This is just an interesting projected datapoint for Blizzard’s WoW revenue stream. We don’t have access to their internal books, but taking a look at some of the data that is available, some market analysts have postulated some interesting numbers about WoW in China:
Gamasutra: Asia Just 6% of WoW Revenue
That’s what, about half of WoW’s user base only contributing 6% of its revenue? Interesting.
I could run a lot of tangents on that, but for now, I’ll just ask: How do I get the Chinese setup over here?
Interesting, I wonder why they get so little money from their asian subscribers?
I wonder what data this analyst use to come to such an interesting claim.
You want to play on China Servers to verify this, Tesh?
I am playing Aion at the moment, just experienced a glimpse of asian gaming mentality! 🙂
I really wouldn’t trust any of those numbers. Besides, I’m sure Blizzard’s philosophy is that with one billion customers at stake you can’t afford not to pay attention to China.
Look at tit this way. Western consumers use real money to fund the game, then spend more money to by in-game gold from the Chinese. Why does this strike me as just another form of feudal indentured servitude…. Maybe it should be considered a form of foreign aid.
Chinese players don’t subscribe, they play by the hour, about a quarter an hour is what I heard.
Most of that money is taken by Blizzard’s Chinese publishing partner.
I’m surprised it’s as high as 6%.
I’ve heard the hourly rate is as low as 4 cents an hour US. We are all talking rumors here, so its hard to know what is true and what is BS. But 4 cents an hour sounds possible if all those millions of customers only account for 6% of Blizzard’s total revenue.
I might still be playing WoW if I could pay by the hour.
Longasc, the billing method over there is what I’d like to experience, echoing Muckbeast’s comment. It would likely offer better value to me. Well, that, and I’d like to see what the game looks like with the Chinese cultural bias against skeleton depiction. Artistic curiosity, y’know.
Daniel, I trust these numbers more than bloggish guesswork. They were ostensibly derived from market analysts with some real world data, rather than a “12 million times $15=lotsa cash” ballpark characterization. That’s why I even note it; this data derivation carries more heft than almost anything else short of Blizzard’s official books.
Muckbeast, that’s why I post this; it looks like more than rumor or guesswork. The official rates to play are public record somewhere, and it looks like this analyst took that data and ran with it. There is still guesswork involved, but we’re not just doing random handwaving to arrive at the conclusions.
In the end, I get two major things out of this. One, as Tipa notes, the Chinese players don’t pay much, but yes, as Daniel notes, there are a LOT of customers there. In other words, WoW is STILL PROFITABLE in Asia, even though they pay far less than Western patrons.
(Daniel, what do you make of the likelihood of a very high consumption rate of StarCraft 2 in Korea? More foreign aid? It’s almost certain WoW money isn’t being folded back into WoW, but being used to build SC2 and the other Blizzard games.)
Two, derived from that, as I’ve noted before, the $15/month bears little relation to the real costs of making the game function. It’s likely an order of magnitude larger than necessary to even be profitable.
There are all sorts of tangents to be run from those key points, but they have been run before. This is just another piece of the puzzle that gives a bit more heft to previous suppositions.
Yes, it would be nice to see a price sheet of exactly what Chinese players *do* pay, so this *could* be more authoritative, but for the moment, I’m prepared to accept it at face value as an accurate assessment. If I’m wrong, well, more the fool me.
Tesh. I will agree with you that these numbers are better than most blog guesses but that “better” is a relative term. Market analysts often have a beef to grind or a product to push. Sometimes, when there is no reliable data, it’s better to simply say there is no data than to work off unreliable data. That’s my opinion when it comes to WoW.
Also, my foreign aid comment was a joke.
If anything, that analyst sounded like he sides with Blizzard, considering his optimism about how the game will pick back up after the Chinese providers sort things out. If an ally estimates Asian revenue for Blizzard at 6%, what would someone selling a competing product estimate it at?
Put another way, as Tipa notes, 6% might be sugarcoated a bit. That makes my takeaway points even stronger. No, these aren’t “gospel truth” numbers, but even looking at them through “weaselspeak” filters, they offer an interesting dichotomy between Western and Eastern WoW consumers.
Whether or not that dichotomy constitutes a tongue-in-cheek “foreign aid”, savvy business or snake oil sales is up for interpretation.
And, yes, I read that as a joke, but really, they are using WoW to fund other games, and Western subbers to make the bulk of their money. Apparently, Asia may well still be profitable, so we’re not subsidizing underperformers with our $15/month, but we certainly are playing the fool by overpaying, methinketh.
[…] for their World of Warcraft MMO. Those numbers have never struck me as being entirely honest. Via Tesh, this week it was revealed by Gamasutra that although Asia accounts for a paltry 6% of the total […]