here
Let's be honest here. Wildstar was in serious trouble until it went F2P. It probably would've shut down if it didn't.
Survive? maybe. Thrive? Definitely not. Did you know that Diablo2 servers are still up? Some games dont need to make very much money at all in order to keep it running.
Ah, but Diablo 2 is backed up by Blizzard. Carbine is a fresh startup and it's only game is Wildstar. It doesn't have the money Blizzard does.
Lineage is P2P and earned the most so your "proofs" seems pretty weak to me. If you think you can prove something based on a handful of games then it would be that P2P earns most money (or, more logically that Lineage is NC softs best game).
As for B&S earning a lot of cash it probably is due to the game being new in the west. GW2s drop is expected, the expansion came last autumn but the new living story started in the beginning of august, close to zero new content that long means a drop, just look on Wows up and downs.
Aion is very popular in the East while close to no-one plays it here. I am a bit surprised that Lineage 2 do so well as it does though.
And yeah, Wildstar might have stabilized now but it is far too low so don't expect it to stay open much longer...
Arena Net needs to take Guild Wars 2 back to the roots of what made GW1 so popular.
They need to throw us a bone and reopen L1 servers in the west. Not going to happen because, but I wish they would.
A Western Lineage 1 server I would sub to day one. I still love the game even through a VPN. GW2 should launch on consoles.
Dont say that! If they invest their time on releasing for consoles, steam we will see skimped out content like what they have been doing the last 6-9 months working on the new expansion...
Lineage is P2P and earned the most so your "proofs" seems pretty weak to me. If you think you can prove something based on a handful of games then it would be that P2P earns most money (or, more logically that Lineage is NC softs best game).
As for B&S earning a lot of cash it probably is due to the game being new in the west. GW2s drop is expected, the expansion came last autumn but the new living story started in the beginning of august, close to zero new content that long means a drop, just look on Wows up and downs.
Aion is very popular in the East while close to no-one plays it here. I am a bit surprised that Lineage 2 do so well as it does though.
And yeah, Wildstar might have stabilized now but it is far too low so don't expect it to stay open much longer...
Just because Lineage is P2P doesn't mean they dont also have P2W. Bunch of RNG loot boxes for sale. Its the Korean market that is getting all this money not the western market. GW2 is popular in the west and the rest of those games are popular in East with major P2W issues.
Comments
The revenue from game sales and cash shop has been dropping steadily, showing an almost 30% decline between 2Q 2015 and 2Q 2016.
If HoT hadn't happened, GW2 may well have been on the ropes by now...
*Anet added nothing to the game outside of pre-patches for HoT from January 2015 to HoT release in October 2015. There was another content drought (one raid wing every 3 months isn't content) after HoT release which ended only on July 26th 2016.
Yes, Carbine was to blame for many, many issues at launch but IMO the author of Wildstar's current ills is NCSoft. Players in Europe could not get a stable connection for months due to their data centers being served by Level3 who have a very poor service reputation. The Steam launch was on track to being a huge boost got torpedoed by the brain dead edict that they implement a new IP Verification scheme that emails a one-time key every time your IP changes. Even if you have 2FA or Steam.
They laid off too much staff and they don't market. At all.
Once you get past the corporate BS Wildstar is super fun. The best thing that can happen would be if NCSoft spun it off to a reputable publisher that had a clue how to operate an MMO for NA/European markets.
Only few developer houses are doing it right, from the sea of fakes.
The world is going to the dogs, which is just how I planned it!
On the other hand it is after the third and sixth best quarters ever and there has been no new content for 3 quarters until recently.
Will be interesting to see if the HoT 50% sale plus the start of season 3 rebounds the sales.
Still $474M total revenue so far and it is likely it will reach $500M by the end of 2016.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
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@Torval, for the record, I agree with you and this post, I'm just pointing out how this forum can run hot and cold on the same topic depending on who says it and what game it's said about.
Someone also made the list with what was released into the game in those quarters on reddit(? I saw it on the official forum, but the posters says it come from reddit):
3Q12 – 45,841 (Pre-sales)
4Q12 – 119,013 (Launch, Southsun, Fractals)
1Q13 – 36,382 (LS Season 1 starts, Flame and Frost)
2Q13 – 28,889 (SAB, Molten Facility, Dragon Bash)
3Q13 – 24,481 (Bazaar of the Four Winds, Queen’s Jubilee, Tequatl revamp, SAB2)
4Q13 – 33,555 (Aetherpath, Tower of Nightmares, WvW Season 1)
1Q14 – 25,142 (Marionette, Battle for Lion’s Arch, LS Season 1 ends)
2Q14 – 21,506 (Feature Pack ((Account wardrobe, dyes, megaservers)), Bazaar 2)
3Q14 – 19,686 (LS Season 2 begins, Drytop, Feature Pack ((NPE, global guilds, TP Revamp), WvW Season 2)
4Q14 – 19,272 (Silverwastes)
1Q15 – 20, 026 (LS Season 2 ends, HoT announced at PAX, HoT Closed Beta 1)
2Q15 – 22,470 (HoT Closed Beta 2)
3Q15 – 20,699 (Stronghold / Desert BL test weekends, BWE 1 & 2)
4Q15 – 37,331 (BWE 3, Heart of Thorns release, Spirit Vale, PVP Leagues)
1Q16 – 30,667 (Winter Quarterly Update ((Tyria Gliding, Shatterer Revamp), Salvation Pass)
2Q16 – 15,894 (SAB, Spring Quarterly Update ((Fixing HoT, WvW linking, Level 80 boost)), Stronghold of the Faithful)
gw2 can increase revenue by regularly adding living world episodes to the game.
"Wildstar won't survive in 2016 imo"
"Wildstar wont survive in 2017 imo"
Its still here
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As for B&S earning a lot of cash it probably is due to the game being new in the west. GW2s drop is expected, the expansion came last autumn but the new living story started in the beginning of august, close to zero new content that long means a drop, just look on Wows up and downs.
Aion is very popular in the East while close to no-one plays it here. I am a bit surprised that Lineage 2 do so well as it does though.
And yeah, Wildstar might have stabilized now but it is far too low so don't expect it to stay open much longer...
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
*scowls at NCSoft*
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
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