Monday, December 13, 2010

Is KingsIsle Slowly Declining?

Hey Everyone,

So I'm kinda bored right now, so I've decided to rant about something I've been seeing a lot lately on Central.

I've been seeing a lot of posts by people saying two things, "KingsIsle is charging too much money for they're overall income in general," as well as, "KingsIsle's income is slowly decreasing over time and eventually [and by eventually I mean in about two or three years] W101 will have to stop making expansions and go free to play". Now, let me first answer the first quote with my opinion. Me and a friend were actually talking about something very similar to this. I found out I'm getting an Xbox 360 for Christmas, and I was mentioning how, back in the day of Play Station 2, new games were $50, whereas new Xbox games are usually $60. My friend was explaining to me that yeah, it is a lot of money to pay for a game, but think about it; do you know how much time, work, and money is put into making that game? It's nothing easy. Plus, when you have to hire people for voice acting, music, animators, etc, it rings up a bill.

So yeah, whoever thinks KingsIsle is charging too much, I'd bet that they actually aren't even making that much of an income. Another factor that can be debated all on its on is the fact that they have constant maintenance 24/7. If you are having a problem in game or have a question, Mr. Lincoln is always available to email. This gets to be extremely costly as well. A good example of this would be the difference between PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. Graphic wise and glitch wise, the Xbox Live experience is better compared with the PSN experience, due to the fact that people who maintain the XBL servers are paid via people with XBL, and PSN is never really updated due to the fact that it's free.

Now, the next fact is debatable. I'm going to present both sides of the argument, and I would like you, my readers, to respond. Please comment on this, as I someday wish to work for KingsIsle, so it would be nice to know opinions as to whether it would be a wise choice to lean to KI or to lean towards another company.

Anywho, so supporting arguments that KI isn't going down the drain:
  • They have had a lot of job openings up recently.
  • They have a "second project" coming up, which I REALLY hope to see soon.
  • They have a whole new Story Arc coming up for W101
  • They currently have over 10 million subscribers, and thats not even including crowns players.
So that's pretty much all I can think of for pros. Now let's look at the cons:
  • KingsIsle also cut a lot of jobs last year.
  • The "second project" was announced a while ago, but could have been put on hold due to the facts that they might not have enough money OR that they are struggling to come up with new content for avid players of W101 seeking more.
  • Their higher level wizard subscriber numbers are declining due to the fact that they are becoming bored.
If you actually look at the list, there is more quantity in Pros, but I don't know; Cons seem to have more thought put into them. What do you think? Off to Celestia!

P.D.

P.S: Expect some tips for each school coming up soon! :D


4 comments:

  1. Dude, a bit harsh? (Below)

    So yeah, whoever thinks KingsIsle is charging too much, I'd bet that they actually aren't even making that much of an income.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It wasn't meant to be harsh. It was meant to say that a big factor of why KingsIsle keeps running W101 is probably because they want to entertain their players. Wasn't meant to be harsh at all.

    ReplyDelete
  3. He's probebly right Celestia alone took like a year to make and thats why they needed to make the gift card 40 dollars to make up for the new world, spells, equitment, gardening, updates think about it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Eh, there have always been complainers. Just ignore them, and continue to have fun playing the game. :)

    ReplyDelete