1. I have corrected the e-mail settings so that outgoing e-mails from these forums should be sent now. If you tried to Register or Reset your Password, please try again!
    Dismiss Notice

NantWorks Makes Strategic Investment in Daybreak Game Company; Mobile Versions of H1Z1 & EverQuest

Discussion in 'EverQuest II General Discussion' started by Feldon, Sep 6, 2018.

  1. RhodrisNZ

    RhodrisNZ Geographically Challenged

    Gotta wonder if there is any connection with the sudden willingness to actually advertise now (when they have never been interested in promotion before)...
     
    • Agree Agree x 3
  2. Nolus

    Nolus Member

    That is spot on. I would not trust a damn thing this company says any more.
     
    • Agree Agree x 3
  3. AJbomb

    AJbomb Guest

    I agree it is not likely I would add it to my phone, to many security concerns.
     
  4. Fuli

    Fuli Well-Known Member

    The rumor mongering bit was a direct snipe at Feldon. This has been their go-to rationalization for retaliation when he talks about things they don't want talked about.

    It's nothing new. Smed and Georgeson also did it.
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2018
    • Agree Agree x 5
  5. Anaogi

    Anaogi Active Member

    Bleargh. Must be something in the water, Pearl Abyss (outfit that does Black Desert Online) just aquired CCP (EVE Online).
     
    • Informative Informative x 1
    • Shocked Shocked x 1
  6. Zhaanish

    Zhaanish Active Member

    No idea what to make of this but I agree it sounds like the investment is mainly to focus on mobile versions which hold zero interest to me.
     
    • Agree Agree x 7
  7. Anaogi

    Anaogi Active Member

    Plus, somebody FINALLY acquired what's left of 38 Studios. Interesting.
     
  8. Feldon

    Feldon Administrator Staff Member

  9. Liv

    Liv New Member

    *shares popcorns*

    [​IMG]
     
    • Funny Funny x 2
  10. Fuli

    Fuli Well-Known Member

    Last edited: Apr 5, 2019
    • Funny Funny x 6
  11. Fuli

    Fuli Well-Known Member

    Well, this is confusing.....

    It seems that Nantg has laid some people off, then handed the title back to Daybreak, who claims they will keep the game running.

    Something tells me, there was something in the contract that basically said, "Ummm, if this property turns out to suck, you have to buy it back."

    https://massivelyop.com/2019/04/05/...e-royale-back-to-daybreak-its-not-sunsetting/

    Normally, I would be surprised by weird stuff like this, but...Daybreak.

    Maybe Daybreak is ramping up for another round of big tax write downs as it focuses on its lucrative Everquest property.

    Edit:

    Nantg press release:

    Note the following sentence in particular:

    This is a very polite way of saying, "We would like to distance ourselves from Daybreak."
     
    Last edited: Apr 5, 2019
    • Agree Agree x 7
  12. Dellmon

    Dellmon Member

    Looking back at the official announcement on the first page of this thread - it is almost exactly 7 months to the day between the announcing of the agreement to the dissolving of it.

    It makes me wondering if this was a 6 month (plus 30d transition timetable) exploratory window to test and see if the technology and the market for it was viable and potentially profitable. And that NantG had an out-clause that it exercised.

    The six months window and what was shared in the NantG release - - it just feels like there is something more than the "it was not fun"
     
    • Agree Agree x 4
  13. Cindrax

    Cindrax Active Member

    ... or just a way to launder money by transactions between companies. A wild speculation from my part I know but I do not trust anything around DBG.

    Also, if they keep releasing buggy non-polished products it will further taint the brand. Gamers are sick and tired of being treated like piggy banks and starting to demand quality.
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
  14. Feldon

    Feldon Administrator Staff Member

    The word used in the press release is maintenance. The game is going to be in maintenance mode I guess. Because it is a competitive game that is only as strong as the number of people live streaming on twitch I don't think maintenance mode is going to last for years.
     
    • Agree Agree x 5
  15. Dizzy

    Dizzy Active Member

    There was an estimate given in one of the comments based on steam numbers I think and it was in the order of 1k to 4k players.
     
    • Informative Informative x 2
  16. Sweatypie

    Sweatypie Active Member

    So more people than play EQ2. I wonder how bad EQ2 revenue would be without the yearly OP expansions items and the marketplace.
     
    • Agree Agree x 3
  17. Fuli

    Fuli Well-Known Member

    I was thinking about the same thing last week (as I responding to a post on the OF).

    A little theoretical yet plausible inductive exercise:

    There are approximately 55 or so raiding guilds active on the progression site. Let's assume an average roster of 30 accounts per raid team. That's 1,650 raiding accounts.

    Also, lets assume the hard core raiding population is around 20% of the total player base. So, 8,250ish accounts.

    Now, lets also assume 90% of those accounts are subs 7,400 paying accounts.

    I'm also going to liberally weight standard vs premium expacs as 30/70, so an average expac revenue of around $115 per account + $180 subs = $295.00.

    $295 x 7,400 = $2,183,000 in annual revenue from subs and expansions.

    Now, we know there are plenty of people spending an average of $2,000 to $3,000 per year in the shop, but I'm going to assume the average shop revenue across all subs is $1,000 per year, which is $83/month (I suspect $50 or so per month is more typical for a large portion of the population, but the bigger spenders pull the average up).

    That's $7,400,000 in shop revenue.

    Total revenue = $9,583,000. So, with these assumptions, shop revenue = 77% of total revenue. I.e. if the shop money dies, the game dies.

    One of the questions I've been pondering is, if it's the shop that really matters, why do they feel the need to keep locking content and features behind a sub?

    It could simply be that an extra $15 per month is better than not earning $15 per month.

    Or it could be that they have internal data that correlates higher amounts of cash shop purchases to sub'd accounts than free accounts.

    It might simply be that free accounts don't log in as much, and players not in the game aren't spending money in the shop.

    I have no clue what this or any gaming companies cost structure is like, so I won't even bother with any guesses about profitability.

    But i do know that a certain point, customer financial fatigue starts to set in, so if you're going to stick them for a bunch of money, the experience better be worth it; in this case, it better be a hell of a lot of fun.

    A game design that is cash shop coercive and absent meaningful content outside of raiding will continue to fail.

    Edit:

    I purposely made generous assumptions. I suspect things are less rosey.
     
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2019
    • Agree Agree x 6
    • Like Like x 1
    • Informative Informative x 1
  18. Fuli

    Fuli Well-Known Member

    Now that I think about it, I'd be willing to bet that the percentage of active raiding accounts relative to total accounts is actually higher these days, obviously not because an increase in the raiding population, but because of a decrease in the casual population that is logging in.

    Those casuals might be letting their subs run a bit, or include some of the life time people, but if they aren't logging in, they aren't spending money in the shop.

    I either case, DBG's revenue is gonna take a big hit under the chain of assumptions guesses I used to construct my hypothetical.

    A lot of the recent behavior I've seen from Longdale on down the chain strikes me as more reactive than calculated.

    She's talking to the media? What?

    Kander blatantly ignoring massive cheating in pvp when it generates revenue, but blaming players for an "exploit" of disco exp?

    Locking HQ items behind a sub wall? Really?
     
    • Agree Agree x 3
  19. Zhaanish

    Zhaanish Active Member

    Yep - I would agree with this assumption. Speaking as a casual that quit a couple of years ago or so, the direction the game has gone, IMO, has catered to raiders and left casuals in the dust. Once it got too hard to keep my main at the top level and top of whatever other leveling scheme (familiars, ascension, etc) without raiding or buying advancement in the cash shop I was done. And forget keeping all my alts at max level.

    I would wager the percentage of players that are raiders is at an all time high - just like you said, not because they have gained raiders, but because casuals have lost interest.
     
    • Agree Agree x 3
  20. Anaogi

    Anaogi Active Member

    I can add my own anecdata. Once my raid crew and raiding days ended, my login rate fell off a cliff. With my guild barely there and the issues with the rest of the content, I just didn't have a reason. (I miss my raid crew. Good people and loads of fun.)
     
    • Agree Agree x 3
    • Appreciation Appreciation x 3

Share This Page