Curse

NinjaMonkey · May 05, 2006, 12:45 PM // 12:45

Lineage2's main attraction is the never-ending list of things to do, between the fact they keep raising the level cap [isn't it at 80~ now?], making up new player professions, adding areas to kill things in, raid bosses that take 300~ people to kill. etc'
And once you hit the level where PvP becomes an issue, it just gets that much more fun. since it's open pvp and not "arena-based" like GW.
[hence if someone calls you a noobcake out there, you can nuke him to death, pick up his armor/weapons off his dead body, and laugh in his face xD]

While in GW you reach lvl 20, do all missions, do all quests, get fow armor. and then what? there's nothing to do really... [except do pvp until u get bored of that too] you've pretty much maxed out your char.

Well, that's my 2 cents/gp/adena

[speaking from personal experience, got hooked on Lineage2 for over a year, then sold my account for 500$ and joined the army. meh

]

MelechRic · May 05, 2006, 01:08 PM // 13:08

I'd love to see the sales figures for Ch.1 and Ch.2 over a six month period. When Ch.3 comes out it will be even more interesting to see. (I'm guessing overall sales will decline, but that's my on biased opion after playing through Factions.)

I think most MMO's hemorrhage players over time because people do get bored with the content, even if it has been expanded. I think it's worse if the expansions aren't at least as good as the original.

CK0 · May 05, 2006, 08:05 PM // 20:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justafyme

And the only thing stopping me from saying I agree 100% would be the return customer. So many people were very happy with ch1 that they rushed right out and got ch2...multiple copies in some cases. I think it might end up that slightly less copies will be sold (though I can't say a let down)..because I think not eveyone will feel the need to purchase Factions for each copy of Propheices they own. I agree with you on the growth part.
At this point I would be very surprised if Factions did end up selling more.

Yes I will have to agree with that point. Being that this is a pay-one time game, this pricing structure will probably allow GWF sales to "match" that of GWP. On the other hand, if it were a pay-to-play monthly basis, first of all sales of GW wouldn't be nearly as high, but more importantly income would not be as great as it would be in GWP compared to GWF (due to my opinion that GWF is no where near the magnitude of GWP).

This is a tricky area here. And that is why it is important for ANET to stay close to discussion boards like this one, because they do not have "monthly profits" via p2p to determine if they are doing something wrong to lose fanbase. If NCSoft claims the popularity willl grow, implying that they will exceed the revenue compared to the original, well then that could be for many 'negative' factors as well, including the fact that the CE was delayed and people opted for the SE, but then due to the LURE of the CE pet+bonuses, went for the CE as well, when all they really wanted was the CE in the first place. Also keep in mind the $10 slot feature that will be available in the coming months.

I'm going to keep an eye out for what this company is doing.

Darth Malak · May 09, 2006, 08:50 PM // 20:50

NCsoft, the publishers of many games here at Gameamp, including our beloved Guild Wars, have suffered a 49% drop in profit, as revealed in its fiscal Q1 results.
The Korean firm reported a net income of $7.2 million for the quarter ending March 31st, down from $14.3 million for the same period last year.

Sales were up however, by 5% to $89 million, though this is due to players in the east, as European and North American sales were down by half.

NCsoft blames declining sales of titles such as City of Heroes, City of Villains and Guild Wars, all of which saw sales drops of over 50 per cent.

Let us wonder why?
Safe to say the large dissapointment in Guild Wars: Factions, prolly

Spazztic2003 · May 09, 2006, 08:53 PM // 20:53

I believe NCSoft lost their profits due to thier MMORPGs, not GW. GW is doing lively and still selling tons of copies each day. They shouldn't blame ANet for their loss.

Phoenix Avenger · May 09, 2006, 08:57 PM // 20:57

Maybe ANet will listen to thier consumers on the major issues now.... nahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. why start now?

Darth Malak · May 09, 2006, 08:58 PM // 20:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spazztic2003

They shouldn't blame ANet for their loss.

If I'm not mistaken they did, or atleast part of it. But no wonder seeing how Factions is doing and all.

Darth Malak · May 09, 2006, 09:00 PM // 21:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phoenix Avenger

.... nahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. why start now?

..........Dust in the wind, we are, dust in the wind

CK0 · May 09, 2006, 09:00 PM // 21:00

That site is not loading for me.

I also agree that Factions was not as stellar of a game as the original, but I think it is too soon. Maybe when Q2 rolls around; or sales figures after about a month or two.

Edit:
Also, could they be talking about the original GW? If so, then sales from there obviously should drop. Just need more info.

Sidra · May 09, 2006, 09:02 PM // 21:02

City of Heroes is, imho, a guildwars-like game (worse, though) with bad level playthrough and with a monthly fee. of course barely anyone is playing it. for 5$ USD more per month, you can play WoW. Durr.

Zaxan Razor · May 09, 2006, 09:07 PM // 21:07

Errr..April 28th is in the second quarter isnt it? Does this report have anything to do with Factions?

Its more likely to be that Prophecies sales have dropped by 50% since last year?

DevilStick · May 09, 2006, 09:07 PM // 21:07

1/ Those were Q1 results. GWF came out one month into 2Q. We'll see what the results were in about three months.

2/ I think there's already a thread on this.

Xenrath · May 09, 2006, 09:09 PM // 21:09

That's somewhat contradictory

- Sales were up by 5%
- Sales were down by 50%

Which one is it?

Winterclaw · May 09, 2006, 09:11 PM // 21:11

The only fun part about CoX is making new PCs and that gets boring within a month. People are starting to wise up. Factions sales might be low because of the delay in the CE, but the last time I checked Cantha was pretty packed.

ManadartheHealer · May 09, 2006, 09:12 PM // 21:12

Perhaps we infer sales were down 45%

Right now, no worries about Guild Wars. If those same stats for Guild Wars persist, then that will be a time for frantic threads with excessive use of bold text. However, I personally think Guild Wars will do just fine.

Theos · May 09, 2006, 09:14 PM // 21:14

Talk about getting the wrong information... then somehow tieing it into something utterly irrelevant. Faction is Q2 as stated, the Q1 drops are from CoH/V which has been losing players and also from the drop in sales of certain products like Prophecies, because everyone who wanted it has it. Of course if we use your logic we have to say that Prophecies obviously sucks balls because NCSoft lost money in quarter one.

By the way, look at the time frame of quarter one, isn't this the time of year when companies lose money? You know... no holidays.

Xenrath · May 09, 2006, 09:17 PM // 21:17

It depends on their financial year but it could be because of new developments/costs etc.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060503/20060503006349.html

A more in depth breakdown (note the new releases, which will tie up costs)

Quote:

The first quarter results marked a downturn from the previous quarter and NCsoft attributed this to a lack of new product launches. The company explained the results were generally in line with forecasts made at the beginning of the year.

Sounds about right, next quarter it should go back to normal/up. Nothing to see here, move along

Cherno · May 09, 2006, 09:21 PM // 21:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xenrath

That's somewhat contradictory

- Sales were up by 5%
- Sales were down by 50%

Which one is it?

It said that profits were down and sales were up. The two aren't the same thing

Textural · May 09, 2006, 09:22 PM // 21:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darth Malak

Let us wonder why?
Safe to say the large dissapointment in Guild Wars: Factions, prolly

Q1 means Factions' sales wasn't even fully reported if they end quarterly statements March 31st.
They're talking about sales of the original Guildwars sales dropping 50%.

Quarter reports are pretty junk to go by individually.

Umm for the people that want to look at the fiscal reports themselves:
http://www.ncsoft.com/eng/nccompany/...a_report04.asp

I think the site only works for IE, it kept giving my firefox errors.

Xenrath · May 09, 2006, 09:23 PM // 21:23

Oh I misread then lol anyway nothing to worry about here.