Funcom Q2 report - revenues decrease

[slackjoint]

Yea around 5000 seems to be a realistic number .
Anyone knows how many warhammer had before they shut down the servers ?

[krippa]

Yea around 5000 seems to be a realistic number .
Anyone knows how many warhammer had before they shut down the servers ?

Ah, Warhammer; I miss my squig herder and shaman. Warhammer had about 100-150 subscribers. The only reason why it shutdown was because Games Workshop wanted lots of money (no surprise) to renew the license. The # of subscribers was still sufficient to keep the servers up and running. AoC is still at least getting updates (albeit slowly) and has some communication from Cig and Pyz.

Speaking of AoC it looks like Funcom got an extension on their loan today:

KGJI has offered to extend the current maturity dates for the working capital loan and convertible bond from the earlier of 30 June 2016 or the 2016 Funcom AGM to 15 December 2016.The extension of due date is conditional upon prepayment of the two loans plus the USD 4.0 million convertible loan due on 27 June 2017 should the Company sell some, all or parts of its subsidiaries or other assets prior to the new maturity date. Any proceeds from such sales shall immediately be applied to repay the said loans .... .... ....

http://www.funcom.com/investors/anno...representation

I hope Funcom tries to sell off AoC. It's the only chance this game has.

[Mustaine]

Wow still has 5.5 million players.

Aoc might have 0.1% of that, or 5,500 players.

OH Thank goodness you did the Math for me ...

The next bit of number crunching; how many of those people are subscribers?

.

[Mellaus]

FC can't sell AoC, it's their only chance at survival.

LEGO is not getting them the cash and TSW needs development to get any money at all.
Only AoC is getting them stable incomes thanks to subs, and that's one of their 2 main sources of revenue. The other being TSW, but only if they can develop for it, if they can't because no money, then their only income is from AoC.

So the only way AoC would leave FC is if FC goes bankrupt, then their assets will go to the highest bidders, maybe.

[Greyloins]

Wow still has 5.5 million players.

Aoc might have 0.1% of that, or 5,500 players.

5.5 million is likely a very big exaggeration. A lot of the people counted among this number are Chinese, where they have a completely different payment model. As I understand it, a single Chinese player who spent a few cent on a single hour of WoW in a month gets counted as a subscriber for that month. Personally I wouldn't be surprised if the number of Western subscribers is at 2 million or less. In any case, the number is falling quickly, and the new expac will likely only halt that for a few months as people realize the company has gone to ****.

[Mustaine]

... Western subscribers is at 2 million or less. In any case, the number is falling quickly, and the new expac will likely only halt that for a few months as people realize the company has gone to ****.

More likely; people still enjoy WoW and continue to play for a number of reasons. It's polished, lots of content, friends, RP, crafting, and their established with a few high-level characters.

I have my doubts that WoW will ever lose enough players to become unprofitable.

.

[Melekaiah]

More likely; people still enjoy WoW and continue to play for a number of reasons. It's polished, lots of content, friends, RP, crafting, and their established with a few high-level characters.

I have my doubts that WoW will ever lose enough players to become unprofitable.

.

Well wow is also at what 4 or 5 expansions?
with plenty of free content being released on a yearly basis to put AOC to shame

WOW has development, active development new zones and changes and what not.

AOC is treading water, FUNCOM execs are so clueless they have doomed their own company. for people interested in making money they really need to go back to school on gaming. Ive seen the suggestions funcom need to make on these forums over and over and over, why they are not being implemented is completely beyond me. they could develop this game alone and sit pretty on the profits for a long time.

[Rathothis]

FC's Q2/15 report is out:
http://cdn.funcom.com/investor/2015/...Q15_Report.pdf

My updated EBITDA list:
http://1drv.ms/1LzXI4L

Key messages:
* Revenues are lower than in the previous quarter in spite of Lego launch. Virtually all of their revenues (USD 2,554k of a total of USD 2,654k) come from "Large-scale MMOs". I always thought this meant only the live games, but now it includes Lego as well?
* EBITDA is still positive due to low operating costs.
* Operating result is negative by about USD 3.4 million, mainly due to an impairment of the Lego assets of almost USD 3 million.
* Some interesting news on their strategy:

The Company has decided to shift strategy, focusing on different types of products and production cycles. This new strategy consists of:
o Developing small, experimental and innovative games, focused on trying new concepts, experimenting with new technology and platforms and utilizing our IPs, while keeping the investment level low
o Developing larger games, focused on genres or game types where we can create products of higher production value than the competition, using our own or 3rd party IPs and drawing from the innovation and experimentation of the smaller products to lower the overall risk
o Upgrading the DreamWorld technology to integrate with third parties
o Leveraging and growing the internal Intellectual Properties

The product development and release plan for this strategy is a minimum of one small game released per year and one larger game to be in development at all times per development studio
...
The first game to be developed under the new strategy is “The Park”, a single player short horror experience. “The Park" is an experimental project meant to gauge the market and to develop the team’s ability to create different types of games, and as such the Company does not expect this game to generate significant revenues.
...
The Company continues to develop the DreamWorld™ technology, being nearly done with the cross platform development previously communicated, the last part being the support for DirectX 12 as part of a cooperation plan with Intel.

Sounds like they want to focus on developing TSW-inspired single player titles? That probably also explains what Joel is working on right now.

[Slith]

Sounds like they want to focus on developing TSW-inspired single player titles? That probably also explains what Joel is working on right now.

No, I think "The Park" is just a type of horror games like Slender Man (this genere explored in recently).

Three main activities were done for Age of Conan
in Q2
o Released the second part of the
achievement system
o Released the Shadows of Vanaheim
content pack
o Celebrated its 7th anniversary

Oh I "celebrated" the **** out of that anniversary.

Leveraging and growing the internal Intellectual Properties

That means everyone on board of TSW train as it is "internal IP"

[Rathothis]

That means everyone on board of TSW train as it is "internal IP"

Yep, that's what I thought as well - hence my comment re "TSW-inspired single player titles" , even if The Park may not be exactly that game.