Age of Conan

World of Warcraft was released Thanksgiving 2004. I know because I was there on day 1.

I didn't say the games weren't successful. They had respectable subscription numbers. But MMOs were a niche industry. It wasn't until WoW grew to astronomical numbers that the average person started playing this genre. That does in fact have a lot to do with how many people period play MMOs. Yes, AoC and WAR would both have been released. But AoC wouldn't have the kinds of numbers they are posting now. In addition to that WoW was in development for a number of years, going back to the very early 2000's. WoW didn't just pop up over night. Of course Blizzard wanted a piece of the pie. Why do you think EA bought out Mythic and then the Bioware after they announced they were developing an MMO. THQ also wants a piece. One of their subsidiaries is working on a Warhammer 40,000 MMO. Blizzard was working towards their own MMO as Anarchy Online and Dark Age of Camelot were released.

I also beg to differ in regards to Anarchy Online. It was not a huge success. It wasn't even a big success. The first 4 months of that game were a release nightmare. I was also there for that. I waited out the first month to see if things improved. I played during month two. I did not subscribe past the first thirty days. AO was a horrid game when it released. It never came close to pulling the kinds of number Mythic got with DAoC on release.

 1 million x $50 ..cha ching!

Originally posted by Hrica

 1 million x $50 ..cha ching!

Try 1million x $10... the $50 price tag is rtail not trade price.

you know im not exactly fond of AOC right now but good lord some of you I swear work for funcom's competition. why else would you guys viciously attack anything positive about AOC trying to find anyway to put it down or discredit it. You guys acts as if your jobs depend on if AOC fails.

you guys don't like it fine get off the AOC forum and go talk about the game you enjoy. its like me going to the WoW forum (a game which i despise) and blasting every positive post about it..

 

Its not really that big a deal either, it will only be interesting to see how many subs they have after the free months expire.

When an MMO ships one million copies within 3 weeks of release it is a big deal whatever may follow.

Originally posted by impulsebooks

Originally posted by Hrica

 1 million x $50 ..cha ching!

Try 1million x $10... the $50 price tag is rtail not trade price.

They make more than $10 a copy man. Probably $30-35.

Originally posted by Servase

 

Originally posted by impulsebooks

Originally posted by Hrica

 1 million x $50 ..cha ching!

Try 1million x $10... the $50 price tag is rtail not trade price.

 

They make more than $10 a copy man. Probably $30-35.

Depends on the retailer and amount ordered. Companies will sell items cheaper to certain retailers based on quantity ordered and promisary buy  backs. Where Gamestop might pay something like $30/unit Best Buy might pay $15/unit because they can dedicate more floor/shelf space to the item making more available to th shopper, unlike Gamestop who can only dedicate minimal shelf space.

Edit: Worked in retail ordering so I have seen it happen.

Originally posted by Battlekruse

Box sales are largely irrelevant. Shipped numbers are entirely irrelevant. Concurrent active subs is the number to look at. At launch they were quoting 700k shipped and then 400k players a week later.

The development and production cost of Age of Conan is $70 million dollars.

(49.99 * 400,000) - 70,000,000 = Whoops