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Why isn't ZOS talking about how many subs ?

  • ruff82
    ruff82
    crislevin wrote: »
    ruff82 wrote: »
    What difference do the numbers make? As many have posted, there is no upside to a business that is NOT publicly traded to release numbers.

    You need to go back to whichever business school you graduate from and re-learn topics about the publicity.

    As a side note, maybe you should revisit the definition of Publicity because I see nothing in it that says an MMO's subscription numbers are required to obtain it!
    Edited by ruff82 on June 24, 2014 7:33PM
  • Sharundabald
    Dusty5 wrote: »
    You do not need numbers it hit the bargain bin in under 60 days what does that tell you? If that is not enough get on line during what should be a high traffic time and see how long it takes to get a group for a quest dungeon. Zones are empty
    It tells you that selling an MMO in a physical store is no longer viable in this day and age and that the sales of it in those stores showed that to them so they put them in the bargain bin to try to recoup their costs. You do know that it wasn't ZOS that was putting those in the bargain bin, right?
    Edited by Sharundabald on June 24, 2014 7:40PM
  • ruff82
    ruff82
    crislevin wrote: »
    Obscure wrote: »
    RazielSR wrote: »
    Why?
    Every mmorpg developers do it. It is always a pleasure for developers to show the data in the first months.
    I suppose they will talk about it soon?

    They're privately owned is why.

    They don't have any investors, and thus no need to make up numbers to use to lie and placate them. No need for anyone but them to know anyhow. It's an internal metric. The *** measuring contests are just things fanboys do with these numbers if/when they go public. Developers just use them to determine business decisions, predict growth, draw budgets, determine if a certain marketing strategy had an effect or not, and so on...grown up stuff.

    sure, people never ask themselves "wow, this thing has so many people playing, maybe i should give it a try!"

    They don't need to list any numbers about subscribers to make that happen. People whom are looking for a new game, particularly an MMO, typically will search online for new games. I don't know many people that read the business section of a newspaper to decide what new video game they are going to play. As for releasing numbers on the game's website, again, I don't know many people that say "oh, let me go to [insert game company / game name here]'s website to see how many people play the game so I can decide if I want to play". The reality is, people play a game because either they happen to find content / videos from it that they find alluring, they have friends that play, they've played similar games before (or, in the case of sequels, they played previous versions), or they see a lot of discussion / hype about the game online and they want to see what it's about.
  • Obscure
    Obscure
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    crislevin wrote: »
    Obscure wrote: »
    RazielSR wrote: »
    Why?
    Every mmorpg developers do it. It is always a pleasure for developers to show the data in the first months.
    I suppose they will talk about it soon?

    They're privately owned is why.

    They don't have any investors, and thus no need to make up numbers to use to lie and placate them. No need for anyone but them to know anyhow. It's an internal metric. The *** measuring contests are just things fanboys do with these numbers if/when they go public. Developers just use them to determine business decisions, predict growth, draw budgets, determine if a certain marketing strategy had an effect or not, and so on...grown up stuff.

    sure, people never ask themselves "wow, this thing has so many people playing, maybe i should give it a try!"
    If your taking about people who take the media's word for it, there's nothing to be gained in that demographic. They either passed on ESO to begin with, or bailed after the first 30 days. Point me to one good review of ESO and I'll point you to 10 bad ones.

    So no, that ship has already sailed. Target for growth is outside the lamestream, and in future console transfers. Don't get to tied up in metrics, they can be confusing and easily misinterpreted.
  • p_tsakirisb16_ESO
    p_tsakirisb16_ESO
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    TESO is good and I do not care of the numbers. They will not make me change my mind to leave it or to play it. The game as product is good and that is the end of it. As I played DAOC for 10y, if they stick to P2P model as now, I will be their customer for as long as I can play. (and to boot is better than DAOC full stop)


    As of numbers, lets see some other examples, and not the ones from Blizzard who are renown for manipulating numbers.

    EVE Online goes for 11 years now, with barely more than 500K subs and ~40K players online at any time.
    By all standards is a very successful game for a niche market.

    I would rather focus their resources on keeping the game to the top as is now, and the number will come, than be a shooting starts to the likes of SWTOR, AoC, LOTRO etc.
  • Ragnar_Lodbrok
    Ragnar_Lodbrok
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    Ok some loser reported me for posting, they dont say becasue the sales numbers were bad. Really people? Does the fanboi hate flow through you that much?
  • kitsinni
    kitsinni
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    Jamesd1350 wrote: »
    Maybe they are too worried about making content for all the whiners out there and forgot to give you entitled lot the sales numbers. I forgot that when I bought a game I was entitled to see profit margins too.

    Yet another case of the most overused word of the year being used incorrectly. If you have nothing to say just use entitled!
  • Spiritreaver_ESO
    Spiritreaver_ESO
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    Ok some loser reported me for posting, they dont say becasue the sales numbers were bad. Really people? Does the fanboi hate flow through you that much?

    I didn't report you, but just wanted to throw this out: Maybe it wasn't 'fanboi'ism as much as they just didn't like the cut of your jib in whichever post of yours it was that reported?

    I mean in all seriousness, when i see your little icon pop up saying you just posted in a thread i was reading, i sigh a bit myself before going back to catch up on that thread.
  • Mortosk
    Mortosk
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    RazielSR wrote: »
    Why?
    Every mmorpg developers do it. It is always a pleasure for developers to show the data in the first months.
    I suppose they will talk about it soon?

    MMO's never do unless your blizzard and you had ritchtello lying to investors they had 12 million subs, when it was actualy accounts.
    You wont see sub numbers anywhere but when they give their investors the revenue reports. And i am not sure it will be public as Zeni is not publicly traded

    Riccitiello was the former CEO of EA not blizzard.
    "Now I stand, the lion before the lambs and they do not fear. They can not fear." --Arthas Menethil (aka, The Lich King)
  • Ragekniv
    Ragekniv
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    Do you honestly believe subscriptions are increasing? Why would they willingly publish portents of failure?
  • Areoth
    Areoth
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    From my understanding (feel free to correct me if I am wrong about this), the way the mega servers work, a player will pretty much see the same concentration of players around them until the subs get very low. They will not be having server merges, or closing servers as populations dwindle after the initial rush. Instead it will pretty much feel the same population wise until very low population numbers.

    So releasing sub numbers have more negatives than positives from a company perspective. If the numbers are good then it may help the perception that the game is 'popular' but if they are low it will create a perception that the game is a dud and could adversely impact future subscriptions.
  • RedTalon
    RedTalon
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    Mainly see public corps do that with their mmorpg data, not private ones.
  • RedTalon
    RedTalon
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    Mablung wrote: »
    What should be more concerning and a bigger question really is why have they not released sales numbers. This is something that everyone does publicly traded or privately owned. Games love to throw out big, round numbers for some good 'ol fashioned chest bumping.

    We have seen nothing of the sort with this game. That is more telling to me.

    I haven't seen that with games that are mainly out on in pc awhile though.
  • Mablung
    Mablung
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    RedTalon wrote: »
    Mablung wrote: »
    What should be more concerning and a bigger question really is why have they not released sales numbers. This is something that everyone does publicly traded or privately owned. Games love to throw out big, round numbers for some good 'ol fashioned chest bumping.

    We have seen nothing of the sort with this game. That is more telling to me.

    I haven't seen that with games that are mainly out on in pc awhile though.

    I think you are right and that is probably due to the fact that most games are not made for the PC anymore. Console designed games is where the big profits are now.
  • AngryWolf
    AngryWolf
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    I really scratch my head why this so important to people. I personally couldn't care less. How would having this information benefit anyone..except investors maybe.
  • Ragnar_Lodbrok
    Ragnar_Lodbrok
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    Ok some loser reported me for posting, they dont say becasue the sales numbers were bad. Really people? Does the fanboi hate flow through you that much?

    I didn't report you, but just wanted to throw this out: Maybe it wasn't 'fanboi'ism as much as they just didn't like the cut of your jib in whichever post of yours it was that reported?

    I mean in all seriousness, when i see your little icon pop up saying you just posted in a thread i was reading, i sigh a bit myself before going back to catch up on that thread.

    There is no rule against my cut of my jib (really how can anyone tell that from reading?)
  • Durham
    Durham
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    Its a private company ... Most private companies do not release such specifics.... Publicly Traded yes they do all the time because of Public Investors have a right to know...
    PVP DEADWAIT
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  • Durham
    Durham
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    Agree with this poster .....

    "There is no incentive for a private owned company to do it. No matter what they say it will be used to fuel arguments about how the game is faililng. There are no stock holders that they have to release data to so what advantage could they possibly have by releasing those numbers?"
    PVP DEADWAIT
    PVP The Unguildables
  • Ohioastro
    Ohioastro
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    AngryWolf wrote: »
    I really scratch my head why this so important to people. I personally couldn't care less. How would having this information benefit anyone..except investors maybe.

    Because people who hate the game want to be able to mock people who play it by telling them that everyone else hates the game. This is the beginning and end of it. Whenever you see this question it's always someone who is looking to validate their dislike of a game. And no number would be a good one, which is a clue as to why companies don't release them in general.
  • Alphashado
    Alphashado
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    They very happily made public the number of beta testers they had. I would supply a link, but I'm on my phone.

    Every company is different. But usually when the numbers are good, they will flaunt them. It's smart advertising to do so. "Come play our game! Over 5 million copies sold! 6 million subscriptions world wide!" Etc.

    I don't think it would be smart for ESO to post numbers at this point. A gigantic number of people have left for one reason or another. Guild rosters over flowing with inactive accounts is proof enough.

    It is a young MMO with tremendous potential though.Zos would be wise to keep silent for now while they patch the leaks and learn how to retain subs. Let's remember that this is their first MMO. There are growing pains.

    And let's face it. They have a lot of work to do before they get there. But they are trying hard and learning every day. Plus they have a very wealthy franchise tag and budget to support them. I believe ESO will be just fine in time. But I don't believe today's numbers are anything to brag about.
  • AelyinESO
    AelyinESO
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    Durham wrote: »
    Its a private company ... Most private companies do not release such specifics.... Publicly Traded yes they do all the time because of Public Investors have a right to know...

    Done, and can close this post.

    I believe many people here don't know how works Business Models.

    Go to the Bread Store and ask to the Owner how many customers they have and still come, they wont tell you or they will say "we have many clients that buy many things here".

    It's really simple, you can go to the candy store that you really like that "special candy", but you don't care how many people buy it, coz you like it and you don't care if you're the only person that like it, coz YOU LIKE it.

    IF you don't like that "special" candy buy another one.





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  • Ltankb14_ESO
    Ltankb14_ESO
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    RazielSR wrote: »
    Why?
    Every mmorpg developers do it.


    No they don't.
  • Alphashado
    Alphashado
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    AelyinESO wrote: »
    Durham wrote: »
    Its a private company ... Most private companies do not release such specifics.... Publicly Traded yes they do all the time because of Public Investors have a right to know...

    Done, and can close this post.

    I believe many people here don't know how works Business Models.

    Go to the Bread Store and ask to the Owner how many customers they have and still come, they wont tell you or they will say "we have many clients that buy many things here".

    It's really simple, you can go to the candy store that you really like that "special candy", but you don't care how many people buy it, coz you like it and you don't care if you're the only person that like it, coz YOU LIKE it.

    IF you don't like that "special" candy buy another one.





    Why then, did they happily release this number? http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en/news/post/2014/03/14/eso-road-ahead

    If you’re reading this, you’re probably one of the 5 million people that have registered for the ESO beta, and likely participated in one of our large beta tests. That’s a wonderfully large number of people who have become part of our ESO community, and it continues to grow.

    If the numbers are good, and it suits them, they will throw numbers around just like any smart business would.

    You can say those numbers are from beta etc etc, but don't insist that because they are a privately owned company that they will not post numbers if it suits their purpose.

    Edited by Alphashado on June 25, 2014 1:07AM
  • RazielSR
    RazielSR
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    Alphashado wrote: »
    AelyinESO wrote: »
    Durham wrote: »
    Its a private company ... Most private companies do not release such specifics.... Publicly Traded yes they do all the time because of Public Investors have a right to know...

    Done, and can close this post.

    I believe many people here don't know how works Business Models.

    Go to the Bread Store and ask to the Owner how many customers they have and still come, they wont tell you or they will say "we have many clients that buy many things here".

    It's really simple, you can go to the candy store that you really like that "special candy", but you don't care how many people buy it, coz you like it and you don't care if you're the only person that like it, coz YOU LIKE it.

    IF you don't like that "special" candy buy another one.





    Why then, did they happily release this number? http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en/news/post/2014/03/14/eso-road-ahead

    If you’re reading this, you’re probably one of the 5 million people that have registered for the ESO beta, and likely participated in one of our large beta tests. That’s a wonderfully large number of people who have become part of our ESO community, and it continues to grow.

    If the numbers are good, and it suits them, they will throw numbers around just like any smart business would.

    You can say those numbers are from beta etc etc, but don't insist that because they are a privately owned company that they will not post numbers if it suits their purpose.

    Alphasado, I completely agree. It is another silly answer to just hide the reality, like many on this forum are doing. But the rest of the world is wrong...
    Edited by RazielSR on June 25, 2014 7:50AM
  • wrlifeboil
    wrlifeboil
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    AngryWolf wrote: »
    I really scratch my head why this so important to people. I personally couldn't care less. How would having this information benefit anyone..except investors maybe.

    If the numbers were blockbuster sales like 5 million+, they'd probably crow over it because logins would be impossible and that would be one way to mollify frustrated players trying to get into the game. But we know it isn't like that. Anyway, at this point I have to agree with you. The time to obsess over mmo sub numbers is right before a company releases them and right after. Since Zenimax Media is a privately held company, it doesn't have any obligation to provide info to anyone but their own stockholders. Maybe they don't even release it even to all their stockholders depending on how ownership of the shares are distributed.

    Since they apparently don't seem to have any intention of releasing sub numbers for eso, why bother obsessing over something that may never see daylight?
  • RazielSR
    RazielSR
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    wrlifeboil wrote: »
    AngryWolf wrote: »
    I really scratch my head why this so important to people. I personally couldn't care less. How would having this information benefit anyone..except investors maybe.

    If the numbers were blockbuster sales like 5 million+, they'd probably crow over it because logins would be impossible and that would be one way to mollify frustrated players trying to get into the game. But we know it isn't like that. Anyway, at this point I have to agree with you. The time to obsess over mmo sub numbers is right before a company releases them and right after. Since Zenimax Media is a privately held company, it doesn't have any obligation to provide info to anyone but their own stockholders. Maybe they don't even release it even to all their stockholders depending on how ownership of the shares are distributed.

    Since they apparently don't seem to have any intention of releasing sub numbers for eso, why bother obsessing over something that may never see daylight?

    It is not an obsession, it was just a question...
    Maybe it was an obsession for ZOS to talk about the 5million beta besters.
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