Jump to content

Step back and look at the potential cost to EA/BW for them giving the free 30 days


Kadin

Recommended Posts

I hope they go bust.

 

Would rather be back in Afghan patroling in -20 centigrade on foot alongside the Afghan National Army, running the risk of being stabbed/shot in the back by them rather than have to deal with this.

 

Seriously?! Please ETS and remove your uniform. If it is a while until you ETS then please go see your Squad Leader or Platoon Sergeant and ask for a chapter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 128
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

or they are worried about GW2 coming which has no sub fees at all... and also worried people will realise that Subs are not needed, that people shouldnt have to pay for bugs to be fixed etc.. that should just be fixed.

and you should only pay for expansions

 

My Husband is in beta. If you could spend ten minuets on the GW2 beta forums you would see that there is just as much hate and teeth gnashing.....BioWare doesn't have anything to worry about.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, let's use the last official numbers that were posted by BioWare.

 

1,700,000 subscribers.

x

$14.99

--------------------------

$25,483,000

 

 

There is a major flaw with that, that number is inaccurate. It has not been updated sense the release in asian pacific, the number was posted right after the asian pacific release. As with all games you see a sudden surge at release. From current reports its doing vary poorly in that given region, all there servers are sitting on light during peak.

 

You are also not accounting for State/federal corp income tax, and the 20% royalties to lucasarts

 

You also have to account for

server upkeep and bandwidth

employee payroll

Upper management bonuses

Advertisement

Legal fee's

 

So the profit is no where near as high as you think it is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is a major flaw with that, that number is inaccurate. It has not been updated sense the release in asian pacific, the number was posted right after the asian pacific release. As with all games you see a sudden surge at release. From current reports its doing vary poorly in that given region, all there servers are sitting on light during peak.

 

You are also not accounting for State/federal corp income tax, and the 20% royalties to lucasarts

 

You also have to account for

server upkeep and bandwidth

employee payroll

Upper management bonuses

Advertisement

Legal fee's

 

So the profit is no where near as high as you think it is.

 

Nowhere in their post did they say profit. And right below the part you quoted, they stated this was the last stated number that was out there and obviously all weren't going to qualify. Did you actually read the entire post?!?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My Husband is in beta. If you could spend ten minuets on the GW2 beta forums you would see that there is just as much hate and teeth gnashing.....BioWare doesn't have anything to worry about.

 

This.

 

Over a decade of playing MMO's, and honestly, forums are all the same. Lots of hate, lots of gnashing of teeth, lots of wailing and whining, tons and tons of trolling. Has nothing to do with how good/bad a game is. There will always be a percentage of any MMO population that feels a need to try and scream loudest, and then scream louder when their 'suggestions' and 'fixes' aren't acted on. The folks whose vote really matter tend to do it quietly, and do it by changing where they spend their money. It really is that simple.

 

Personally, I think in the long run, EA/BW handing out the free 30 days is a calculated expenditure. They know folks that truly can't stand the game won't be swayed, their hope is that the folks who are on the fence will stick around because of the free 30 days and that they can prove that they can roll out content and fixes consistently like they said they would. If we get 1.3 before the majority of the on the fence folks would have to resub, and its good, how many do you think would sub for at least another month to give them a chance?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is a major flaw with that, that number is inaccurate. It has not been updated sense the release in asian pacific, the number was posted right after the asian pacific release. As with all games you see a sudden surge at release. From current reports its doing vary poorly in that given region, all there servers are sitting on light during peak.

 

 

As a player on Dalborra (asia-pacific PVE), I cannot recall one instance of server pop being listed as anything but heavy during our peak time...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hear both sides and I can say you either treat everyone the same or not at all. I have 5 level 40 toons. I enjoy slowly leveling and then having a choice of toons for end game. Also knowing that end game content is generally lacking until a game is a little more mature I chose this style of leveling. Now I am being insulted and punished by BioWare for my style of playing. I am canceling my account and moving on. There are lots of games to play out there I do not have to take this kind of insult.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hear both sides and I can say you either treat everyone the same or not at all. I have 5 level 40 toons. I enjoy slowly leveling and then having a choice of toons for end game. Also knowing that end game content is generally lacking until a game is a little more mature I chose this style of leveling. Now I am being insulted and punished by BioWare for my style of playing. I am canceling my account and moving on. There are lots of games to play out there I do not have to take this kind of insult.

 

You don't have Legacy Level 6 between 5 level 40's? I'm assuming they're spread across multiple servers?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And yet....people still complain.

Thank you for proving my original thought, that even if Bioware changed the qualifier to include MORE people...

Someone is still going to cry about it.

Can't please people these days...it's impossible.

 

 

Treat all of your customers the same or establish the rules so customers can choose to accept. Think of if your parents gave you Christmas gifts and not your brother or sister. Would you not be pissed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hear both sides and I can say you either treat everyone the same or not at all. I have 5 level 40 toons. I enjoy slowly leveling and then having a choice of toons for end game. Also knowing that end game content is generally lacking until a game is a little more mature I chose this style of leveling. Now I am being insulted and punished by BioWare for my style of playing. I am canceling my account and moving on. There are lots of games to play out there I do not have to take this kind of insult.

 

rofl wow

 

Don't let the door hit you bro

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All in all it is a gamble for BioWare/EA at the end, but I think they will be safe. They have enough resources to ride it through until they recover from any potentially negative effects of doing this. Though it does make one wonder, free weekend and buddy pass, now this? Who is giving who heat in the company to push these things so close to release? It, on some levels, gives the impressions that the game isn't performing like anticipated and they are trying to drive numbers.

 

It's been said many times that 200 million number for development cost was exaggerated.

 

It could really be that they are more profitable than they expected and therefore they have room to do this to attract people who quit and/or please people who stayed.

 

Also no small thing is the impact of you telling your school/work friend: "Hey, this Star Wars just gave me a free month!". Good marketing goes a long way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bioware did this to themselves.

 

They did not have to offer the level 50 "loyalty" reward to begin with. No one would have said anything. They were probably thinking "spend some to make some".

 

But boy, did that backfire on them. So now, they have to spend more $$ in order not to lose more $$ from all those who were upset and canceled yesterday.

 

One stupid move by their part and it snowballed into this. And they have no one but themselves to blame.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

or they are worried about GW2 coming which has no sub fees at all... and also worried people will realise that Subs are not needed, that people shouldnt have to pay for bugs to be fixed etc.. that should just be fixed.

and you should only pay for expansions

 

 

 

Believe me when I say this. Even as a Free to Play.. GW2 stinks. I am not privileged to let you know how I know. Just trust me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bioware did this to themselves.

 

They did not have to offer the level 50 "loyalty" reward to begin with. No one would have said anything. They were probably thinking "spend some to make some".

 

But boy, did that backfire on them. So now, they have to spend more $$ in order not to lose more $$ from all those who were upset and canceled yesterday.

 

One stupid move by their part and it snowballed into this. And they have no one but themselves to blame.

 

They actually don't have to spend more money. In fact, they aren't spending any money at all...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Obviously none of us know how many current subs were active as of yesterday at 12PM CT and will make the cutoff by the 22nd get in on the promo. How many would you guess? 300k? 500k? more? less?

 

The point is even if you take a very low number like say 200k and multiply that by $14.99, you come up with just shy of $3 Million. Big company or not, that's a large chunk of cash. The fact that they're willing to essentially write that off in a month (or later due to some people paying multiple months), is a big deal.

 

To each of us it's not large but certainly a large impact on their bottom line and it would be nice to think of it when people scoff at what they consider a paltry offer...

 

Your naivety is actually somewhat refreshing. Though I find your loyalty to EA/Bioware to be somewhat blinded just from this post alone. For a game like SWTOR 200k subscribers is abysmal truthfully.

 

The fact that they are willing to write off a month is not a big deal. It happens all the time. FFXIV went how many months being free? In both cases it's not to "thank" players. They simply just want to retain subscribers because they are obviously leaving en mass. Nothing more or less.

 

Some of these threads in defense of Ea/Bioware and just the Star Wars brand in general are just laughable. Any form of constructive criticism is automatically dismissed as "crying" while you have people who will blindly come up with excuse after excuse of why things are okay.. even this for example. You make it seem as if Ea/Bioware reached out to us lowly peons and just wanted to give us 30 free days just to be nice! I love warm fuzzy feelings!

Edited by Noctis_XZ
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Obviously none of us know how many current subs were active as of yesterday at 12PM CT and will make the cutoff by the 22nd get in on the promo. How many would you guess? 300k? 500k? more? less?

 

The point is even if you take a very low number like say 200k and multiply that by $14.99, you come up with just shy of $3 Million. Big company or not, that's a large chunk of cash. The fact that they're willing to essentially write that off in a month (or later due to some people paying multiple months), is a big deal.

 

To each of us it's not large but certainly a large impact on their bottom line and it would be nice to think of it when people scoff at what they consider a paltry offer...

 

If you think $3Million is going to cause the company to go in the red, you are pretty naive.

 

Within the first 4 months, they've probably already made their original $200million budget back, and likely are generating mostly profits now.

 

(WoW's budget of $80 million was covered within the first month of sales + subscription costs.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got that email for the 30 days and I still unsubbed ;) Im not playing a game that doesnt have the features (LFG Tools, searchable AH, etc) that all other games have. Playing this game has been two steps backwards.

 

I do not have the time to spam LFG in fleet.

 

Bye! (I'd offer my stuff but its subpar. Those mind-numbing dailies weren't worth doing after the 3rd day),

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They actually don't have to spend more money. In fact, they aren't spending any money at all...

 

Nor making any off of all those free subs. But your right, I should have said "lost"

Edited by Skoobie
Link to comment
Share on other sites

i played rift for exactly 1 month and unsubbed...they didnt send me any welcome back or free time emails till about 2 months ago..it took them nearly a year to beg me back..bioware is doing this after 4 months,something is wrong there,and anyone who says anything different,needs to take the blinders off.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fanbois never cease to amaze me. You think Bioware is giving out time because they're just a bunch of great people?

 

Bioware and EA are large companies. The only reason large companies do anything is to make money. Someone at Bioware/EA has crunched the numbers and guessed that they will make more money by retaining players upset with the pvp changes and otherwise wavering than they will lose from the free month.

 

It's the same reason they are giving out time to cancelled accounts. It's not charity, it's just a stunt to try and hook people.

 

It works out great for those of us who were planning on playing anyway, because we get free time. But don't kid yourself as to why this is happening.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i played rift for exactly 1 month and unsubbed...they didnt send me any welcome back or free time emails till about 2 months ago..it took them nearly a year to beg me back..bioware is doing this after 4 months,something is wrong there,and anyone who says anything different,needs to take the blinders off.

 

Rift did constant promotions selling their game for silly low prices like £5 not long after launch. I even remember some on Green Man Gaming where you got the game for free and it came with 30 days.

 

Companies like EA have some of the best marketing people in the world working for them and that's all this is, not the end of the world.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rift did constant promotions selling their game for silly low prices like £5 not long after launch. I even remember some on Green Man Gaming where you got the game for free and it came with 30 days.

 

Companies like EA have some of the best marketing people in the world working for them and that's all this is, not the end of the world.

 

Seriously? Are we talking about the same company?.. Dante's Inferno and Dead Space 2..etc..

 

That is all

 

Oh wait.. we can add this free month stunt to the list too! Nothing like alienating anyone who isn't level 50

Edited by Noctis_XZ
Link to comment
Share on other sites


×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.