wr3cks
Reliables Inc
Majesta Empire
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Posted - 2010.11.12 00:57:00 -
[2]
 Originally by: Malcanis
Originally by: Rheige Bladewhisper
Originally by: Hrothgar Doran
And that $26 million a year is being divided into developement on 3 different games, only one of which is bringing in said revenue. And consider that wow (making $258 million a year) has only released 2 expanions so far, soon to be 3.
If they made a mistake, be happy they are correcting it sooner, rather than later. Or worse, never.
Here's the thing, though: We shouldn't be having money we spend on our game being sent off to making other ones and then used as an excuse. Trying to say that is just plain silly. As far as expansions go, WoW has had plenty of new-content releases that have added lots more to the game each time then CCP tends to with theirs.
Now, quibbling aside, I DO approve of this, CCP. Just remember that we're paying for EVE, not for your WoD game, if you'd please.
Do you think it would be sensible for CCP to only ever rely on one product? If not, how else should they fund the development? By selling out to a publisher?
I think it would be entirely sensible for a software company to have a single product that was well-made and profitable. Plenty of them do.
I also think it would be entirely sensible for a company with deep-pocketed backers (investors, a publisher, eccentric Russian aluminum tycoons) to raise growth capital to invest in expanding their product offerings. Lots of companies do that, too.
CCP thinks they can have their cake and eat it, too. Well, they said, we'll have everyone work on Apocrypha to gel our scrum teams, and then we'll have guys work on WoD and DUST, and the players won't notice the difference (or if they do, they'll be too addicted to quit in significant numbers). We'll continue to deliver some content to be integrated with these new releases and tie into the universe. Our marketing department says the average user plays for 9 or 10 months, and then quits, and sometimes they come back for new expansions, so we'll continue to roll out the expansions twice yearly.
Look, they said: people have been playing since 2003 with the same science/industry interface, the same POS mechanics and interface, a sizeable amount of ships and weapon systems in the game being near-useless or poorly balanced, boring and macro/bottable PVE content, punishingly boring sov mechanics, and a whole litany of flaws. If they've been putting up with that until 2008, then surely they won't mind another couple of years while we diversify our revenue streams.
Then, cracks started to appear. Their development schedule was overly ambitious -- they promised to do more than they were able, and to deliver it faster than was practical. Players/customers got pretty ****ed off, and did their best to tar the company with bad press for releasing buggy, poorly designed software. Veterans started leaving the game because they were bored, and the last new expansion actually resulted in a decrease in subscription revenue.
If I were Hilmar, I'd take several teams from Atlanta and Shanghai and put them on Eve. I'd say enough of this crap about microtransactions, we're just going to focus on making the game as fun and high-quality as possible, and the revenue side will take care of itself. Make it the kind of game that people excitedly tell their friends about, and get them to come play with them. Don't just go to war on RMTers, but also macro-botters, because if your game is played by a bunch of robots, the humans aren't going to have much fun. Fix interfaces to reduce tedium, balance ships and weapon systems on the doublequick, and don't be afraid to experiment. Then, once the game is shiny and growing quickly again, raise the sub cost to $20/month if you need more money.
But I'm not Hilmar, so I'm just gonna spend my remaining isk on GTCs to keep my skill queues active and hope the game gets better before I lose all interest.
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