Congrats to Anet and the GW2 team! Best Quarter in a long time!

[Teratus.2859]

42 minutes ago, DrKoss.9023 said:

Meanwhile NCsoft lost more than half of its earnings year to year. GW2 is but a drop in a bucket compared to other NC titles. This should be concerning. If NCsoft goes down, so does ArenaNet.

I'm sure there is another publisher out there that would be willing to buy up Anet if NCsoft went down.
Gw2 is a game worth saving in that scenario, but I doubt it would come to that.

[DrKoss.9023]

14 minutes ago, Teratus.2859 said:

I'm sure there is another publisher out there that would be willing to buy up Anet if NCsoft went down.
Gw2 is a game worth saving in that scenario, but I doubt it would come to that.

 

Do we have any indication of ncsoft willing to sell?

[Teratus.2859]

Just now, DrKoss.9023 said:

 

Do we have any indication of ncsoft willing to sell?

They wouldn't really have much of a choice in that situation if they wanted to save their company and there was a buyer willing to make a deal with them.

As I said though, I highly doubt that something like this is gonna happen anytime soon 🙂 

[ChronoPinoyX.7923]

1 minute ago, Teratus.2859 said:

They wouldn't really have much of a choice in that situation if they wanted to save their company and there was a buyer willing to make a deal with them.

As I said though, I highly doubt that something like this is gonna happen anytime soon 🙂 

Considering the fact that only GW2 profited in any capacity in Q3 this year whilst all others made marginable losses, they're gonna hug ANet as tightly as possible lel 

[DrKoss.9023]

12 minutes ago, Teratus.2859 said:

They wouldn't really have much of a choice in that situation if they wanted to save their company and there was a buyer willing to make a deal with them.

As I said though, I highly doubt that something like this is gonna happen anytime soon 🙂 

 

NCsoft earning less is not only dangerous because of shut down, which is unlikely at this point. But if big daddy has less money, anet will get smaller budget. Especially that gw2 is pretty small part of their earnings cake compared to other titles - that makes them easy target for cost reduction.

Edited November 11, 2021 by DrKoss.9023

[Infusion.7149]

Don't quit your day job to become an analyst.

[Esorono.1039]

The game is doing fine, the X-Pack might not sell as much as PoF, as that expansion gives you the best mobility and the best overall E-Specs in the game, while EoD only gives you fishing and lukewarm E-Specs. But it is still one of the highest played MMORPGs out there. Poor X-Pack or not, expansions sell and provide content, and many will buy it for the story alone. I don't agree with this, especially since this X-Pack is coming directly after IBS and are leaning too heavily on story considering how badly that panned out and if EoD's story is bad on top of the boring features and lukewarm E-Specs THEN that might hurt them in the future. So I am really hoping that A-Net is doing their usual "Let's see how badly we can market this game!" strategy and hiding something actually big or game changing from us that gives us more than an rp or nostalgia reason to buy it.

So what I am saying is that this game is not dead, or dying, but the Covid plus Layoffs really hurt EoD and it shows badly. It's still going to sell though. Even if you don't like anything shown in EoD so far (like me), I have seen enough Canthan Raptors to know that it is selling a lot. I just hope they don't get the idea that if EoD sells, they can sell us anything, because that will actually hurt the game in the long run, and while it makes several frustrating mistakes like the first ever trailer being live action with absolutely nothing to do with GW2 or even gaming and then spoiling Zhaitan for us. I don't even think it ever even mentioned what GW2 was, anyone who didn't already know what GW2 was who saw that trailer were likely very confused. The actual gameplay of GW2 is solid, and rather varied and easy to get into. Basically the most casual friendly MMO out there, which is a rather large untapped market, if some one was to ask me "I like MMORPGs, but my work eats all my time up! Which one should I play?" I can very easily point them towards GW2.

[Blocki.4931]

I haven't even bought it yet myself.

What's really lowering the numbers is the fact we don't get anything new until then besides the return achievements and minor updates/wvw stuff.

[sewenewes.4176]

2 hours ago, Thereon.3495 said:

'We’re assuming that End of Dragons preorders aren’t realized in these figures yet, but the summer reveals and recent expansion beta events, coupled with the mass-exodus from a certain rival MMORPG, have pushed players to the game with their wallets in tow. All in all, it’s an excellent place to be as ArenaNet marches on to its February 2022 launch.'

There is just that one word. Hm.

2 hours ago, Thereon.3495 said:

assuming

Ah, yes! The bane of fact checkers everywhere.

Anyway, the game is doing alright overall. It's likely never going to see as many active players as it had during its peak but that's natural and understandable. Not only is the engine old and the game starting to look a little outdated while the performance still lags behind but it was also not a massively well-known or popular IP to begin with. The population of MMORPGs have been dropping off across the board for years now. The genre has lost a lot of its former popularity.

With all that in mind, Guild Wars 2 is actually doing well. Not outstanding but not abysmal either. Hopefully they can continue this game for many more years to come, now that the team is focusing on it with all decks on hand.

Edited November 11, 2021 by ewenness.6482

[Swagger.1459]

3 hours ago, Andy.5981 said:

You must be joking.

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/104416-cant-launch-game-after-the-november-9-2021-update/page/28/?tab=comments#comment-1509888

28 pages of people unable to log in since 9th November Patch and not ONE SINGLE post from Anet on their own forums explaining

A) Why its happening
B) What they are going to do about it

Total radio silence.

 

You mean that thread that was created 3 years ago, where some recent posts were merged to it? 
 

Yeah, Okie dokie. 

[Shadowmoon.7986]

Xpacs improve sells who would have guess. Imagine if ibs was a expac not a ls season. Could have done GV like silverwastes and release all 4 zones 9 month latter.

Compare that to how half the content got gutted after it started failing after episode 2. 

[Gregg.3970]

1 hour ago, Infusion.7149 said:

Don't quit your day job to become an analyst.

^^ this 🙂

[Andy.5981]

18 minutes ago, Swagger.1459 said:

You mean that thread that was created 3 years ago, where some recent posts were merged to it? 
 

Yeah, Okie dokie. 

Yeah not quite sure how or why the thread was merged into one three years old, but if you could be bothered to check the first few posts only the first 8 are old ones. The rest date from Tuesday.

Okie dokie....

[Vayne.8563]

3 hours ago, radda.8920 said:

 

It is necessary to compare with the other extensions.

Or you could do research and find that traditionally, including with Guild Wars previous expansions, the preorders didn't count as income until launch.

[Pixelninja.6971]

Grats on the best quarter in years. But sad news for PC gaming; one of NC soft's mobile game made 50% more money than their whole PC games portfolio.

 

NC Soft Q3 2021

[Firebeard.1746]

4 hours ago, DrKoss.9023 said:

Meanwhile NCsoft lost more than half of its earnings year to year. GW2 is but a drop in a bucket compared to other NC titles. This should be concerning. If NCsoft goes down, so does ArenaNet.

The legend was the steam release was an acquisition of Anet by valve. NCsoft changed their mind later on. Probably because someone woke up and realized 2020 showed the game actually had earning potential. But if the legends from guidlies are true, I'm sorely depressed. NCsoft is a leech of a publisher. They destroyed the anet team single-handedly, crippled the game and its development all throughout IBS and only recently reneged because of an expansion. In tech, you have to spend to innovate to beat competition, but this publisher does not realize that. 

I feel like valve would have been more hands-off and allowed anet to recover and produce stuff we like. We haven't had a good release since Bjora marches and even then, reception was lukewarm because of broken promises of expansion-like features. 

 

[Vayne.8563]

11 minutes ago, Firebeard.1746 said:

The legend was the steam release was an acquisition of Anet by valve. NCsoft changed their mind later on. Probably because someone woke up and realized 2020 showed the game actually had earning potential. But if the legends from guidlies are true, I'm sorely depressed. NCsoft is a leech of a publisher. They destroyed the anet team single-handedly, crippled the game and its development all throughout IBS and only recently reneged because of an expansion. In tech, you have to spend to innovate to beat competition, but this publisher does not realize that. 

I feel like valve would have been more hands-off and allowed anet to recover and produce stuff we like. We haven't had a good release since Bjora marches and even then, reception was lukewarm because of broken promises of expansion-like features. 

 

 I think you have this wrong.  NcSoft has always been in favor of expansions and it's been Anet that has been against them. Anet was always sayng they could deliver expansion level content through the living world.  At past stockholder meetings, NcSoft said an expansion was coming and Anet said it wasn't at the same time.

Also, for years, NcSoft didn't really involve itself in Guild Wars 2, until it went off the rails. The real reason the game went off the rails in my opinion is bigger companies hiring away key developers, making everything take a step backwards. Reorganization always does this. 

I mean Amazon opened the doors down the street from Anet, hiring away a decent amount of devs. Most of the amazon games were canceled and some of those devs have returned, and now we're seeing some better communication and projects moving forward.

It's easy to heap blame on NcSoft, they're a soft target, a big greedy company.  But what evidence do we have that the fault lies with them?  

[Wrain.6792]

Game is growing...not sure what this poster is trying to start.

 

I see more and more returning players such as myself, and its just fun.  NOT happy with the lack of PVP content/updates.  They have dead WvW maps which could sooooo easily be updated and would bring over even more players.

 

But overall the game is fun/engaging/good.

 

good time to be playing.

[Firebeard.1746]

9 minutes ago, Vayne.8563 said:

It's easy to heap blame on NcSoft, they're a soft target, a big greedy company.  But what evidence do we have that the fault lies with them?  

I don't have names off the top of my head, but I remember hearing in either streams or news, that anet has hired back some of the key devs they had to fire during that layoff period. To me, that indicates that NCSoft went overboard. And my understanding was that NCSoft was the one who initiating the firings, not Anet. So to me, that indicates the publisher did not have enough core knowledge about the company/game they're managing to do it well. It may have gone off the rails, but NCSoft's behavior derailed them further. There was also additional dev exodus after the initial round and my understanding was that it was morale-related. So to me that indicates that NCSoft gutted the team and what they had left did not feel they could continue. 

Edited November 12, 2021 by Firebeard.1746

[Vayne.8563]

28 minutes ago, Firebeard.1746 said:

I don't have names off the top of my head, but I remember hearing in either streams or news, that anet has hired back some of the key devs they had to fire during that layoff period. To me, that indicates that NCSoft went overboard. And my understanding was that NCSoft was the one who initiating the firings, not Anet. So to me, that indicates the publisher did not have enough core knowledge about the company/game they're managing to do it well. It may have gone off the rails, but NCSoft's behavior derailed them further. There was also additional dev exodus after the initial round and my understanding was that it was morale-related. So to me that indicates that NCSoft gutted the team and what they had left did not feel they could continue. 

Most of the devs that were fired weren't working on Guild Wars 2 at all. They were working on other projects. Many of them were hired just to work on those projects and never worked on Guild Wars 2.  Did NcSoft go overboard?  Maybe. But the game was in a downward slope before the lay offs, possibly due to so many devs being taken off Guild Wars 2 to work on new projects.

We don't know if Anet made those decisions or NcSoft did, but I suspect it was Anet.

[Firebeard.1746]

56 minutes ago, Vayne.8563 said:

Most of the devs that were fired weren't working on Guild Wars 2 at all. They were working on other projects. Many of them were hired just to work on those projects and never worked on Guild Wars 2.  Did NcSoft go overboard?  Maybe. But the game was in a downward slope before the lay offs, possibly due to so many devs being taken off Guild Wars 2 to work on new projects.

We don't know if Anet made those decisions or NcSoft did, but I suspect it was Anet.

Whether they were working on it is irrelevant: It's obvious they were needed for the project and let go. I still think Valve would have done a better job of both not destroying the world while "fixing" things and providing direction. They have a few successful games of their own. Now what I know about the supposed acquisition was just a rumor though, it might not be real. 

Edited November 12, 2021 by Firebeard.1746

[Swagger.1459]

7 hours ago, Andy.5981 said:

Thank you for pointing out those two posts,.

The  being raised by me was that there are no explainations as to why its happening. It doesnt have to be super detailed but an explaination as to why some people are being affected and not others would be nice and secondly what sort of time frame are we looking at for a fix, a day, two days, a week? 

Surely they could take a minute to post that sort of information.

Ummm, well, it takes time to investigate and troubleshoot issues. Learn to be patient. 

[Swagger.1459]

4 hours ago, Andy.5981 said:

Yeah not quite sure how or why the thread was merged into one three years old, but if you could be bothered to check the first few posts only the first 8 are old ones. The rest date from Tuesday.

Okie dokie....

Bc they merged multiple threads. If you could be bothered you would have realized that those 28 pages were the accumulation of 3 years. Also, if you could be bothered to look for dev posts, then someone wouldn’t have had to point it out to you. 
 

Bashing Anet doesn’t resolve the problem quicker.

Edited November 12, 2021 by Swagger.1459

[Dante.1508]

9 hours ago, radda.8920 said:

The new assessment with the famous Q3 which contains the launch of EoD in pre-purchase with the deluxe / collectors.

It's pretty downright mediocre ... Going from 16 to 19k, not even 20% increase. Besides the previous expansions had a much larger increase and PoF had risen to 25k. There's really 0 hype for the extension.

 

https://i.redd.it/sorpps2fdzy71.jpg

Have you seen what they've shown us so far... Of course there is no hype.

Strange rehashed class specs that are a chore to play and do next to no damage in the cc based game play, Fishing off a boat!, (i know my dream come true.. not!) Cantha that looks nothing like what we played in GW1.. (looks like some Charr story only green) rehashed living story and endless overpriced cash shop stuff..

Zero new classes, Zero new races.. Really not that much hype for my money spent..

So yeah doing well there Anet..

Edited November 12, 2021 by Dante.1508

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

There's an explanation Dev post regarding the off-topic concerns.  Check the Dev Tracker often.