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Did this Game Really Cost $150MM to MAKE?

Smokt

By Smokt
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Smokt

Smokt

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I do LOVE this game. I just can''t believe that they had a $100MM more to work with than RIFT. I mean some of the basic things that make an MMO fun seem so UNDERDEVELOPED i.e. UI, PVP warzones, Flashpoints, combat mechanics (I''ll say this is par for the MMO, but I would have expected an improvement).

 

 

Before people start on will they make their money back:

1. The $60 game subscription is split with retailers

2. Part of the monthly fee goes to licensing, server costs, quality assurance, customer service, bandwidth, etc.....

 

So its going to take a lot more than $150MM gross worldwide revenue to make up the budget. Probably more than $300-400MM in order to recoup COSTS.

But even if they do make their money back and start making some profits, it just baffles me that they had $100MM more to spend and they spent it a LOT of the wrong ways. I mean the game is just marginally more fun than WAY cheaper games.

I guess you cant just throw money at something to make it fun..

Edited by Smokt
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Systam

Systam

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I do LOVE this game. I just can't believe that they had a $100MM more to work with than RIFT. I mean some of the basic things that make an MMO fun seem so UNDERDEVELOPED i.e. UI, PVP warzones, Flashpoints, combat mechanics (I'll say this is par for the MMO, but I would have expected an improvement).

 

 

Before people start on will they make their money back:

1. The $60 game subscription is split with retailers

2. Part of the monthly fee goes to licensing, server costs, quality assurance, customer service, bandwidth, etc.....

 

So its going to take a lot more than $150MM gross worldwide revenue to make up the budget. Probably more than $300-400MM in order to recoup COSTS, including marketing and whatever overhead is allocated.

But even if they do make their money back and start making some profits, it just baffles me that they had $100MM more to spend and they spent it a LOT of the wrong ways. I mean the game is just marginally more fun than WAY cheaper games.

I guess you cant just throw money at something to make it fun..

 

they'll make their money back. MMOs don't need to be very successful to break even FAST after release. I do wanna know how they put so much in but there's so many small things missing ><

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TradewindNQ

TradewindNQ

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Quite the opposite. I didnt want WOW in SPace but thats what I got. I wanted REAL INNOVATION. I got a more expensive version of the same thing.

 

Then that's your problem. I've said it to everyone I know just from reading the development history and having just 1 weekend of beta access...if you're expecting anything more than WoW with lightsabers prepare to be disappointed.

 

I however, couldn't care less and I'm having a blast.

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Smokt

Smokt

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Then that's your problem. I've said it to everyone I know just from reading the development history and having just 1 weekend of beta access...if you're expecting anything more than WoW with lightsabers prepare to be disappointed.

 

I however, couldn't care less and I'm having a blast.

 

Yeah Im having a good time too. And ill probably subscribe for a year. It just baffles me. $150MM is a HUGE number for a video game. Voice acting's super cool. I guess I just wanted to be in the design meetings when people were slicing up that enormous budget and say spend at least 20MM of your budget on making combat awesome. But now I just sit and 1,2,3,4,5

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VoXPCS

VoXPCS

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Does MM stand for Monopoly Money?

 

For the grown ups that work for a living in corporations that earn $100MM a year in sales, the abbreviation is extremely common.

 

M=1000.00

 

MM = 1000x1000 =1,000,000.

 

It's the professional, business way to type it.

 

I speak from experience. Flame on.

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mogishu

mogishu

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Then that's your problem. I've said it to everyone I know just from reading the development history and having just 1 weekend of beta access...if you're expecting anything more than WoW with lightsabers prepare to be disappointed.

 

I however, couldn't care less and I'm having a blast.

 

Totally agree man. I came in expecting one thing and one thing only and that was story! I have to say Bioware delivered on that! I in fact doubt I will be doing any end game content for a while because I will be leveling and leveling and leveling and leveling and leveling and leveling and leveling.......

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EricTheRedI

EricTheRedI

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For the grown ups that work for a living in corporations that earn $100MM a year in sales, the abbreviation is extremely common.

 

M=1000.00

 

MM = 1000x1000 =1,000,000.

 

It's the professional, business way to type it.

 

I speak from experience. Flame on.

 

Is this a video game forum, or a business forum?

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Cordells

Cordells

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Do people not remember Vanilla WoW?

  1. No LFD
  2. Server Queues
  3. Less quests than this game had at launch
  4. Lag
  5. Bugs
  6. Crashes
  7. Downtime almost daily
  8. No addons
  9. No raids
  10. Very few dungeons

 

This game is actually way more stable than WoW was at launch.

 

As for the queues, they won't last! WoW did it, Rift did it, Aion did it. Did what you ask? They lowered the pop limit on servers to discourage people from joining full servers. After a week or two, once the population on servers stabilize, they will raise the cap back up, so there won't be anymore (at least not as much) queue's.

 

Remember people. WoW had 7 years to get it right. But 7 years ago, it was worse than this.

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mogishu

mogishu

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Posted (edited)
Yeah Im having a good time too. And ill probably subscribe for a year. It just baffles me. $150MM is a HUGE number for a video game. Voice acting's super cool. I guess I just wanted to be in the design meetings when people were slicing up that enormous budget and say spend at least 20MM of your budget on making combat awesome. But now I just sit and 1,2,3,4,5

 

I wonder too where this budget went. My guess is a lot was spent to pay those actors? I here some people saying that there are many characters who have the same voice. Well some do but check out IMDB for the full cast, it is surprisingly large.

 

One thing for sure is they should have hired more then 1 guy to make the UI, it feels like it had NO design team at all. Its horrid, WoWs default UI is better seriously. RIFTs UI kilsl both WoW and SWTOR. They should have borrowed pages from RIFTs UI Dev team.

Edited by mogishu
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Quinlynn

Quinlynn

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The OP is clearly ignorant of game development. SMH.

 

150 mil buys allot of dev time and coding and voice overs for that fact.

 

Not like they hired top names for voices either and not like the voice actually reflect the expected emotion either.

 

Only ignorance here is people that think paying for an incomplete game is ok or the norm when many of the missing features are known standards for the industry and expected by customers.

 

Would a car maker sell a car, claiming it is their top of the line luxory model, and then not put power windows in it and tell you they will get back to you soon?

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ckbPolaris

ckbPolaris

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For the grown ups that work for a living in corporations that earn $100MM a year in sales, the abbreviation is extremely common.

 

M=1000.00

 

MM = 1000x1000 =1,000,000.

 

It''s the professional, business way to type it.

 

I speak from experience. Flame on.

I''m gonna bet I have at least as much experience and none of the people I work with type it that way.

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Smokt

Smokt

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I just want to be perfectly clear.

I LIKE this game. But if I was in the design meetings I would have made it a little less pretty and dumped a pile of money into making combat freaking awesome.

Make it fun to be a healer, a tank a dps.

Make it god damn hard to beat and satisfying as hell when you do.

 

 

Voice acting. Sure, if we have time after we''ve done the above.....

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Hautaaja

Hautaaja

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Posted (edited)
Do people not remember Vanilla WoW?

  1. No LFD
  2. Server Queues
  3. Less quests than this game had at launch
  4. Lag
  5. Bugs
  6. Crashes
  7. Downtime almost daily
  8. No addons
  9. No raids
  10. Very few dungeons

 

This game is actually way more stable than WoW was at launch.

 

As for the queues, they won''t last! WoW did it, Rift did it, Aion did it. Did what you ask? They lowered the pop limit on servers to discourage people from joining full servers. After a week or two, once the population on servers stabilize, they will raise the cap back up, so there won''t be anymore (at least not as much) queue''s.

 

Remember people. WoW had 7 years to get it right. But 7 years ago, it was worse than this.

 

Correct me if I''m wrong, but wasn''t Molten Core in there from the start? Also, wasn''t UBRS 10-man originally (which basically counts as raid)?

 

One thing you forgot to mention was that there was only World PvP, no battlegrounds at all, when it was launched (Hillsbrad foothills world PvP, was Godly, usually about 50-100vs50-100, above that and the server went down FAST). But yeah, people forget that Blizzard spent a ******** of money and years of dev too and it was basically much more bare than this game is.

Edited by Hautaaja
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Smokt

Smokt

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The OP is clearly ignorant of game development. SMH.

 

FTR Wedbush offered me a job once as a research analyst. One of the open spots would have been for Michael Pachtar. On top of that I''ve been a finance exec at a video game company and a financial analyst.

 

I''ve heard the budget as $150MM and seen other people say its $80 or $100MM. I dont know what it REALLY is, that''s why its the title of the subject.

 

Now go back in your little troll hole.

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