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Kotaku's Superannuation: The Elder Scrolls Online has cost $200 million

N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Given that SWTOR cost nearly $200 million according to the LA Times, and TESO seems to have a larger team size and longer dev cycle, this seems believable.

teso4vs94.png


Source: https://twitter.com/supererogatory/status/418451666707300353
 
I hope for Bethesda it doesn't fail. The consequences would be...let's just say awful.
 
Well, hopefully they spent some of that cash on end-game content or it'll be another early exit for most players just like TOR.
 
Major publishers dumping huge amounts of money into MMOs, quite possibly the riskiest genre for profit, just seems like a bad idea every time. They can have high reward but usually the amount of resources going into them is better served just making four other games.
 
Hey, a certain other popular franchise MMO cost $200 million to make recently, that must have done really well with such a big franchise and such a big budget....
 
Should of been F2P from the start.

It will hit F2P within 6-8 months of release. It's SWTOR all over again only less people are interested in this.
 
PsychoWARD23 said:
Hey, a certain other popular franchise MMO cost $200 million to make recently, that must have done really well with such a big franchise and such a big budget....
Click to expand...

Hasn't SWTOR turned a profit since going F2P? I heard that, but I don't know if it's actually true or not.
 
NUMBERS

If they sell 7million (skyrim sold 10 in the first month) units with $45 revenue (consumer paying 60) a pop, they will have made a $115 million profit.

Month two, they make $105 million with no additional work, just on subs.

That's enough.
 
Biggest flop of 2014 and it isn't even out yet.

They probably will recoup a lot on box sales alone though.
 
It's going to be SWTOR all over again.

Ouren said:
NUMBERS

If they sell 7million (skyrim sold 10 in the first month) units with $45 revenue (consumer paying 60) a pop, they will have made a $115 million profit.

Month two, they make $105 million with no additional work, just on subs.

That's enough.
Click to expand...

Assuming there is enough content to keep people longer than a month.
 
I'd love to see the cumulative total revenue for 'chase games' of the past two decades. I'm going to guess that chasing WoW has cost the industry the most money. Runner up is, CoD.
 
PreyingShark said:
Is the MMORPG market even suitable for this sort of thing anymore? Genuine question.
Click to expand...

Well, SWTOR has about 500K subs and some decent f2p revenue, but I'm not sure putting in $200 million for that was worth it from an initial investment perspective.

I mean you can probably brute force out a really popular mobile game for less than that and make about the same.
 
It's sad to see them so blind to this flop that everyone can see coming miles away. It would be a miracle if this ended up being successful.
 
Ouren said:
NUMBERS

If they sell 7million (skyrim sold 10 in the first month) units with $45 revenue (consumer paying 60) a pop, they will have made a $115 million profit.

Month two, they make $105 million with no additional work, just on subs.

That's enough.
Click to expand...

All they need is 7 million MMO subs!
 
Crazy. No wonder it's subscription based. The time I put into it during the beta was probably some of the most unpleasant I've ever spent playing video games.
 
enzo_gt said:
It's sad to see them so blind to this flop that everyone can see coming miles away. It would be a miracle if this ended up being successful.
Click to expand...

I know it's two separate studios, but there still has to be resources tied up into a project this big? I hope the incoming titanic doesn't end up scuttling the franchise or worse, force them to shove out a half-baked TESVI.
 
dimb said:
Crazy. No wonder it's subscription based. The time I put into it during the beta was probably some of the most unpleasant time I've ever spent playing video games.
Click to expand...

Wow. Like, FFXIV 1.0 bad? Or somehow not even bad in the range of MMOs but just games?
 
Just make it look like ES is supposed to look like, done.
 
enzo_gt said:
It's sad to see them so blind to this flop that everyone can see coming miles away. It would be a miracle if this ended up being successful.
Click to expand...

i doubt they are blind to it, but they can't really eat 200 million or delay it much longer, they aren't going to make money on it
 
Everyone is still chasing that WOW money.

Can't blame them. Guaranteed money is a way better revenue source than boxed products.
 
Every time I load up skyrim or oblivion, all I think about is "online online mmorpg online online mmorgp". Then I realize that it isn't online. I'm not sure why this game isn't rubbing me the right way though. I should be excited. :/
 
Bethesda is going to do everything in their power to disingenuously market this as Skyrim Online, when it just looks like a shitty generic MMO with graphics and animation from 2006. I'm sure many will fall for it.
 
Everyone who decided to chase that WoW money in 2006-2008 is in the process of being burned now that their 4-6 year MMO development times are completed, and the products are releasing to a changed market.
 
Not a big deal. The game'll do well, because it looks great, and I see this because I'm not a bandwagoning asshole.

antitrop said:
Bethesda is going to do everything in their power to disingenuously market this as Skyrim Online, when it just looks like a shitty WoW-knockoff graphics and animation from 2006. I'm sure many will fall for it.
Click to expand...

It looks nothing like WoW, and the animations are incredible for an MMORPG.

Do you guys just get hard ons from making fun of P2P MMO's?
 
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