How Much Money Blizzard is Really Making from 10 Million Subscribers

[rk47]

Titanic was just an excuse for James Cameron to test out his underwater cameras and inspect wreckage. Am I the only one who hasn't seen Titanic yet?

Probably. It's got Kate Winslet's boobies, and a guy falling into one of the huge propellors as the ship goes down. *tonk!* I call him "propellor guy".

The thing about Titanic that gets to me is that it's apparently the movie where Cameron got all soft and weak in his old age. Terminator... Aliens... Titanic?  Although Abyss was a real hint at his hippy-nougat center.

Didn't watch it...Never knew why I'd want to watch a romance movie. It was marketed as one

[Wolf]

So one must ask, where IS all that money going?

To buy a major publisher that actually knows how to make money off single player games?

[Baldrake]

According to the info put out during the Activision / Vivendi merger, WoW has an annual revenue of $1.1 billion dollars and an operating profit of $520 million.

If it's true, this is the most interesting information in this whole thread.

Not because of the $1.1 billion revenue. But because it implies they're spending $600 million per annum. For far freaking out, that's a lot of money.

[stu]

Maybe they're using a big chunk of that money to research and develop projects for other facets of media besides games. The WoW movie comes up every now and then. That would be a pretty large syphon for cash.

[Mrbloodworth]

The Wow Franchise is much much bigger than simply the game.

[SnakeCharmer]

Can't this thread just be simply answered as "a lot" and put to bed?

[Ratman_tf]

Can't this thread just be simply answered as "a lot" and put to bed?

Then what would we talk about? The quote button is really shiny. I like pressing it.

[Soukyan]

So one must ask, where IS all that money going?

CG cut-scenes for Starcraft II.

[tkinnun0]

Then what would we talk about? The quote button is really shiny. I like pressing it.

How niche MMOs are really honestly a success if they can break even, of course.

[Baldrake]

Then what would we talk about? The quote button is really shiny. I like pressing it.

SWG?

[UnSub]

According to the info put out during the Activision / Vivendi merger, WoW has an annual revenue of $1.1 billion dollars and an operating profit of $520 million.

If it's true, this is the most interesting information in this whole thread.

Not because of the $1.1 billion revenue. But because it implies they're spending $600 million per annum. For far freaking out, that's a lot of money.

I really should have linked the original text. I forgot that the figures above are projected calendar 2007 figures. As tasmia points out (side note: that's two good links from two posts, but you are allowed to say something yourself) the final figures are a little higher.

Blizzard / Vivendi is probably spending that profit in a number of different ways, but ultimately what it buys Blizzard is independence. They can turn around to Vivendi (and probably have) and gone, "Our next MMO will cost $110m to develop. At least. It'll be ready when it's ready. Starcraft 2 will get a healthy budget too. And we might want to buy out some companies... we'll let you know." And Vivendi will take it, because Blizzard is paying the executive bonuses.

If you think about it, WoW provided (in 2007) close to a 10x return on the initial investment. It may be the outlier, but figures like that are driving the development of the entire MMO genre.

[tasmia]

As tasmia points out (side note: that's two good links from two posts, but you are allowed to say something yourself)

I love lamp.

[UnSub]

As tasmia points out (side note: that's two good links from two posts, but you are allowed to say something yourself)

I love lamp.

Excellent.