775,000 Subs

Stx · July 2014

I don't really care how many subs the game has, I just want a good game. And this game is fun to me... but for a "high quality" game that has a sub fee, I am really disappointed. The amount of bugs and broken things in the game such as passives and class skills not working are just ridiculous. On top of that you never really know if tooltips are lying to you...

Phasing is horrible. This game would be 10x better without phasing. It shouldn't be a chore to form a group and quest.

I was so excited about this game because it was ES, but after my 6 month sub expires I can't honestly say I will sub again, which makes me very sad.

wrlifeboil · July 2014

ers101284b14_ESO wrote: »

wrlifeboil wrote: »

p_tsakirisb16_ESO wrote: »

wrlifeboil wrote: »

Umm, please do tell.

Depends the country they are based. In US no more than $50K. In UK no more £30K. India & China $3-6K.

And usually the majority of the game devs are sacked the moment a project is done.

Normal software developers like myself, do make much more than game developers and indeed we border the $100K/£50K. Contractors earn even more, and pay less taxes.

Depending on the state, a decent health/dental insurance plan takes up ~$5-6k for a single person and close to double that for workers with families. Throw in a 401(k) match. Add in the employer portion of Social Security taxes, and ui/workers comp insurance. If the total outlay for the average game dev is $50k, then what you're saying that the average base pay is under $35k. Nope, you are way off the mark.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/average-2012-us-dev-salary-84000/1100-6406397/

The cost of an employee to a company isn't only his/her base salary.

ers101284b14_ESO · July 2014

wrlifeboil wrote: »

ers101284b14_ESO wrote: »

wrlifeboil wrote: »

p_tsakirisb16_ESO wrote: »

wrlifeboil wrote: »

Umm, please do tell.

Depends the country they are based. In US no more than $50K. In UK no more £30K. India & China $3-6K.

And usually the majority of the game devs are sacked the moment a project is done.

Normal software developers like myself, do make much more than game developers and indeed we border the $100K/£50K. Contractors earn even more, and pay less taxes.

Depending on the state, a decent health/dental insurance plan takes up ~$5-6k for a single person and close to double that for workers with families. Throw in a 401(k) match. Add in the employer portion of Social Security taxes, and ui/workers comp insurance. If the total outlay for the average game dev is $50k, then what you're saying that the average base pay is under $35k. Nope, you are way off the mark.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/average-2012-us-dev-salary-84000/1100-6406397/

The cost of an employee to a company isn't only his/her base salary.

I know but thats not what your arguing about. You argues how much they made. They make between 75-85k a year.

wrlifeboil · July 2014

ers101284b14_ESO wrote: »

wrlifeboil wrote: »

ers101284b14_ESO wrote: »

wrlifeboil wrote: »

p_tsakirisb16_ESO wrote: »

wrlifeboil wrote: »

Umm, please do tell.

Depends the country they are based. In US no more than $50K. In UK no more £30K. India & China $3-6K.

And usually the majority of the game devs are sacked the moment a project is done.

Normal software developers like myself, do make much more than game developers and indeed we border the $100K/£50K. Contractors earn even more, and pay less taxes.

Depending on the state, a decent health/dental insurance plan takes up ~$5-6k for a single person and close to double that for workers with families. Throw in a 401(k) match. Add in the employer portion of Social Security taxes, and ui/workers comp insurance. If the total outlay for the average game dev is $50k, then what you're saying that the average base pay is under $35k. Nope, you are way off the mark.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/average-2012-us-dev-salary-84000/1100-6406397/

The cost of an employee to a company isn't only his/her base salary.

I know but thats not what your arguing about. You argues how much they made. They make between 75-85k a year.

Actually I was talking about what they need to take in to keep their employees working.

JD2013 · July 2014

775,000 3 months after launch is a solid player base. With FF XIV having 500k at launch, I think ESO has done well considering all the negativity and rubbish thrown at it by the haters.

Also in the beginning they always said they weren't targeting a mass market. There is never going to be another WoW with 14 million subscribers. The sky isn't falling. It's not going F2P. Enjoy your night.

KhajitFurTrader · July 2014

Snit wrote: »

At least it's not The Secret World. I loved that game in beta and right through launch. It's awesome. When I found out they only sold about 150k total units, I was both baffled and sad.

Why on earth would you? 150k for them might be bliss, regarding their business plan, which nobody knows about but them. So can 770k be for ZOS. I admit that it can be sad to see e.g. a good game, rock band, or restaurant, etc. not being appreciated as much as it deserves to be, but this stems from a subjective sense of good taste; as long as they get by and make a living, who cares if they aren't loved by more?

Some posters around here (not necessarily you, @Snit‌) seem to be forgetting their affinity for numbers, and can't remember their sense of proportion to boot. I blame WoW, because it's always easy to blame it for everything that went wrong in the MMO genre in the last 10 years.

Hardly remembered are the times when the original EQ was the sole king of the hill with 440k subs in its prime. Back then, a MMO was deemed profitable by punters with subs a tenth of that number; if that number has grown tenfold over the last ten years (proposed as a worst case scenario), this leaves us where?

Snit · July 2014

KhajitFurTrader wrote: »

Why on earth would you? 150k for them might be bliss, regarding their business plan, which nobody knows about but them.

Unlike ZOS, Funcom is a public company, and their annual reports are available. They're short on bliss

I agree with your larger point, though. WoW is such an outlier, it distorts perceptions of success.

Xsorus · July 2014

With the amount of content they've talked about coming, I'd say they've got a healthy subscriber base for right now.

Enough to keep development going.

Alphashado · July 2014

With dozen's of MMOs competing for a limited number of gamers.

750K is incredibly solid these days.

Shiroro · July 2014

Phenomenal numbers if true. Considering we're past the honeymoon phase of the game I would consider anything >500k subs to be a monumental success. I would have guessed that we're closer to 775k characters across all active accounts. This is very good for the long term potential of the game.

Delte · July 2014

That is a healthy number when you consider other MMO's have less than that number and are also successful.

Eve Online has just over 500k subscribers and that game has been growing since 2003. I remember when they only had 20k subscribers, yeah I was one of them.

That is if the figures are true, could give or take either way on those as its an estimate so a +/- 20% in those 750k maybe ?

Animus0724 · July 2014

Thats about $11,628,000 a month for zeni or $139,500,500 a year if these numbers are true.

Animus0724 · July 2014

Sindala wrote: »

Lol, you can all word it how you want. For a brand new AAA MMO only 3 months old....it's bad.

so $11 mil a month is bad? In reality for a 3 month old triple A game, it is quite good despite what you think.

Durham · July 2014

Sindala wrote: »

Lol, you can all word it how you want. For a brand new AAA MMO only 3 months old....it's bad.

No its not lol... only on PC release its not bad... plus we really have no good information...

Redlag · July 2014

vyndral13preub18_ESO wrote: »

But posting on a video game forum isn't?

You tell me. Apparently "your" point is that posting on video game forums is a waste of time. You say it to some how make me realize some true reality when all I can think is.. "if you think that.. wtf are you posting on video game forums for". Maybe you lack self worth. Maybe you've had better times that you were so cool you would never post on a video games forums.. Yet here you are.. So low and undeserving of your own self respect.

Durham · July 2014

DAoC had 250k back in 2002-2003 around 2010 it was less then 50k guess what its still going ......game is now close to 14 years old...

vyndral13preub18_ESO · July 2014

Redlag wrote: »

vyndral13preub18_ESO wrote: »

But posting on a video game forum isn't?

You tell me. Apparently "your" point is that posting on video game forums is a waste of time. You say it to some how make me realize some true reality when all I can think is.. "if you think that.. wtf are you posting on video game forums for". Maybe you lack self worth. Maybe you've had better times that you were so cool you would never post on a video games forums.. Yet here you are.. So low and undeserving of your own self respect.

What does wasting time have to do with self worth? It is my time ill waste it where i will. I was just amused by your arguing with you is a waste of time. Yet here you are on a video game forum yet again wasting your time trying to argue with someone.

Don't go so deep, you are making my head hurt, and I'm not that smart.

Makkir · July 2014

The exact number of subs is turkey bacon ranch with provolone cheese

daneyulebub17_ESO · July 2014

Redlag wrote: »

[quote="txfeinbergsub17_ESO;1121612

You are rather clueless aren't you? Most casual players (which make up the bulk of the player base) are not VR1 yet. Every time I go to any of the level 1 to 50 zones there are a ridiculous number of people. Besides, if you had any clue as to how the server works, it creates and destroys instances to keep the world populated.

I recently turned VR1 and yes, those zones are not heavily populated, but as I said, all I have to do if go to the level 40 to 50 zones and it is jammed pack.[/quote]

I'm clueless? Your talking statistics like you're an analysis expert. I play casually. I can hardly stomach this game's mega mash of over questing each zone. I'm tired of questing. I burn out on content that I've already done repetitively for 3 months. I have 4 characters. There wasn't anymore people in 1 to 50 zones than in VR. I haven't ran into more than 4 people outside of a town in 3 hours of gameplay for the last 2 months. Saying you have is blatant bull.. But hey, whatever youre trying to sell *cough* the console version *cough* doesn't matter. After that the console release its F2P anyways. Cash grab all you want. ZoS's next title will be blatantly ignored. Your SOS is just comedy now.

This is a ghost town game that Im still subscribed to. I would like to see funds spent on actually making this game fun. Not convincing the console base that it is fun.

Edit: and if you keep coming at me trying to make me out to be a liar. About what I know is the truth because Im in game.. Then we can argue while you try to peddle lies. Its fine with me. In the end. im not against this game. im against youre lying about this game to sell copies. I still subscribe, but Im honest. Keep trying to under pitch me. Telling the truth is WAY FUNNER than playing this game anyways. Keep em coming. Its working against you.

[/quote]

If you're not seeing "any more people in 1 to 50 zones than in VR" you must be playing with your monitor turned off.

Makkir · July 2014

I think Star Wars Galaxies broke records when it launched in 2003...I remember reading a Newspaper article about the subscription numbers...I believe it was 250k
Unbelievable how big our little market has grown

Makkir · July 2014

daneyulebub17_ESO wrote: »

If you're not seeing "any more people in 1 to 50 zones than in VR" you must be playing with your monitor turned off.

Not sure why people make that claim. I play on NA server aroound 0400 EST time...that's 4 in the morning....and the level 40-50 zone is absolutely packed....so was Daggerfall.

DeLindsay · July 2014

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

From the article:
"It's not explicitly clear where the figure comes from..."

Yeah. That sounds reliable.

^ This. There is literally nothing in that post that plays to me as credible in any way. This is like all those folks who say they have absolute proof that the Christian God is real and their "proof" is a guy holding a banana in his hand lol.

Turelus · July 2014

More than EVE Online and that's been going 11 years, I think we're in a pretty solid boat for the time being.

ExiledKhallisi · July 2014

I am a neuro surgeon who just finished my exams in the Nasa flight program for the next shuttle launch. I also have an IQ of 205.

DLaren · July 2014

The nay-sayers REFUSE to accept that ESO is healthy and well on it's way to long-term sustainability.

If this exact source said ESO was hovering around 150K subs they'd accept it without question, but since it says the ESO is around 750K subs they're all skeptical.

Typical.

Wolfshead · July 2014

Sindala wrote: »

Lol, you can all word it how you want. For a brand new AAA MMO only 3 months old....it's bad.

How can it be bad we have WS that was release on June 3, 2014 and ESO was release on April 4, 2014 that is basically 1 month between and we all know the release new mmo close summer is always hard when we summer holidays and school holidays and if we get super nice summer with a lot of sun and hot weather it is hard to get good subscribe number hell even old mmo like WoW lose a crap load off subscribe under summertime.

So i would say if we have 775K sub and Zenimax can make good improve under summer i think we will have good head start when autumn so i would say 775K sub is very good for game that have got a rocky start.

DeLindsay · July 2014

DLaren wrote: »

The nay-sayers REFUSE to accept that ESO is healthy and well on it's way to long-term sustainability.

If this exact source said ESO was hovering around 150K subs they'd accept it without question, but since it says the ESO is around 750K subs they're all skeptical.

Typical.

I would hope you're not tossing my comment in that pile. I'd bet that the numbers are somewhat HIGHER than what that post says, and even then who knows the exact truth. Unless ZoS were to release numbers, which they likely won't and good on them for not, then I won't believe what ANY 3rd party site that is using averages and market sales data as proof to provide sub numbers. ESO is fine and will be continuing for some time, that's all anyone needs to know.

crislevin · July 2014

So I should believe this number because it's given by superdata?

What it is with this new phenomenon on Internet that websites just put out numbers without any explanation on how they got it?

crislevin · July 2014

Falmer wrote: »

Um... 1st three months subscribers for World of Warcraft was only 1.5 million.

And global Internet users grow by 300 percent since then.

http://www.internetworldstats.com/emarketing.htm

NewBlacksmurf · July 2014

The sub number doesn't really matter if that number doesn't grow.
I created another thread suggesting the barrier of $14.99 be lowered to bring in more subscribers and to create better retention. $4.99 - $7.99 would be the magic number.

If most of my friends are playing this we will all keep subscribing. WoW didn't make it because it had the best content or best gameplay. Heck there are still a lot of issues but for many, our friends were playing so if most of your friends are playing it only reasonable to play with them.

When you keep the bar raised this high customers feel they should pick one sub game vs playing two or three.

Lower the sub and make more money are tons of people will pay $4.99 to $7.99. It's cheaper this way than renting redbox movies each weekend and in line with a Netflix sub which seems to have found the magic price point.