Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobb4
You cannot count online figures as simplistically as:
" 5000 users for IL2 vs 9 Million Players on World of Warcraft at 15 bucks a month and Call of Duty 4 having over 20000 servers out there.".
|
Actually you can... Take a look at the page rankings and the traffic for your favorite IL2 site. Even Ubi's forums are tiny tiny in comparison to the shear volume of WoW fans. We as in a community are in the thousands they are in the Millions period.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobb4
Lets put it like this, Battlefield 2/2142 have on average double the number of players Call of Duty 4 has. Counter Strike Source had even more but a lot have jumped over to COD 4.
|
So what is your point? In terms of numbers playing this game online any any given time there are some 600 folks playing. That's Hyperlobby numbers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobb4
Now 9 million players at 15 bucks a month may sound a lot but it is a game that is constantly being developed, requires an extensive backbone serverside to run. Put that against over 1.4 billion internet users worldwide and you have a problem. Then 9 million users are a drop in the ocean.
|
Uhh sorry what are you talking about here? It's bar none the most successful PC game of all time period. Lets do a little math for a second.
9 million people purchased Wow = 9Mx$39.00 $351,000,000 just in the first iteration.
9 million people purchased Wow Burning Crusades at $29.00 = $342,000,000
That's $693,000,000 Just in revenue from purchases. Even if half were pirated copies that is more money than any other game or movie success right out of the gate.
Now lets add in the subscription fees per month. $135,000,000 now I know it didn't start out at 9 million users it started out with 4 million users and grew. I will play devils advocate for just a moment. Even at a modist 6 Million users a month that is $90,000,000 x 3 years = $3,240,000,000 just in Subscription fees.
Are you starting to get the picture? This title has blown away any Entertainment movie by leaps and bounds and it continues to do so. Yes there is overhead but when you've made about 5 Billion in revenue you can afford the servers and the development team that makes WOW work. Even if the overhead to run their servers at a 100 million a year (which is far from reality) They dwarf any WW2 Simulator and every other game by leaps and bounds.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobb4
Mark my words, a realistic WW2 simulator covering, ground air and sea catering in the fps style (armed assault type) would have in excess of 30 to 40 million users easily.
That against a backdrop of 1.4 billion is still a drop in the ocean, just slightly bigger.
What flight sim companies should be doing is marketing their products together with after-market products such as trackir, joysticks etc.
|
30 to 40 million users? Uhh I don't think you understand the gaming industry and realistic numbers. IL2 and even all of it's iterations might have sold 500,000 copies at the most not 30 to 40 million.
Just start looking into Site traffic and it will show you very quicky just how tiny this genre is. Go to google and load up this site. It's tiny dude.
If you think having an integrated sim and ground war simulator is going to draw massive crowds take a look at WWII online as a good starting point.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobb4
Lastly, Il2 is over 10 years old and the fact that it has the largest online flight community bar none is and indication of what could happen with the right product.
Remember when Il2 came out broadband was in it's infancy in most countries.
All the other products that have been quoted have come out since the big internet boom.
Imagine a product that records stats like BF2, is ultra realistic and is great to look at...
time will tell but I believe SOW will reinvent how online flight sims are seen.
|
The fact is there is a reason why 1c is releasing a Console and handheld version of IL2. Most gamers don't play PC games anymore. WOW and SIMs are the only ones making entertainment software company execs scratch their heads. Wow and SIMs are the most succesful PC games of all time. Even if you include Microsoft Flight Sim as being a competitor it dwarfs the IL2 community.
Do some research and you will see just how wrong you are.