[MUD-Dev] MMORPG Cancellations: The sky is falling?

[Luca Girardo]

At 22:27 07.07.2004, you wrote:

> Probably you could say FFXI has, but I don't know how it's been
> doing lately.  I haven't heard anything about Lineage II's numbers
> either -- maybe someone else here knows.

There is an interesting thread about Profit and Margin of MMOG companies at
Terranova  with some useful links:

  http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2004/06/count_em.html#comments

It is always difficult to get some clear number, but Asian companies offer
better reports about the status of their games (in term of subscribers).
About Lineage and Lineage 2 some interesting info can be found here

  http://www.ncsoft.net/ir_down/other/Conference_Call_(1QFY04)ENG.pdf

with the Operating Matrix also about Lineage 2.  What I found
interesting is that the release of Lineage 2 in Korea (based on the
data of March 2004) did not seem to have a great impact on the
number of subscriptions of Lineage 1. But March 2004 was too early
for an in-depth analysis.  About Square Enix, here

  http://ir.square-enix.co.jp/e/pdf/0404-200405210000-01.pdf

you can find some results for 2003 (2004 still not available).

  Net Sales: ~$81 million
  Operating Expenses: ~$60 million
  Operating Income: ~$21 million
  Operating Margin: 26,3%

  2002 (online Business)
  Net Sales: ~$38 million
  Operating Expenses: ~$47 million
  Operating Income: (~$9 million)
  Operating Margin: (23,7%)

While most of the profit was earned by FINAL FANTASY XI (FFXI), the
remainder was from Crossgate in China and other titles.

Luca
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