AoC hurt by Sept 2009 launches; new free MMO almost done

[UnSub]

Looks like the launch of Aion / ChampO took a chunk out of AoC's playerbase. Funcom's next free MMO, Pets Vs Monsters, is about to enter closed beta.

Funcom has its work cut out for it to get The Secret World launched, imo.

[sam, an eggplant]

They have tons of money in the bank. TSW will launch.

[schild]

They have tons of money in the bank. TSW will launch.

This.

Good thread though. Would read again.

[SnakeCharmer]

Funcom has its work cut out for it to get The Secret World launched, imo.

Do not say such vile, disgusting things about my precious.  Kthxbye.

[UnSub]

They have tons of money in the bank. TSW will launch.

Funcom-quality launch or what-the-players-want-quality launch?

They've got money in the bank, but: their current flagship MMO has just taken a hit in sub numbers from a potentially already low base, resources are being also spent on the AoC expansion, staff have been laid off / moved to Canada and the next two planned releases are F2Ps (Board with the World, Monsters vs Pets).  Hence: work cut out.

[Nija]

Funcom has its work cut out for it to get The Secret World launched, imo.

Why? Quality has never been required to launch a Funcom product. Why would they change that attitude now?

When they don't have the money to continue development, you'll see yet another piece of cardboard shit on the shelf at Best Buy with a Funcom label on it.

[Morfiend]

As I posted in the AoC sub forum. I recently reupped my account with the 14 days free. I am playing on one of the 3 "populated" servers, and its a fucking ghost town. Its sad really. I have tried so many times to enjoy the game, but each time something drives me away. This time its the feeling that I am completely alone in the world.

[Ingmar]

Those year over year numbers are pretty  , even taking into account that Q3 was abnormally high due to box sales.

[Montague]

So with a little napkin math:

Funcom estimates revenue of between $4-5 million for fourth quarter 09. Most of that is AOC, but there is still Anarchy Online as well. So lets say they make $4.5 million for the quarter with $500,000 in revenue from AO, and about $100,000 from their FTP stuff.  $3.9 million in revenue at an arbitrary average of $14 a month per subscription (accounting for longer-term subscriptions) would be around 93,000 subscribers. That's assuming zero box sales, at the midpoint of their estimates. More than likely AOC is <90,000 subs at the moment.

 

[Shatter]

When I went back in mid of 2009 it was pretty empty and since my character was level 80 I basically had nothing to do without a guild so I lasted all of one night and that was the extent of my return.  I think they have done a decent job of trying to get people back but its failing and most of the time it doesnt stick, even though its generally recoginized that they have made many improvements.  Not sure how many servers are left now but they could/should probably consolidate those down so at least they can have a couple healthy pop servers. 

[grunk]

AoC hurt by being a big steaming pile o'shit

Every time I get dressed in the morning, above my designer suits is an AoC collectors edition box... reminded how much baby dick Funcom truly sucks.

[fuser]

AoC collectors edition box

Could be worse, like a WAR CE  

[grunk]

AoC collectors edition box

Could be worse, like a WAR CE  

Or you could have a lifetime LOTRO account... Zzzzzuzh heading back to the G building.

[NiX]

Or you could have a lifetime LOTRO account... Zzzzzuzh heading back to the G building.

Good to see you're still at the home.

[Xurtan]

Could be worse, like a WAR CE  

I actually own one of these. Oddly, I don't regret the purchase. I got my fun out of it, and off and on go back for T1 pvp. *shrug*

[Stabs]

This was interesting from the report:

"As announced previously, the Company will reduce
its cost of development by transferring a
proportionally larger share of its development to
lower cost countries. The Company currently has
25 employees in its Montreal office, where the
government offers strong financial incentives to the
game industry. The Company also has over 50
employees in Beijing, China."

The implication is more staff cuts in higher cost countries.

[Count Nerfedalot]

This thread title would be more accurate if it read "AoC hurt by June 2008 launch". 

Another case of failing to get anywhere near it's potential, much less management's expectations, due to mismanaged beta testing and releasing before it was finished. 

I've harped already on the need for these damn things to be complete and polished at release, but a necessary prerequisite to that which hasn't been discussed as much is that (closed) beta testing has to be done on all of the pieces and the whole thing together, and redone enough times to actually have time to get it right.  Lacking this investment, we will continue to see "failures" and "marginal successes" (also known as cynical rip-offs for the quick box-sale cash) such as AoC, WAR, CO, EQ2, HG:L, TR, etc, etc, etc.