Originally posted by Cathalaode

Originally posted by Aceundor

To be honest the reading wasnt too good. My conclusions are

- Relatively small loss (USD -748.000)

- Stable ammount of subscribers (approximately 100K players). i.e. no growth during last 6 months.

- Reduced expectations for next quarter. I dont beleive in any big growth of subscribers anymore. )

- Still plenty of cash (USD 37 mill) so they will not go belly up or need cash infusion from investors. (Funcom is here to stay, like it or not)

- Funcom is now more and more dependant of TSW in order to grow, as a company.

Links:

http://www.newsweb.no/newsweb/search.do?messageId=244087 

 

They have more than enough money to produce their upcoming MMO, as well additional content for AoC. Good to know that they're in the clear.

The additional peeps hired (4% of total company employees) are most likely for TSW at this stage. The coming quarter includes Aion's release, so every major MMO is expecting to loose some customers. All in all, Funcom has plenty of reserves to get both TSW as well as the AoC expansion out.   

The population is at best 70k subs, one thing to note is 100,000 downloaded the free trial and another X players downloaded the free trial or resubbed during the free trials and over 100% of them left the game, meaning they lost more than gained.

That means the game is not worth playing today for a crazy number of people, it is 50th on Xfire today an all time low which means Xfire works 100% of the time.

Here is some things most people didn't factor in to the revenue:

Norway Welfare - The Company was awarded around 240 TUSD in
funding from the Norwegian Film Fund for the
development of its Java based free-to-play MMO.
This game reached its game-play beta stage in
August.

More money from Asia, Funcom wont get a penny from subs there - In Q2 Funcom received the remaining amount of the
minimum guaranteed royalty from Neowiz, a leading
Korean publisher that has obtained the right to sell
and operate Age of Conan for a five-year period in
Korea.

Just funny AoC is doing so bad they are going to be firing all the Norwegians and have it all produced in China, prrobably by the people who sell you gold in game ;p  The Company has, during the last two quarters,
been conducting a proportionally larger share of its
development in lower cost countries, most
significantly in China. This cost initiative will be
continued and expanded in the coming years and
the Company expects a significant decrease in
average cost per developer.

This is funny, people have more free time so they played more, duh - yet the didn't get an increase of subscribers in AoC so for every marketing dollar they put in they get zero back and all they talked about was selling this game instead of I don't know making it a good game.

Sales, marketing and PR efforts during summer
increased customer inflow and subscriber numbers,
but the full effect of this was somewhat offset by
higher churn during the Summer July/August
• Activity levels in-game have during the Summer
months been very high

In conclusion, every quarter the revenue drops 1.5 million so how long can it carry that on?

 Finaticd started nice and I was like "wow he got acc hacked" but than he proved that I don't quote him as comparison for nothing. 

Lets all state our personal thing he embarrased himself with

The population is at best 70k subs, one thing to note is 100,000 downloaded the free trial and another X players downloaded the free trial or resubbed during the free trials and over 100% of them left the game, meaning they lost more than gained.

That means the game is not worth playing today for a crazy number of people, it is 50th on Xfire today an all time low which means Xfire works 100% of the time.

Don't you just love how self proclaimed analytic plays with totally fictional numbers? Dude that was embarassing!

Originally posted by finaticd

The population is at best 70k subs, one thing to note is 100,000 downloaded the free trial and another X players downloaded the free trial or resubbed during the free trials and over 100% of them left the game, meaning they lost more than gained.

That means the game is not worth playing today for a crazy number of people, it is 50th on Xfire today an all time low which means Xfire works 100% of the time.

 

"over 100% of them left the game" wow thats amazing !unreal news. how in the hell can you get more than 100% of those players leaveing?if theirs only 100 kor so way yall go on an on about it your saying that theirs 100 k joined an then theirs even more of those 100 that left? your math is funny here.

almost as funny as xfire which i been experimenting with . play aoc for 6 hours one day get credit for 3.it updates  weirdly.its not like theirs people going to school now an play time will fall off or nothing .naw its only cause you say so an some how theirs more than 100% of the people who tried the trials left!

/shrug oh well thanks for telling me how a game i enjoy atm is doomed (tm) maybe we can get ya some advice on that from the eq doom sayers their going on 10 years now an eq will die any time !

100,000k came from Avery.  Avery then pointed out the AoC census more than doubled!  Xfire users playing AoC more then doubled!

And it was estimated 70-80k players played last quarter go dig up the financial report thread here for math.

Then AoC's revenue fell:  Q109:  7,725    -   Q209: 6,145    =   1580 revenue drop ......  1580/7725 = 20% drop in revenue!!! Without the additional sources I listed. 

So if Avery is right and 100,000 players did free trials or if only 20,000 did or if 6 billion players did, they did not stay so 100% of free trial population is gone plus 20%!

AoC lost an amount equal to 100% of free trials plus another amount of 20% of their veteran players! Take a math class,

--This is supported by the financial report and Xfire being at an all time low!

Next Quarter:

Revenues projected to drop by 19% -2% and it is usually in the middle so around 10% using the same easy formula above.

-----------

Populations if therer were 70-80k subscribers last quarter using optomistic numbers on Funcom's behalf:  56k - 64k subscribers this quarter. subs don't always mean players.  So I have been right with my 60k figure and Xfire has been dead on.

Originally posted by finaticd

100,000k came from Avery.  Avery then pointed out the AoC census more than doubled!  Xfire users playing AoC more then doubled!

And it was estimated 70-80k players played last quarter go dig up the financial report thread here for math.

Then AoC's revenue fell:  Q109:  7,725    -   Q209: 6,145    =   1580 revenue drop ......  1580/7725 = 20% drop in revenue!!! Without the additional sources I listed. 

So if Avery is right and 100,000 players did free trials or if only 20,000 did or if 6 billion players did, they did not stay so 100% of free trial population is gone plus 20%!

AoC lost an amount equal to 100% of free trials plus another amount of 20% of their veteran players! Take a math class,

--This is supported by the financial report and Xfire being at an all time low!

Next Quarter:

Revenues projected to drop by 19% -2% and it is usually in the middle so around 10% using the same easy formula above.

 

-----------

Populations if therer were 70-80k subscribers last quarter using optomistic numbers on Funcom's behalf:  56k - 64k subscribers this quarter. subs don't always mean players.  So I have been right with my 60k figure and Xfire has been dead on.

if your givieng the math class it would be intresitng .so which game should i be playing then since this one is dead?even tho theirs players on when i play . an again so cod4 is the future wow killer cause thats what is number 2 on x fire .or is guild wars the real wow killer since its the number 2 mmo on the list atm.
 

Call of Duty for now as I play that on XBL I love the zombie maps on CoD 4, more people play CoD than WoW now because it is multi port.  CoD MW 2 is coming out soon!

WoW won't go a way for a long time it has loads of people however AoC doesn't have that population.  So if game X takes 5k and Game Y takes 8 k it is in trouble and there are plenty of MMOs and oher games comming to nickel and dime AoC.

CoD and WoW are both made by the same company now! Untill Blizz/Acti makes another MMO I don't see anything killing WoW. One thing WoW has that AoC doesn't is progression, you grind or raid or do stuff and deck out your toon and it means something. It means you can pawn noobs with your epix!

In AoC you usually just make another charecter and there isn't much sentimental value in your toon for most people as they wouldn't have left if there was.

finaticd  i can agree with most what your saying in that post. but theirs a boiling point to mmos as they boil down to their core players ,those that do have fun in the game then it can build up. the would thing about 1st impressions in mmos an cant come back is bs imho. wow did not have a great launch.

might try cod some time. free games tho if ya notice or games with out a monthly .do much better on x fire by far.thats one of the resons its not a great  water mark of mmos. eq 1 has been around for 10 years . an every week their is a trhead about how the games dieing an how it wil close down soon on their own forums.yet its stil around. people do come back tween new games ( my self included) an they have fun for a bit.

aoc with alternate invancment will have that sentimental attachment just like eq does for me if done similar.actualy i was looking at adding character slots in aoc.even went an bought the collecotrs editon tho i had the game before .im one of those return players who by your count left after i tried the game again.

an since yoru a big x fire suporter on how acurate it is ... then explain to me why i played aoc for 6 hours  yesterday an got credit for 3 till almost midnight.thought it updated every 15 minutes. their will be drop now over all to as schools in.

Its really not worth talking about financial reports from Funcom.  They are masters of PR. 

But I have to say this tho.   AOC is on minimum life support.  The best proof of that is that they are charging ppl for their so called "expansion" that will probably start out with one working zone "hence 6 MAX lvl zones beeing announched" and then they PR their way with the fanboys for few more months before the game goes free to play.

Well - it could be even worse..... AOC could be making a WARlike cake to promote a failed game....

EE would look good in cake form wouldn't he ? 

Originally posted by Frobner

Its really not worth talking about financial reports from Funcom.  They are masters of PR. 

But I have to say this tho.   AOC is on minimum life support.  The best proof of that is that they are charging ppl for their so called "expansion" that will probably start out with one working zone "hence 6 MAX lvl zones beeing announched" and then they PR their way with the fanboys for few more months before the game goes free to play.

Well - it could be even worse..... AOC could be making a WARlike cake to promote a failed game....

EE would look good in cake form wouldn't he ? 

 

 

This post makes no sense! "The best proof" is what? Some nonsense weird predictions on your part. FAIL!

 Maybe it's my crooked logic but to me minimum life support is regular food? :D

Originally posted by nihce

 Finaticd started nice and I was like "wow he got acc hacked" but than he proved that I don't quote him as comparison for nothing. 

Lets all state our personal thing he embarrased himself with

The population is at best 70k subs, one thing to note is 100,000 downloaded the free trial and another X players downloaded the free trial or resubbed during the free trials and over 100% of them left the game, meaning they lost more than gained.

That means the game is not worth playing today for a crazy number of people, it is 50th on Xfire today an all time low which means Xfire works 100% of the time.

Don't you just love how self proclaimed analytic plays with totally fictional numbers? Dude that was embarassing!

Agreed!

I mainly agree with OP. Not great reading but could be worse. Based on the figures I guess about 110k subs (based on  price of 3-month subs with 75% of revenue coming from AoC.) I wouldn't expect great growth before the expansion but it's good to see that there is a solid playerbase. Fingers crossed the expansion really comes up with the goods!

Originally posted by nihce

 Maybe it's my crooked logic but to me minimum life support is regular food? :D

Minimum life support means:

-they are hiring Asian coders cause of cheap labor

- merging servers to reduce cost

- Charging for an "expansion" that all other MMOs today are offering as a content patch.  Even free to play games are now offering more free - downloadable content patches than what AOC is offering.

In terms of minum life support in this case - this pretty much means.. salt water and dog poo  - Only 75$ anyway...

Want some cake ? 

 I was just mocking your inability to make sense. (there is no such thing as minimum life support)

- Asian coders as cheap labor? I think there is nothing wrong with that move. Most of the biggest companies have Asian divisions : it simply is not worth hiring at home. Reducing costs is something that even biggest and wealthiest companies tend to do. 

-merging servers to reduce cost? I havent' seen this one. The only merge was demanded by players and highly anticipated. If they reduce costs in the process that is just great

-why exactly is expansion small? It offers totally new advancement system, new zones, new story, factions, etc. Just because of level cap not increased? If you will browse forums a bit more you will see that no lvl cap increase was again players wish

Minimum life support would in term mean - a life support that is minimum. That is not salt water and dog poo (which is not life support btw) but steak and wine (just joking with EE here). Next time you try to mock in metaphors please think before you write.

With cake of death I always chose cake - and you my friend was just murdered.  

If you dont know what minimum life support in MMO means then go look at Vanguard. 

AOC is on minimum life support. The game has already lost over 20 million USD and stats show that the game is falling in subs and playing time.

I know ppl like you hate to talk Xfire but it was proven that it showed pretty much the trend if a game is growing or loosing subs (Comback campaigns of both WAR and AOC showed obvious peaks). AOC has plummited to all time low since then.

Originally posted by Frobner

If you dont know what minimum life support in MMO means then go look at Vanguard. 

AOC is on minimum life support. The game has already lost over 20 million USD and stats show that the game is falling in subs and playing time.

I know ppl like you hate to talk Xfire but it was proven that it showed pretty much the trend if a game is growing or loosing subs (Comback campaigns of both WAR and AOC showed obvious peaks). AOC has plummited to all time low since then.

  So around 120 people (plus customer service) working on AoC means "minimum life support". You really do not have a clue, do you?

Originally posted by silmaril

Originally posted by Frobner

If you dont know what minimum life support in MMO means then go look at Vanguard. 

AOC is on minimum life support. The game has already lost over 20 million USD and stats show that the game is falling in subs and playing time.

I know ppl like you hate to talk Xfire but it was proven that it showed pretty much the trend if a game is growing or loosing subs (Comback campaigns of both WAR and AOC showed obvious peaks). AOC has plummited to all time low since then.

  So around 120 people (plus customer service) working on AoC means "minimum life support". You really do not have a clue, do you?

Lol, dude that actually means "minimum life support", because game is stable enough to breed and eat by itself. They just deliver it some "food and water"

Anyways, Frobner who exactly is people like me? I am not playing game, I am probly never going to play game. I was dissapointed and left 6 months ago. (I just like to point at mistakes other people are doing)

You cannot meassure a game trend with Xfire (lets let asside that it is broken) because the number right now is beyond 1k and it is statistically impossible to have any certain results. Oh and not to mention that it is not random. 

Originally posted by DIIImaster

I lied, one more thing:

Let's get rid of the spin and look at what the financial markets had to say about this Q2 report:

1.  Volume is up 10x for the day (which indicates non-interest, release date trading volume should be 50-100x)

2.  13% loss in stock value

In other words, the market has ignored the spin, recognizing that Funcom, compared to its IPO a few years back, is worth less than 50% of what it originally sold for (and again, the only reason why Funcom has any cash at all, they certainly have not earned that cash in the market)

 

Oh look. We got another created account purely to bash Funcom.

How original.

Originally posted by silmaril

Originally posted by Frobner

If you dont know what minimum life support in MMO means then go look at Vanguard. 

AOC is on minimum life support. The game has already lost over 20 million USD and stats show that the game is falling in subs and playing time.

I know ppl like you hate to talk Xfire but it was proven that it showed pretty much the trend if a game is growing or loosing subs (Comback campaigns of both WAR and AOC showed obvious peaks). AOC has plummited to all time low since then.

  So around 120 people (plus customer service) working on AoC means "minimum life support". You really do not have a clue, do you?

And you still belive the PR.... 

Originally posted by nihce

Originally posted by silmaril

Originally posted by Frobner

If you dont know what minimum life support in MMO means then go look at Vanguard. 

AOC is on minimum life support. The game has already lost over 20 million USD and stats show that the game is falling in subs and playing time.

I know ppl like you hate to talk Xfire but it was proven that it showed pretty much the trend if a game is growing or loosing subs (Comback campaigns of both WAR and AOC showed obvious peaks). AOC has plummited to all time low since then.

  So around 120 people (plus customer service) working on AoC means "minimum life support". You really do not have a clue, do you?

Lol, dude that actually means "minimum life support", because game is stable enough to breed and eat by itself. They just deliver it some "food and water"

Anyways, Frobner who exactly is people like me? I am not playing game, I am probly never going to play game. I was dissapointed and left 6 months ago. (I just like to point at mistakes other people are doing)

You cannot meassure a game trend with Xfire (lets let asside that it is broken) because the number right now is beyond 1k and it is statistically impossible to have any certain results. Oh and not to mention that it is not random. 

PPL in Auschwitz were on minimum life support you know... That didn't mean they had a bright future ahead of them.  

Xfire has time and time again shown that its pretty accurate on statistics regarding if a game is growing or loosing ppl.  IF you dissagree then go back and review what was going on around the time that the comback campaign was ongoing. 

If  1k ppl are signed up for AOC on Xfire but 100k  for another game that means that the other game is played by more ppl...   Get a  clue...