Hamza CTZ Aziz, a writer at Destructoid, just posted an interesting article about how Blizzard is actually losing money at every BlizzCon event they throw. I guess it's not too surprising, but check out some of the details provided by Frank Pearce:
"Blizzard?s annual BlizzCon expo celebrating all things Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo isn?t as profitable as one might think. Despite selling 20,000 tickets at $125 a pop, a ton of merchandising at the con and the DirecTV deal, Blizzard didn't see any profits from the show.
Executive Vice President, Frank Pearce, spoke at Austin GDC yesterday where he opened up on the cost of the convention:
"BlizzCon is operated at a substantial loss for the company. It's a huge marketing opportunity, so that's the benefit we get out of that. But in terms of any kind of financial gain, it actually is a loss for us."
Frank wouldn?t go into details on how much is lost, but it?s got to be a pretty penny. GameSpot points out that Blizzard has to rent out the Anaheim Convention Center, provide around 2,000 PCs for demos and there?s all those cash prizes too. Plus, there?s the celebrity factor with Kerrigan's voice actress Tricia Helfer making an appearance along with Ozzy Osbourne?s concert.
It may have cost them a ton, but I?m sure the 11 million World of Warcraft players help Blizzard sleep at night.
FUN FACT TIME! Frank also gave an insight on some interesting numbers in relation to WoW:
"Put together, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game and its two expansions have 7,650 quests, 70,000 spells, 40,000 NPCs, 1.5 million assets, and 5.5 million lines of code, and requires 4,000 employees, 13,250 server blades, and 75,000 CPU cores." Holy sh*t!"
As stated in the article, it's hard to see the event as a total financial loss for them though when you consider the entire event is like one huge advertisement for their games. It gets people psyched up about what's to come and news from the convention spreads around like wildfire around the globe. Sounds less like a financial loss and more like a smart investment to me. What do you think?
Not suprising at all. For example, Sony actually takes a loss from every PS3 they sell but end up making up for it through a certain tax they charge to developers to release games (and since consoles usually have large game libraries, Sony can make a pretty pennie). The old saying is true here. You gotta spend money to make money. In Blizzard's case, the extreme amount of hype that is generated from a blizzcon pays off at release date with the lines of people at 12:00 a.m. at a gamestop waiting for the next WOW expansion or D3
Hmm, I never even thought of them making money by having the con. Of course there is a decent income from tickets and direct tv sales, but that's just to slightly reduce expenses. I assume Blizzcon is mostly just to build/maintain hype and promote an obsessive crowd that will pre-order and/or buy on the first day, not to mention spend money on things like collector's editions and various merchandise.
Like he said, its a financial loss, but it brings a hell of a lot of attention all over the world. Thats a damn good investment if anything. As said, not surprising. I never thought that they made any money out of it either.
Def not a loss really. Advertising costs tons of money. The fact that they can still retain over 2 million dollars from the event from the tickets alone seems worth it. Factor in the millions of views from Blizzcon footage seen online from youtube etc. Amazing marketing strategy
When D3 comes out, every Blizz employee is gonna be swimming in benjies...
Probably not "all" of their employees. lol
The hourly-paid ones might get a slight raise, but not much.
Only the ones who have an actual salary pay will see a significant gain.
I do think Blizzcon is a good advertising expo more than anything for the company. I'm pretty sure by the end of the year the get most of the money back in another form anyway.
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Watching 240 guys talk trash about cavaliers is like two retards having a slapfight over a sippy cup.
Rofl.. how is this news? Of course Blizzard make an (initial) loss on Blizzcon. The only (immediate) revenue they get is via ticket sales/direct tv but I am sure the hype blizzcon creates ensures a long term profit which is hard to predict but definitely in the millions and millions.
I agree its pretty obvious that they lose a good chunck of money at these events but their gonna get it back by the time D3 and SC2 come out.
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[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]"The lord of murder shall perish, but in his death he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny. Chaos shall be sown in their footsteps"
-So sayeth the wise Alaundo
Great investment from them as previously stated because it gains alot of hype for upcoming games and is a really huge marketing success. You need to spend money if order to accumulate money.
Really, the news that WoW has more spells than NPCs is more of a surprise to me than them losing money over Blizzcon. Of course they lose money over it, most succesful cons lose the hosts' money. Getting people to wanna buy and keep playing their games is more than enough compensation financially.
Interesting figures btw. But the spells count must be including all the different ranks for each skill, and probably monster skills too
Well put. It's simply a long-term investment. It's not a whole lot different from a TV ad.
Not trying to be a dick, but you put "through" as opposed to "throw" in the opening sentence of the thread. Just pointing it out because it's on the home page of the site. :thumbsup:
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Long, long time Diablo fan; short, short time with DiabloFans. USEast D2 Ladder/1.13 Beta: Accnt = ChezPizmo USEast WCIII Ladder: Accnt = TeeheeSprinkles A cool, unrelated video; "Dude Bids 420 on Price is Right" ("420, Bob") "I'm nasty, I'm old and a little bit ornery; I look like Patrick Stewart and sound like Sean Connery." Patch 1.13 = (click here)
God that pic you have freaks me out. I hope thats not somebody you know.
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[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]"The lord of murder shall perish, but in his death he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny. Chaos shall be sown in their footsteps"
-So sayeth the wise Alaundo
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]"The lord of murder shall perish, but in his death he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny. Chaos shall be sown in their footsteps"
-So sayeth the wise Alaundo
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]"The lord of murder shall perish, but in his death he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny. Chaos shall be sown in their footsteps"
-So sayeth the wise Alaundo
Long, long time Diablo fan; short, short time with DiabloFans. USEast D2 Ladder/1.13 Beta: Accnt = ChezPizmo USEast WCIII Ladder: Accnt = TeeheeSprinkles A cool, unrelated video; "Dude Bids 420 on Price is Right" ("420, Bob") "I'm nasty, I'm old and a little bit ornery; I look like Patrick Stewart and sound like Sean Connery." Patch 1.13 = (click here)
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As stated in the article, it's hard to see the event as a total financial loss for them though when you consider the entire event is like one huge advertisement for their games. It gets people psyched up about what's to come and news from the convention spreads around like wildfire around the globe. Sounds less like a financial loss and more like a smart investment to me. What do you think?
And I do agree that this is a clever way to advertise, despite the initial "loss".
Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals... except the weasel.
- Homer Simpson
Signature and avatar courtesy of Indestructible.
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Stay awhile, and listen.
which company makes money paying for advertisements?
it is just an investment for a future return
Probably not "all" of their employees. lol
The hourly-paid ones might get a slight raise, but not much.
Only the ones who have an actual salary pay will see a significant gain.
I do think Blizzcon is a good advertising expo more than anything for the company. I'm pretty sure by the end of the year the get most of the money back in another form anyway.
-So sayeth the wise Alaundo
Well put. It's simply a long-term investment. It's not a whole lot different from a TV ad.
USEast D2 Ladder/1.13 Beta: Accnt = ChezPizmo
USEast WCIII Ladder: Accnt = TeeheeSprinkles
A cool, unrelated video; "Dude Bids 420 on Price is Right" ("420, Bob")
"I'm nasty, I'm old and a little bit ornery; I look like Patrick Stewart and sound like Sean Connery."
Patch 1.13 = (click here)
-So sayeth the wise Alaundo
-So sayeth the wise Alaundo
or does 1 bracket count as a line?
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
-So sayeth the wise Alaundo
Lmao! Nope. Thankfully not. That's a picture of Eric the Midget... I'm sorry, Ac-ac-actor.
Best thing to do is just google it a lil.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_the_Midget
http://www.bigfatrhino.com/ericflys.html
USEast D2 Ladder/1.13 Beta: Accnt = ChezPizmo
USEast WCIII Ladder: Accnt = TeeheeSprinkles
A cool, unrelated video; "Dude Bids 420 on Price is Right" ("420, Bob")
"I'm nasty, I'm old and a little bit ornery; I look like Patrick Stewart and sound like Sean Connery."
Patch 1.13 = (click here)