How can oen publisher invest in so many MMORPG's and expect to make a profit?

[Humodour]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_World_%28company%29

 

Chinese investment mystifies me.

[Syraxis]

I wonder as well, including the entire South Korean gaming industry.

[Tigranes]

I expect many of them are fairly similar, i.e. built on the same engine with different content / target audience / setting, and that they do a lot of official item selling.

 

edit: The SK game industry is very different from the Chinese. It's suffering from a lot of growing pains (no government support, localisation issues, labour pools, etc) and the symptoms of that are several idiot studios that churn out pretty much plagiarised C-grade games, but it could go either way. There is a similarity in the sense that there's a huge market for simpler, grind-based MMOs played in internet cafes.

[LostStraw]

There's a lot of money to be made in the "Free to Play" MMO market. I think Nexon recently had a gang-buster year and a lot of growth with its free MMOs. Another thing to keep in mind is that many of these free MMOs don't have the really high production values like the traditional Pay to Play MMOs have usually had so there is less risk when investing in them.

[Orogun01]

There's a lot of money to be made in the "Free to Play" MMO market. I think Nexon recently had a gang-buster year and a lot of growth with its free MMOs. Another thing to keep in mind is that many of these free MMOs don't have the really high production values like the traditional Pay to Play MMOs have usually had so there is less risk when investing in them.

I beg to differ sir, Vindictus has some of the best graphics on the market, an unique concept that's virtually untouched by every other MMO and it's free to play. There is money to be made by selling in-game items. Plus MMOs are a big deal in Korea and China; sport-like I would say, I would not be surprised if they had sponsors. When thousands of people visit your site daily and check your facebook page it's not hard to find people willing to pay for advertising space.

[Volourn]

You don't need WOW numbers to be profitable with a MMO.

[Calax]

I think Cryptic had stated that for their Champions MMO (which is now Free to Play) would be considered successful enough for a possible sequel/partner game for villians, at 100,000 subscribers.

[LostStraw]

There's a lot of money to be made in the "Free to Play" MMO market. I think Nexon recently had a gang-buster year and a lot of growth with its free MMOs. Another thing to keep in mind is that many of these free MMOs don't have the really high production values like the traditional Pay to Play MMOs have usually had so there is less risk when investing in them.

I beg to differ sir, Vindictus has some of the best graphics on the market, an unique concept that's virtually untouched by every other MMO and it's free to play. There is money to be made by selling in-game items. Plus MMOs are a big deal in Korea and China; sport-like I would say, I would not be surprised if they had sponsors. When thousands of people visit your site daily and check your facebook page it's not hard to find people willing to pay for advertising space.

That's why I said "...many of these free MMOs don't have the really high production values..."

 

I've played Vindictus and it stands out among the free MMOs in terms of production values but it's rather unique in that sense. It was also released in a very piecemeal fashion with relatively little content at the outset which would have allowed the developers to stop working on it had it not been a success -- thereby mitigating a lot of risk that often goes into the normal AAA MMOs.

 

I'm not sure about the rest of your comment as it seems to agree with what I said

[Walsingham]

To a certain extent it comes down to how investment capital moves. Dragon's Den (*vomit*) has given people some totally misleading impressions of the process.

 

One of the weirdest aspects is that venture capital often prefers a 1 in a million chance of making a billion over a one in ten chance of making a million. My personal view is that for many players it's as much a form of legal tax incentivised gambling as anything else.

 

So in this instance I'd suggest that its a lot to do with some snakeoil merchant pushing his vision of the next World of Warcraft to uninformed, greed-crazed chinese investors.

[sorophx]

its a lot to do with some snakeoil merchant pushing his vision of the next World of Warcraft to uninformed, greed-crazed chinese investors.

nicely put

[Kaftan Barlast]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_bubble is the simple way to explain it. The actual real profit value of the MMO market has been grossly overestimated for years and years.

[Monte Carlo]

I tried Rift. It was fun for a week then it was... meh. Grinding / running about / grinding. I cancelled the subscription.

 

MMOs aren't my cup of tea and, a bit like sports sims and bioware games, their appeal eludes me.

[Walsingham]

I know that I'd be all over MMOs like stink on a goat, being the OCD megalomaniac that I am. But having seen two colleagues who are far cleverer than me waste years of their lives on MMOs I'm refusing to get involved. Until I get too old and fat to care.

 

So probably next Tuesday.

 

*bdum tish*

Edited June 13, 2011 by Walsingham

[Morgoth]

I tried Rift. It was fun for a week then it was... meh. Grinding / running about / grinding. I cancelled the subscription.

That was the same effect when I played the allmighty WoW. It just ain't my cup of tea.

 

Really, life's too short to waste on a hiking sim with Orcs and buttons.

[sorophx]

yeah, better waste it on a turd throwing sim instead

[Morgoth]

yeah, better waste it on a turd throwing sim instead

It's also a competent shooter.

[Bos_hybrid]

I myself have never really been intersted in MMO, I've tried a few(Warhammer, Conan, Eve) but just didn't find them interesting. I think the main problem for me is that I have commitment issues.

 

However I completely understand why devs are constantly trying their hand in the MMO market, it's a gold mine if the game hits the right strings, more then COD/AC could ever hope to be.

[Monte Carlo]

OTOH I got utterly addicted to Company of Heroes online. Like a junkie. I spent real money on it and everything.

[sorophx]

that's because it's an awesome game

[Orogun01]

Ok i'm just putting this out there, but i'm I the only one that thinks that the MMO formula's is completely ****ed up?

 

It's a game without a deep context, story, most the quest are repetition of the same types, rewards are held up and in many cases unachievable. If someone released an MMO without any social aspect it would be a horrible game.

[LadyCrimson]

It's a game without a deep context, story, most the quest are repetition of the same types, rewards are held up and in many cases unachievable. If someone released an MMO without any social aspect it would be a horrible game.

Ahem...Diablo's.

...of course, you may think that's a terrible game series, too (which would be fine to have that opinion, btw ). Point is, there's a huge money market and player base that does like such games, so, y'know...companies go there. Not everyone wants deep context/story/plot in their games, either all the time or ever. *shrug*

Edited June 13, 2011 by LadyCrimson

[GhostofAnakin]

Would Dragon Age Legends game on Facebook be considered a type of MMO? While on one hand it's played solo, you can add friends' characters to your party (though you control them).

[Humodour]

Well I sure hope this particular Chinese publisher's MMOs do well, because these are the suits who now own the Torchlight developers.

[Orogun01]

Ahem...Diablo's.

...of course, you may think that's a terrible game series, too (which would be fine to have that opinion, btw ). Point is, there's a huge money market and player base that does like such games, so, y'know...companies go there. Not everyone wants deep context/story/plot in their games, either all the time or ever. *shrug*

Ok, Diablo is a rogue/dungeon crawler and I did mention that MMOs held up rewards; or the reward-difficulty ratio it's off. Diablo does random drops, there it's a motivation that's more rational than grinding for 20 hours straights to farm that dungeon with the though monsters, and get that item with the low drop rate.

 

The one negative thing that everyone says about games it's that they are a waste of time and that's how I feel about most MMOs, after a certain point they are designed to waste your time.

[sorophx]

from a developer's/publisher's perspective, MMOs are perfect, because they make you, the gamer, spend all your time trying to get that rarest drop. everything in subscription based games is designed as a time sink. Diablo is no different, though it's not an MMO or a subscription based game at all. in essence Diablo is about farming dungeons and getting to the highest level.

 

now what I personally don't understand is why free to play MMOs use the same design, when they should be mimicking TF2