5 ms·

> They've spent more time & money than any other game development studio for a single project The Wikipedia page states: "Most game budgets are not disclosed,

by ascar 5y ago

> They've spent more time & money than any other game development studio for a single project The Wikipedia page states: "Most game budgets are not disclosed, so this list is not indicative of industry trends." I would expect ongoing major MMOs to easily exceed that number. For example WoW, but probably even games like EVE online.

andai 5y ago
From Wikipedia: "[World of Warcraft] has grossed $9.23 billion in revenue, making it one of the highest-grossing video games of all time, along with Space Invaders, Pac-Man and Street Fighter II."
- mlyle 5y ago
  Yes, that's revenue. Parent's post neither claims WoW is a failure nor that WoW has taken in/made lots of money-- just that they've probably spent a lot of money and no one knows how much.
philipov 5y ago
I don't think MMOs should be counted as a single project. Each expansion should be counted separately, at the very least. Star Citizen hasn't even released the base game, and the fact that they haven't segmented off any of their feature creep into future expansions is itself a story of project mismanagement. Part of a successful project is knowing how to divide it into multiple sequential projects.
lelandfe 5y ago
Original development cost for WoW was $63M.[0] That’s enough to land it a spot towards the bottom of that Wikipedia list. 4 years of post-launch support ran up costs of $200M.[1] [0] https://web.archive.org/web/20060619205201/http://www.digitalbattle.com/2006/06/15/world-of-warcraft-cost-63-million/ https://web.archive.org/web/20060619205201/http://www.digita... [1] https://www.wired.com/2008/09/total-operating https://www.wired.com/2008/09/total-operating
chipotle_coyote 5y ago
I wouldn't be surprised if WoW has spent more money by now than Star Citizen has, but WoW was announced in 2001 and shipped a release version in 2004. The added expenditures are all game updates, new campaigns, and general recurring expenses from running arguably the most successful MMO of all time. Star Citizen, by contrast, was announced over a decade later in 2012, and has gone through its hundreds of million dollars without shipping a release version, or even a beta version (they dub what's currently shipping an alpha). So it seems reasonable to hold them to a different standard. (Granted, it's not impossible Star Citizen is also profitable, all things considered, but that just raises more questions.)

by ascar 5y ago

andai 5y ago

From Wikipedia: "[World of Warcraft] has grossed $9.23 billion in revenue, making it one of the highest-grossing video games of all time, along with Space Invaders, Pac-Man and Street Fighter II."

mlyle 5y ago
Yes, that's revenue. Parent's post neither claims WoW is a failure nor that WoW has taken in/made lots of money-- just that they've probably spent a lot of money and no one knows how much.

philipov 5y ago

I don't think MMOs should be counted as a single project. Each expansion should be counted separately, at the very least. Star Citizen hasn't even released the base game, and the fact that they haven't segmented off any of their feature creep into future expansions is itself a story of project mismanagement. Part of a successful project is knowing how to divide it into multiple sequential projects.

lelandfe 5y ago

Original development cost for WoW was $63M.[0] That’s enough to land it a spot towards the bottom of that Wikipedia list. 4 years of post-launch support ran up costs of $200M.[1] [0] https://web.archive.org/web/20060619205201/http://www.digitalbattle.com/2006/06/15/world-of-warcraft-cost-63-million/ https://web.archive.org/web/20060619205201/http://www.digita... [1] https://www.wired.com/2008/09/total-operating https://www.wired.com/2008/09/total-operating

chipotle_coyote 5y ago

I wouldn't be surprised if WoW has spent more money by now than Star Citizen has, but WoW was announced in 2001 and shipped a release version in 2004. The added expenditures are all game updates, new campaigns, and general recurring expenses from running arguably the most successful MMO of all time. Star Citizen, by contrast, was announced over a decade later in 2012, and has gone through its hundreds of million dollars without shipping a release version, or even a beta version (they dub what's currently shipping an alpha). So it seems reasonable to hold them to a different standard. (Granted, it's not impossible Star Citizen is also profitable, all things considered, but that just raises more questions.)