AOC - General Discussion II

[Tolanin]

the problem isnt that the game is dead yet, the problem is that the game will be very nearly dead if it takes another month to get any sort of pvp enabled... i dont know any guild that is gonna be able to sustain itself for another month after the attrition rates we have been seeing for the last few weeks.

[Saban]

Perhaps fileplanet wasnt the best place to download the game.


200kbs? srsly?

[NativityInBlack]

Ouch seems that funcom stock prices dropped to ~20 bucks from $54 after AoC launch, that's weird giving the fact that the game is/was the #1 selling game.

I mean even if the game wasn't a MMO at all, just by cashing the admission price from thousands of players shouldn't they be getting a higher value?

The subscription should be a bonus (seems not) companies doing off-line games would be thrilled by hitting the #1 on sales alone.

Source (very biased - if anyone could backup the stock value would be neat):

Funcom-Investors-Jump-Ship-as-Age-of-Conan-Founders

Edit: By the way - I really think that the buddy keys could turn it around for AoC, they will open the game for a million+ new players (if they ever give the fucking keys I mean) that alone *could* potentially re-fill the servers imho.

[spronk]

rule #1 of stock markets: buy on rumor, sell on news. it got pumped up to unreasonable levels of performance pre-release, and got sold after release. Same game happens to stocks around earning seasons. And before some idiot says "zomg the whole market is down!!" the market is down around 10-15% from the market peaks a few months ago, Funcom is down over 60% SO ITS NOT THE FUCKING SAME. Of course Funcom should never have been valued at $55, but there were some idiots who bought it at that price.

The fact is that the income numbers are not great for AoC, given the cost. Their June 30th financial update says the 700k box sales translated into $10-11m for Funcom (20% of box retail price is their cut). Considering the game cost at least $35m to develop, probably more in the neighborhood of $50-60m, and sales have plummeted past the first month, thats not good. They haven't yet released subscriber numbers, but if its in the 250k range that would be $3-4m/month range in gross, or probably around $2m/month net (a good chunk of their subs are in the USA, and they are European, so they take a hit from the weak dollar too). If they can't get sub numbers pumped up it will take years to recover the investment they put into AoC.

If they were a private little company it'd be fine, they spent $40m and they'll get it back in 3-4 years - kind of a shitty investment, but whatever. But they are a public company, and public companies are supposed to take investor money and grow it at good rates, not at 2% a year, you can do better just sticking it in the bank. Activision/Blizzard is worth billions because their profits grow 30%+ a year, Google is worth $200billion+ because they grow 100% a year or more right now.

[NativityInBlack]

ty for the explanation spronk <3 + internetz

Was weird to understand how a #1 game seller dropped freaking 60%.

[jayrebb]

They don't have 250k subs.

This was obvious even at launch, just count the servers and crunch the HIGHEST possible numbers.

Anyway after reading that eulogy, its safe to say this game is a done deal. But unlike Vanguard, nobody will reminisce about anything in this shit heap.

[Gilgamel]

I actually think this game will rebound assuming they ever get the PVP in. It will probably end up above LOTR when everything is said and done.

[Saban]

i wish i could find a torrent of this game. downloading from fileplanet at anywhere from 60-200kb/s is driving me insane.

[Saban]

Anyone else unable to log into their account on register.ageofconan.com? It's telling me failed every time even though i requested my password and account information and im entering it in right.

[Vatoreus]

Originally Posted by Saban

Anyone else unable to log into their account on register.ageofconan.com? It's telling me failed every time even though i requested my password and account information and im entering it in right.

I was having a similar problem.

[Cybsled]

People reminisce about Vanguard?

Maybe you meant people reminisce about talking on the forums about Vanguard?

[Saban]

I give up trying to find a faster way to download the client.

Funcom won't give you the client downloader until you've paid for the game, and since i've already done that once i don't feel like doing it again.

Fucking direct2drive, no reason i should be download capped at 200kb/s.

[Lyenae]

Originally Posted by Gilgamel

I actually think this game will rebound assuming they ever get the PVP in. It will probably end up above LOTR when everything is said and done.

No, I'd put money on them turning AoC into a PvE game the same way they took Anarchy Online and ruined that shit.

[Bristlebane]

Originally Posted by Saban

I give up trying to find a faster way to download the client.

Funcom won't give you the client downloader until you've paid for the game, and since i've already done that once i don't feel like doing it again.

Fucking direct2drive, no reason i should be download capped at 200kb/s.

Yeah, it's shit. I bought it retail myself, but I know a couple of people who bought digital download, and got so annoyed with the download process they said fuck it and sold their key on E-bay for a loss.

[Inconsiderable]

Originally Posted by Lyenae

No, I'd put money on them turning AoC into a PvE game the same way they took Anarchy Online and ruined that shit.

Seriously. No promised PvP feature at Launch but several raid tiers rdy but bugged? What the hell.