how much $ does world of warcraft generate a month?

[hiberNative]

i've never liked world of warcraft. the day i tried the beta, i could immediately tell that this game was about slowly building your character towards a reward.
i killed a lot of small trolls so i could finally buy a sword which i could not use. i had to buy the skill to use it... so i went on delivery missions (aka running back and forth) to get more bronze (currency). when i got the skill, it wasn't as cool or usefull as i though. i needed more stuff.



world of warcraft is now the biggest online game in history... and it costs to play:

total players in the world: 11 million

60 day playing card: $29.99

30 day income: 165 million dollars

also take note that the core game is between $19.99 to $29.99, and the burning crusade was were $29.99.

that's a one time cost of 550 million dollars concidered everyone brough the base game for the low $20 (which they of course didn't)
these numbers are disgusting, and the players don't mind, especially not when the new "wrath of the lich king" expansion is on its way.
what a wonderful idea. at the beginning the developers excuse for the high playing payment was to "pay off the huge servers that house the players" <--- lol? the players wanted the freedom so they payed for it, and got trapped in this time-consumin hamsterwheel, living off of partial reinforcement like a gambler.

wow-players don't seem to want to talk about it and just go "old news is old".

HOOK
LINE
SINKER

[Harrod200]

I can never play those MMORPGs for any length of time, it's always the same;

:start
Kill stuff
Gain XP & money
Use money to buy bigger stuff
Kill bigger stuff
goto start

Gets very dull very quickly.

The money they earn really is rediculous, billions a year and all they have to do is maintain the servers and occasionally make an expansion, which nets them another half a billion or so.

[TAW_Cutthroat]

Wow man, thanks for those figures, I really couldn't have been bothered to find out myself.

165 million dollars a month?

Someone's making a fortune.

[hiberNative]

it's a great idea. but if i would have came up with a game with such i high monthly cost, i would probably have laughed at it and thought no one would pay for it ;P

[Fullforce]

The sad thing is that Blizzard also want to charge for use of their Battlenet service, meaning one has to pay for Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 online play.

I have lost hope with Blizzard. For one of the world's biggest game companies, they sure do like to not be innovative. They rehash the same shit over and over again. You'd think with 165 million+ a month you could afford to try something... different. It's what's driving the game industry to stagnation.

[Scot]

If something works, do it again and again till it doesn't work that's probably Blizzard's company motto.

[Harrod200]

Why change the recipie if it works? And if it starts to go stale, change it as little as possible and watch the people return. Typical money-driven company attitude.

[EDIT]

Ninja'd by a wannabe jock...

[Scot]

1/2 wannabe jock.

[NickO]

Imagine the server costs run it. Not to mention the costs of all the employees, development etc.

Also im pissed off with the Blizzard bashing. They have developed 3 of the greatest game series of all time (Diablo, WC & SC) and there is no denying it. Not to mention the unfaltering dedication they have to their users. Blizzard recently patched SC+D2+Wc3 even though the games are years old now not to mention the weekly patches for WoW.
The massive amount of time they spend listening to their users and perfecting the games to such a point where 10 years after the games were released there are still active tournaments.

Why not compare Activision Blizzard to its main rival EA?

[gumball]

Originally Posted by NickO

Imagine the server costs run it. Not to mention the costs of all the employees, development etc.

Also im pissed off with the Blizzard bashing. They have developed 3 of the greatest game series of all time (Diablo, WC & SC) and there is no denying it. Not to mention the unfaltering dedication they have to their users. Blizzard recently patched SC+D2+Wc3 even though the games are years old now not to mention the weekly patches for WoW.
The massive amount of time they spend listening to their users and perfecting the games to such a point where 10 years after the games were released there are still active tournaments.

Why not compare Activision Blizzard to its main rival EA?

agreed, although they like all the money they also listen to there customers much more, unlike the rep of EA and what they do to publish games(see crytek)