World of Warcraft costs 200 mil to run.

[Ratman_tf]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/zd/20080916/tc_zd/232075

[Lakov_Sanite]

apparently the biggest infrastructure cost -- customer service.

Needs to be double triple bolded for other game companies.

Also...money hats? No, they built a factory made out of money, they then wrapped chinese workers in money uniforms to cut and sew together the money hats.

[lamaros]

Title is incorrect. Or at the very least misleading.

That's $200 million for the total cost of upkeep since the game's November, 2004 release (presumably not including the initial cost to develop the game). This includes payroll for the entire staff, hardware support, and -- apparently the biggest infrastructure cost -- customer service.

That's not running costs per year.

[Ratman_tf]

Title is incorrect. Or at the very least misleading.

I prefer to think of it as Attention Grabbing! 

[Ubvman]

Title is incorrect. Or at the very least misleading.

That's $200 million for the total cost of upkeep since the game's November, 2004 release (presumably not including the initial cost to develop the game). This includes payroll for the entire staff, hardware support, and -- apparently the biggest infrastructure cost -- customer service.

That's not running costs per year.

200 million since 2004 = around 50 million a year - probably a lot higher in the first year as they added in more hardware when they realized, "ZOMG! We can wear money hats now!"
 
Anyways, is that 100% earmarked for WoW or Blizzard in general? I mean, you could count the cafeteria lady and janitorial services for Blizzard in general (basic overhead)  in that figure too. Also, whats the biggest cost in CS? How hard can billing and credit card # taking be, or having a telephone guy / CS peon from India/Vietnam say, "I can't help you with that, try using the knowledge base..."

[Fordel]

To do it correctly? Very.

They probably are also dealing with sheer SCALE for the operation(s).

[Wasted]

If that includes development of the expansions as well then that makes the running costs seem far lower as well.

[Ratman_tf]

If that includes development of the expansions as well then that makes the running costs seem far lower as well.

It doesn't seem to cover development costs. Nobody in the articles is 100% dead certain though.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Title is incorrect. Or at the very least misleading.

That's $200 million for the total cost of upkeep since the game's November, 2004 release (presumably not including the initial cost to develop the game). This includes payroll for the entire staff, hardware support, and -- apparently the biggest infrastructure cost -- customer service.

That's not running costs per year.

200 million since 2004 = around 50 million a year - probably a lot higher in the first year as they added in more hardware when they realized, "ZOMG! We can wear money hats now!"
 
Anyways, is that 100% earmarked for WoW or Blizzard in general? I mean, you could count the cafeteria lady and janitorial services for Blizzard in general (basic overhead)  in that figure too. Also, whats the biggest cost in CS? How hard can billing and credit card # taking be, or having a telephone guy / CS peon from India/Vietnam say, "I can't help you with that, try using the knowledge base..."

AFAIK all the tech support is not outsourced. Every time I've called I've gotten people on the phone who knew english and weren't confused about their own game/product. Probably be less than 200mil if they went to india for that.

[Nonentity]

All customer service is in house. They setup a tech support center in Austin, I believe.

[cevik]

or having a telephone guy / CS peon from India/Vietnam say, "I can't help you with that, try using the knowledge base..."

This is probably why it costs them so much for CS, because they don't do this at all.  No matter how cool it is to hate Blizzard at the moment, they have the best run CS I've ever seen in a MMOG.

[Merusk]

or having a telephone guy / CS peon from India/Vietnam say, "I can't help you with that, try using the knowledge base..."

This is probably why it costs them so much for CS, because they don't do this at all.  No matter how cool it is to hate Blizzard at the moment, they have the best run CS I've ever seen in a MMOG.

As mentioned in other, previous threads.. the biggest headache with their CS is when you get one who wants to Roleplay.  They're all very effective and resolve problems (including "whoops I'm a dumbass and shouldn't have rolled, can you give item X to player Z" requests) really quickly.

[Lakov_Sanite]

or having a telephone guy / CS peon from India/Vietnam say, "I can't help you with that, try using the knowledge base..."

This is probably why it costs them so much for CS, because they don't do this at all.  No matter how cool it is to hate Blizzard at the moment, they have the best run CS I've ever seen in a MMOG.

As mentioned in other, previous threads.. the biggest headache with their CS is when you get one who wants to Roleplay.  They're all very effective and resolve problems (including "whoops I'm a dumbass and shouldn't have rolled, can you give item X to player Z" requests) really quickly.

I don't think we're talking about in game GM's and are you on an RP server? if so than I don't think it's a big issue and for what it's worth I'm on an rp server and never had a gm do anything but business and maybe a smiley face.

[Zetor]

I'm on a pvp server, and the one time I talked to a GM involved a lot of RP-talk [I didn't mind though]. My problem wasn't the rp, but that they didn't actually *solve* the problem [which was a typical "item-was-masterlooted-to-me-by-mistake" thing, go go warlock with resto druid belt], they told me to suck it up... I think them doing anything about mis-loots actually depends on whether the GM feels like bothering with something like this at the time. Ah well.

OTOH, when an enchantment recipe rotted on a boss because the ML'r [who wasn't an enchanter] left it for last, they mailed it to me (as the only enchanter in the raid) a day later, which was pretty awesome.


-- Z.

[cevik]

My problem wasn't the rp, but that they didn't actually *solve* the problem [which was a typical "item-was-masterlooted-to-me-by-mistake" thing, go go warlock with resto druid belt], they told me to suck it up...

We had a mislooted item this weekend on a Kara run where the item was sharded and the GM still fixed it for us.  I told the suckers in vent they were wasting their time since the item had been sharded.

So sorry that you've had problems in the past, your experience is very atypical from what I've seen.

EDIT:  No roleplaying from the GM either, just all business and fixed in a jiffy.  I've never seen the GM roleplay thing..

[stu]

I became stuck outside of Shattrath City once while my hearthstone was still cooling down. After sending in a ticket and waiting a few minutes, this came up in within the chat box:

Your nostrils detect the scent of brimstone as you are surrounded by ebon mist. Before your eyes the black cloud manifests a majestic figure who greets you in a comforting whisper...

Me: I'm stuck!
GM: No problemo! (or somesuch)

And then I became unstuck. I thought it was cool, even though I don't RP.

[Ingmar]

I don't think I've ever had a GM interaction where they DIDN'T do some sort of ridiculous roleplaying entrance, etc.

It wouldn't bother me so much if they didn't always spell at least one word wrong in their emote macros. 

[Sjofn]

I've had more GMs do a grand BY THE LIGHT OF ELUUUUUUUUUUUUNE greeting than not, and we're on a normal ol' PvE server.

I do think CoX's CS was better (when I played it, anyway), but I'm sure some of that is a function of just how much bigger WoW is.

[Merusk]

I've had 2/3 of the GMs I've interacted with do the entry thing, and continue on "in-character" while having the conversation.  (Although I admit I liked the Pirate guy.  "Arr, we'll keel haul that monster and see that he acts right for ye.")  No, I'm not on an RP server.

I think it's just based on the mood/ shift of the guys doing the work. It doesn't offend me, but some times you just don't want to flounce about and want them to act like a normal CS rep.

[Jayce]

Also, whats the biggest cost in CS? How hard can billing and credit card # taking be

Never underestimate the number of abject dumbasses in the world.  You people and your master loot issues are probably the ones they absolutely love to answer.

[LC]

So most of the $15 monthly fee is pure profit.

[Lakov_Sanite]

So most of the $15 monthly fee is pure profit.

[Ratman_tf]

I'm sure they've dumped a ton of that money into SC2 and D3 development.

But yeah. Blizz and Vivendi aren't hurting.

[Trouble]

[Ratman_tf]

Solid. That be propa CS yo.

[AngryGumball]

I so would not know how to handle a GM like that. I know the player started it.
The Gm even RP'ed the send me a positive feedback email instead of the usual macro.

Btw, I had a GM allow me to take ingame screenshots with him after talking to same one over three-ish weeks. Cept the in game char did not match the GM name. Nor was the GM wearing much ZOMG gear your amazing to see in person. Just a couple GM items.

[Oban]

That has got to be a jive addon.

[Slyfeind]

Holy crap, and he even did it by the numbers: Hello, got time to chat, how are you, what's the problem, let me repeat it, here's what I'll do, anything else, have fun and good-bye.

He's good.

[WindupAtheist]

That leaves 9 million paying subscribers who, at the $15 fee, are generating $135 million every month.

Yeah, because Blizzard is generating $15 income per month on every single player in China.

Come on, this sort of "10 million subs x $15 = OMG!" math would get someone laughed off the board around here.

[HaemishM]

Ok, half the number then. Say they only get the $15 a month off of 5 million subs. $15 x 5 million = $75 million in revenue a month. 3 months to recoup the entire operating costs since the game went live.

MONEY... HATS.

[Fordel]

I so would not know how to handle a GM like that. I know the player started it.
The Gm even RP'ed the send me a positive feedback email instead of the usual macro.

Btw, I had a GM allow me to take ingame screenshots with him after talking to same one over three-ish weeks. Cept the in game char did not match the GM name. Nor was the GM wearing much ZOMG gear your amazing to see in person. Just a couple GM items.

GM's just wear that robe and hood last I knew. I've never actually seen one in game though :( . I've only ever needed to speak with a GM directly like twice in WoW, and both times it was a BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOOOON!

[CharlieMopps]

I absolutely guarantee you that running WOW doesn't cost them more than a couple hundred thousand a month. 90% of that would be CS costs. The servers and bandwidth are nothing.

Now, if you add on development of expansions and stuff... along with the magic they work to avoid paying taxes... maybe $50mil... but that would be a real stretch.

[Trippy]

I absolutely guarantee you that running WOW doesn't cost them more than a couple hundred thousand a month. 90% of that would be CS costs. The servers and bandwidth are nothing.

Unless you got sources to back that up you are just making shit up.

As a trivial counterpoint 50 CS people * $5K a month per person for salary, health care benefits, facilities, etc. comes out to $250K. And that's just one location. Blizzard has 3 separate setups, NA (US), Europe and S. Korea (China and other parts of Asia are operated by, uh, operators).

For their China operator The9, you can look at their quarterly operating expenses since they are a public company. It's a little tricky to look at their numbers now since they now operating multiple games but in, say, 2006, when it was basically just WoW they had operating expenses of ~US$24 million. That represents about half the total WoW subscriber base but obviously expenses for things like wages/salaries are much much lower in China so if assume it's costing Blizzard about double that to operate the 3 setups mentioned above you get $50 million a year in operating expenses. Even if you don't double it and assume Blizzard's expenses are roughly equivalent to The9s that's still an order of magnitude more than your "couple hundred thousand a month" claim.

[Venkman]

Further to that, and I'm only asking the question here, how would bandwidth costs for a game this size with this much peak activity be anything but "nothing"?

[cevik]

I hear that WoW runs on pixie wishes and unicorn dreams.