All MMORPGs. All video games. I have no idea how they could ever recoup $200 million off of this.
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Kotaku's Superannuation: The Elder Scrolls Online has cost $200 million
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
chickdigger802
Banned
Does this factor in the 100+ million dollar marketing campaign?
I have two friends who stuck out FF14 1.0 for almost a year (?) and who LOVE Elder Scrolls, and they said ESO beta was maybe the worst online game/mmo they've ever played. And these are the same guys that I actually got around 500 hours of enjoyment out of Phantasy Star Universe with. So yeah.
dripdripsplash
Member
What the fuck man.
Sometimes I wonder if there aren't just one member of their dev team that is in touch with actual reality.
Is it a sub-based game btw ?
Sometimes I wonder if there aren't just one member of their dev team that is in touch with actual reality.
Is it a sub-based game btw ?
Usually MMO advertising campaigns aren't that expensive since they're over time and relative to the success of the product.
It's their development budgets that go ultra insane.
Sho_Nuff82
Member
They'd be lucky to have 1 million in the first few months.
Shogun1337
Junior Member
human onion
Banned
This smells like 'Blunder of the Century' all over again, and Bethesda knows it. Tortanic part 2 here we come.
Dark_castle
Junior Member
Wow.
Good luck Bethesda. You need a lot of it.
Good luck Bethesda. You need a lot of it.
They should have canceled this thing ages ago. There's no point in it existing, and the beta was...something else.
Oh. OH. So, this is literally the Skyrim of MMOs?
Seriously though, everything I have seen about this game looks absolutely unfocused. Sooner or later these companies (and other industries, to be fair) have to learn throwing money at something doesn't make it worth shit.
They should have cancelled this a couple of years ago, but probably figured the sunk costs warranted completing the game. ESO started development in 2007.
To be fair, the graphics and animation are par for the course for Bethesda games before the mod community gets a hold of them.
Robot Pants
Member
I laughed to myself a bit as I clicked this thread.
Sure, but ONE month worth if subs makes this profitable.
um what?
do you really think after they release the game there is NO additional work to be done? are you serious? do you know anything about MMOs or internet infrastructure?
jesus christ
That's not how it works.
gundamkyoukai
Member
Well on the bright side the can reuse asset for Elder Scrolls VI .
IdreamofHIME
Member
haha, youre dreaming. 7 million sales in 1st month?
That would instantly put it on the same user numbers as World of Warcraft, in one month!
amazing.
I'm not so sure this is going to be the colossal failure GAF thinks it will be. Elder Scrolls carries a lot of weight as a franchise, especially after Skyrim and it's shocking success with casual audiences. I mean look at Reddit, captions of Skyrim still regularly make the front page. It's insane.
So I say market this game like crazy and keep reinforcing that it's related to Skyrim and it will be somewhat successful in the short term. I do not think it will have any legs with a subscription model, so after they recoup some money, they had better be ready to go F2P.
But massive failure that will possibly bankrupt Bethesda and/or damage the ES brand? Not seeing it.
So I say market this game like crazy and keep reinforcing that it's related to Skyrim and it will be somewhat successful in the short term. I do not think it will have any legs with a subscription model, so after they recoup some money, they had better be ready to go F2P.
But massive failure that will possibly bankrupt Bethesda and/or damage the ES brand? Not seeing it.
Gentleman Jack
Member
Speaking of, did we ever get a realistic estimate of the cost of getting XIV to 2.0, including 1.0's costs?
I was assuming Ouren was joking, but it seems he's serious.
Jikes..a lot of jobs will be lost.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
You know, maybe they should have bought 38 Studios and just slapped Elder Scrolls on it. Seems like a more financially sound decision at this point.
MMOs require persistent words many times larger than Skyrim with hundreds/thousands of simultaneous players.
I'm pretty sure that TOR is in the clear, sadly.
2m copies were wold at fullprice, that's 120m right out of the gate
first two months had ~2m subs, another 30m
four months of ~1m subs, another 30m
Plus tail and f2p. It's not a huge success, but it's probably in the clear.
BattleMonkey
Member
The beta felt like the worst MMO I ever played
For a MMO is long term so it's impossible to say if it has turned a profit, but from whats been said, SWTOR has been doing fine. It lost alot of momentum and subs early on but it's held on and after f2p came out they had more than doubled their revenues. They needed at least 500k subs originally to break even, and last we heard the game had about that many subs, while making more than double that from micro transactions. It was also stated their largest revenue generator from microtransactions in any f2p title they have. It also sold over 2.5 mil copies last mentioned when the game was being sold retail before F2P.
They have been hiring for the game for a while, delivering regular content updates, and EA recently said their committed to TOR long term, so assume it's making profit. Just not the huge numbers they expected originally.
For a MMO is long term so it's impossible to say if it has turned a profit, but from whats been said, SWTOR has been doing fine. It lost alot of momentum and subs early on but it's held on and after f2p came out they had more than doubled their revenues. They needed at least 500k subs originally to break even, and last we heard the game had about that many subs, while making more than double that from micro transactions. It was also stated their largest revenue generator from microtransactions in any f2p title they have. It also sold over 2.5 mil copies last mentioned when the game was being sold retail before F2P.
They have been hiring for the game for a while, delivering regular content updates, and EA recently said their committed to TOR long term, so assume it's making profit. Just not the huge numbers they expected originally.
ProfessorMoran
Member
Makes me yearn for dragon age online, that would be glorious.
Phoenician_Viking
Banned
How big is Bethesda?
Gintoki313
Banned
The whole sub model is what really turned people off from it (also I think there was some kind of beta that didn't go off well iirc?). It probably will bring some of those that really like The Elder Scrolls over to it, but I don't think it'll be $200mill enough.
So I agree. I also wouldn't be surprised if it goes F2P either.
You clearly don't understand when this was announced. I am also a big fan of the ES brand but nobody's asked for this. It is a massive failure enough gaffers all ready played the beta and well beta is beta but reading from there reactions and still seeing footage it doesn't look like i want to pay 60 euro's and another 15 euro's a month for it.
Warcraft is the last in this dying breed of subscription based mmo's. It's all buy 2 play like The Secret World or Guild Wars 2 or the next generation of free to play mmo's like Everquest Next.
ZeniMax Online Studios seems to have 437 people on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/zenimax-online-studios
Please note that LinkedIn is not a mandatory service, so that should be viewed as a minimum.
fluffydelusions
Member
Having played the beta, nope
BattleMonkey
Member
I know folks excited for it, they are ES fans and they typically hate MMOs.
They were raving about how good the game was after the last beta weekend lol
Game is launching with cash shop microtransactions, so assume they are already planning F2P bailout.