Polished game by rookie MMO team. Nothing more than to say than congrats.

Originally posted by Shivam

Originally posted by Entropy14

Yes this is awesome news, with Rift making huge amounts of profit, this means we can see this style of themepark games for years to come, AWESOME looking forward to 20 more years of the same type of unchallenging linear mindless games, WOOT !!!!

Different strokes for different folks. For all the themepark MMOS you get there are also  non themepark MMOS for players who enjoy sandbox / hybrid style gameplay.

Is it that hard to find something to enjoy?

Actually I feel in general MMOs are difficult to recommend to most casual players.

In the past they have deliberately included mind numbing game mechanics to extend subscription fees. Everytime I play a single player RPG I think how much crap we accept in MMOs simply because we've been told this is the way an MMO *must* be. 

Just one example playing Kingdom of Amalur was the travel time. I could sprint forever to get where I have to go, or open a large map and fast Travel.

Did it prevent me from appreciating the world? Hardly.

Did I feel I got everywhere too quickly? Not at all. It greatly helped my enjoyment. I loved it. I got to my missions, and when I wanted to I just walked/sprinted through the zone to explore it and harvest resources etc. The key being when I CHOSE to.

But in MMOs we accept mounts at X Level, and slow walking before that. We accept long overland travel times where we do nothing but watch the screen. And we accept having to do this every single play session. Once in World of Warcraft I clocked I had spent 30 minutes of my 1 hour play time travelling back and forth turning in quests, going to an auction house and heading back. Half my playing time had been spent just watching a fricking bird fly or a boat sail. To some this is wonderful, to me it is pointless after I have seen it once or twice. And if I had to go through that in Skyrim or Kingdoms of Amalur I'd find something else to play or mod the game  

I don't know how different subscription based Sandbox MMOs would be. In my view Time = More Profit, so all developers are working to extend the Time users spend on existing content, to make more money from their development costs.

I am so looking forward to Guild Wars 2, as their business model offers no reward to the developer for frustrating the player ;-P

MMOs are fun, but the underlying game mechanics prevent them from having a wider audience and being even more engaging in my opinion.

EDIT:

You are correct though...new models are coming out and have been released. Such as Champions Online (Fast travel from the start) , City of Heroes, Guild Wars 2, The Secret World etc. SO yes, in today's market you can find something to satisfy you in the MMO space. I just think in general most are sticking to the decades old forumla.

This is what happens when a game launches when its ready, not early, has few bugs, a great dev team and regular meaningful content updates.

Congrats to the Dev team, very well deserved indeed.  

they never planned to be a wow killer... i tell you what they planned though, to be a wow clone 

A start up company made a significant profit.  Obtained 85 million more in funding.

This is a massive success for Trion Worlds.  Good for them.  Anyone whom is an adult realizes that and it's irrefutable.

Originally posted by katmuks

they never planned to be a wow killer... i tell you what they planned though, to be a wow clone 

 

How is having dynamic content a clone of a game where everything is boring and static? :|

I don't play Rift, I never resubbed after my first month.

But I must say that I'm happy for Rift, or should I say Trion. Rift is by all means a good game and  it's success warms my heart. :)

Who knows, some day I might resub.. ;)

Originally posted by Isaralas

Originally posted by katmuks

they never planned to be a wow killer... i tell you what they planned though, to be a wow clone 

 

How is having dynamic content a clone of a game where everything is boring and static? :|

Perhaps refering to the fact that much of it is very much the same formula as every other mmo.

Oh and the whole planur invasion thing WoW did with the launch of every ex pack so far...  There was two undead plauge invasions to launch each Naxxramus, which had very similar to Rift's invasions, and then an elemental invasion for Cata.

Just guessing as to what he ment.

Originally posted by VikingGamer

I think Rift shows that you don't have to be a WoW killer to turn a profit. Smart stratagy, great execution, solid customer service.

Great news, yes there is room for "the little guy".

Congrats! Always liked the game and intend to go back to it at some point.

hope they made a little profit out of that anyhow, congrats Trion.

Originally posted by smh_alot

Really people, doesn't sound so strange at all. Didn't they report 1 million sales half a year back?

 

1mil * 50 dollar (euro even more) = 50 million dollars revenues already

 

Let's say that player retention in the first 3 months was at least 500k, that's 500k * 3 * $15 = 22.5 million dollars already.

 

Make some additional calculations, and you'll see how easy it is to reach 100 million dollars in revenues, which ofc isn't the same as 100 million dollars profit. All costs have to be subtracted first for that.

 

Pretty much this. 100mil is really on the low side of what I would have expected and, a distinction that many here seems to miss, does not by any means represent actual profit.

Beyond that, the lack of population numbers continues to be more than telling.

This company knows customer service and that has contributed to their success.

Someone should put this into context, before acting all impressed.

In favor: Rift was released at beginning of March thus only had 10 month worth of time to generate revenues in 2011.

Against:  Rift however was also released in 2011. Initial boxsales where 100% included into those revenues.  A sold box before and during launch was priced at about 4 times the price of a sub. It was at its primetime of popularity.

Initial boxsales likely made a large chunk of that money, I guess about half of it. It has left a fraction of its launchplayerbase. Next year revenues will be even smaller fraction of this one.

Now compare it to another MMORPG besides WoW, which it isnt even close to...

Aion despite mainly present in weaker/partly much weaker currency Eastern nations (lower revenue per player)

...made +200 Million US$ global revenues in 2009

...made +200 Million US$ global revenues in 2010

...already announced +150 M global revenues in first 3/4 part of 2011 and likely has made +200 again at the end of 2011 which will be published next month.

About 50 M or more of each year is made by regular Western subs/sales even after 2 years and no help of launch boxsales. 100M was reached about 6-7months after launch.

100Million for a 100% Western release, in its hometurf, including launch boxsales, is hardly "fantastic" and only the fact it accounted just 10 months not 12 and its their technical first one as a company, actually make it okay-good.

 

Originally posted by Sukiyaki

100Million for a 100% Western release, in its hometurf, including launch boxsales, is hardly "fantastic" and only the fact it accounted just 10 months not 12 and its their technical first one as a company, actually make it okay-good.

the game hasn't been out for 12 months. actual release date was March 1st with a head start on Fed 24th.

Trion's customer service and developer feedback is really what drives this game up the ladder. Exceptional and well done.

Blizzard makes a lot more then Trion in a Month..lololol.

Originally posted by Sukiyaki

Someone should put this into context, before acting all impressed.

In favor: Rift was released at beginning of March thus only had 10 month worth of time to generate revenues in 2011.

Against:  Rift however was also released in 2011. Initial boxsales where 100% included into those revenues.  A sold box before and during launch was priced at about 4 times the price of a sub. It was at its primetime of popularity.

Initial boxsales likely made a large chunk of that money, I guess about half of it. It has left a fraction of its launchplayerbase. Next year revenues will be even smaller fraction of this one.

 

Now compare it to another MMORPG besides WoW, which it isnt even close to...

Aion despite mainly present in weaker/partly much weaker currency Eastern nations (lower revenue per player)

...made +200 Million US$ global revenues in 2009

...made +200 Million US$ global revenues in 2010

...already announced +150 M global revenues in first 3/4 part of 2011 and likely has made +200 again at the end of 2011 which will be published next month.

About 50 M or more of each year is made by regular Western subs/sales even after 2 years and no help of launch boxsales. 100M was reached about 6-7months after launch.

 

100Million for a 100% Western release, in its hometurf, including launch boxsales, is hardly "fantastic" and only the fact it accounted just 10 months not 12 and its their technical first one as a company, actually make it okay-good.