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WSJ Article on SC2 - Page 3

Forum Index > SC2 General
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Tickmint
Profile Joined May 2010
United States12 Posts
July 16 2010 08:06 GMT
#41
I wonder were they got the 100 million development costs from. Im sure it wasnt cheap to develop, but that seems high. GTA4 cost 100 million to develop supposedly. Does the 100 million include the work on Bnet 2.0 and the cost of the development of future expansions? Wasnt WoW less than 75 million? Im really curious if they got the figure from Blizzard or if they are taking an estimate.
Krunkle
willeesmalls
Profile Joined March 2010
United States477 Posts
July 16 2010 08:14 GMT
#42
Profit needs to be realized in the base year's dollars, so you're going to have to adjust for inflation. I doubt the price of the game will rise by 3% each year.

Their main source of income will probably be from royalties for televised games. This makes sense, as they have done their most intensive advertising from Korea.

In all honesty, after taking the distributor's cut and inflation into account, I think blizzard will be fortunate to recoup 100 million 2006 dollars (arbitrarily chosen) over the lifespan of sc2 based on game copies sold.

The real money will be from DLC and royalties.
shinwa
Profile Joined April 2010
Sweden225 Posts
July 16 2010 08:23 GMT
#43
On July 16 2010 13:20 holy_war wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 16 2010 13:13 Sfydjklm wrote:
On July 16 2010 13:09 Random_0 wrote:

4. All of this occurs against a backdrop of falling sales and profits in PC gaming in general.

hopefully this will open developers eyes on the fact that making 10 shitty games instead of 1 quality game doesnt sell. there is a reason battle chest was 15th most sold computer game in USA in 2009, 11 years after release.


We only have 2 PC gaming companies that's worth a shit right now: Valve and Blizzard. But the problem with both is that they release games very slowly and not very often, but all the games they make are quality games. Hopefully companies like BioWare and others can step to the plate and make quality PC exclusive games (which is important).


You forgot id Software
youngminii
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Australia7514 Posts
July 16 2010 08:27 GMT
#44
I am so angry that this article is slanted towards Activision being the hero and mighty makers of the game.
lalala
Skee
Profile Joined March 2010
Canada702 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-16 20:02:11
July 16 2010 20:01 GMT
#45
On July 16 2010 17:23 shinwa wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 16 2010 13:20 holy_war wrote:
On July 16 2010 13:13 Sfydjklm wrote:
On July 16 2010 13:09 Random_0 wrote:

4. All of this occurs against a backdrop of falling sales and profits in PC gaming in general.

hopefully this will open developers eyes on the fact that making 10 shitty games instead of 1 quality game doesnt sell. there is a reason battle chest was 15th most sold computer game in USA in 2009, 11 years after release.


We only have 2 PC gaming companies that's worth a shit right now: Valve and Blizzard. But the problem with both is that they release games very slowly and not very often, but all the games they make are quality games. Hopefully companies like BioWare and others can step to the plate and make quality PC exclusive games (which is important).


You forgot id Software

ummm, they release their games on XBOX. What he forgot was Crytek, but they are switching to multiplatform as well with Crysis 2 being on the XBOX, PS3 and PC.
rS.Sinatra
Profile Joined May 2010
Canada785 Posts
July 16 2010 20:12 GMT
#46
Business isn't as simple as the OP states. There are other sources of revenue aside from the initial $ spent on buying the box/cd and cd key.

Either way, $100 million is nothing. This game is a global event and will generate fans that will be loyal to the product for several years.

Oh, and here is a side note of how much it cost to produce Avatar by James Cameron (wikipedia.org)

Budget $237,000,000
Gross revenue $2,730,850,547

Turning a 1000% profit isn't that hard to do these days, especially with an already established customer base with sound business principles and a strong company with a good reputation behind it. Yeah, there are alot of people crying shame about Activision on TL.net, but I myself am a huge Activision fan. I loved Mechwarrior 2, 3 and 4. Aside from Activision, who really doesn't have that much to do with Blizzard than most may think, Blizzard itself is even stronger and has an even stronger fan base.

A movie that nobody knew shit about until 6 months before generated close to 3 billion in revenue world wide.
A game that everybody knew about and has had 2+ years of hype and 10+ years of anticipation can easily generate 1 billion in revenue if done correctly, which I have faith in Blizzard will do.


www.rsgaming.com
andrewlt
Profile Joined August 2009
United States7702 Posts
July 16 2010 20:28 GMT
#47
What is the cut of retailers like Gamestop and Walmart anyway? People always seem to forget that when they discuss these things in a forum.

My take is that some hardcore gamers on sites like TL tend to forgot how small a minority they are. Digital distribution and esports aren't as big as most think it is. Most of the profits should still come from retail sales and retailers take a huge chunk out of that.
NukeTheBunnys
Profile Joined July 2010
United States1004 Posts
July 16 2010 20:33 GMT
#48
I think the comparisons that are made with the casual gaming and how blizz is looking to tap into that market when in my eyes this is an RTS focused on competitive multiplayer and has a pretty steep learning curve compared to your standard fps. I also think the comments about piracy are interesting because blizzard has always had one of the best anti-piracy methods known to man, a great, free, multiplayer service that requires a unique CD key.

I wont be supprised at all if this game breaks sales records, I dont think its gonna beat halo 3 or GTA's records cause there arnt as many PC gamers as there are console tards but blizz could make more money with the lower sales then rockstar because they dont need to share it with M$ or sony
When you play the game of drones you win or you die.
Smackzilla
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States539 Posts
July 16 2010 20:35 GMT
#49
On July 16 2010 13:35 Polar_Nada wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 16 2010 13:24 Vinnesta wrote:
I don't think 11 million units is a lot for SC2, probably not even in the low range of Blizzard's estimated sales. However, the cost of SC2 may be higher than the OP's estimate, since the maintenance cost of servers are pretty significant, especially over a 10 year cycle.

I think a major bulk of the profits that Activision has estimated, that we've not considered, is from the licensing royalties that they can expect from channels like KESPA or other professional eSports hosts. Furthermore, if the popularity of SC2 is higher than SC1, the network effect will cause many LAN shops/cybercafes around the world to purchase it, which could push the sales to far higher than SC1's 11 million. That may partially explain why Blizzard is so keen to appeal to casual gamers (think Farmville's 80 million+ players).

Is it really possible to get 21.8 million copies total? I find that number quite too much, I mean that's almost twice the number of WoW subscribers of 11.5 million. Perhaps if you count all the trilogy, i think that number is reachable, but by this WOL alone, it's really unrealistic.


If you are considering WoW's subscribers as 11.5 million, you should note that the quoted number only counts the ACTIVE players. I would not be surprised if there were over 20 million copies of WoW sold in its lifetime.

they did say over the lifespan of the game...meaning the triology which would be enough. but i wonder why they want WoW players to switch over O_O
dont they make alot from WoW? like TONS?


It doesnt have to be a switch. All they have to do is buy SC2 and that doesn't mean that they cancel their WoW account to do so. In short, alot of WoW players can be enticed into checking out SC2 because of their esperiences with a Blizzard title. It'll be like how WoW got a lot of interest from Warcraft/Starcraft/Diablo players because Blizzard made it.
You see a mousetrap. I see free cheese and a f&%*ing challenge - Scroobius Pip
FindingPride
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States1001 Posts
July 16 2010 20:42 GMT
#50
Maybe there hoping to make some profits from the -esports scene?
Disastorm
Profile Joined January 2008
United States922 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-16 20:48:31
July 16 2010 20:47 GMT
#51
I guess everyone already mentioned WoW, but yea theres no way Modern Warfare has more sales than WoW considering WoW has 11.5 ACTIVE subscribers (I'd be willing to bet most of these players are not the same millions of players from early WoW).

On July 17 2010 05:42 FindingPride wrote:
Maybe there hoping to make some profits from the -esports scene?


I'm guessing this may be one of their main ideas though.
"Don't worry so much man. There won't be any more zergs left to QQ. Lots of QQ about TvT is incoming though I bet." - Vrok 9/21/10
TFlame
Profile Joined March 2010
United States25 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-16 20:56:53
July 16 2010 20:56 GMT
#52
MW2 is not the best selling game of all time, and it sold over 20 million units. SC2 will also have additional bnet associated profit revenue.
You yarg and you blarg and you end up with shyarg.
Dr.Smoke
Profile Joined July 2010
United States64 Posts
July 16 2010 22:56 GMT
#53
On July 17 2010 05:28 andrewlt wrote:
What is the cut of retailers like Gamestop and Walmart anyway? People always seem to forget that when they discuss these things in a forum.



Retailers don't make jack shit from games, or at least wal-mart doesn't. I would guess that the others don't do much better either.

I worked at a wal-mart for over a year. Those hand held scanners you see the employees with, well they contain a ton of info about the products, including the profit margin.

Some things, like baked goods are 100%+ profit margin. On something like a pc game their profit is in the single digits. What they really want you to buy is the tv or the pc, not necessarily the game or the movie.
JimmyJRaynor
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Canada17408 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-17 11:48:03
July 17 2010 11:46 GMT
#54
relative to Blizzard's MMO properties it is questionable whether or not SC2 has been a correct investment... and as we know from how Actvision deals with its developers the bottom line is all that matters... there are dozens of Kotick quotes to this effect...

Morhaime is no longer the #1 Blizzard contact with Activision-Blizzard... he reports to a Blizzard COO who then reports to Activision-Blizzard

Mike Morhaime announced this is the best RTS game Blizzard has ever made.

of course he is influenced to announce this "fact" with SC2 being far more expensive to produce than any other RTS game they've ever made.

the pressure is now on the "RTS fans" to make this game extremely profitable
or risk Activision-Blizzard stating they "can not rationalize continued investment in the RTS genre with 2 MMOs constantly requiring resources, in effect `Blizzard really is a company that makes MMOs` "

SC2's profitability will be compared (investment $) for (investment $) against Blizzard's other properties and Activision-Blizzard could care less whether its an MMO game, RTS game or pong.

SC2 could be the most profitable RTS game in the history of the genre and still evaluated as a failure by Activision-Blizzard...

if Activision-Blizzard can bury Infinity-Ward they can bury Starcraft and not even blink.

Hopefully, SC2 will be profitable relative to Blizzard's other active properties and Bob Kotick (the fox) will be kept out of the Blizzard development hen house.
Ray Kassar To David Crane : "you're no more important to Atari than the factory workers assembling the cartridges"
Midj
Profile Joined March 2010
Canada253 Posts
July 17 2010 12:42 GMT
#55
On July 17 2010 07:56 Dr.Smoke wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 17 2010 05:28 andrewlt wrote:
What is the cut of retailers like Gamestop and Walmart anyway? People always seem to forget that when they discuss these things in a forum.



Retailers don't make jack shit from games, or at least wal-mart doesn't. I would guess that the others don't do much better either.

I worked at a wal-mart for over a year. Those hand held scanners you see the employees with, well they contain a ton of info about the products, including the profit margin.

Some things, like baked goods are 100%+ profit margin. On something like a pc game their profit is in the single digits. What they really want you to buy is the tv or the pc, not necessarily the game or the movie.


The cost retailers show their employers is not exactly accurate. Best buy does the same thing.

Their actual cost is only known to the suits. However, most of the accessory listed costs are supposedly accurate.
I enjoy watching more than playing.
guitarizt
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
United States1492 Posts
July 17 2010 14:51 GMT
#56
Would be so sick if blizzard lost money on sc2 and dropped it.
“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” - Hemingway
me_viet
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Australia1350 Posts
July 17 2010 15:12 GMT
#57
On July 16 2010 15:05 YoureFired wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 16 2010 13:49 MangoTango wrote:
How do you figure $5 marginal profit per box shipped? It costs them like $0.02 in cardboard and ink, and $0.05 for the DVD. Once the game is developed, shipping a new copy is almost free. Download-only users are even cheaper.

Then again, you have to consider server costs.

Also, theres some profit lost distributing said hardcopies to stores like Best Buy and Gamestop; they don't do it for free.



as if, are you saying that blizzard is PAYING these said stores to sell their games? or did i misunderstand your sentence? =S

I'm pretty sure these stores BUY the games off blizzard AS WELL as the RIGHTS to SELL the game. and then they mark up the prices and sell back to US at a higher price to cover their own profits..
starcat
Profile Joined July 2010
66 Posts
July 17 2010 15:18 GMT
#58
there is a part of me that hopes sc2 doesnt make money
Brad
Profile Joined April 2010
2754 Posts
July 17 2010 15:32 GMT
#59
Starcraft 2 isn't as popular as people think outside of the 'niche' RTS gaming community and from all the eSports games. RTS games in general have been on the down slope since the console explosion and games like CoD & Halo. Casual gamers have games like Grand Theft Auto, Halo, Battlefield & CoD on their wishlists, not so much Starcraft.
Lee Jae Dong proved that a focus on mechanics and execution could solve problems in the StarCraft game strategy.
DTown
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States428 Posts
July 17 2010 15:35 GMT
#60
To everyone who complains that Blizzard is going to nickel and dime you by splitting the game into 3 games or with micro-transactions or whatever, I've got an idea. If this is bad for you, it must be great for Blizzard, so hedge your position as their customer by becoming part-owner and buy some stock. I did (although this was a while ago) = D
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