New World

[BlackBellamy]

After they sell all those copies for $39 how are they going to pay for the bandwidth six months from now?

Skins?

I know they made like 25 million on the initial sales, but that money goes real quick when you have a big corporation doing big corporation things.

[cd288]

Originally Posted by BlackBellamy [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

After they sell all those copies for $39 how are they going to pay for the bandwidth six months from now?

Skins?

I know they made like 25 million on the initial sales, but that money goes real quick when you have a big corporation doing big corporation things.

To my knowledge they have a cosmetic cash shop right now, which as we've seen can be a large money maker for video game studios.

I also wouldn't be surprised if Amazon is willing to eat losses quarter over quarter in the future in order to have the game continue to go well. That would be totally consistent with Amazon's operating strategy when they have first delved into different areas in the past. They're willing to eat that loss for awhile in order to gain market share in the space; i.e. eat a loss for awhile on New World as long as overall the reception continues to be positive because it's part of Amazon's broader goal of establishing themselves as a reputable video game design studio, which means more and more money for them as they develop and release future games.

[mcoy]

Originally Posted by cd288 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

To my knowledge they have a cosmetic cash shop right now, which as we've seen can be a large money maker for video game studios.

I also wouldn't be surprised if Amazon is willing to eat losses quarter over quarter in the future in order to have the game continue to go well. That would be totally consistent with Amazon's operating strategy when they have first delved into different areas in the past. They're willing to eat that loss for awhile in order to gain market share in the space; i.e. eat a loss for awhile on New World as long as overall the reception continues to be positive because it's part of Amazon's broader goal of establishing themselves as a reputable video game design studio, which means more and more money for them as they develop and release future games.

Yup, loss-leaders are a common strategy. Also in this case they literally have their own hosting infrastructure service so I can't imagine "losing" an infinitesimal percentage of their business concerns them at all.

It's good marketing too - I wasn't on at launch, but I've seen exactly zero server issues and no login queues or anything that's plagued tons of other MMO releases.

-Mcoy

[BlackBellamy]

Originally Posted by mcoy [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Yup, loss-leaders are a common strategy. Also in this case they literally have their own hosting infrastructure service so I can't imagine "losing" an infinitesimal percentage of their business concerns them at all.

It's good marketing too - I wasn't on at launch, but I've seen exactly zero server issues and no login queues or anything that's plagued tons of other MMO releases.

-Mcoy

They don't have their own infrastructure. Amazon Studios is not the same entity that runs their cloud service. Those guys expect to be paid like anywhere else. Sure, there is discount for in-house services, but there's no way New World is getting anything for 'free'. There is internal billing going on, that's how taxes are evaded.

Because NW is not charging a monthly price, their revenue stream is sure to decrease as the initial surge dies down. The only answer to this is microtransactions, or let's not blow smoke up anyone's ass with corporate propaganda and call them what they really are; transactions.

There's only so many skins and useless doo-dads people can buy. We'll see if that's enough over long term or will it turn to pay-to-win idk.

[cd288]

Originally Posted by BlackBellamy [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

They don't have their own infrastructure. Amazon Studios is not the same entity that runs their cloud service. Those guys expect to be paid like anywhere else. Sure, there is discount for in-house services, but there's no way New World is getting anything for 'free'. There is internal billing going on, that's how taxes are evaded.

Because NW is not charging a monthly price, their revenue stream is sure to decrease as the initial surge dies down. The only answer to this is microtransactions, or let's not blow smoke up anyone's ass with corporate propaganda and call them what they really are; transactions.

There's only so many skins and useless doo-dads people can buy. We'll see if that's enough over long term or will it turn to pay-to-win idk.

But again, Amazon’s usual strategy when first entering a space is to be totally fine taking a loss as long as it helps build their brand. If they can make Amazon Games considered a legitimate development studio for the future, they will be totally fine taking a loss with New World. That’s completely consistent with their corporate strategy.

[BlackBellamy]

Originally Posted by cd288 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

If they can make Amazon Games considered a legitimate development studio for the future, they will be totally fine taking a loss with New World. That’s completely consistent with their corporate strategy.

Since Amazon Games formed it has consistently delivered trash and cancellations. Look at their release history it's all low quality mobile junk until they started to abort and cancel big-boy games. "inability to see a sustained future" regarding Crucible doesn't say much about their planning and forecasts and is likely the same phrase they will be trotting out again. I would admire the persistence but this isn't some passionate dreamers; this is a corporate idea of what game development is and what the final product should be. I'm sure the individual developers have creativity and passion, but that is plainly missing from the upper echelons.

The only reason so many people are playing is because people are just hungry for a new MMO. It's been years since we had a AAA release and people are checking it out in numbers.

Speaking of so many people, what do they have now like 600 servers? I wonder how they are planning to handle server mergers. Because the server has a persistent control map, right? So all the companies lose all their control and it basically resets? I wouldn't like that as a player, but what else can they do?

[cd288]

Originally Posted by BlackBellamy [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Since Amazon Games formed it has consistently delivered trash and cancellations. Look at their release history it's all low quality mobile junk until they started to abort and cancel big-boy games. "inability to see a sustained future" regarding Crucible doesn't say much about their planning and forecasts and is likely the same phrase they will be trotting out again. I would admire the persistence but this isn't some passionate dreamers; this is a corporate idea of what game development is and what the final product should be. I'm sure the individual developers have creativity and passion, but that is plainly missing from the upper echelons.

The only reason so many people are playing is because people are just hungry for a new MMO. It's been years since we had a AAA release and people are checking it out in numbers.

Speaking of so many people, what do they have now like 600 servers? I wonder how they are planning to handle server mergers. Because the server has a persistent control map, right? So all the companies lose all their control and it basically resets? I wouldn't like that as a player, but what else can they do?

Except that’s kind of a different situation from what we were talking about. Your original discussion was about the economic longevity of the game (I.e. even if it’s a good game is it really economically viable without pay to win mechanics etc.). I said I think Amazon is willing to take an economic loss overall on new world if the game stays good and therefore allows them to develop a positive reputation in the space. Thereby netting them much bigger profits in the future via expanded product lines.

Now you’re totally shifting the argument to whether the game is good in general which is a separate debate.

[Tethler]

Originally Posted by BlackBellamy [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Because NW is not charging a monthly price, their revenue stream is sure to decrease as the initial surge dies down. The only answer to this is microtransactions, or let's not blow smoke up anyone's ass with corporate propaganda and call them what they really are; transactions.

There's only so many skins and useless doo-dads people can buy. We'll see if that's enough over long term or will it turn to pay-to-win idk.

For transparency's sake, I feel I should mention this. I fully expect New World with go to some level of pay-to-win in the future. During the final alpha test they introduced the cash shop and it included some pay-to-win elements. There was a strong community backlash and the shop was changed to cosmetic only. When they announced the change, their wording was vague, but they did specifically mention that the cash shop would be cosmetic only throughout 2021.

A lot of people took this to mean that they would phase in some pay-to-win elements in 2022. The number 1 thing that most players expect to see in the shop is Azoth. Azoth is a resource that is usually acquired slowly through quest completions, killing of certain monsters, or gathering tradeskills if you have a specific perk on your gathering tool. Going from 0 azoth to the 1000 cap could take several hours grinding. This resource is expended for fast traveling and also used in crafting to increase the chance to get extra bonuses on crafted items.

Personally, I hope they don't go this route and just pump out cool cosmetics and decorative housing items, but it's Amazon, so yeah...

[Mblake1981]

Originally Posted by Tethler [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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