World of Warcraft revenue helps Vivendi Universal level up!

Fresh numbers on the revenue performance of WoW can be gleamed from the earnings report of Blizzard's parent company Vivendi Universal:

Throughout the first half of 2005, Vivendi Universal Games' (VUG) revenues of EUR 238 million were 61% above the prior year (up 67% at constant currency). This increase was driven by the critically acclaimed subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft as well as the first quarter launch of Robots, the children's game based on the Robots movie released by Fox. World of Warcraft successfully launched commercially in Europe, Korea and China and continues to be the fastest-growing game in its category, achieving over 2 million customers via directly managed operations in North America, Europe and Korea, and 1.5 million paying customers in China (as of July 2005, with a commercial launch on June 7, 2005) in conjunction with local partner The9.

Revenue growth looks to be accelerating as they move into China:

For the second quarter of 2005, VUG's revenues of EUR 125 million were 76% above the prior year (up 83% at constant currency). This dramatic increase was driven by the success of World of Warcraft.

You can read all off the bean counter details here.

How much of this revenue is actually being crafted into profits? Stay tuned to this blog for a more detailed analysis in the coming weeks.

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Marvel still thinking Retail in an Online World.

Here is something cool:

Forty-four Fantastic Fours for forty-nine.

That’s 44 years of the Fantastic Four comics (including annuals) on ONE DVD for about $49.

The latest instant comic collection from Graphic Imaging Technology was released just about the time of the Fantastic Four movie. Enjoy the film? Why not fork over some more bucks and get every single FF adventure from 1961 to December, 2004? That’s 550 comics, 20,000 pages, on one very friendly package.

But I have to think it could be a lot cooler and profitable for Marvel if it was offered through a web-based subscription service instead. After all this is a company that got its start in the subscription business before it became Hollywood's IP gold mine.

All of the excitement over online Superhero games like City of Heroes and the recently announced Marvel and DC MMO projects points to the strong overlap between comic book buyers and online game subscribers.

Just imagine being able to browse the entire catalogue of Marvel back issues online, with hyperlinks between connected stories. The hard part of that work is already done because the bulk of Marvel stories are carefully anointed with little *'s and footnotes pointing to the relevant issue.

I'd pay for an all-you-can-eat subscription price or even a micro-transaction fee to browse such a service. They could even employ the evil "read the first 5 pages of any issue for free and then pay to read the rest" strategy.

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Microsoft to develop Marvel Superheros MMO for xbox 360!!!

It's shaping up to be a battle royale between SOE/DC vs MSFT/Marvel!

All I can say is "It's Clobberin' Time!"

Hot off the presses:

Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday it won exclusive rights to develop and publish multiplayer online games starring Marvel Enterprises Inc.'s super heroes, including Spider-man, the X-men and the Hulk.

The deal covers massively multiplayer online (MMO) game titles developed for Microsoft's upcoming Xbox 360 gaming console and published by the software giant's game studio.

The deal is Marvel's first MMO pact. The first title is expected in 2008.

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Tales from the Lite side :)

While most of the MMO related buzz has been focused on the bright lights glimmering off of all of the gold being generated in the latest online behemoth and its slimed down rival a number of ultra-lite players are making off with phat lewt :)



Dave Taylor's blog points to the joy that is Kart Rider! DDT writes:

One of the secrets of Kart Rider is that it's also a short game, perfect for a 5-10 minute break at work or as a break from a more demanding task. Compare that to the weeks or months of a full Everquest campaign or any of the other massively multiplayer worlds. Certainly Nexon knows quite well that there are manyfold more casual gamers and people online seeking a quick entertainment that's fun, funny and not particularly demanding. And, with an income last year of $110 million and a projected 2005 revenue of $250 million, they're right.

Over at Lost Garden you can read about another silent success story called Gunbound and Danc's take on what we can learn from the two. Here's a snip:

What are the common elements in our two examples that are likely to be the defining factors of this new genre?

* High production values using a neo-retro art style
* Quick and friendly game play
* Multiplayer
* Highly polished ranking system
* The ability to buy avatars and powerups at a small cost.

This seems to be a rather reasonable project to begin production on. There is a bit of investment in the server-side back end, but much less than is necessary for a game like WoW. The art costs go down since you are dealing with stylized assets. The game design is amendable to rapid prototyping since you are tuning a 5 to 15 minute experience instead of worrying about a 300 hour mega quest.

I'll throw in a few more "sleepers" that are also raking in big revenues:

South Korea's Cyworld



Finland's Habbo Hotel



Last but far least is Neopets which was recently aquired by MTV's parent company for $160M smackers.



It's easy to write these ultra-lite virtual spaces off as non-games or as non-MMO games but to do so is to miss out the next wave in online entertainment.

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"We’re still here you bastards!"

The crew that brought us Kung-Fu Chaos on the X-box is working on a Next-Gen console game. One of their founders has posted a blow-by-blow tale of the hardships of getting a Next-Gen game pitch from concept to a signed publishing deal. It is eight parts long but a highly recommended read for anyone crazy enough to think about doing a game startup.

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