07-15-2005, 06:28 AM
Gnollguy,Jul 14 2005, 05:04 PM Wrote:I was stating they are still probably at a loss on the money side with this game so they can't hire more coders...
[right][snapback]83445[/snapback][/right]
i doubt that... considering they used to do a game/exp every year, and selling 5-10 million copies (10 is high i think, iirc, sc sold 7-8 million worldwide) at $50 per, that's only $50m per year (and they don't get all of that)...
right now they are pulling in $30m a month ($15 * $2m), with similar (within a factor of 10?) non-payroll expenses to d2... so $360m a year if they can keep 2 million subs (doubtful), but even half that is 3x as good as they used to be doing... and even if they have 2000 gms/phone support/support staff, that's only $10m a month in payroll (at $5k per person)... and i'm pretty sure they have nowhere near 2000 support staff... and probably less than 200 coders/artists/managers/designers, and if they get $10k a month, that's only $2m/month in salary...
so, unless you know something i don't, i really doubt that money is the reason of any of their problems... they rushed this game out the door in time for the holiday season (and probably due to pressure from eq2) and it obviously lacked polish in a few areas, so i think it's not unreasonable that they skimped on some stuff early (testing, documentation, etc) and its hitting them now... i've heard that it takes a year for a new hire to get ramped up, and that coupled with turnover can cause problems, especially if you have #$%&ty pay and work your employees hard (which i've heard they do)...