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Cyrus Rex
PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 2:06 pm 
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World of Warcraft has now achieved another significant milestone as the largest MMORPG in the world, with more than 3.5 million global customers.


http://www.blizzard.com/press/050720.shtml

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WORLD OF WARCRAFT® REACHES 1.5 MILLION PAYING CUSTOMERS IN CHINA


Worldwide customer base for Blizzard Entertainment®'s popular MMORPG now more than 3.5 million players
IRVINE, Calif. - July 20, 2005 - Blizzard Entertainment®, Inc. today announced that World of Warcraft®, its subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), has surpassed 1.5 million paying customers in China - just a month following the game's commercial launch on June 7, 2005. The critically acclaimed World of Warcraft has now achieved another significant milestone as the largest MMORPG in the world, with more than 3.5 million global customers.

"World of Warcraft's success in China has quickly exceeded our expectations, and seeing Chinese gamers respond so enthusiastically to the game has been extremely gratifying," said Mike Morhaime, president and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We thank the players for embracing World of Warcraft, our partner The9 for helping to make all of this possible, and the Chinese authorities for their support of Blizzard Entertainment."

Blizzard's partner, well-respected MMO operator The9, is leading the operation and management of World of Warcraft in China while upholding its commitment to provide exceptional service as the game's customer base has experienced extraordinary growth. The9's dedicated team in China, composed entirely of Chinese management and staff, has provided localization of game content, synchronization of content updates, and delivery of player feedback to the developers. The9's local team offers 24-hour customer service, with direct game master (GM) support and local call-center representatives dedicated to helping players with questions regarding gameplay and technical issues.

"Chinese gamers across the country have embraced World of Warcraft," said Michael Fong, Blizzard Entertainment managing director, Greater China, "and we are committed to responding with continual updates to the game, including new dungeons for players to explore, additional player-vs.-player content, ongoing live events, and much more. Blizzard and The9 also remain dedicated to delivering unparalleled service to Chinese gamers with fully localized content and local, around-the-clock customer support."

The 1.5 million paying Chinese customers now join the two million players in North America, Europe, and Korea who are already paying to play World of Warcraft. With a worldwide customer population of more than 3.5 million, World of Warcraft is now by far the largest MMORPG in the world. Blizzard plans to continue expanding World of Warcraft with upcoming launches in Taiwan and other parts of Asia.

For more information on World of Warcraft in China, including pricing and gameplay features, please visit the official Chinese website at www.wowchina.com.

World of Warcraft's Customer Base Definition
World of Warcraft customers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or a prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the installation box bundled with one free month access. Internet Game Room players having accessed the game over the last seven days are also counted as customers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or canceled subscriptions, and expired pre-paid cards. Customers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules.



I wonder when this graph will be updated?
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bigyak
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 2:32 pm 
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So, just a little bit of estimation:

# Subscribers = 3.5mil
Avg Box Earning = $49 <-- Could vary widely by country, assuming US values
Avg Box Distribution Cost = $4 <-- To get boxes to stores
Avg Support Cost/Box = $10 <-- To pay for servers, bandwidth, hosting, support, etc

Estimated Income from Boxes = $122.5 Mil

Avg Monthly Earning/person = $14
Avg Monthly Support Cost = $4
# Avg Months users will extended = 10

Estimated Income from Monthly Accounts = $350 Mil

Total == $.5 Billion

------------

Total Earned via the Sims Franchise == $1.5 Billion

I guess I still want to work for Will Wright.

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Talon1977
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 3:13 pm 
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Ravage showed me something the other day, showing EQ2 was outproducing WOW. Maybe he could be persuaded to post it. (at least I think that's what it was, I try to pay as little attention to him as possible) :P

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Obo
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 3:22 pm 
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Outproducing in what regard? RMT gold? :)
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Talon1977
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 3:25 pm 
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Proving JUST how little attention I pay him, I was just informed that all it was, was a poll. :P

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Ravage
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 3:31 pm 
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meh™ loser.

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iJasonT
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 4:44 pm 
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Well, Ive played EQOA, SWG and DAoC and I can easily say that WoW is the best of them all. Not to say it is my favorite as that goes onto a different topic but there is no denying that WoW is a very solid very well rounded game with a nice End Game attached and more coming all the time.

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Master Gui-Jan
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 6:38 pm 
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bigyak wrote:
So, just a little bit of estimation:

# Subscribers = 3.5mil
Avg Box Earning = $49 <-- Could vary widely by country, assuming US values
Avg Box Distribution Cost = $4 <-- To get boxes to stores
Avg Support Cost/Box = $10 <-- To pay for servers, bandwidth, hosting, support, etc

Estimated Income from Boxes = $122.5 Mil

Avg Monthly Earning/person = $14
Avg Monthly Support Cost = $4
# Avg Months users will extended = 10

Estimated Income from Monthly Accounts = $350 Mil

Total == $.5 Billion

------------

Total Earned via the Sims Franchise == $1.5 Billion

I guess I still want to work for Will Wright.

No offense Yak, but you are definitely over-estimating the amount of money Blizzard is taking in from the box.

Assuming the Average Retail Price equals $50 US, Which is definitely a high figure, as I would bet the Average is closer to $40, and also Assuming that the Retail Chains are getting a rather small markup of 40%, 45-55% is the average retail markup for gaming software, with lesser known brands giving as much as a 60% markup, and Assuming that Blizzard handles their own Distribution which doesn't usually make a significant impact on their bottom line, it just make it easier to calculate costs for me, then Blizzard is taking in $30 per box.
With Advertising and Distribution at $5 per box could really be as high as $10 per box, as this also accounts for incentives to retailers you are now looking at $25 per box.
Since the Support costs come out of the Subscription fee, not the box sales, you end up with a Gross of $87.5 million.
Take away the Production and Development costs, which I read were over 20 million dollars, but for here we will assume $20 m. You are left with about $67 million dollars. That's still not profit, as they will pour most of that money back into their R&D slush fund. The owners of Blizzard probably split 20 to 40 million dollars on this release, which is nothing to sneeze at, but also pretty far from 120 million.

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Obo
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 6:41 pm 
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Quote:
Take away the Production and Development costs, which I read were over 20 million dollars

Estimates put it closer to 40 Million
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Cyrus Rex
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 8:29 am 
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Screw all that box mombo jumbo. I am amazed by the subscription revenue. $15, $14, or $13 dollars per month depending on the plan you subscribe to. Multiply that by 3.5 million and you get one hell of a cash flow.

Sure a lot of it pays the bills, but ~49 million per month gives you the resources to do a lot of things other companies only dream of. They can hire developers if the shit hits the fan, or they can increase customer service. As it is CS gets back with me in less than 24 hours, so far for me they respond in 2 to 5 hours. Could this be a sign that money is being well spent? Also content has being added with every patch, and if you are sneaky you can venture into regions that are still being developed. I see all this as money being spent in the right places.

Research shows that expansions do not increase your player base, those expansions just keep your existing players playing longer. With this kind of cash flow, development of expansions could be massive undertakings, possibly of the size and scope of the original release. Would they do such a thing? Who knows, but as a customer I like the fact that it is a possibility.

In SWG one year into the game I was wondering where all my money was going. In year two I quit because I could see that my money was not improving the game and year long promises were not being met. With WoW I am in my eighth month and I can see my money working for me. As a consumer it is a very good feeling when you are getting what you paid for, and even your expectations are being met. I wonder how much of this feeling is due to the favorable cash flow.
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evergamer
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 10:11 am 
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regarding the chinese paying customers...


i read some articles that were posted on the main site forums. the cost translation went something like $3.50 for the cd-key, and approx $0.41 per hour to play.

i will try to find the links.
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Tetran
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 10:22 am 
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Are the Chinese players allowed to see text containing Falun Gong and Democracy in chat bubbles? lol

I wonder how much filtering Blizz does for the Chinese politiburo. Because being in an online game allows unfettered access to conversations about anything.
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Master Edward
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 10:31 am 
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BTW the estimate of box sales is flawed in that Korean customers, for example do not buy boxes. They buy accounts and playing time directly from the Internet cafes they are playing in. Having your own PC at home is not the Korean (and I assume Chinese) way of playing computer games.

The MMOG business in East asia is different from the American or European one. That is part of the reason why there was no character wipe after the Korean Beta.

Edward
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