49 replies to this topic

[kesmai]

Tax is about to be paid. They are running out of interesting mechs. The general will to pay money and the money spend per player /month is at an all time low.

the situation might exactly be the direct opposite of the op's assumptions. Probably we gonna see a takeover of mwo by another company this year

[NextGame]

If they are losing money on their current minimal viable product business model then they are doing something very wrong, because from what I can make out, they get an awful lot of money for old rope.

[RedDragon]

Cion, on 26 January 2016 - 12:03 PM, said:

Personally, I wish Russ becomes filthy rich.
1- hopefully that long term funds the development of the game
2- Russ took a huge risk in putting his business working on a new game for a decade old abandoned franchise. Whether he's done good or bad is anyone's opinion, but we have to admit it must have been quite the risk at the beginning.

Well, you shouldn't wish someone ill, so I am a bit torn here, because PGI is obviously bad at making games, and one shouldn't get rich by doing something you're bad at. Giving PGI money for MWO is like giving Paris Hilton money for acting or Justin Bieber for making music. You have to give them kudos for milking their fanbase, but they obviously don't got rich because they are good at the thing they are pretending they are doing, but because they are good at the thing they are actually doing: Convincing people that they need to shut their brain down and throw money around.

Sooo, while I don't wish Russ & co. personal bad luck, I would like to see the MW IP going to someone who actually knows how to make a game.

[Alistair Winter]

As far as I'm concerned, the only clear indication is whether the company is growing or shrinking in size. The number of employees, basically. Everything else is speculation. Now, the number of employees won't give any good indication of recent developments, because I suppose they're not likely to hire or fire people on a month-by-month basis, but it does at least give some indication of long term development and their prognosis for the future.

[TLBFestus]

Cillipuddi, on 26 January 2016 - 08:02 PM, said:

How is it a "decent observation"? A company making money, oh better start rolling out the red carpet for its players and throwing free mechs and content at people like we're on Oprah.

I would love to see you guys do this to a non-video game business, without any of you owning stock in the company. They would tell you where you could put your opinion and let you know if you didn't like what they're doing to just stop buying their product.

It's like you guys bought a car, signed the papers and 3 years later came back and said,
"I'm not happy with this car, I'm not going to give it back or pay you money to fix the issues. I just want you to fix it and make it look like all the cars that have came out this year."
"No, I don't want a new car. I want this one, but with all the new car stuff in it."

Or, "I've spent money money on this car but, I don't really like this car, most people like it but I don't. Even though the majority of people love this car, I'm going to write negative reviews and send ridiculous emails to them to make my tiny minority opinion a lot louder than the people who enjoy it."

Call me what you want, but how PGI spends their money, unless you're a stock holder, is their business. You don't like it, shove off.

If I have to explain it to you, then it's not worth the time.

[Davegt27]

Mawai, on 26 January 2016 - 02:57 PM, said:

I think that number has to be way low ... are you sure that is what he said? They have like 50 employees ... at 50k a year (which is low for a decent developer) that is 2.5 mill or a minimum 200k and that is a low ball value. It also doesn't include rent, taxes, server costs, utilities, and the myriad other costs. Did he mean $700k?

As for how PGI is doing? It has been running this game in open beta for 3 1/2 years now. They are a private company so they don't have to file financial statements ... but if they weren't making a profit or are close after this length of time ... they would not still be in business.

If they have 50,000 players ... could be more ... based on the assumption that steam represents about 40% of the currently online users ... meaning steam 4k implies about 10k online and assuming 20% of active players online at peaks ... then they would need about $14/month on average from each player to make a $700k target.

Anyway, all this aside, the OP is perfectly correct that the pressure on PGI has gone down due to the current exchange rate ... their costs are in $CA and revenues in $US ... which is giving them a 41% premium at the moment ... revenue dollars are going a lot farther than they used to.

I think it was a town hall around the same time there was talk about the data center

The big problem is counting on a bunch of fickle people buying mechs

[C I L L I P U D D I]

Because you don't have anything to say.

You just want to vomit all over the forums and have people agree with you. The second someone disagrees they get discredited or belittled by the swarm of swamp trolls that lurk on these forums. All, you'll say is some junk you've made to be true in your head about PGI and their inner workings, of which you have no actual clue of, then try to post some made up statistics, in which you've also made up, and then end it with some passive aggressive comment about how the people who disagree are some how beneath you and the other lords of the land because you've spent some low dollar amount on the game.

Then, you'll quote one sentence out of a comment, take it out of context and try to hold on to it for dear life and use it as your battle cry of why you think you're correct. Pretty much just like every other post you've ever made, that soudns just like every other post from people who will never be happy with this game and PGI.

[Sandpit]

Cillipuddi, on 27 January 2016 - 09:23 AM, said:

Because you don't have anything to say.

You just want to vomit all over the forums and have people agree with you. The second someone disagrees they get discredited or belittled by the swarm of swamp trolls that lurk on these forums. All, you'll say is some junk you've made to be true in your head about PGI and their inner workings, of which you have no actual clue of, then try to post some made up statistics, in which you've also made up, and then end it with some passive aggressive comment about how the people who disagree are some how beneath you and the other lords of the land because you've spent some low dollar amount on the game.

Then, you'll quote one sentence out of a comment, take it out of context and try to hold on to it for dear life and use it as your battle cry of why you think you're correct. Pretty much just like every other post you've ever made, that soudns just like every other post from people who will never be happy with this game and PGI.

I like the cut of your gib sir

[Kaeb Odellas]

Rizzelbizzeg, on 26 January 2016 - 12:17 PM, said:

Here's some fun numbers:
4,173 Rizzelbizzeg 52

because I'm admittedly bad at the game, I played one terrible (pretty standard for me) match on my WHM-6R for the tournament. Yes, that's right, a score of 52 putting me in oh so glorious 4173rd place! Huzzah!

However what it does mean is that even if all these are just $20 packs, that's $83,460. Or $117,678 in loonies or whatever they call them in Canadia.

I played the Black Widow for considerably more games and got this:
1,528 Rizzelbizzeg 747

That's with multiple games so the number is likely much higher than only 1528 buys. Slam jam, tack another at least $30,560 (CAN $43,089) onto the pile!

For just the warhammer, they pulled in AT LEAST $114,020 (CAN $160,768). That should pay for 1 developer for a year.

I played exactly one game in my Black Widow over the weekend, putting me at 2430th place with 240 points, so there's at least 2430 Black Widows out there.

[Uncl Munkeh]

Cillipuddi, on 26 January 2016 - 11:46 AM, said:

@Cion I meant the original post. I should've been clearer, haven't finished my coffee yet.

@Render All the Solaris stuff is coming out in Phase 3. Most of the maps for 4v4 and 8v8 will be Solaris based. The February Patch is going to be one of the largest updates ever. I mean seriously man. They just came out with a new map, new mechs are dropping regularly, and most higher skilled players would say game balance is really good atm. Over the last year this game has improved 100 fold. It's not perfect, no game is. They're trying to hire multiple mech, map, and balancing devs currently as well. I think they're spending their money very wisely. I've spent hundreds of dollars on this game as well and only have one complaint, and that's about how salty this community is.

Man, who doesn't like Salt.