How WoW Became A Cash Cow For Blizzard...

World of Warcraft upkeep costs only $200m

By Austin Modine
18th September 2008 00:08 GMT

Blizzard Entertainment is indisputably making money hand-over-fist with its massively popular online RPG, World of Warcraft. But surely maintaining a game with some 10 million active subscribers worldwide takes a serious bite out of profits?

Not so, according to Blizzard on its Analyst Day conference call on Tuesday. The game maker said it has spent only $200m (~ £110.24m) on upkeep since the game launched in 2004.

That $200m figure apparently includes payroll for the entire staff, hardware support, and customer service. The news comes care of gaming blog Kotaku

While Blizzard doesn't say exactly how much it makes off WoW, let's try to put that into some perspective.

Blizzard estimates the game has over 10 million subscribers worldwide. Rates depend on the region, and things like free guest passes and discounts make things tricky. But let's use a conservative three quarters of that figure to play around with - 7,500,000 users paying month-to-month - and let's say their monthly subscription rate is $15 (the US rate).

That would mean the company is pulling in a total $112.5m every month. That's $1.35bn (£743.5m) per year in revenue from subscription fees alone.

Not bad for a four-year investment of only $200m.

And of course, that $1.35bn number may rise to new heights with the release of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack in November.

Sure there's plenty of other revenues - and expenses - that factor into the equation, but the point is that Blizzard has hatched itself a golden egg. Or [Azerothian Diamond] perhaps (no wait, those are pretty much vendor trash nowadays.)

Let's beat this dead horse. Consider The9, owner of six of China's fastest privately-owned computers and regional publisher and server host of WoW in that country. In August, the company said it earned $66.3m in its second quarter. About 90 per cent of those earnings were from running WoW.

Basically, you're in the wrong racket. Quit your day job and make the world's most popular online game instead.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/18 ... keep_200m/


Never played it myself, but it's continued success seems pretty amazing.

I've had my eye on this, instead:

http://www.war-europe.com/#/video/?lang=en

These are the two (high resolution) cinematic trailers for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. They are both, without any doubt, the very best game trailers I've ever seen. I say - make a full-length movie just like these. Please!

Thats some awesome profits. I always love the thought of playing in a massive online world, with my own unique character. But everytime I try an MMO, theres something missing. I hope one day this hole can be filled!

Good work for Blizzard! They know how to make cash!

Ryan0rz wrote:Thats some awesome profits. I always love the thought of playing in a massive online world, with my own unique character. But everytime I try an MMO, theres something missing. I hope one day this hole can be filled!

What stuff do you like in MMO's and what do you think is missing from MMO style games then?

Edge did a rather excellent piece about WoW quite a while ago explaining that the vast majority of WoW subscribers are in the Asian market we are talking over 50%.

Blizzard actually does not run the upkeep of the Servers in Asia, and the amounts charged are not done on subscriptions, I think they pay per online hour, and obviously the prices are far lower than they are here in the west. I am not even sure if Blizzard just sell the licence to the Service provider in Asia, or take a cut of the profits.

As for Warhammer coming along WoW is a very, very polished game, Warhammer does look good, but does not have the finished look and feel of WoW. Also I think Blizzard has rushed its second expansion in order to crush Warhammer, the week Warhammer comes out they announce the expansion release date, coincedence? I think not. While I think Warhammer will do very well over the next couple of months, It will all boil down to if all the people stay when Wrath of the Lich King is released.

As I said in my last post, I love the idea of MMO's. I remember how much I wanted to play games like Everquest, UO, Legend of mir etc. when I was younger. I remember when I was addicted to playing Diablo 2, and thinking - this would be amazing if there were hundreds of other players in this little world.

But whenever I play, for example WoW. It just feels like somethings missing. It's hard to pin point though, but I'll try my best to explain And remember, Im not flaming WoW or any other MMO. I WANT to like these games.

What I don't like about MMO's;

All MMO's place an importance in combat. It's how you level up, it's how you progress in the game. But for some reason, the combat never seems fun. I never feel like I'm in enough control of the combat. And thanks to the D&D system of doing things, a low level character can not dream of defeating a higher level character. So really there is no skill involved.

It's not like if you play a game of halo, and your a rank 14, playing against someone who's rank 50. You know these guys are good, but you also know that you yourself are skilled at the game.

Now I know that "you can't compare an MMORPG, to a FPS". But my point is still valid.

I'm really rubbish at explaining myself here, and I guess you could just say I don't like MMO's, and thats that! But that makes me sad. I love offline rpg's...I've played games like KOTOR through countless times, and to me, the universe in that seems so much more alive than that of an MMO. Which is strange, I thought the point of an MMO was to create somewhat of a "living breathing persistent world". Maybe its the lack of stories or something.

All I know is that, I hope MMO's evolve into something that I like. Because it seems like they are becoming more and more popular. And I don't wanna be left out!!

There are stuff I do like about MMO's though, for sure. Being my own character, customising my clothes, weapons, looks, everything like that. Being able to interact with real people, especially in some sort of role play server. People don't have to take it dead serious, but keeping in character really helps the atmosphere of an MMO. And of course, grouping up with real people to go take on some badass demon.

Zartan wrote:
As for Warhammer coming along WoW is a very, very polished game, Warhammer does look good, but does not have the finished look and feel of WoW. Also I think Blizzard has rushed its second expansion in order to crush Warhammer, the week Warhammer comes out they announce the expansion release date, coincedence? I think not. While I think Warhammer will do very well over the next couple of months, It will all boil down to if all the people stay when Wrath of the Lich King is released.

As a long term player of WoW (since pre-release beta ) im finding alot of the guys i play with have lost the WoW buzz since The Burning Crusade expansion came out. Blizzard did alot wrong with this expansion (and alot right, but people tend to remember the bad points) and Warhammer is seeming to be the logical next step. It's frustrating seeing how much money Blizzard are making when there are long term problems that have yet to be addressed. Either way, my former server is a bit of a ghostland at the moment and it will be interesting to see if Warhammer keeps my attention or if i go back to WoW like the junkie i am.

A game like WOW, you can't just make snap changes. Look at what happened to Star Wars Galaxies when they turned it from Star Wars - Galactic Economy into Star Wars - WoW clone.

Ryan0rz wrote:As I said in my last post, I love the idea of MMO's. I remember how much I wanted to play games like Everquest, UO, Legend of mir etc. when I was younger. I remember when I was addicted to playing Diablo 2, and thinking - this would be amazing if there were hundreds of other players in this little world.

But whenever I play, for example WoW. It just feels like somethings missing. It's hard to pin point though, but I'll try my best to explain And remember, Im not flaming WoW or any other MMO. I WANT to like these games.

What I don't like about MMO's;

All MMO's place an importance in combat. It's how you level up, it's how you progress in the game. But for some reason, the combat never seems fun. I never feel like I'm in enough control of the combat. And thanks to the D&D system of doing things, a low level character can not dream of defeating a higher level character. So really there is no skill involved.

It's not like if you play a game of halo, and your a rank 14, playing against someone who's rank 50. You know these guys are good, but you also know that you yourself are skilled at the game.

Now I know that "you can't compare an MMORPG, to a FPS". But my point is still valid.

I'm really rubbish at explaining myself here, and I guess you could just say I don't like MMO's, and thats that! But that makes me sad. I love offline rpg's...I've played games like KOTOR through countless times, and to me, the universe in that seems so much more alive than that of an MMO. Which is strange, I thought the point of an MMO was to create somewhat of a "living breathing persistent world". Maybe its the lack of stories or something.

All I know is that, I hope MMO's evolve into something that I like. Because it seems like they are becoming more and more popular. And I don't wanna be left out!!

There are stuff I do like about MMO's though, for sure. Being my own character, customising my clothes, weapons, looks, everything like that. Being able to interact with real people, especially in some sort of role play server. People don't have to take it dead serious, but keeping in character really helps the atmosphere of an MMO. And of course, grouping up with real people to go take on some badass demon.

Just out of interest, have you tried Guild Wars?

I knew someone was gonna ask me that. But no I haven't actually! Due to my pc being rubbish. I'd love to try it though, and when I upgrade, I certainly will! It's not quite an MMO is it?

I give major kudos to blizzard but I do think that it's about time that other MMO devs started to make their own games and not more wow clones, just because 10 million people have subbed for wow doesn't mean that it's the only type of mmo people want to play.

Thankfully CCP won't be going that way as the devs knew that EVE online was always going to be a niche product compared to some of the largest in asia and even against wow (it was in development but not released at the time eve was out), they are looking at something more mainstream and are developing in conjunction with white wolf in the US a Vampire MMO which will be using a system called ambulation and eve-o will be getting it mid next year in an update.

Ryan0rz wrote::mrgreen: I knew someone was gonna ask me that. But no I haven't actually! Due to my pc being rubbish. I'd love to try it though, and when I upgrade, I certainly will! It's not quite an MMO is it?

Its different, maybe a little lighter experience, but the in game scenery is gorgous, the customisation levels for armour, equipment etc is all thier. You can play the game with other people or take out heroes which are under your control. Thier is no monthly subscription fee, so you can play the game whenever you like.
My rusty old bucket runs it no problem and it is getting old now, so maybe your pc can handle it?
Plus its cheap as chips to buy and the expansions.

I found it to be very Diablo esq

Hmm I doubt my pc could run it. My graphics card is very outdated ATI Radeon 64mb

I'll be getting a whole new pc soon enough tho! I'll have to...what with Diablo 3 on the horizon

Raedus wrote:

Zartan wrote:
As for Warhammer coming along WoW is a very, very polished game, Warhammer does look good, but does not have the finished look and feel of WoW. Also I think Blizzard has rushed its second expansion in order to crush Warhammer, the week Warhammer comes out they announce the expansion release date, coincedence? I think not. While I think Warhammer will do very well over the next couple of months, It will all boil down to if all the people stay when Wrath of the Lich King is released.

As a long term player of WoW (since pre-release beta ) im finding alot of the guys i play with have lost the WoW buzz since The Burning Crusade expansion came out. Blizzard did alot wrong with this expansion (and alot right, but people tend to remember the bad points) and Warhammer is seeming to be the logical next step. It's frustrating seeing how much money Blizzard are making when there are long term problems that have yet to be addressed. Either way, my former server is a bit of a ghostland at the moment and it will be interesting to see if Warhammer keeps my attention or if i go back to WoW like the junkie i am.

I have been messing about with Warhammer for over a week now, and I do like it. However, in two months everyone will be max level and if the end game is not upto much (See Age of Conan) then everyone will flock to WotLK. As for your server being a ghostland, it was the same before the last expansion, and as soon as it arrived everyone came flooding back.

Guild Wars is also missing that something. It's not diabloesque either, the storyline is incredibly weak while the graphics are just lush. I too love offline RPGs and the singleplayer experience they offer, and I even loved playing with a few mates on Diablo 2 but no MMO has managed to hold my attention at all or make me love it.

$ilva $hadow wrote:Guild Wars is also missing that something. It's not diabloesque either, the storyline is incredibly weak while the graphics are just lush. I too love offline RPGs and the singleplayer experience they offer, and I even loved playing with a few mates on Diablo 2 but no MMO has managed to hold my attention at all or make me love it.

I guess an MMO has yet to be created that will be to our tastes, "$ilva $hadow".

Good thing WoW is a good game and they deserve the sucess.

That said, Warhammer has impressed me over the last few days and is tempting me to switch, depending how Wrath compares that is.