How much blizzard make a month/year from World of Warcraft

Gustov

Gustov

Gustov

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Hey people I'm referring this to my essay I'm doing at the moment, would just like you to check my calculations are correct

11 million players (i know they aren't always subscribed but I'm not including merchandising profits here so it should be ok)

x £9 per month

11,000000 x £9 = £99,000000

99 Million a month

99,000000 x 12 = £1188000000

What even is that figure?

Just making a point of how the video games income revenue compares to film, and for those who don't know games now make more money, FACT.
 
Gustov said:
Just making a point of how the video games income revenue compares to film, and for those who don't know games now make more money, FACT.
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Source?

You have to do more than calculate revenue to decide whether one thing makes more money than another, for example; WoW's operating, advertising, staff costs could be twice what you have calculated...
 
Gustov said:
http://www.blizzard.com/us/press/081028.html
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World of Warcraft's Subscriber Definition

World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules.

From the same link.....so it includes me and everyone else I know who doesn't play any more.
 
But then how much comes out of that to run the multiple servers for these 11 million, and the staffing etc
 
Skyfall i havent looked for a source but i study film and television at uni and my module lecturer who took a lecture comparing games to film explained in detail how film is no longer top of the media hierarchy.

My course leader is also a successful producer who tells us the same information

Basically what I'm saying is they know their stuff and would be the first to pray it wasn't true.
 
Your figures are inaccurate, as in china, korea etc the game often isn't subscription based. As lots of people play from internet cafes and simply pay for the time they use.
 
Luw said:
World of Warcraft's Subscriber Definition

World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules.

From the same link.....so it includes me and everyone else I know who doesn't play any more.
Click to expand...

What? It specifically says
The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules.
Click to expand...
 
Aye, slightly misleading to say the least.

IIRC at one of the Asian games events/dev events it was mentioned by senior Blizzard employees that they had only spent a (relative) pittance on WoW including all development/running costs compared to the amount it's bought in (I think it was in the region of 20%, with the rest being profit).
Something I can quite believe, as MMORPG's scale up extremely well in terms of cost per subscriber to not only keep running, but improve (UO for example currently has a relatively small number of active subs, but is still being worked on with a new client, and expansion in the works).
Once you reach a certain size, an mmorpg is hugely profitable per user month on month - which is one of the reasons so many new ones are being produced. They cost a lot to make, and take time, but the rewards for getting one that is even just mildly successful are big, much more so than normal PC games (for one thing piracy in an mmorpg is not a problem :p for another you're brining in a constant stream of money, and can invest some of that back into the game directly, and some back into developing new expansions that can be sold, and the rest is profit).
 
How's this? rough copy of course

My case study will focus on 'World of Warcraft', which is an MMORPG also known as a massively, multiplayer online role playing game. MMORPGs allow thousands of players to play simultaneously as they experience true social interaction through collaborative parties formed to accomplish a quest or adventure.

In terms of revenue World of Warcraft requires a monthly subscription fee of £9 to participate. There are 11 million subscribers (1) which is bigger than the population of Greece, this demonstrates the popularity of the game as well as the vast amount of profit it makes. £9 per month x 11,000000 subscribers users totals £99,000000 a month excluding merchandising , or £1188000000 a year. However it is important to take into account that this does not include advertising, staff's wages and maintenance of servers.
 
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