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Lets discuss numbers
rafaelcsmaia
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So I was trying to imagine how th financial situation on ZOS was and the game financial health overall, lets imagine some numbers:
Average industry salary is roughly 130k usd per year for a gaming studio, some more some less but that would be a good mean to work with.
ZOS suposedly had 400 ish employees, meaning 52,000,000 USD in nominal salary alone per year (Withouth benefits and other costs), around 4.3M USD per month
Now lets say we have 100k total players (Considering steam 17k concurrent, id say its a fair shot) in all platforms, that would translate to 43 dollars a month for each player to break even salary, thats not even considering infrastructure cost, office, etc.
Even if every single one of these players paid ESO plus, would still be a 30 ish dollar deficit to cover it.
Now we dont know the exact numbers, but that makes me wonder why they made the decision to cut costs, back to my other post, i still dont understand why they got away with chapters and DLC, seems to me like a bad financial decision. Yes we do have tomes now, but id be surprised if they were breaking even with those numbers, let alone making a profit.
Average industry salary is roughly 130k usd per year for a gaming studio, some more some less but that would be a good mean to work with.
ZOS suposedly had 400 ish employees, meaning 52,000,000 USD in nominal salary alone per year (Withouth benefits and other costs), around 4.3M USD per month
Now lets say we have 100k total players (Considering steam 17k concurrent, id say its a fair shot) in all platforms, that would translate to 43 dollars a month for each player to break even salary, thats not even considering infrastructure cost, office, etc.
Even if every single one of these players paid ESO plus, would still be a 30 ish dollar deficit to cover it.
Now we dont know the exact numbers, but that makes me wonder why they made the decision to cut costs, back to my other post, i still dont understand why they got away with chapters and DLC, seems to me like a bad financial decision. Yes we do have tomes now, but id be surprised if they were breaking even with those numbers, let alone making a profit.
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Gabriel_H✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭Industry experts peg ZOS' annual revenue around $250m with a profit of around $150m.
The major flaw in your premise is in the player numbers. Estimates would put the number of unique daily players at around 100k BUT that doesn't mean the same 100k every day. There is likely a core base of around 25k who log on (nearly) every day, but the annual unique player count is much higher than 100k.
Edit: In short - ESO is consistent profit, that can be predicted internally, and provides a massive return.Edited by Gabriel_H on July 9, 2026 2:03PMPC EU
Never get involved in a land war in Asia - it's one of the classic blunders!7 -
Heydan_Seegil✭✭✭So, I am an essential Biomedical IT worker who saves lives daily at the busiest hospital network in the world. Apparently I make a fraction of ZOS employees.... am I... am I trapped in Cold Harbor?"Life is Cast by Random Dice"
Burn my candle twice.
I have done my life justice
Against random dice.3 -
Gabriel_H✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭Heydan_Seegil wrote: »So, I am an essential Biomedical IT worker who saves lives daily at the busiest hospital network in the world. Apparently I make a fraction of ZOS employees.... am I... am I trapped in Cold Harbor?
In the US, CEO pay is 290 times average worker pay. In Europe it is 110 times. We are all trapped in Coldharbour!PC EU
Never get involved in a land war in Asia - it's one of the classic blunders!4 -
rafaelcsmaia✭✭✭✭✭
✭Industry experts peg ZOS' annual revenue around $250m with a profit of around $150m.
The major flaw in your premise is in the player numbers. Estimates would put the number of unique daily players at around 100k BUT that doesn't mean the same 100k every day. There is likely a core base of around 25k who log on (nearly) every day, but the annual unique player count is much higher than 100k.
Edit: In short - ESO is consistent profit, that can be predicted internally, and provides a massive return.
Where did you find this analysis by experts? id love to read and try to understand, im trying my best to understand the whole situation and settle down that zos is financially stable.Heydan_Seegil wrote: »So, I am an essential Biomedical IT worker who saves lives daily at the busiest hospital network in the world. Apparently I make a fraction of ZOS employees.... am I... am I trapped in Cold Harbor?
If you work in IT+ healthcare and make a fraction of 130k, yeah you might be in coldharbour.1 -
ketsparrowhawk✭✭✭✭✭
✭Heydan_Seegil wrote: »So, I am an essential Biomedical IT worker who saves lives daily at the busiest hospital network in the world. Apparently I make a fraction of ZOS employees.... am I... am I trapped in Cold Harbor?
If you're anything like the BioMed guys I work with you're probably still paid too much XD1 -
RandomKodiak✭✭✭✭✭Type "ZoS made 2 billion" into Google you can get the breakdown and follow stories and leads that way
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Gabriel_H✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭rafaelcsmaia wrote: »Industry experts peg ZOS' annual revenue around $250m with a profit of around $150m.
The major flaw in your premise is in the player numbers. Estimates would put the number of unique daily players at around 100k BUT that doesn't mean the same 100k every day. There is likely a core base of around 25k who log on (nearly) every day, but the annual unique player count is much higher than 100k.
Edit: In short - ESO is consistent profit, that can be predicted internally, and provides a massive return.
Where did you find this analysis by experts? id love to read and try to understand, im trying my best to understand the whole situation and settle down that zos is financially stable.Heydan_Seegil wrote: »So, I am an essential Biomedical IT worker who saves lives daily at the busiest hospital network in the world. Apparently I make a fraction of ZOS employees.... am I... am I trapped in Cold Harbor?
If you work in IT+ healthcare and make a fraction of 130k, yeah you might be in coldharbour.
Back in 2024 Firor publicly stated that ESO had surpassed $2bn in lifetime earnings. That's $200m a year on average, but the first few years had much lower player numbers than today, but then a spike during the pandemic. They've now re-settled just below pre-pandemic numbers.
There are various analysis' rocking around the web.PC EU
Never get involved in a land war in Asia - it's one of the classic blunders!1 -
Frayton✭✭✭✭✭
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Read Microsoft's earnings reports. It makes it crystal clear why they made the cuts.rafaelcsmaia wrote: »Now we dont know the exact numbers, but that makes me wonder why they made the decision to cut costs0 -
tomofhyrule✭✭✭✭✭
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The “new content” was already in game since April, just inactive. And even before the massacre, people were saying “hey, why are you all being suspiciously evasive about the status of the reworks and not even giving a ‘we’re good’ statement?”
People aren’t scared the game will go away tomorrow. New World had a year of spin-down before the servers went offline.
But U51 has been delayed by three weeks. And after that…? Will the Season Two stuff not in U51 still happen? Will we have an U52?4 -
AScarlato✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭Unfortunately we don't have solid info available. Reading MS Financials didn't seem to break down by game, so it's hard to make any judgment here.
While the game made $2 Billion which is incredible by 2024, we don't know how much they made since. I'm sure the execs ate that up and said "Thank you - more!" I wish that $2 Billion bought more job security than it had and gave them more time to go further in the new direction to see how it worked out.0 -
ToddIngram✭✭✭✭✭tomofhyrule wrote: »
The “new content” was already in game since April, just inactive. And even before the massacre, people were saying “hey, why are you all being suspiciously evasive about the status of the reworks and not even giving a ‘we’re good’ statement?”
People aren’t scared the game will go away tomorrow. New World had a year of spin-down before the servers went offline.
But U51 has been delayed by three weeks. And after that…? Will the Season Two stuff not in U51 still happen? Will we have an U52?
Or a season 2 for that matter.0 -
Kilthor69✭✭✭Heydan_Seegil wrote: »So, I am an essential Biomedical IT worker who saves lives daily at the busiest hospital network in the world. Apparently I make a fraction of ZOS employees.... am I... am I trapped in Cold Harbor?
Sorry, you do not save lives every day. You manage bio-medical equipment all day. You are not on the front lines as a doctor or nurse is. I also work in healthcare IT and would never say I save lives.4 -
Umbracat449✭✭✭Ooof that's a bit harsh.
Trying doing anything in a hospital without ict these days1 -
Gabriel_H✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭tomofhyrule wrote: »
The “new content” was already in game since April, just inactive. And even before the massacre, people were saying “hey, why are you all being suspiciously evasive about the status of the reworks and not even giving a ‘we’re good’ statement?”
People aren’t scared the game will go away tomorrow. New World had a year of spin-down before the servers went offline.
But U51 has been delayed by three weeks. And after that…? Will the Season Two stuff not in U51 still happen? Will we have an U52?
And? U51 is still coming unless you have information otherwise. That's new content. That isn't maintenance mode.PC EU
Never get involved in a land war in Asia - it's one of the classic blunders!0
