Pages: [1] 2 3 4
|
 |
|
Author
|
Topic: LOTRO now the second fastest-selling online-only PC title after WoW (Read 31872 times)
|
Arthur_Parker
Terracotta Army
Posts: 5865
Internet Detective
|
Linky‘Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar’, published by Codemasters and developed by Turbine (creators of other MMORPG titles ‘Asherons Call’ and ‘D&D Online: Stormreach’) becomes the second fastest selling online-only PC title, behind World of Warcraft. If this is true, such news deserves the bigger thread in the MMOG Discussion board. Well it is true, it's number 2 in the UK Charts. http://www.gamersquad.com/category/PlayStation-2/Dead-goat-or-not-God-of-War-II-rules-the-chart/http://ps2.boomtown.net/en_uk/articles/art.view.php?id=13914A great launch for God of War 2 on PlayStation as it leaps into the top spot of the UK chart. Meanwhile Codemasters much be delighted with the response to LOTR Online. I've even seen people queueing in stores for it - so there's definitely a lot of excitement surrounding the game. http://www.mcvuk.com/news/26829/UK-Charts-God-of-War-II-slaughters-chart-rivalsGod of War II climbs atop this week’s charts ahead of a hugely impressive debut from Codemasters’ Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, which comes in at number two. It is now the second fastest-selling online-only PC title after market leader World of Warcraft. Not sure this deserves it own thread as it might be number 17 next week but anyway here you go.
|
|
|
|
Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23657
|
This is the UK-only and without actual numbers is as interesting as Turbine saying that DDO was the "fastest growing MMOG in North America".
|
|
|
|
Falconeer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11127
a polyamorous pansexual genderqueer born and living in the wrong country
|
Actually I thought it was worth a post in the "Lotro nda lifted" thread, but still I think that if confirmed it could be threadworth news. Numbers will come eventually and we'll know the truth. For know, I think it's a believable truth. In fact, not counting LoTRO, what is supposed to be the "second fastest-selling online-only PC title after WoW"? Anything unbeatable?
|
|
|
|
schild
Administrator
Posts: 60350
|
The online-only part lets them beat The Sims.
|
|
|
|
Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23657
|
Actually I thought it was worth a post in the "Lotro nda lifted" thread, but still I think that if confirmed it could be threadworth news. Numbers will come eventually and we'll know the truth. For know, I think it's a believable truth. In fact, not counting LoTRO, what is supposed to be the "second fastest-selling online-only PC title after WoW"? Anything unbeatable?
Sure it's believable but the reason why it's meaningless without actual numbers is that WoW is almost an order of magnitude larger in Europe than any other subscription-based MMORPG before it. That's a lot of uncertainty between 1st and 3rd places. Just to make up some numbers, let's say WoW has 500K subscribers in the UK and 2nd place before LotRO came along was, say, 75K subscribers for EQ. So ignoring what "fastest-selling" means, is LotRO is on pace for, say 80K subscribers or 400K in the UK? That's a humongous difference.
|
|
|
|
Numtini
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7675
|
It seems a little fishy to me. I did a count on logins from the social panel and it's about 1600 per server. That means about 170k total population at the moment. I love the game. The numbers are going to be successful (though maybe the licenseholders won't think so.) And for Turbine, that would make it their biggest seller, but that has to be some kind of weird marketing measure. Maybe the fastest selling SINCE wow? (Since everything else has flopped.)
|
If you can read this, you're on a board populated by misogynist assholes.
|
|
|
Murgos
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7474
|
The Gamestop near me had ~200 copies of LoTRO on Friday last and had ~200 copies yesterday. I have no idea what that means other than that's a lot of shelf space.
|
"You have all recieved youre last warning. I am in the process of currently tracking all of youre ips and pinging your home adressess. you should not have commencemed a war with me" - Aaron Rayburn
|
|
|
Soukyan
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1995
|
I cannot verify the number, but I have been told that somewhere in the neighborhood of 3.6 million active accounts were in the open beta. If they could only get half of those people to buy it and pay...
In any case, it was word of mouth so it could be complete and utter bullshit. A little Wednesday speculation is good for the joints.
|
"Life is no cabaret... we're inviting you anyway." ~ Amanda Palmer"Tree, awesome, numa numa, love triangle, internal combustion engine, mountain, walk, whiskey, peace, pascagoula" ~ Lantyssa"Les vrais paradis sont les paradis qu'on a perdus." ~Marcel Proust
|
|
|
Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23657
|
I cannot verify the number, but I have been told that somewhere in the neighborhood of 3.6 million active accounts were in the open beta. If they could only get half of those people to buy it and pay...
In any case, it was word of mouth so it could be complete and utter bullshit. A little Wednesday speculation is good for the joints.
That's complete and utter bullshit. They did not have nearly that many servers up and running during Beta to support that many people unless by "active accounts" he meant everybody who signed up for the beta plus all their family members and their cousins and all of Turbine's forum members. And even then that probably wouldn't add up to 3.6 million. Let me put it another way. WoW in NA has 222 servers to support it's 2+ million players. LotRO has 11 servers right now in NA and that's more than they had during Beta (which was at 4 last time I played Beta which admittedly was a while ago).
|
|
|
|
CmdrSlack
Contributor
Posts: 4390
|
This is why paying attention to Second Life is sometimes useful. 3.6 million accounts can simply be the number of people who registered a beta account, not those who actually played for any significant amount of time.
|
I traded in my fun blog for several legal blogs. Or, "blawgs," as the cutesy attorney blawgosphere likes to call 'em.
|
|
|
HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42666
the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring
|
Shit, I had a beta account and the only 2 times I logged in was before the open beta. Active accounts means fuckall.
The sales statement of "fastest-selling," while a good sign, really are meaningless without actual numbers to back them up. Everquest sold slowly to reach its highest peak. The important numbers aren't going to be boxes sold, it's subscriptions 1 month after release, when people actually have to start paying.
|
|
|
|
Falconeer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11127
a polyamorous pansexual genderqueer born and living in the wrong country
|
Numbers aside, LoTRO is a very solid DIKU that is destined to grow in the next few months, especially thanks to good reviews and the kind of viral marketing word of mouth that Brad's thing won't have. The servers are packed, the thing is polished, the content is more than enough to entertain while being addictive and until at least Conan comes out (ie: October) it can only grow. While SOE chose the wrong horse and the wrong time to launch, I'd say LoTRO did the exact opposite: perfect launch date, in between WoW burnouts and the next gen lot.
If it's already doing good, then I think Turbine has all the reasons to be happy this time. Numbers will probably confirm this, either it'll be close or not close to WoW.
|
|
|
|
Nebu
Terracotta Army
Posts: 17613
|
I really have a hard time cheering on the success of another bland MMO. I guess drawing more investors to the genre is a good thing. I'll cheer that.
|
"Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other."
- Mark Twain
|
|
|
Morat20
Terracotta Army
Posts: 18529
|
I really have a hard time cheering on the success of another bland MMO. I guess drawing more investors to the genre is a good thing. I'll cheer that.
Then cheer it on for releasing in a more finished state than is normal for MMORPGs. Crafting and resulting effects on the economy are more than a bit fucked, but those are the damn hardest to balance in general, and I'm going to be shocked as shit the day an MMORPG launches with a properly tuned crafting and economic system. (If nothing else, MMORPG makers tend to balance for sustained post-launch economy, making the initial few months weird as fuck because the input/outputs are all screwed). If nothing else, Turbine's getting rewarded here for putting out something that isn't crap. It's not stunning and new, but "Not a steaming pile of shit on launch" is actually pretty damn new to the MMORPG market. Maybe now that WoW and LoTRO both launched successfully by not being piles of crap, the rest of the market will take note and add "Make sure it's not a festering pile of crap on launch, because apparently people don't stick around for a year while we finish the game anymore" to their to-do lists.
|
|
|
|
Jayce
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2647
Diluted Fool
|
I really have a hard time cheering on the success of another bland MMO. I guess drawing more investors to the genre is a good thing. I'll cheer that.
Hard as it may be to beleive, some of us actually like diku. LIKE. Enjoy. Have fun. The only real question is about execution and polish. You guys sit in your cafe, drinking espresso, wearing your berets, twisting your moustaches and decrying the current state of the industry for its lack of innovation, but meanwhile we'll be over here having fun.
|
Witty banter not included.
|
|
|
waylander
Terracotta Army
Posts: 526
|
AC2 was the 2003 game of the year, and look where it is today. DDO is a moderate success, but last I heard the servers were being merged. LotRO may start out well and become a resounding success, but from everything I've heard about it the game just seems bleh and not worth leaving my current MMO.
|
|
|
|
DataGod
Terracotta Army
Posts: 138
|
Only because there are no other decent offerings for current/former WOW players looking for elves dorfs and wizards....
Market Timing: A Genre: B- (only because its tolkien) Playability: B+ (its smooth and looks good) Longevity: C Retention: C+ (B+ if they can do something kickass between now and WHO or Conan) Conversion Rate: 8.5% (Im estimating its higher than usual because of the few available alternatives)
"Let me put it another way. WoW in NA has 222 servers to support it's 2+ million players. LotRO has 11 servers right now in NA and that's more than they had during Beta (which was at 4 last time I played Beta which admittedly was a while ago)."
WOW has significantly more than 222 servers, unless of course your talking about "the login servers I see" on the login screen.
|
|
|
|
Falconeer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11127
a polyamorous pansexual genderqueer born and living in the wrong country
|
You guys sit in your cafe, drinking espresso, wearing your berets, twisting your moustaches and decrying the current state of the industry for its lack of innovation, but meanwhile we'll be over here having fun.
Loved that image :) I want to stop having fun and go sit in a cafe with Nebu and the moustaches right NOW! (I am serious)
|
|
|
|
Nebu
Terracotta Army
Posts: 17613
|
Hard as it may be to believe, some of us actually like diku. LIKE. Enjoy. Have fun. The only real question is about execution and polish.
You guys sit in your cafe, drinking espresso, wearing your berets, twisting your moustaches and decrying the current state of the industry for its lack of innovation, but meanwhile we'll be over here having fun.
I don't want to take away fun from anyone... I simply want a game to play that I haven't already played for the past 10+ years. The MMO market is like an 80's radio station. Sure, I love me some hair metal on occasion, but I'd really like to listen to something fresh and new as well. It's in no way an elitist thing... it's that I've been-there-done-that ad nauseum and would like something to cleanse the palate.
|
"Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other."
- Mark Twain
|
|
|
Nebu
Terracotta Army
Posts: 17613
|
Maybe now that WoW and LoTRO both launched successfully by not being piles of crap, the rest of the market will take note and add "Make sure it's not a festering pile of crap on launch, because apparently people don't stick around for a year while we finish the game anymore" to their to-do lists.
I agree that we've progressed from "I hope it runs" to "I hope that I can play without having to wait in a queue". I still think that we should expect more, especially given the large budgets and long development cycles. The biggest improvement I've seen in the 5+ years since the DAoC release is that the flagship titles are far more content complete than they were back in the day. I still think there are many more improvements to be made and I do believe that customers do have some effect on this. There are many lingering issues with LotRO (armor, crafting, style balance, spawn rates, mob placement) that will be worked out over time. As for WoW, I think you're being far too generous in calling their launch a success. Granted, the issues that their launch had were different of those from the past, but I'd hardly call it streamline. I think Blizzard learned a lot about customer service in the first month after their game released. While I admit that I'm part of the problem (I did purchase Vanguard), I did do my part in beta. I submitted long lists of issues that I encountered, many of which still remain at release.
|
|
« Last Edit: May 02, 2007, 11:21:56 AM by Nebu »
|
|
"Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other."
- Mark Twain
|
|
|
Morat20
Terracotta Army
Posts: 18529
|
AC2 was the 2003 game of the year, and look where it is today. DDO is a moderate success, but last I heard the servers were being merged. LotRO may start out well and become a resounding success, but from everything I've heard about it the game just seems bleh and not worth leaving my current MMO.
I'm not terribly up on either AC2 and DDO, but I don't think either had nearly the positive word of mouth upon launch, or near the number of subs that LoTRO seems to have gotten. It's not WoW, but it appears to have brought in more than enough players to plan for, at a bare minimum, 100k subs for the duration. I suspect, when all's said and done, that it will probably peak and level at closer to 200k than 100k, which certainly places it very profitably. I'm not sure what coming down the pipe is a direct threat to a Tolkien DIKU -- I suspect, much like SWG had for the longest time, that LoTRO's IP means that they'll have a pretty dedicated core sub base devoted to the IP, not the game. Unlike SWG, the game doesn't suck, either. So while I'm sure upcoming MMORPGs will pull subs from LoTRO, I don't see any existential threats to it's existance. I'm guessing (judging by the numbers and interest I see out there) that it will peak between 200k and 300k and slide down to a sustained sub base of around 200k. Really not bad at all.
|
|
|
|
Numtini
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7675
|
AC2 was the 2003 game of the year, and look where it is today. Fixed to be fun, reskinned, rebadged and now the second fastest-selling online-only PC title after WOW?
|
If you can read this, you're on a board populated by misogynist assholes.
|
|
|
HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42666
the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring
|
I really have a hard time cheering on the success of another bland MMO. I guess drawing more investors to the genre is a good thing. I'll cheer that.
Hard as it may be to beleive, some of us actually like diku. LIKE. Enjoy. Have fun. The only real question is about execution and polish. You guys sit in your cafe, drinking espresso, wearing your berets, twisting your moustaches and decrying the current state of the industry for its lack of innovation, but meanwhile we'll be over here having fun. I'm playing WoW right now. I can hardly say I don't or can't enjoy a decent DIKU. It's just that LotRO is a mediocre DIKU that brings really nothing new to the party that WoW didn't already bring, and WoW is more fun to me. It's polish will garner it more subscriptions than its gameplay would.
|
|
|
|
Venkman
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11536
|
LoTRO is a good rebound game once you get tired of the cockblockery suck of endgame WoW. Passable diku, interesting tweaks, and messy enough to feel more like a real world than WoW, where everything from Stormwind to Wildhammer was laid out by such powerful and talented civil engineers they make the Illuminati envious. WoW in NA has 222 servers to support it's 2+ million players. LotRO has 11 servers right now in NA and that's more than they had during Beta (which was at 4 last time I played Beta which admittedly was a while ago). No doubt WoW is far larger than LoTRO. I suspect that'll always be the case. WoW is the natural evolution of first generation diku, and while LoTRO has one or two features that may be considered "more advanced", in total it doesn't have the competitive advantages WoW has. However, when comparing server count you need to consider number of accounts registered per and peak concurrency supported. I'm trying to dig up the numbers, but I think WoW servers support up to 3,000-3,500 concurrent avatars while LoTRO's goes to 10,000. Of course, even if it was 222*3,000 and 11*10,000, WoW wins hands down. But the difference is by how much. By those numbers, LoTRO in NA/EU is 1/6 the size of WoW in NA alone. Not a fight, much less a win, but damned good for a game only weeks old (to include the late-beta/pre-order crowd). If I'm wrong and LoTRO's servers only support the same concurrent logins, the situation is bleaker. In either case, LoTRO has already hit it's peak in my opinion, because it already has been reviewed so thoroughly and expectations managed so thoroughly (Turbine is not Blizzard, DDO did not change people's opinion of them, AC2 still closed, they don't have MEGAHUGECORP publishing/funding). While WoW successfully road an entire year's worth of wave as it broke records in territory after territory, each launch feeding awareness back to the core, I think LoTRO will have completely separate launches that don't do anything for the main NA/EU market. We'll see, but I think they're going to plateau much sooner than WoW did (which nominally seemed a few months ago) and that'll be all they ever get.
|
|
|
|
hal
Terracotta Army
Posts: 835
Damn kids, get off my lawn!
|
Im going to chime in here. while the aspects of the game are vanilla at best the story is very compelling. It is worth playing to unravel the story.
|
I started with nothing, and I still have most of it
I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are still on backorder.
|
|
|
Venkman
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11536
|
Yea, I should have peppered in there that I'm currently in LoTRO, gladly paying the fee. There is a LOT more story and it's a lot more integrated into the game world. Plus my earlier comment somewhere around here about Endie's (I think) opinion that it's more "messy" and better for it. The whole thing feels more natural, more organic. By that difference alone it's worth it.
Some stuff pisses me off, like the very overt system-wide clock (almost nothing except /music is instant), and the runspeed. But that's just MMO_generic_issue_01
|
|
|
|
Margalis
Terracotta Army
Posts: 12335
|
AC2 is not really comparable to many other games. It always played like a beta, was never any fun and had some horrible design decisions baked into it, including no towns and no NPCs. (LOL - for real!)
|
vampirehipi23: I would enjoy a book written by a monkey and turned into a movie rather than this.
|
|
|
Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23657
|
In either case, LoTRO has already hit it's peak in my opinion, because it already has been reviewed so thoroughly and expectations managed so thoroughly (Turbine is not Blizzard, DDO did not change people's opinion of them, AC2 still closed, they don't have MEGAHUGECORP publishing/funding). While WoW successfully road an entire year's worth of wave as it broke records in territory after territory, each launch feeding awareness back to the core, I think LoTRO will have completely separate launches that don't do anything for the main NA/EU market.
I don't think it's hit its peak yet. It's a decent enough game that as people continue to get bored of WoW or are just looking for something new to try its subscription numbers will go up since there aren't any better alternatives out there right now unless they are masochists and decide to give Vanguard a whirl. Edit: plurals are hard
|
|
« Last Edit: May 02, 2007, 08:22:12 PM by Trippy »
|
|
|
|
|
Hound
Terracotta Army
Posts: 162
|
I really have a hard time cheering on the success of another bland MMO. I guess drawing more investors to the genre is a good thing. I'll cheer that.
Hard as it may be to beleive, some of us actually like diku. LIKE. Enjoy. Have fun. The only real question is about execution and polish. You guys sit in your cafe, drinking espresso, wearing your berets, twisting your moustaches and decrying the current state of the industry for its lack of innovation, but meanwhile we'll be over here having fun. I could not agree more. I have not had this much fun in a MMO in ages and quite frankly that is all I give a dam about. I could give a rats ass about innovation. Saga of Ryzom is innovative as hell if that is your desire but I don't see their servers getting ques any time soon.
|
Given the number of failures we've seen in MMORPGs, designers need to learn it's hard enough just to make a fun game without getting distracted by unnecessary drivel.
|
|
|
angry.bob
Terracotta Army
Posts: 5442
We're no strangers to love. You know the rules and so do I.
|
I'm playing it to see if I can get my "the Undying" title. If I do I'll probably stay subscribed to stand around town pretending to be a lich or something.
|
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen.
|
|
|
Falconeer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11127
a polyamorous pansexual genderqueer born and living in the wrong country
|
It'll eventually die sooner than WoW one day far in the future, I agree on this, but it definitely still has to peak. Launch as been smooth and word of mouth is working its way.
"Virally".
My guild is just an example. No one was even slightly interested, but they are growing curious and slowly joining our numbers as they keep hearing good things about it.
It will steadily grow until Conan. Then, no one can say (it'll probably depend on how Funcom spent their money and time in the last few years).
|
|
|
|
KyanMehwulfe
Terracotta Army
Posts: 64
|
One has to assume it's precisely that questionable long term viability that dictated their decision to offer a lifetime subscription fee
|
|
|
|
Falconeer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11127
a polyamorous pansexual genderqueer born and living in the wrong country
|
Good observation. Although I dont necessarily think it lacks longevity on its own, just that it's the last diku or the last big one. Next generation of MMORPG will probably stem aside from the diku-formula, and that could be what will suck away people from LoTRO.
There's nothing wrong with it when talking about longevity. It's just that people is starting to look for something different, and if that kind of difference will be delivered, then people will leave LoTRO and WoW as well (although it will take a while for the second one to go into the red zone).
|
|
|
|
ajax34i
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2527
|
I simply want a game to play that I haven't already played for the past 10+ years. The MMO market is like an 80's radio station. Unfortunately, the expected MINIMUM lifetime of one of these MMOG's is 5 years, and if you ignore subscriber numbers and just look at how many titles are actually available in the MMO genre, you'll never get a game that you haven't played for the last 10 years. It takes 10 years for one of these games to play out. MMOG's are very slow, compared to single player games. Maybe that'll be their downfall. I'm still waiting for devs to realize this and start designing games that have an end in sight, rather than being designed to "go on forever". Because then maybe they can put in a story arc that begins, peaks, and then ends (tragically, humorously, or into the sunset, shrug).
|
|
|
|
Special J
Terracotta Army
Posts: 536
|
At launch, if you're the only title, I would think it would be pretty easy to be the "the second fastest-selling online-only PC title after WoW".
And if you're using the LotR property you're damn well should be selling that fast.
Reminds of a place in my home town that bragged they were the "largest one-level enclosed shopping center" in their radio ads (there were 2 such malls btw). It has since been demolished.
|
|
|
|
|
Pages: [1] 2 3 4
|
|
|
 |