first article posted:
The implications of this figure are even more staggering when you think it through a bit more. Take for purposes of back-of-the-envelope speculation that EA is willing to give The Old Republic a year to earn back their investment (a very aggressive figure, by the way). And let's just assume that out of your stereotypical $15-a-month subscription fee (which Bioware has hinted is not the only possible revenue source for the game), much of that is taken up due to operational expenses - bandwidth, facilities costs, keeping a live team on the payroll. It's safe to say that Bioware will need probably close to a 25-person live team (an expansion presumably having its own budget). Assume $250,000 a month in payroll and facilities costs (and I am probably vastly underestimating here). Figure $2 per person per month in bandwidth, facilities, and server support (a very rough estimate based on prior performance, and assuming the MMO provider is hosting their own servers and buying bandwidth in bulk). Everything else - ignoring for the sake of discussion marketing, community, any other cost - is operating profit, which by EA's own estimation has to go back to fund that initial investment so that they can break even.
The implications of this figure are even more staggering when you think it through a bit more. Take for purposes of back-of-the-envelope speculation that EA is willing to give The Old Republic a year to earn back their investment (a very aggressive figure, by the way). And let's just assume that out of your stereotypical $15-a-month subscription fee (which Bioware has hinted is not the only possible revenue source for the game), much of that is taken up due to operational expenses - bandwidth, facilities costs, keeping a live team on the payroll. It's safe to say that Bioware will need probably close to a 25-person live team (an expansion presumably having its own budget). Assume $250,000 a month in payroll and facilities costs (and I am probably vastly underestimating here). Figure $2 per person per month in bandwidth, facilities, and server support (a very rough estimate based on prior performance, and assuming the MMO provider is hosting their own servers and buying bandwidth in bulk). Everything else - ignoring for the sake of discussion marketing, community, any other cost - is operating profit, which by EA's own estimation has to go back to fund that initial investment so that they can break even.
.
FYC 
