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General: Funcom Financial Report Reveals Decline in Fiscal 2014
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
The Funcom 2014 financial reports have been published that show a slight growth over the previous earnings quarter but an overall decline in 2014 over 2013. "Aging titles" are cited for the decline. According to the investor presentation, earnings grew ~$300,000 over Q3 2014. Additionally, LEGO Minifigures Online is in line with predictions that monetization of the game is taking more time than expected.
The report also reveals:
the "work-for-hire" portion of the company will be sold
creditors will delay the maturation of convertible bonds and working capital loans until 2016
restructuring will be implemented
The investment report also shows significant declines in revenue year over year as this chart indicates:
Thanks to 430005 for pointing the reports out in this forum thread.
Comments
Like I said in the other thread - Lego will not be profitable for them because paying the sub only means that they enable you to grind grind grind world 1 until you have enough chars to enter world 2. Rinse and repeat.
I believe the decision to handle it like this was rushed cause it wasn't like that in beta. They should have come up with a payment model that makes sense.
A shame really because the game is actually fun.
all parents don't give up their credit cards as easy as some people think.
I hate to say this but, I don't really care if Funcom goes under.
As a past player of Anarchy Online I have seen how they have totally screwed up Anarchy Online. Who ever decided to tack on Shadowlands should have been fired and banned from ever working on games ever.
They first talked about their graphics up grade in 2006 ! I seriously doubt that it will ever happen.
I am usually a fairly easy going person but what Funcom did to AO brings out the A@@ Hole in me.
"The Live Games,Anarchy Online, Age of Conan,and The Secret World
have delivered stronger than anticipated revenues in December 2014, contributing to
revenue of USD 2,098 thousand in 4Q14 compared to USD 2,214 thousand
in 3Q14." -FC report
-after looking further into their report- THIS IS what really mattered imo!- they have done an amazing job getting new and maintaining TSW player base!
ummm-tell that to new and returning players in Wildstar....
<.<
Well, they bring ME back, so...
Also, it's not a complete combat overhaul based on the state of the letter that mentions it but it does change the part of combat most people hate, the tedious TTK and annoying resistances of regular mob in the open world. That IS on the PTS already and what I'm referring to. ESO just had an awesome patch 1.6 change a ton of stuff, combat is more fun now. Also had the same thing happen with LOTRO. Before Moria, the combat was horrible and the game, unfun. After Moria, I bought a lifetime sub and have played it off and on through the years since and love the game now after hating it before Moria.
It's sad because their games actually rock.
Just the fact that it takes one kickass of computer to run pretty much ANY of their games that is holding them back.
Huh? Where do you live,Stillhavea486ville?
Yep! I haven't logged in in months, but I might when that comes out... and might buy the side mission bundles, to boot.
I tried going back to TSW, I got up to tokyo, saw the ageis system and raged. It feels like it adds another clunky layer to a game with already clunky (but I could deal with it) combat. Dont like it whatsoever, an I didnt want to play again after spending some time with it.
Honestly, the Maine areas were the crown jewel of the game, thats where I felt the heart of the game was, if only they could have replicated that mystery and atmosphere in the other areas.
How original to bash him for pointing out the obvious.
TSW simply has a horrible optimization.
good game crippled by the combat / and horrible animations (if any -_-)
That, the difference I guess. Love TSW and play it a lot, but I said even before launch that it will be a fairly niche title. People don't like adventure, don't like brain work... Then there are those who simply won't care the modern setting like you. Not even mention the group who brings up the combat all the time - no mention since I got my first and only warning here when I mentioned them with a bit too harsh tone (at least according to the mod)
So it has a fairly small playerbase, but probably the most dedicated and trusting one. Not the best one, that'd go to LotRO imo (TSW has a larger chunk of elitists
), but a close second. Great people.
It could be among their problems, yes. In TSW, those who are GMs (lifetime sub) are nearly drowning into their point balances... The shop has Issues (DLCs), only a handful of them and totally optional. It has some boosts - like in any other game it's mostly pointless if you're at "endgame", and in TSW even alts are just for cosmetics. Beyond those two, it only has cosmetic stuff: clothes, pets, titles, etc.
AoC is similar, you can play the whole game without the Store, and at the endgame it's better / cheaper to simply subscribe (since the gold cap and the Khitai access are sub only). The only useful purchases in the store are the expansions, and maybe the inventory upgrade, but those are optional too.
I think the "doesn't have a very aggressive cash shop" is correct. AoC shows the shop window at login, after that I never used to open it. TSW doesn't have this "Store-at-login" thingy, and I open the store maybe once in every month, to claim the cosmetic item of the month... Yep, the store is just as aggressive as a 1month old puppy
edit: or, if you want a more detailed opinion on the store, Shannon wrote a great column http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/404/feature/8964/The-Trouble-with-Item-Stores.html she too had 7000 unspent points by that time...
If you look at any graph ever posted on games playerbase/income settles after certain period of time. Its not the point if it will settle, its the point of where exactly will it settle and in point of Funcom AND WS it settled waaaaaaaaaaaaay too low.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Now that I think about it trying to use the traditional F2P model that relies on whales probably doesn't work for children's games. The amount of parents willing to spend thousands of dollars on their own hobbies is far larger than the amount of parents willing to spend thousands of dollars on their children's hobbies.
TSW never went F2P. It went B2P. Its actually a big difference.
What exactly are they changing? The combat was really the only off putting thing in TSW. If they somehow upgraded it or maybe make the combat more like Tera (pipe dream I know). I would try it out again.
Having the saddest character models of any "AAA" MMO ever was also off putting.
Funcom.. has the best most awesome MMOs,but lazy unimaginative monetisation.
Why don't they do an expansion for Age of Conan, the best low fantasy brutal MMO ever made? Or small DLCs paid like for TSW?
Why don't they do a housing system in their Dreamworks engine which could be used for both AoC and TSW and could make loads of cash on the online store?
TSW is doing great but worried about AOC...