This is an exciting time for us, and I hope we have even more details to share with you soon.
There's no need to be concerned for STO, which is still very profitable.
I bet it is. I mean, Embracer had to borrow money to make the purchase, so that means more of Rule 1, Rule 10, Rule 97, and Rule 189 of the Rules of Acquisition.
And how can you not be profitable with that ridiculously overpriced Mudd's Market and the massively over inflated pay to win and loot box money scheme.
“In the strict scientific sense we all feed on death…..even vegetarians.” – Spock
STO is still very profitable, there is no question about that. What is in question is the in game content. Constantly seeing the same storylines with the same enemy (Terrans) is Ludacris. The Devs may be fans, but they aren't really hard core trek like they should be. Maybe getting to know the product they represent and develop is a goal Gearbox can encourage. Stop with the ridiculous ships and focus on canon. Make the player WANT to submerge into the game, not bore them with ridiculous mindless content and pay to win antics. Create a REAL legacy that will have REAL impact and be felt by fans and players of all ages that will withstand the test of time.
STO is still very profitable, there is no question about that. What is in question is the in game content. Constantly seeing the same storylines with the same enemy (Terrans) is Ludacris. The Devs may be fans, but they aren't really hard core trek like they should be. Maybe getting to know the product they represent and develop is a goal Gearbox can encourage. Stop with the ridiculous ships and focus on canon. Make the player WANT to submerge into the game, not bore them with ridiculous mindless content and pay to win antics. Create a REAL legacy that will have REAL impact and be felt by fans and players of all ages that will withstand the test of time.
Isn't there? We've never seen any actual figures/data and we never will - and, as have said before, I've never felt inclined to take the word of a corporate mouthpiece (who is paid X to say X and would be clearing their desk if they said anything else) as a good source of facts about how well any particular business decision has played out.
On the previous page there were links to the income statements as part of the merger disclosure, the game certainly does not feel like they are putting all that income back into the game so there is profit going somewhere (it may have been getting drawn off by PWE though).
from a power point presentation...thats to be taken as gospel? i wont say they are not close to accurate, but anything can be skewed to favor one condition or another.
Did you even look at it? It's a presentation on the acquisition, hosted on Embracers site listing the full earnings of the game and detailing the move for investors.
Outside of someone from Gearbox hand delivering you an earnings slip, not sure what more you need.
STO is still very profitable, there is no question about that. What is in question is the in game content. Constantly seeing the same storylines with the same enemy (Terrans) is Ludacris. The Devs may be fans, but they aren't really hard core trek like they should be. Maybe getting to know the product they represent and develop is a goal Gearbox can encourage. Stop with the ridiculous ships and focus on canon. Make the player WANT to submerge into the game, not bore them with ridiculous mindless content and pay to win antics. Create a REAL legacy that will have REAL impact and be felt by fans and players of all ages that will withstand the test of time.
Not sure is it very profitable. Its healthy for sure but looking at the numbers it doesnt apear to be very profitable and I don't see how they can afford to expand the team much. Once you remove the staff wages, hiring voice actors and other 3rd party people, server host fee's, license fee's and all the rest. I don't think they are making that much profit. A decent amount of profit but not as much as people think.
Revenue does seem pretty good but running costs look to be over a million a year not leaving much room for profit. Its hard to estimate but based on the wages I do know for some of the staff I would expect they are spending between 700k and 1million if not more just on staff wages a year.
from a power point presentation...thats to be taken as gospel? i wont say they are not close to accurate, but anything can be skewed to favor one condition or another.
Did you even look at it? It's a presentation on the acquisition, hosted on Embracers site listing the full earnings of the game and detailing the move for investors.
Outside of someone from Gearbox hand delivering you an earnings slip, not sure what more you need.
its a pdf/powerpoint slide/paper. it just says earnings and subs. 240mil for earns, 6mil in subs. its rather simple and vague. i know we wont get detailed info, but as stated, numbers can be skewed. again, not saying its not accurate, but we also dont know the details PWE had with cryptic and vice verse, as i also stated.
it seems the cost to sub ratio is worthy of asking where the funds went. prob a lot to VAs would be my guess. when i replied, i was taking into account the post above that i quoted as well.
We can average that out to 20million revenue a year around about for STO. Not long back the devs said revenue is stable year on year. The hard part is estimating running costs to work out profit levels.
from a power point presentation...thats to be taken as gospel? i wont say they are not close to accurate, but anything can be skewed to favor one condition or another.
Did you even look at it? It's a presentation on the acquisition, hosted on Embracers site listing the full earnings of the game and detailing the move for investors.
Outside of someone from Gearbox hand delivering you an earnings slip, not sure what more you need.
its a pdf/powerpoint slide/paper. it just says earnings and subs. 240mil for earns, 6mil in subs. its rather simple and vague. i know we wont get detailed info, but as stated, numbers can be skewed. again, not saying its not accurate, but we also dont know the details PWE had with cryptic and vice verse, as i also stated.
it seems the cost to sub ratio is worthy of asking where the funds went. prob a lot to VAs would be my guess. when i replied, i was taking into account the post above that i quoted as well.
We can average that out to 20million revenue a year around about for STO. Not long back the devs said revenue is stable year on year. The hard part is estimating running costs to work out profit levels.
Digging online, I figure they turn a profit of 5-6 million a year. With some estimated numbers (from online digging) of the number of players that play Cryptic games (122k), if every player spent $14 a month that would generate the 20 million/year revenue. Salaries for 136 people across the company probably comes out to 12-13 million a year (not including benefits). Figure another 2 million in operating cost, outside of salaries, and that leaves you with between 5 and 5.5 million a year in profits. I say 6 on the high side to adjust for fact that everything is rounded up.
“In the strict scientific sense we all feed on death…..even vegetarians.” – Spock
from a power point presentation...thats to be taken as gospel? i wont say they are not close to accurate, but anything can be skewed to favor one condition or another.
Did you even look at it? It's a presentation on the acquisition, hosted on Embracers site listing the full earnings of the game and detailing the move for investors.
Outside of someone from Gearbox hand delivering you an earnings slip, not sure what more you need.
its a pdf/powerpoint slide/paper. it just says earnings and subs. 240mil for earns, 6mil in subs. its rather simple and vague. i know we wont get detailed info, but as stated, numbers can be skewed. again, not saying its not accurate, but we also dont know the details PWE had with cryptic and vice verse, as i also stated.
it seems the cost to sub ratio is worthy of asking where the funds went. prob a lot to VAs would be my guess. when i replied, i was taking into account the post above that i quoted as well.
We can average that out to 20million revenue a year around about for STO. Not long back the devs said revenue is stable year on year. The hard part is estimating running costs to work out profit levels.
Digging online, I figure they turn a profit of 5-6 million a year. With some estimated numbers (from online digging) of the number of players that play Cryptic games (122k), if every player spent $14 a month that would generate the 20 million/year revenue. Salaries for 136 people across the company probably comes out to 12-13 million a year (not including benefits). Figure another 2 million in operating cost, outside of salaries, and that leaves you with between 5 and 5.5 million a year in profits. I say 6 on the high side to adjust for fact that everything is rounded up.
How many of those players are free to play players though? How many whales are truly supporting the game and the free to play side of things?
from a power point presentation...thats to be taken as gospel? i wont say they are not close to accurate, but anything can be skewed to favor one condition or another.
Did you even look at it? It's a presentation on the acquisition, hosted on Embracers site listing the full earnings of the game and detailing the move for investors.
Outside of someone from Gearbox hand delivering you an earnings slip, not sure what more you need.
its a pdf/powerpoint slide/paper. it just says earnings and subs. 240mil for earns, 6mil in subs. its rather simple and vague. i know we wont get detailed info, but as stated, numbers can be skewed. again, not saying its not accurate, but we also dont know the details PWE had with cryptic and vice verse, as i also stated.
it seems the cost to sub ratio is worthy of asking where the funds went. prob a lot to VAs would be my guess. when i replied, i was taking into account the post above that i quoted as well.
We can average that out to 20million revenue a year around about for STO. Not long back the devs said revenue is stable year on year. The hard part is estimating running costs to work out profit levels.
Digging online, I figure they turn a profit of 5-6 million a year. With some estimated numbers (from online digging) of the number of players that play Cryptic games (122k), if every player spent $14 a month that would generate the 20 million/year revenue. Salaries for 136 people across the company probably comes out to 12-13 million a year (not including benefits). Figure another 2 million in operating cost, outside of salaries, and that leaves you with between 5 and 5.5 million a year in profits. I say 6 on the high side to adjust for fact that everything is rounded up.
How many of those players are free to play players though? How many whales are truly supporting the game and the free to play side of things?
The suits don't really care about that. They just look at the bottom line which is boiled down to:
How much are they spending to operate/market the game (and all that entails including development/deployment of new content) VS How much revenue is the game generating and how much are they taking in over what they're spending.
As long as they see a value in the ROI for STO (and CBS renews the licensing agreement every 5 years or so - [5 years is usually the industry standard]) - STO will continue. The bar also had to have been pretty low as Champions Online continues to be run to this day - albeit it near maintenance mode as it usually sees one new piece of real content maybe once a year on average.
STO must be doing fairly well, or I doubt the Cryptic suits would continue to make an effort/spend the cash to get actual Star Trek actors (and one series lead) to do VO for the game. SAG actors never come cheap (and Cryptic employed SAG and non-SAG actors prior to getting Michael Dorn to reprise Worf. After that they were a 100% union shop.)
But, bottom line: If some people still want to trot out the old:
"STO is dead/will be dead within >X< time because of >decision player hates<..."
Yeah, as someone who's been playing since closed beta in October 2009 to today <--- various folks have been saying that since day one of closed beta - yet hear we are in year 12 going on 13; and STO is still: 'dying/will die soon'
[The above said, going by that presentation, Cryptic's NeverWinter MMO is more profitable than STO by an order of magnitude. And with a new parent company; ultimately, the level of what the suits consider a minimum viable ROI could change. I guess we'll start seeing after February 2022 when/if the deal completes.]
Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012 PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
from a power point presentation...thats to be taken as gospel? i wont say they are not close to accurate, but anything can be skewed to favor one condition or another.
Did you even look at it? It's a presentation on the acquisition, hosted on Embracers site listing the full earnings of the game and detailing the move for investors.
Outside of someone from Gearbox hand delivering you an earnings slip, not sure what more you need.
its a pdf/powerpoint slide/paper. it just says earnings and subs. 240mil for earns, 6mil in subs. its rather simple and vague. i know we wont get detailed info, but as stated, numbers can be skewed. again, not saying its not accurate, but we also dont know the details PWE had with cryptic and vice verse, as i also stated.
it seems the cost to sub ratio is worthy of asking where the funds went. prob a lot to VAs would be my guess. when i replied, i was taking into account the post above that i quoted as well.
We can average that out to 20million revenue a year around about for STO. Not long back the devs said revenue is stable year on year. The hard part is estimating running costs to work out profit levels.
Digging online, I figure they turn a profit of 5-6 million a year. With some estimated numbers (from online digging) of the number of players that play Cryptic games (122k), if every player spent $14 a month that would generate the 20 million/year revenue. Salaries for 136 people across the company probably comes out to 12-13 million a year (not including benefits). Figure another 2 million in operating cost, outside of salaries, and that leaves you with between 5 and 5.5 million a year in profits. I say 6 on the high side to adjust for fact that everything is rounded up.
How many of those players are free to play players though? How many whales are truly supporting the game and the free to play side of things?
F2P players are not a dead loss, they do buy things, just not as often or in as big a chunks and the whales. And the sheer number of those small-spending F2P players in games with that monetization model can generate a surprising amount of revenue.
How many of those players are free to play players though? How many whales are truly supporting the game and the free to play side of things?
Everyone in the game is F2P, unless they are LTS players. So, no matter what the mix is of who is paying how much each month, the numbers are the same. The majority of the cash generated comes from the C-Store peppered with some LTS purchases, probably during the two or three sales each year.
“In the strict scientific sense we all feed on death…..even vegetarians.” – Spock
from a power point presentation...thats to be taken as gospel? i wont say they are not close to accurate, but anything can be skewed to favor one condition or another.
Did you even look at it? It's a presentation on the acquisition, hosted on Embracers site listing the full earnings of the game and detailing the move for investors.
Outside of someone from Gearbox hand delivering you an earnings slip, not sure what more you need.
its a pdf/powerpoint slide/paper. it just says earnings and subs. 240mil for earns, 6mil in subs. its rather simple and vague. i know we wont get detailed info, but as stated, numbers can be skewed. again, not saying its not accurate, but we also dont know the details PWE had with cryptic and vice verse, as i also stated.
it seems the cost to sub ratio is worthy of asking where the funds went. prob a lot to VAs would be my guess. when i replied, i was taking into account the post above that i quoted as well.
We can average that out to 20million revenue a year around about for STO. Not long back the devs said revenue is stable year on year. The hard part is estimating running costs to work out profit levels.
Digging online, I figure they turn a profit of 5-6 million a year. With some estimated numbers (from online digging) of the number of players that play Cryptic games (122k), if every player spent $14 a month that would generate the 20 million/year revenue. Salaries for 136 people across the company probably comes out to 12-13 million a year (not including benefits). Figure another 2 million in operating cost, outside of salaries, and that leaves you with between 5 and 5.5 million a year in profits. I say 6 on the high side to adjust for fact that everything is rounded up.
How many of those players are free to play players though? How many whales are truly supporting the game and the free to play side of things?
F2P players are not a dead loss, they do buy things, just not as often or in as big a chunks and the whales. And the sheer number of those small-spending F2P players in games with that monetization model can generate a surprising amount of revenue.
I never said F2P players were a dead loss. The whales of the game pretty much have all of what they need where F2P players will have more of a reason to keep playing to grind towards what they want. I'm just more curious to know the ratio of F2P to whale and how those numbers factor into those earnings. Being a LTS since the end of the head start. I have received more in stipend than my Life Time Sub cost me over the years.
I don't think the game is dead or dying. I have no idea if it is or not. The game engine is ancient though. Instead of milking this engine with money. I would rather see STO 2 or a successor to this game in the works in something like the Unreal 5 engine.
How many of those players are free to play players though? How many whales are truly supporting the game and the free to play side of things?
No subscription fees required for STO. So everyone is FTP. Except the players who purchased LTS. Who paid once.
The term, 'Whale', normally seems to be used in a condescending and disrespectful manner around here. Unless one perceives oneself as one of the said, 'Whales'. Such as someone who spent the whole US $25.00 his granny gave him for Christmas on STO. In which case the aforementioned individual appears to believe that without their one time monetary contribution this whole STO thing would collapse into nothing.
The term, 'FTP' also seems to be used in a condescending and disrespectful manner as frequently as the term, 'Whale'. It implies players in this category are not worthy enough to play this game because they consistently find a way to freeload off the monetary input of others. As if doing so is causing significant long lasting and severe financial pain directly to the, 'Whales'.
I'm FTP. Although I spend an average of US $40.00 - $60.00 per month on this game. Because I like the game. Because I like the subject matter. Because I've made some very good friends ingame since I started playing all those years ago. I make a profitable living with a decent sized chunk of that being discretionary income. I'm a grownup. Which means I get to decide all by myself where and how I spend my discretionary income.
I neither need or desire some 'do-gooder' to speak on my behalf. Both here and in the Real World as well. Because as usual, whenever said 'do-gooder' pontificates on my behalf, it seldom benefits anyone but the 'do-gooder'. Whose sole purpose is to make themselves appear far better than mere mortals by publicly displaying how much they care about the Downtrodden Of The Week.
A six year old boy and his starship. Living the dream.
Whale is casino slang for "big spender", no more and no less. The term has made its way into MMO gaming and has the same meaning. It usually is just used as an ordinary word with that meaning to indicate the people who can afford the spend a lot on the game and do so often, not in a condescending or disrespectful manner, though like any word it can be used that way. It is short to type and gets the idea across.
F2P players do get some condescension and disrespect at times, definitely more often than the whales, though to be fair not as much in this game as they do in some others. When I said they are not a dead loss (and I am an F2P player myself who occasionally spends money on the game when I can), I was replying to a comment that sounded as if the commenter was saying F2P players do not contribute anything to the game and were in essence nothing but a burden for the whales to carry, which is not correct at all. There are enough F2P players in gaming in general to make the microtransaction model work reasonably well.
That said, the term is more often, like the "whale" term, just used as a convenient identifier without the drama layered on top.
My only question is, in the process of this merger, did they finally find dev diaries that will actually let them make changes to the game, or are the devs still going to be locked out of rewriting the game because they don't even know how to get into it?
Nothing breaks the tension better than a tankard of warnog - except maybe a good brawl...
Lol. Reading comments about people being worried about the Gearbox Acquisition, in what way could they make anything worse?
The game is full of PTW, what regular players spend time and effort on to get, whales can simply buy in mere minutes, the new content is for the most part just adding a new paint coat over the same old, same old. I mean, how often do we have the exact same TFO now, just with different ships attacking the same three stations? 3 times? 4? I don't even remember, because it all just blurs together.
The game is already completely stream-lined to get as much money out of the players as possible, while doing as little as possible for new content.
First comment, that isn't in keeping with the spirit of the topic but can we reduce the size of signatures? I am sure people know what I mean.
Now Gearbox. I honestly don't know what will happen once they are in place and start looking to reduce cost due to redundant staff, administrative and well designers of games. I do think we have to fear about the future of STO. Not because of the past history of Gearbox but by looking at things from a gaming company viewpoint. Merging/Buying up will mean they will look where they can start to save money. Since I assume the IP is still with CBS, it doesn't mean CBS likes or dislikes gearbox which obviously means will CBS continue to allow the IP for this game and will they demand more from Gearbox and Gearbox doesn't see this game as being worth the extra royalties they might have to pay to CBS and holders of all things Star Trek.
About the only thing good about gearbox is that they will look at STO and its age, and perhaps seeing a potential profit will explore the idea of Star Trek Online 2.0 or whatever. However they must see it able to drive and make money, after all they aren't in the gaming business for charity.
Online games have always carried the sunset threat. Games where they sell gear, ships, tanks, supplies or whatever will always face that. That is why I simply don't buy into a game too much. No offense to Cryptic, PWE or whoever, but with virtual assets I won't spend $20-50 or more USD for a ship or a ship with crew and a special console. Other games it is a pay to win/have an edge, all I will say it involves tracks, I won't pay $30-70 for one of the those things. However pay to win or just pay to get exclusives still are profitable and until they stop being that way many games make money from selling a single item, that normally you would simply expect to come in an expansion pack with several other ships.
I've worked for companies that have played off like everything is good when it was not. I have lts in both champions & sto. Time is the ultimate test; I'll just enjoy playing & be grateful for a talented team & watch & see what happens. With any luck; Gearbox will not be an issue...
Embracer Group buys Gearbox, Aspyr Media, and Easybrain – 2K Games comment [updated]
03/02/21 ( <---note the date of the article -- THETA NINE )
The Embracer Group, which includes THQ Nordic, Koch Media, Saber Interactive and other publishers, has added Borderlands creator Gearbox to the group along with Aspyr Media, a company that specialises in Mac, Linux and mobile ports, and Easybrain, a mobile game developer with a core focus on advertising-based puzzle and logic games.
The deal with Gearbox is valued at $1.3 billion and they will become Embracer Group’s seventh operating group. Gearbox Founder and CEO Randy Pitchford will continue to lead Gearbox, and he and the employees of Gearbox will jointly become “a significant shareholder in Embracer.” That sounds like a good deal, let’s hope that offer extends to all Gearbox employees and not just senior management.
“Gearbox is arguably one of the most creative and valuable independent developers in the world. We believe that the resources offered by Embracer will position Gearbox for continued significant growth in the years to come” saaid Lars Wingefors, Founder and Group CEO of Embracer Group.
“Lars’s vision of Embracer as an allied partner group committed to fueling and accelerating the ambitions of a series of decentralized, successful entrepreneurial member companies while magnifying the collective value and advantages of diversification across the entire group is the most brilliant strategy and design for short, medium, and long-term success in this industry that I have worked in during 30 years. The feeling at Gearbox is that we are just getting started and this transaction is not merely a stimulant for the talent of our employee-owned company, but a propellent for the exciting future we have planned.” said Randy Pitchford, founder of The Gearbox Entertainment Company.
Update: 2K Games have also issued a comment on the acquisition to clarify how it’s going to affect their relationship with Gearbox and the Borderlands series going forward. To put it simply…. it won’t.
I've worked for companies that have played off like everything is good when it was not. I have lts in both champions & sto. Time is the ultimate test; I'll just enjoy playing & be grateful for a talented team & watch & see what happens. With any luck; Gearbox will not be an issue...
I once worked for a company that was based out of Germany. Ok our parent company, the starting company, is now defunct so I will give you its real name: Getrag. I worked at one of its spin-offs, called Getrag Precision Gear Company, LLC. We made transmission gears for Caterpillar and Cummins big rigs and tractors, etc. and also cars and trucks with engines by Cummins. We were very successful for 8 of the years I was there. When the automotive industry in America hit the bricks, we took a big hit just like the rest of the country. Thank God for Barack Obama. I think that was pretty much the end of the Republican Party too, but I digress.
Anyways, after the recovery, our sister company--Getrag Axel Plant--began a slow takeover of our plant. People in key positions who had been major players in our success were being let go, one person or so every few months. And then we got the news that the Axel plant was closing. Suddenly everyone woke up and began looking around. In the "emergency" it was decided, the higher ranked folks from the Axel plant would graft into us and lift all the boats up with this coming tide. Of course this was the plan all along. It had just come so slowly, no one saw it happening at the time.
The high-water mark that we had enjoyed before the car plants in Michigan almost folded was never again reached. The next thing we knew, it was our plant that was for sale. Three years later, the doors were closed. These guys in the front offices thought they were so smart until Germany sent in their hatchet man who started cutting THEM down. Germany then retreated unto themselves in an effort to stop the bleeding but it was too late. Getrag is a name that hardly anyone remembers.
I've worked for companies that have played off like everything is good when it was not.
Have said it before and will say it again; PR announcements by mouthpieces with legal and/or employment obligations to say good things about the company are not a reliable source of factual data about how well any given business decision has played out.
Counterpoint: I have not, and do not lie to you folks.
So far, nothing has changed and we don't expect it to. If something does change, I'll let you know as soon as I'm able.
Comments
I bet it is. I mean, Embracer had to borrow money to make the purchase, so that means more of Rule 1, Rule 10, Rule 97, and Rule 189 of the Rules of Acquisition.
And how can you not be profitable with that ridiculously overpriced Mudd's Market and the massively over inflated pay to win and loot box money scheme.
Have fun!
On the previous page there were links to the income statements as part of the merger disclosure, the game certainly does not feel like they are putting all that income back into the game so there is profit going somewhere (it may have been getting drawn off by PWE though).
Did you even look at it? It's a presentation on the acquisition, hosted on Embracers site listing the full earnings of the game and detailing the move for investors.
Outside of someone from Gearbox hand delivering you an earnings slip, not sure what more you need.
Revenue does seem pretty good but running costs look to be over a million a year not leaving much room for profit. Its hard to estimate but based on the wages I do know for some of the staff I would expect they are spending between 700k and 1million if not more just on staff wages a year.
Digging online, I figure they turn a profit of 5-6 million a year. With some estimated numbers (from online digging) of the number of players that play Cryptic games (122k), if every player spent $14 a month that would generate the 20 million/year revenue. Salaries for 136 people across the company probably comes out to 12-13 million a year (not including benefits). Figure another 2 million in operating cost, outside of salaries, and that leaves you with between 5 and 5.5 million a year in profits. I say 6 on the high side to adjust for fact that everything is rounded up.
How many of those players are free to play players though? How many whales are truly supporting the game and the free to play side of things?
The suits don't really care about that. They just look at the bottom line which is boiled down to:
How much are they spending to operate/market the game (and all that entails including development/deployment of new content) VS How much revenue is the game generating and how much are they taking in over what they're spending.
As long as they see a value in the ROI for STO (and CBS renews the licensing agreement every 5 years or so - [5 years is usually the industry standard]) - STO will continue. The bar also had to have been pretty low as Champions Online continues to be run to this day - albeit it near maintenance mode as it usually sees one new piece of real content maybe once a year on average.
STO must be doing fairly well, or I doubt the Cryptic suits would continue to make an effort/spend the cash to get actual Star Trek actors (and one series lead) to do VO for the game. SAG actors never come cheap (and Cryptic employed SAG and non-SAG actors prior to getting Michael Dorn to reprise Worf. After that they were a 100% union shop.)
But, bottom line: If some people still want to trot out the old:
"STO is dead/will be dead within >X< time because of >decision player hates<..."
Yeah, as someone who's been playing since closed beta in October 2009 to today <--- various folks have been saying that since day one of closed beta - yet hear we are in year 12 going on 13; and STO is still: 'dying/will die soon'
[The above said, going by that presentation, Cryptic's NeverWinter MMO is more profitable than STO by an order of magnitude. And with a new parent company; ultimately, the level of what the suits consider a minimum viable ROI could change. I guess we'll start seeing after February 2022 when/if the deal completes.]
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
F2P players are not a dead loss, they do buy things, just not as often or in as big a chunks and the whales. And the sheer number of those small-spending F2P players in games with that monetization model can generate a surprising amount of revenue.
Everyone in the game is F2P, unless they are LTS players. So, no matter what the mix is of who is paying how much each month, the numbers are the same. The majority of the cash generated comes from the C-Store peppered with some LTS purchases, probably during the two or three sales each year.
I never said F2P players were a dead loss. The whales of the game pretty much have all of what they need where F2P players will have more of a reason to keep playing to grind towards what they want. I'm just more curious to know the ratio of F2P to whale and how those numbers factor into those earnings. Being a LTS since the end of the head start. I have received more in stipend than my Life Time Sub cost me over the years.
I don't think the game is dead or dying. I have no idea if it is or not. The game engine is ancient though. Instead of milking this engine with money. I would rather see STO 2 or a successor to this game in the works in something like the Unreal 5 engine.
No subscription fees required for STO. So everyone is FTP. Except the players who purchased LTS. Who paid once.
The term, 'Whale', normally seems to be used in a condescending and disrespectful manner around here. Unless one perceives oneself as one of the said, 'Whales'. Such as someone who spent the whole US $25.00 his granny gave him for Christmas on STO. In which case the aforementioned individual appears to believe that without their one time monetary contribution this whole STO thing would collapse into nothing.
The term, 'FTP' also seems to be used in a condescending and disrespectful manner as frequently as the term, 'Whale'. It implies players in this category are not worthy enough to play this game because they consistently find a way to freeload off the monetary input of others. As if doing so is causing significant long lasting and severe financial pain directly to the, 'Whales'.
I'm FTP. Although I spend an average of US $40.00 - $60.00 per month on this game. Because I like the game. Because I like the subject matter. Because I've made some very good friends ingame since I started playing all those years ago. I make a profitable living with a decent sized chunk of that being discretionary income. I'm a grownup. Which means I get to decide all by myself where and how I spend my discretionary income.
I neither need or desire some 'do-gooder' to speak on my behalf. Both here and in the Real World as well. Because as usual, whenever said 'do-gooder' pontificates on my behalf, it seldom benefits anyone but the 'do-gooder'. Whose sole purpose is to make themselves appear far better than mere mortals by publicly displaying how much they care about the Downtrodden Of The Week.
F2P players do get some condescension and disrespect at times, definitely more often than the whales, though to be fair not as much in this game as they do in some others. When I said they are not a dead loss (and I am an F2P player myself who occasionally spends money on the game when I can), I was replying to a comment that sounded as if the commenter was saying F2P players do not contribute anything to the game and were in essence nothing but a burden for the whales to carry, which is not correct at all. There are enough F2P players in gaming in general to make the microtransaction model work reasonably well.
That said, the term is more often, like the "whale" term, just used as a convenient identifier without the drama layered on top.
The game is full of PTW, what regular players spend time and effort on to get, whales can simply buy in mere minutes, the new content is for the most part just adding a new paint coat over the same old, same old. I mean, how often do we have the exact same TFO now, just with different ships attacking the same three stations? 3 times? 4? I don't even remember, because it all just blurs together.
The game is already completely stream-lined to get as much money out of the players as possible, while doing as little as possible for new content.
Now Gearbox. I honestly don't know what will happen once they are in place and start looking to reduce cost due to redundant staff, administrative and well designers of games. I do think we have to fear about the future of STO. Not because of the past history of Gearbox but by looking at things from a gaming company viewpoint. Merging/Buying up will mean they will look where they can start to save money. Since I assume the IP is still with CBS, it doesn't mean CBS likes or dislikes gearbox which obviously means will CBS continue to allow the IP for this game and will they demand more from Gearbox and Gearbox doesn't see this game as being worth the extra royalties they might have to pay to CBS and holders of all things Star Trek.
About the only thing good about gearbox is that they will look at STO and its age, and perhaps seeing a potential profit will explore the idea of Star Trek Online 2.0 or whatever. However they must see it able to drive and make money, after all they aren't in the gaming business for charity.
Online games have always carried the sunset threat. Games where they sell gear, ships, tanks, supplies or whatever will always face that. That is why I simply don't buy into a game too much. No offense to Cryptic, PWE or whoever, but with virtual assets I won't spend $20-50 or more USD for a ship or a ship with crew and a special console. Other games it is a pay to win/have an edge, all I will say it involves tracks, I won't pay $30-70 for one of the those things. However pay to win or just pay to get exclusives still are profitable and until they stop being that way many games make money from selling a single item, that normally you would simply expect to come in an expansion pack with several other ships.
03/02/21 ( <---note the date of the article -- THETA NINE )
The Embracer Group, which includes THQ Nordic, Koch Media, Saber Interactive and other publishers, has added Borderlands creator Gearbox to the group along with Aspyr Media, a company that specialises in Mac, Linux and mobile ports, and Easybrain, a mobile game developer with a core focus on advertising-based puzzle and logic games.
The deal with Gearbox is valued at $1.3 billion and they will become Embracer Group’s seventh operating group. Gearbox Founder and CEO Randy Pitchford will continue to lead Gearbox, and he and the employees of Gearbox will jointly become “a significant shareholder in Embracer.” That sounds like a good deal, let’s hope that offer extends to all Gearbox employees and not just senior management.
“Gearbox is arguably one of the most creative and valuable independent developers in the world. We believe that the resources offered by Embracer will position Gearbox for continued significant growth in the years to come” saaid Lars Wingefors, Founder and Group CEO of Embracer Group.
“Lars’s vision of Embracer as an allied partner group committed to fueling and accelerating the ambitions of a series of decentralized, successful entrepreneurial member companies while magnifying the collective value and advantages of diversification across the entire group is the most brilliant strategy and design for short, medium, and long-term success in this industry that I have worked in during 30 years. The feeling at Gearbox is that we are just getting started and this transaction is not merely a stimulant for the talent of our employee-owned company, but a propellent for the exciting future we have planned.” said Randy Pitchford, founder of The Gearbox Entertainment Company.
Update: 2K Games have also issued a comment on the acquisition to clarify how it’s going to affect their relationship with Gearbox and the Borderlands series going forward. To put it simply…. it won’t.
https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2021/02/03/embracer-buys-gearbox-aspyr-media-easybrain-borderlands-3/
Me too.
I once worked for a company that was based out of Germany. Ok our parent company, the starting company, is now defunct so I will give you its real name: Getrag. I worked at one of its spin-offs, called Getrag Precision Gear Company, LLC. We made transmission gears for Caterpillar and Cummins big rigs and tractors, etc. and also cars and trucks with engines by Cummins. We were very successful for 8 of the years I was there. When the automotive industry in America hit the bricks, we took a big hit just like the rest of the country. Thank God for Barack Obama. I think that was pretty much the end of the Republican Party too, but I digress.
Anyways, after the recovery, our sister company--Getrag Axel Plant--began a slow takeover of our plant. People in key positions who had been major players in our success were being let go, one person or so every few months. And then we got the news that the Axel plant was closing. Suddenly everyone woke up and began looking around. In the "emergency" it was decided, the higher ranked folks from the Axel plant would graft into us and lift all the boats up with this coming tide. Of course this was the plan all along. It had just come so slowly, no one saw it happening at the time.
The high-water mark that we had enjoyed before the car plants in Michigan almost folded was never again reached. The next thing we knew, it was our plant that was for sale. Three years later, the doors were closed. These guys in the front offices thought they were so smart until Germany sent in their hatchet man who started cutting THEM down. Germany then retreated unto themselves in an effort to stop the bleeding but it was too late. Getrag is a name that hardly anyone remembers.
Counterpoint: I have not, and do not lie to you folks.
So far, nothing has changed and we don't expect it to. If something does change, I'll let you know as soon as I'm able.