NCsoft Investors Not Happy?!

Photics · #1 05-04-2006, 11:20 AM

The NCsoft earnings report was released today. It seems like bad news.

You can download the 1Q Earnings Released here...
http://www.ncsoft.com/eng/nccompany/...a_report04.asp

It looks like NCsoft stock a morale penalty

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=036570.KS

I guess investors don't realize how awesome Guild Wars: Factions is. No really... it's AWESOME! I'm quite grumpy that I don't have my Collector's Edition yet. Alliance Battles are awesome!

Anyhoo... the interesting number... Guild Wars had roughly 1.5 active accounts as of March 2006. Interesting.

Arrow · #2 05-04-2006, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by photics

Anyhoo... the interesting number... Guild Wars had roughly 1.5 active accounts as of March 2006. Interesting.

i really wish they would start deleting character names on accounts that have been inactive for a LONG period of time. dont delete the character, just the name, cause there are some out there that NEVER get used that im sure people would like to take for themselves

#3 05-04-2006, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by photics

I'm quite grumpy that I don't have my Collector's Edition yet. Alliance Battles are awesome!

Supposedly, Friday it might be available in store at GameStop or EBGames.

Quote:

Originally Posted by photics

Guild Wars had roughly 1.5 active accounts as of March 2006. Interesting.

I assume that's 1.5 million. :-)

In all likelyhood its not Guild Wars that is causing NCSoft's problems. Its probably due to things like City of Heroes/Villains (Fry's Electronics was GIVING AWAY copies of CoV with Guild Wars: Factions purchases, they had TONS of regular/collectors editions sitting around) about everyone I know that played either one of those got bored with it and quit, and does anyone know anybody that plays Auto Assault?

IllidanIcerage · #4 05-04-2006, 02:08 PM

I have used a couple of passkeys that I got because they came with Guild Wars: Factions
Auto Assault is 10GB, and is really buggy. Couldn't log on in around 10 minutes, so I gave up and uninstalled it so I could have space. All the realms were Very Low server status.
I checked out City of Heroes to see if it was interesting, and it seems a bit pathetic. The only good thing about it that I found was the fact that there was a good character customization page, although it didn't really have enough choices. (Well, I mean it had a lot just they were all too similiar).
I haven't tried City of Villians yet, but I probably will get around to that sometime soon.

It looks like to me that out of all the games they spent money on, three of them failed nearly completely. I think that leaves them Linage, Linage II, Guild Wars and Guild Wars: Factions to pay the fees and make money.

Ronduwil · #5 05-04-2006, 02:36 PM

And don't forget that Guild Wars was originally supposed to be putting out an expansion every six months, not one a year. This means that Guild Wars only got about half of its projected revenue for the past year. Hopefully they will be back on track this year.

IllidanIcerage · #6 05-04-2006, 02:38 PM

True, but they might not have been planning having over a million copies sold when they didn't advertise at all. I'm hoping the chapters start coming out on time, I'm already running low on storyline!

Photics · #7 05-04-2006, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IllidanIcerage

True, but they might not have been planning having over a million copies sold when they didn't advertise at all. I'm hoping the chapters start coming out on time, I'm already running low on storyline!

Of course they were planning on 1,000,000 copies... maybe more.
Didn't you read the first issue of Photics?!

I predicted 1,000,000 copies would be sold in the first six months. They did it in five. It was just logical. In order for Guild Wars to make as much money as a regular MMORPG, that's the number it needed to see. Go back in time... read the issue. It's fun stuff!

http://photics.com/2003/12/25/photic...ition-issue-1/

Here's a fun quote...

Quote:

That raises a lot of questions. How many people will buy these expansions? How many people will play as a result of no monthly fees? Since no one knows for sure, as the game is still in development, I’m going to take an educated guess and say 1,000,000 copies of Guild Wars will be sold in the first six months. That is a staggering number, but I think it is within the realm of possibility. An open beta could generate a lot of buzz for this game. Guild Wars could also pull in MMORPG first timers, as there is no monthly fee. Guild Wars was also well received at the 2003 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Guild Wars has a lot of good things going for it.

800,000 more copies of the game, due to no monthly fee? If this is indeed the plan, then it does look like a better one. If the retail box sells for $50, and roughly $20 of that goes back to the Guild Wars team, then the no subscription fees model is actually $6,000,000.00 better than the typical MMORPG model. Six months later, an expansion pack could be released, and start the cycle over again.

IllidanIcerage · #8 05-04-2006, 02:51 PM

Heh. I hadn't reviewed the older ones of those, and I haven't been using this site long enough to give in and spend a while poking through logs.

My guess is that the people planning for Guild Wars probably weren't that optimistic, but they could have been.

#9 05-04-2006, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IllidanIcerage

I checked out City of Heroes to see if it was interesting, and it seems a bit pathetic. The only good thing about it that I found was the fact that there was a good character customization page, although it didn't really have enough choices. (Well, I mean it had a lot just they were all too similiar).

That's what I've heard about CoH and CoV, half the game is the character generator. The other half gets boring fast.

DawnFrostbringer · #10 05-04-2006, 03:44 PM

Also since the company doesn't charge a monthly fee it doesn't much matter whether the account is active or not. I think looking at these figures can be misleading, a comparison to other fee based games is like comparing an apple and grapes.

I want my Collectors Edition too... even though I have the regular edition.. I'm happy to have two accounts.

Dawn