WhiteZero
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Study Claims PC Market is the Largest
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WhiteZero
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Maybe closer to 2/5 - 3/5
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Well if you only take into account warcraft at 11,000,000 subscribers for 1 wow copy and 1 copy of each expansion and 1 month of paid play. Blizz has pulled down roughly.....$1,683,000,000.00 thats not counting multiple accounts and gold farmers that have to purchase new accounts when their old ones get busted.
In one month alone blizz pulls in $165,000,000 going solely off of a 11,000,000 active account estimate. so figure in suncriptions alone a year they make $1,980,000,000.00
That's only off of an estimated 11,000,000 players.
My god I just depressed myself.
WhiteZero
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The article talks more about the amount of units, not software. And lets try not to slip into WoW discussion here.
I know right why in a thread about how much money the PC market brings in would we talk about the biggest money making game in history that just happens to be PC exclusive.
Wait what?
WhiteZero
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Yeah, it's a pity no one actually reads linked articles and posts in the thread anyway.
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I read it was just making an observation as to the MMO comment. I keep forgetting how trains of thought should stay on 1 track on geek forums.
Well if you only take into account warcraft at 11,000,000 subscribers for 1 wow copy and 1 copy of each expansion and 1 month of paid play. Blizz has pulled down roughly.....$1,683,000,000.00 thats not counting multiple accounts and gold farmers that have to purchase new accounts when their old ones get busted.
In one month alone blizz pulls in $165,000,000 going solely off of a 11,000,000 active account estimate. so figure in suncriptions alone a year they make $1,980,000,000.00
That's only off of an estimated 11,000,000 players.
My god I just depressed myself.
Let's take that a step further.
Assume 1/2 of the people that bought the game are still playing, although it's probably less. So:
11,000,000x50+11,000,000x50^3 = 1,375,550,000,000
:O
That is a BIG number.
Do you think they accounted for "gaming PC" components? If not, I imagine a significant percentage of gamers build their machines, which would add to the PC lead over consoles.
Hey hey, I read the article! (see what I did there?)
If you do graphics related work (i.e. Photoediting, CAD), your 'work' machine is probably only one video card away from being a high end game machine
I just came from a consultation and all their machines were core2duos with 2gb ram and 9600 video cards (The cad machines were quads with 3Gig ram). Are those work machines or a gaming ones?techminster
Limp Gawd
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Exactly, if you have a great machine for gaming, you have a great machine for everything else
Einhanderkiller
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The PC market is obviously the largest.
There are an asssssssssssssssssload of people who play those free MMOs. There are games like KartRider which have over something like 12 million members.
There are an asssssssssssssssssload of people who play those free MMOs. There are games like KartRider which have over something like 12 million members.
Speaking of WoW its not even the largest subscription base worldwide. To put things into worldwide perspective Lineage II has 17 million. People making assumptions on what Blizzard makes are forgetting one glaring detail: The 6-7 million+ players from China do not pay $15 a month. They pay something like pennies to a dollar to play 8 hour days.
Yeah the PC Market is a beast.
Yeah the PC Market is a beast.
A few things.
Units of PC sold doesn't equate to number of PCs sold which will be used to play games.
WoW subs are probably total number of unique subscriptions, only a fraction of those will be unique players (a lot of people no doubt have more than one sub, one guy even has 65, gold sellers will buy many accounts to advertise), 11 Mil probably includes free subscriptions handed out for trials it wouldn't surprise me.
Whats with the arguments against MMOs anyway, why does it matter that X% of PC game revenue comes from MMO subs? How does that not count? It's like saying "oh well but Y% of console revenue comes from sports games", well yes it probably does, but so what?
Units of PC sold doesn't equate to number of PCs sold which will be used to play games.
WoW subs are probably total number of unique subscriptions, only a fraction of those will be unique players (a lot of people no doubt have more than one sub, one guy even has 65, gold sellers will buy many accounts to advertise), 11 Mil probably includes free subscriptions handed out for trials it wouldn't surprise me.
Whats with the arguments against MMOs anyway, why does it matter that X% of PC game revenue comes from MMO subs? How does that not count? It's like saying "oh well but Y% of console revenue comes from sports games", well yes it probably does, but so what?
Apathy
Gawd
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what other people have said. and also:
since im at work and dont have time to read the original article right now, just the linked one, im just going to throw this out there...
how many people own a high end gfx card and use it for video editing/cad type programs? rendering etc. these arent used for gaming. how many people own low end gfx cards and are playing games on their lowest settings?
something about this statistic just doesnt seem reasonable.
and if they are qualifying how much the market is worth based on the cost of all the components inclduing software/hardware... well duh. instead of buying my PC, i could have bought 10 xbox's.
people spend thousands of dollars of pc's that go above and beyond their needs every day. and by the looks of it, they arent even considering the huge number of people that buy their products piece by piece and put them together.
this statistic is a lie.
since im at work and dont have time to read the original article right now, just the linked one, im just going to throw this out there...
how many people own a high end gfx card and use it for video editing/cad type programs? rendering etc. these arent used for gaming. how many people own low end gfx cards and are playing games on their lowest settings?
something about this statistic just doesnt seem reasonable.
and if they are qualifying how much the market is worth based on the cost of all the components inclduing software/hardware... well duh. instead of buying my PC, i could have bought 10 xbox's.
people spend thousands of dollars of pc's that go above and beyond their needs every day. and by the looks of it, they arent even considering the huge number of people that buy their products piece by piece and put them together.
this statistic is a lie.
Spare-Flair
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yeah MMOs are just bags and bags of money for those few companies that have successful ones. It's like consoles selling a new game to each customer every month...except it's the same game.
And like other people said, worldwide aside from WOW, you are forgetting all the casual "cute" MMOs, the Korean RPGs, etc. that many people never think of that also have millions of suscribers.
And like other people said, worldwide aside from WOW, you are forgetting all the casual "cute" MMOs, the Korean RPGs, etc. that many people never think of that also have millions of suscribers.
xSystemFailurex
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Makes you wonder how many people out there keep and maintain a barely adequate PC just to play WoW.
Just an FYI of the $15 a month that WoW brings in for all it's subscribers only about $3-$4 of that is actual profit. They do have employees to pay, not to mention ginourmous bandwidth costs, and some of the largest server farms in the country to maintain.
And if they're are so many "gaming" PC's out there, then why do console games out sell PCs like 4 to1?
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/01/30/pc_game_sales_constitute_14_percent_of_total_sales/1
And if they're are so many "gaming" PC's out there, then why do console games out sell PCs like 4 to1?
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/01/30/pc_game_sales_constitute_14_percent_of_total_sales/1
xSystemFailurex
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Whoops, made my previous post before reading this. The question, while speaking of WoW, is still very valid IMO. Point is, one immensely popular and addictive game has obscene numbers of players. Just so happens it's a PC game named World of Warcraft.
To this article I would say is this U.S. or worldwide like the OP's posted?
Seems everybody forgot to mention the casual market.
Pop-cap games anybody? Yea. That's the bulk of the market share, quick, $5-$10 games that give you a a few weeks, a month on the outside of entertainment, then you buy another one.
Not Fallout 3. Not L4D. Pop-Cap games. (And Pop-cap clones)
Pop-cap games anybody? Yea. That's the bulk of the market share, quick, $5-$10 games that give you a a few weeks, a month on the outside of entertainment, then you buy another one.
Not Fallout 3. Not L4D. Pop-Cap games. (And Pop-cap clones)
I overlooked that actually, a great many gamers build their own rigs from OEM parts bought through online stores and alike. I've spent approximately £10,000 on computer hardware since I've been building PC's and none of that was on pre built PCs, its all been on OEM parts.
All the gamers I know at college and university built their own PC's and most people I know online also build their own, I've also built many for friends and relatives.
Gaiden133
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Actually im curious, has Blizzard ever released the # of subs that it has in just USA/North America?
jonneymendoza
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doesnt take a rocket science to figure that out
lolwut?
Gorankar
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14% seems about right. I mean, the "console's" statistics typically lump all of them together, PS2, PS3, Wii, 360, as well as all of the handhelds. Look around for numbers that break it down to each individual platform and it does not look all that bad for the PC. The "consoles" are not one platform. Why every one treats them as such is a mystery to me.
It´s the biggest market if you look at how many plays PC games... However PC games are cheaper there is more piracy so that doesn´t mean the big bucks are on the PC Games... And as mentioned WOW, sims etc eats most of the cake instead of the more serious titles
Well seeing that Microsoft/PCs have so much of the market share on personal computing and given the fact that yes a good gaming ring will probably do everything else as good if not better than a "Business Computer" it is no wonder. Just a few years ago AMD Opterons were being rounded up by gamers obsessed with performance. I mostly buy in to the MMO argument solely because an Xbox or a Wii are limited in what they can do outside of games. Ok, they can be a really nifty entertainment center, but what else? Personally, I play WoW on a Mac, so I am probably not part of any of the previously mention statistics. But I do intend to making a new gaming rig. It It will be a PC, it will run Windows Vista and it will be use for thing other than games.
$3-$4 out of every WoW sub as profit? Lets make some conservative assumptions
- Lets say that are roughly 10 million users world wide and they don't all pay $15/mo
- 5.5 million North American users paying $15 a month
- 4.5 million Asian users paying roughly $8 a month (roughly half of what US players pay)
- Lets take your $3 profit per sub estimate and subtract it from the monthly rate to get expenses
- 5.5 m * (15 - 3) = $66 mil
- 4.5m * (8-3) = $22.5 mil
So according to your $3 profit estimate that's $88.5 million PER MONTH that blizzard would be spending on payroll, equipment, bandwidth, advertising etc... on World of Warcraft alone. Increase the profit to $4 per sub then expenses become $78.5 million, even out the world wide subs (North America 5 mil @ $15/mo and Asia 5 mil @ $8/mo) and that still is $75 mil PER MONTH.
All I'm saying is that their staff isn't that large for this project, if it's over 1,000 employee's I'll be surprised. Even if they did have 1,000 employee making on average $100k per year, that's still less then $10 million per month spent on payroll and benefits. Their server farms have already been purchased, granted they're probably adding more servers to them each month, but that can't be more then $2-$3 mil per month (and that seems a bit much). I'm not sure how much advertising would cost, I don't see many ads on TV for WoW, nor that many on website ads. Seems that everyone already knows about the game, but I'll give a $5 mil monthly expenditure on advertising just in case. There are probably other expenses that I'm not sure of ( like rent, insurance, vendor contracts, maybe having a huge law firm on constant stand by etc..), but I'd put their monthly expenses in the $20 to $25 million per month ball park range and their revenues in the $125 to $150 million range.
My estimates put their monthly expense rate at 16.5% to 20% of revenue which would mean $2.5 to $3 of every $15 subscription (or $1.3 to $1.6 of every $8 sub) goes to expenses. To get your $3 to $4 profit estimate, expenses would compose of 70% to 80% of revenue. The actual profit probably lies between your estimate and mine, but probably closer to the 80% I estimate. Could you even imagine where they would spend $80 million PER MONTH on?
Interesting read. I'm not surprised what-so-ever though. The current state of technological progress is killing consoles. Technology moves so quickly now that the days of five-year console life are over. It's harder to sell discrete gaming units when the much more pliable and upgradeable PC is its competitor. Consoles are going to have to be released more often if they want to keep up, and not for $500 at release either. I think one thing this study shows is how the "piracy problem" isn't as big as some companies would like it to be (rather than owning up to their inferior product). The simple fact is, piracy is still taboo, and a lot of people won't partake in it. Also, there are some that do, then enjoy the game and go out and buy it to show support for the company. I'll agree that most of the sales and revenue do come from MMORPG's and what seems to be their highly addictive nature. I've never really gotten into WoW or the like (hack and slash isn't my thing), but I think Blizzard nailed a jackpot in their formula for game design and subscription service. It'll be interesting to see what Diablo III does.
Including myself, I only know four other people that play WoW on Leopard and three of them play it on MBPs. If you were to take WoW out of the equation, I'd say the numbers are even smaller that that, bordering on insignificant.
siliconnerd
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