In a perfect world it would be true that a business should have a better picture of their finances but this is Mythic we are talking about. Based on the last 10 years I am not sure Mythic has a clear picture of anything. DAoC has always seemed to be produced by a committee of independent developers that have a difficult time getting together and agreeing on almost anything. Even with MJ gone those at Mythic kept going down the same stupid path.


As for “won't actually increase their profit”, a reworked and updated DAoC 2 would cost $15 to $20 million to produce. 800k boxes sold would gross about $32 million, net about $12 million, and a completely digital distribution would push the net considerably higher. With only 200k subs the game would gross about $36 million in the first year and completely recoup the cost of development (even if the game were given away free and players just paid the sub, the game still breaks even by the end of the first year).


The hitch in the entire thing, a clueless Mythic would be doing the rebuilding and Mythic is still showing that they really do not have a clue how to keep their brilliant people from taking a great concept and running amok with it. For a reworked DAoC to have a chance Mythic would need new and decisive leadership by someone with a clear picture of what a typical MMO customer needs in a game.

 

-----signature-----

New server, not sure if it has to be pre-TOA or not, but with no side-switching and a point to realm-based RvR.

Would also be down for a remake in a few years on a new engine.

 

-----signature-----

Make DAOC free to play and I'll start playing again. It's that simple. I'm not paying a monthly fee for a 10 year old game with little to no development anymore.

 

-----signature-----

 

-----signature-----

The reason I'm pretty confident I won't be back is simply "inevitable decay" - basically no development or marketing time is being put into the game at this point, and so the problems that lead me to quit (essentially boredom and a lack of fun RvR outside of 8mans) are only likely to be worse as time goes by.

 

-----signature-----

You seem to be working on the assumption that Mythic has $20 million to spend on developing an updated DAoC. And whatever more than that it costs to pay for servers and such needed to support 800K subscriptions.

You also seem to be assuming that an updated DAoC would bring in 800K new subscriptions.

I have my doubts. And if you can't make a pretty compelling business case, finding investors to throw $20 million-plus at you for a prospect of maybe making some of it back in three years or so, then you'll never be able to come up with the money to get started.

 

-----signature-----

I wouldn't mind seeing a DAOC 2 in the works but honestly would we want Mythic having their hands on it? After all they braught us WAR and honestly believed it was the best game ever.


No.... best case senario would be Mythic sells the rights to someone with vision, bank and intestinal fortitude. I honestly don't know who from all the game mills out there that would be a better fit. Perhaps CCP they have done a fairly impressive job with EVE - and imagine DAOC 2 with one persistant world instead of dozens of servers.... could be cool.


Who do you think would do a great job at making and promoting DAOC2?

None of the above.

I am currently subbed, but nothing would make me happier than a fresh server with no clusters and no realm-switching, unless you DELETE Y E S. TOA or not. I think the hardest part of playing this game is deciding which realm I want to play on. Since I can choose right now, it makes it very difficult to focus on anything. Maybe I have DAOC ADD, but with 45 classes to choose from, it's tough to decide to concentrate on a handful of toons on one realm when you have some interesting options in the other realms sitting there. If my friends were still playing, it would be easier, but since they don't and I can find enough friendly people to guild with, it's very difficult to be dedicated. So for me, a fresh server with no cluster would be perfect.

 

-----signature-----

Mythic could not accept money from investors so that is just silly. Mythic is owned by EA and EA has a great deal more than $20 million to spend on development.


Also, I did not make any assumptions about how much Mythic/Bioware/EA has to spend. I simply stated an approximation of the cost to rework DAoC and re-launch a new version of the game. The estimate takes into consideration prevailing wages/salaries, benefits, overhead, estimated work hr savings by reusing/reworking existing/early character models, modifying existing maps rather than creating an entire new world, updating graphics rather than creating all new graphics, reusing/updating/modifying many existing quests, etc. . . .


Estimating the cost to rework the game does not require that I work on the "assumption that Mythic has $20 million to spend on developing an updated DAoC". My estimating the cost to rework the game does not require that anyone have the necessary funds (though EA does have enough money to fully fund a redevelopment of DAoC should they decide it is feasible).





You should not skim; you do not seem to be good at it. I never said the game would bring in 800k subs. I said/used 200k subs as a low end number to show that even with low numbers the game would recoup the cost of being reworked.


Other game launches tend to show that there are many gamers out there who like to get into the initial launch of a game, and buy the box, even if they do not stick around and sub. WH initially sold about 800k boxes. Many new games sell more boxes than they get as subs.


200k subs is also a relatively low number of expected first year subs (again based on other game launches). Even with free digital download and only 100k subs the game would move into the black by the end of the first quarter of the second year.



Just as it is not your job to market for Mythic/Bioware/EA or to raise investment funds for them, it is not my job.


That which is self-evident, is self-evident.

 

-----signature-----