219 replies to this topic

[Wil McCullough]

Pain G0D, on 08 July 2019 - 12:09 AM, said:

Firstly this game is 7 years old and still kicking . Thats called making money .

Secondly these are virtual products being sold . It only cost money when being programmed into the game . Its pure profit for PGI whatever discount is slapped onto it . PGI loses nothing by tossing a few virtual prizes and premium currency at players .

Everyone loves discounts . A hundred players buying 1 goodie on discount is a ton of cash .

I spent 40 bucks , because of this event . Do you think i was the only one ?

This is a strawman argument if i've ever seen one.

No one's saying pgi's business model doesn't make some form of money. Just that they could be making a lot more. It's about opportunity cost not actual cost.

[Joshua McEvedy]

Vellron2005, on 07 July 2019 - 11:13 PM, said:

Must have missed this info.. can anyone post a link to this?

Russ announced it on May 29, in a very painful podcast, in which he and Phil tried to put on a happy face about it. And oh yeah, PGI can't afford to do the World Championships onsite in Vancouver anymore, so everything will be done remotely, if that. Everything will hinge on the success or failure of MW5 moving forward, and Russ would like MWO to remain for another 3 years. But no new content or big changes after Paul is finished fixing what he broke.

Here's the podcast...

https://youtu.be/zCIjC6oK3D8

Edited by Joshua McEvedy, 08 July 2019 - 03:40 AM.

[Pain G0D]

Oh i love these threads . I only wish i had an MC for every one of these threads .

I wonder if i will join this END IS NIGH FOR PGI CULT when i reach T1 . Some sort of initiation I assume .

[Prototelis]

Basically the gist of that is that MWO won't support a company of PGI's size, not that MWO won't support itself.

PGI hired a lot of people to work on MW5 and they're banking pretty hard on it.

[Vincent DIFrancesco]

*sigh* I really don't get the notion that them giving away bags of loot somehow loses them money.

First: giving away digital items, at this point, costs them nothing. [And don't give me the "development costs" argument. The development for these giveaways was done and paid for years ago. At this point, it just takes someone a few minutes to set it up using the existing tools.] Somehow, people seem to think that these are, somehow, lost sales. But that presumes that those people would have bought that stuff, were it not for the give-away. That's not a rational argument in any way. I know I wouldn't have bought the 940 MC, plus other gewgaws, I gained from loot bags if there was no event. [I certainly would not have bought five freakin' yellow radio warhorns. Curse you, RNG!] I probably would've spent about half the time playing, bought nothing with real money and been able to say that I have a real life. I suspect most others would be the same.

Which gets to the second point: giving away digital items, in combination with sales, most likely makes them money. No, not everyone spent money during this thing. But I'm willing to bet more people spent money this past week than they would've without the event. I know I did. While I don't have access to PGI's books, I do have one piece of evidence that shows that these events are worthwhile for them: they keep having them. Even with this game moving into maintenance mode, they're still running these things. If they weren't profitable, they'd have already stopped.

These giveaways are marketing strategy, pure and simple. You ever go to some of these conventions, where marketers from numerous companies show up with booths, giving away trinkets to draw people in? Well, this is PGI's version. And at least they don't have to pay a bill to some printer. And the junk doesn't fill up an office drawer. Not too bad a deal, overall.

Now, if only I could give away these yellow radio warhorns...

[thievingmagpi]

the game is dead and MW5 is dropping in 2 months supposedly

[Jackal Noble]

Prototelis, on 08 July 2019 - 03:44 AM, said:

Basically the gist of that is that MWO won't support a company of PGI's size, not that MWO won't support itself.

PGI hired a lot of people to work on MW5 and they're banking pretty hard on it.

Well, then it better be good.

[Jackal Noble]

thievingmagpi, on 08 July 2019 - 07:02 AM, said:

the game is dead and MW5 is dropping in 2 months supposedly

Call me a pessimist, but if MW5 falls flat I bet I know when the rest of the mech packs get released.

[thievingmagpi]

Jackal Noble, on 08 July 2019 - 09:30 AM, said:

Call me a pessimist, but if MW5 falls flat I bet I know when the rest of the mech packs get released.

I'd like to think this too, but frankly.. there's been so much disdain towards MWO from its developers that if MW5 flops (*if* lol) I could see them just "taking their crayons and going home" and just pulling the plug entirely.

I can't really remember the last time we weren't made to feel like an inconvenience.

Edited by thievingmagpi, 08 July 2019 - 09:33 AM.

[MechaBattler]

IF PGI wants more people to play. They should consider creating a mode that people can bring their friends into with ease. Every popular competitive game allows you to play with your friends. MWO you don't really have that. GP and FP are like using your friends as chum in the ocean. And making them go it solo in solo queue defeats the whole point of 'playing with friends'. Having friends to play with makes the game more 'fun'. And compels people to play more.

My suggestion is to take a page from League. Have an "All random Stock" mode. That way everyone starts with the same junk. Give everyone the same generic skill tree. The only advantage is player skill. Still probably a better experience than getting blasted in an outdated trial mech. Throw in a bonus to c-bills for anyone with a cadet bonus. But what the hell do I know...

[Dee Eight]

Curccu, on 07 July 2019 - 12:16 PM, said:

Well PGI has always given loads of MC for free...
Comp league rewards, MWOWC and events combined I have gained over 100k MC with just playing the game.

Exactly... streamers with only relatively small audiences get MC packs, mech packs, unlimited skill point gifts, cbills, etc. Then there were all the exploiters/cheaters who were taking advantage of the easily manipulated match making system to guarantee themselves top spots over and over in the old leaderboard events (when top spots earned large chunks of MC). Rather than punishing THOSE players...PGI's fix was to change the mech leaderboard event formats so that the prizes were a lot lower, thus screwing over all the players (not just the cheaters).

[Dee Eight]

Joshua McEvedy, on 08 July 2019 - 03:39 AM, said:

Russ announced it on May 29, in a very painful podcast, in which he and Phil tried to put on a happy face about it. And oh yeah, PGI can't afford to do the World Championships onsite in Vancouver anymore, so everything will be done remotely, if that. Everything will hinge on the success or failure of MW5 moving forward, and Russ would like MWO to remain for another 3 years. But no new content or big changes after Paul is finished fixing what he broke.

Here's the podcast...

https://youtu.be/zCIjC6oK3D8

They should have just said... "okay we tried for three years to do a world championships to bring in more players and build the player base and thus the revenue base and it hasn't come close to achieving that goal so rather than throwing MORE money at something that clearly isn't working out we've decided to not host a world championships at mech con this year".

[Humpday]

Hope mw5 runs decently and you don't need some hyper rigs to pull 100fps with no drops.

Mwo is basically nonprofitable and likely simply breaking even or just enough to keep the lights on and make a small profit. It's is more productuve to invest your talent toward the future products and not try to patch a sinking ship.

ie they don't care about Mwo, its no longer financially viable and they've tried and tried to revive it to no avail. They know its time to move on. It's simple business, that's all.

Edited by Humpday, 09 July 2019 - 03:26 PM.

[FRAGTAST1C]

Humpday, on 08 July 2019 - 04:26 PM, said:

Ie they don't care about MWO its no longer financially viable, and they've tried and tried to revive it to no avail. They Know its time to move on. It's simple business, that's all.

Are they trying to renew the license though?

[Curccu]

FRAGTAST1C, on 08 July 2019 - 06:03 PM, said:

Are they trying to renew the license though?

If I remember correctly, yes.

[Kotzi]

How do you try to renew buying a license? Either you pay or not. You might want to negotiate a better deal but thats about it. There is no trying in this. I would rather think they will wait how much money they can make with MW5 before they continue to pay for the license. Why should they pay for the license if the product doesnt generate enough revenue? Afaik the license will end this year?

[Prototelis]

Its not up to PGI whether or not they get to renew the license.

[Kotzi]

I am pretty sure MS will give the license to the highest bidder. And i would doubt that there is someone else asking for it. But if you got more infos please share.

Edit: By the way, i think there can be more than 1 license issued at any time. Looking at you Games Workshop. Give me a good WH40k game already.

Edited by Kotzi, 09 July 2019 - 01:22 AM.

[PhoenixFire55]

I don't understand why this is even a debate ...

A good game doesn't give away much stuff for free because people are willing to invest both their time and money in a good game anyway.

A bad game has to give away much stuff for free because people aren't keen on investing their time and certainly won't invest their money into it otherwise.

Minimally Viable Product^TM.

[-Mean Machine Angel-]

Russ was economic suicide