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Quarterly Producer Letter for Q2 2024 ×

Where does our $15 a month go to?


bennyhana

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Taking the monthly fee from the players is always a promise for new content.

Of course BW is working on new content. The fact that the content they create for the money they get is probably because for each new FP/quest/OPs they have to record loads of VO on top of all the other things. You might say, VO doesn't take time, you're right, but it's a lot more expensive than you think, considering lots of alternative lines.

 

I think I'm never going to support VO in an MMO or any other RPG from now on.

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I'm really not trying to flame here, just really curious; anyway I'll condense my earlier query:

 

Why - and how - can Guild Wars 2 go without a subscription fee?

 

Microtransactions, mostly just cosmetic crap for your character, crap people don't need but seem to buy anyway.

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Just an FYI...

 

If you want to get some sort of idea of where the money goes, click the "Credits" option at the character select screen and watch the 30 minutes of people listed that they are paying to keep the game running.

 

It's EXTREMELY long.

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If 15 bucks is a big deal to you I have no idea where you live.

 

Take a movie for example. Its 1-3 hours and costs 9+ dollars depending on where you live.

 

SWTOR or another 15 dollar MMO is virtually unlimited amounts of entertainment for the month.

 

The money goes toward constant development and of course profit for the company.

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I'm really not trying to flame here, just really curious; anyway I'll condense my earlier query:

 

Why - and how - can Guild Wars 2 go without a subscription fee?

 

Micro transactions will happen. cosmetic stuff, if you're lucky no pay to win.

Edited by gryhmr
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If 15 bucks is a big deal to you I have no idea where you live.

 

Take a movie for example. Its 1-3 hours and costs 9+ dollars depending on where you live.

 

SWTOR or another 15 dollar MMO is virtually unlimited amounts of entertainment for the month.

 

The money goes toward constant development and of course profit for the company.

 

That's the thing, if it's not a big deal for us why is it big enough of a deal for the company to charge us? I'm just really really curious.

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That's the thing, if it's not a big deal for us why is it big enough of a deal for the company to charge us? I'm just really really curious.

 

Payroll, development costs, overhead etc. If you want the game you play to be actively developed then you need either a monthly fee or micro transactions to sustain it. SWTOR happens to use a flat monthly fee.

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EA have got enough problems with money. Since i found out that they r kinda low on cash i dont disrespect them anymore. I like EA i have like 20+ games of theirs but i dont think its ur business to no wat they do with the money u gave them so you could play their game. Its also logical to think that the money actually goes to hosting the servers and other things to keep the game maintained
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ahh a new trolling topic..

 

let face the truth no one here know jack about mmo operations and business.. so knowing this you still fishing / trolling..

 

nice change of subject though.. not just doom n gloom but repackaged into a nice warm fuzzy i love the game prologue

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It goes towards researching why on some mice, pressing mapped buttons 4 and 5 on a Logitech mouse doesn't trigger the action unless you press the button 4-5 times. The extra money is to ensure proper testing is done to match the customer reported problem, where said mouse + current driver work fine in other games, without having to mash the button repeatedly to get it to occur.

 

When they discover that their game, in fact, has an issue with certain hardware (again, that doesn't exhibit the behavior when used with other games or software), there are costs associated with diligently working with 3rd party vendors (Logitech) to learn how to properly capture and read these extra button mouse events in a timely manner, and pass them properly along to the Hero engine.

 

This is just one example of how they are using your monthly subscription to help make the game better. They could take the 'easy' road, and just send you an email saying they don't support mice, but they don't. They take the higher ground.

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Money goes like this

 

In America we believe in Privately Owned Buisness , unlike Government owned buisness Privately owned buisness does nto have to answer to the Public what it does with money it earned from service you paid for.

 

If you do not know or have no clue what it is being spent on, then its probably because 1. you do not own your own buisness 2. have not worked a job 3. never read anything about cost/labor/and upkeep............

 

Ofcourse someone at EA or Bioware is getting PAID ! Why is that bad? They made something you are having fun playing ("if not than you are wasting your own money") , why should they have to tell you anything ?

 

You want to know where your money goes , Go to any Federal Government Website ! They are the only people that have to let you know anything to do with your money . That is the difference of Publicly owned and Provately owned.

Private sector has not to answer to anyone while Public sector does .

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Surprised this thread hasn't been closed yet.

 

People talking about lowering monthly sub costs, I think that is impossible on a constantly updating game.

 

As for them making fixes, I think some of them are on schedule, I think minor specific issues like small bugs could have been stomped already, but as for increasing everyone's overall FPS, and broad stuff like that, takes alot of time. WoW still charges 15 a month and that game has had much more time to stabilize. While I personally think that game is more stable and has less bugs and more polished to a degree, I think the much better story and gameplay of SWTOR are worth enduring the process of an early MMO

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Just because you are having issues does not mean that 80% of the people are having issues, and it has zero relavance on how BW spends its money. You can speculate all you want but you have no right to know what they do with their money.

 

I was joking as to where the money went.. i could care less.

 

The fact remains that NO ONE IS PLAYING THE DAMN GAME so yeah.. its more than the 5% that they say that is having problems. Almost everyone i know and have spoken to, some with WAY better systems that me.. and even my son with a brand new SUPER pc (1200$) cannot get the game running like it should.

 

The end fact is.. the game is dying because of issues.. and if they dont fix these issues.. it wont make it past 1.2

 

WoW made it for almost 8 years, simply because it had content and ran smoothly. Even when the content ran a little thin, people got on and pvped and played the game BECAUSE IT RAN SMOOTHLY enough to enjoy. This game runs like a pos and until they fix that for the brand new high end systems AND even for low end systems, this game will continue to die. Its a simple fact that every one has to face.

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$15 a month for a game with barely any updates, major bugs, broken pvp systems, stale and static game world, copy and pasted core mechanics from WoW.

 

OR

 

No monthly fee for world class innovation, major fun factor, fluid and balanced combat, unique game world that is living and breathing with things going on all around you not based on what "quest" you have. EPIC 500 vs 500 vs 500 warfare combat and keep seiges.

 

Yeah.... give me Guild Wars 2 every time.

 

So where does your $15 go? on a fire thats where.

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This game runs like a pos and until they fix that for the brand new high end systems AND even for low end systems, this game will continue to die

Thats likely the fault of the Engine they chose for ToR more than anything else. But hey, it was cheap :)

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$15 a month for a game with barely any updates, major bugs, broken pvp systems, stale and static game world, copy and pasted core mechanics from WoW.

OR

 

No monthly fee for world class innovation, major fun factor, fluid and balanced combat, unique game world that is living and breathing with things going on all around you not based on what "quest" you have. EPIC 500 vs 500 vs 500 warfare combat and keep seiges.

 

Yeah.... give me Guild Wars 2 every time.

 

So where does your $15 go? on a fire thats where.

 

Ill just let the underlining represent your small understanding of anything.

Edited by halueryphi
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HAHA all the posts saying none of your business are so dumb.

 

Its our business becasue its our money. The 15 dollars a month is profit. A game is a game whether its a sequel to another one or not. The game has already paid for itself to EA.

 

A cash grab is a cash grab is a cash grab.

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I like how a decent amount of the posts a go something like this.. "If you don't like it don't pay for it!" or "it's none of my business".(btw not once did I say I "didn't like" paying the fee) This is exactly why these companies can charge a monthly fee for a game, Because you are all willing to pay without question! (I just think most are in denial because they have been paying monthly fees for certain mmo's for so long. I'm guilty of it too.)bottom line is if the next expansion pack ended up being $100 or heck even $200 most would pay i without thinking twice... Btw I'm no just talking about swtor I'm talking about the entire MMO community.
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