Curse

LifeInfusion · Dec 14, 2006, 08:41 PM // 20:41

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/75/15

"Assume, hypothetically, you - just you, together with maybe two or three other indigent programmers - have six months of savings and a budget in the low four figures. How would you create and market a full-featured MMOG?"

Does that sound familiar?

"For each $1M [million] invested, you need 10,000 subscriptions to pay back the initial investment in a reasonable period"

That's pretty high if you ask me... 10,000 subscriptions. That's like 100 bucks a person?

"Making money is a matter of maintaining your current customer base and incrementally increasing that base over time. "
*Snicker at the quote*

"Cook estimated the cost of developing a typical village game at $250,000; with 6,000-9,000 users, such a game reaches break-even 18 months after launch"
*18 months after launch is roughly 1.5 years

"Two British college students launched Neopets for next to nothing in November 1999, and it became profitable by the following July. Six years later, having drawn 30 million users, they sold Neopets to Viacom's MTV for a reported $160 million."
Now you know where neopets came from!

"A bad launch for a high-profile MMOG means disaster within months, even weeks."
*cough Auto Assault*

"At the September 2006 Austin Game Conference, Woodcock estimated their combined player bases at around 15 million." (WoW, EQ, Ultima Online, Lineage I and II, Dark Age of Camelot, Star Wars Galaxies, and all the best-known subscription-based MMOGs in North America. )

FeuerFrei · Dec 15, 2006, 03:04 AM // 03:04

ooo..cool article......it inspires me to go on even further!!!