At this point, I feel like DCUO is carrying DC. Marvel is killing it with the new shows and has been with their movies. DC animated movies are far more popular than the live ones. In a 2011 report, DCUO has had a 700% in revenue increased since going free-to-play. Time-Capsules and artifacts have also been a great source of income and now that they announced they're going make the DLCs free while upgrading the membership, it stands to reason DCUO is doing incredibly well. ATnT potentially selling DC comics to Discovery and WB can open a lot of doors.
I get what you're saying but it's not really that way. The market for western comics ("western" as in US style as opposed to the eastern/Asian style) has been in a pretty steady decline over the last decade or so as manga has made ever-increasing strides here. Even with that, comics still makes DC a pretty penny. For May 2021 DC's unit sales on comics was $8M-$9M, that's roughly $90-$110M per year (giving some latitude to sales fluctuations). By contrast we know Daybreak's annual revenue was projected somewhere around $31M for FY2020 (data pulled from EG7's investor presentation from December 2020 as well as some paywalled sites). While DCUO accounted for the lion's share of Daybreak's profits, even if it accounted for 100% it still wouldn't cover half of what the comics sales bring in (and that's completely forgetting that DC/Warner/ATT gets only a cut of that $31M). When there is a show or movie out about a DC character, it drives interest in the comic(s) in which the character appears but it doesn't always drive people to play DCUO. While DCUO may contain that character, it isn't about that character thus it doesn't drive as much interest (well, that and DC Comics is horrible at doing cross-promotion of DCUO and has been for most of DCUO's run with the only real cross-promotion coming from DCUO itself and been to promote DC's broadcast offerings, but that's a whole other rant).
DCUO is perhaps, the lesser known DC project. I don't think people off the Street will known what DC Uuniserve Online is compared to WW or Batman Movies. Or even the shows..... It is not like WoW or Fortnite, that people who are not even into video games most likely heard of it. Speaking of Fortnite, isn't a Superman episode or whatever in the game?
One of the things I loved about the game was we got to play with the classic versions of DC's heroes and villains while DC Comics themselves began to implode by constantly rewriting continuity. It's minor, in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter but I would love to have Superman, Flash and Wonder Woman go back to using their classic looks.
We can discuss all day long the ins and outs....the pluses and minuses - of DC Universe Online. But this game IS a treasure - at least to ME. There is NO OTHER port out there like it. I hope that one day either WB Media, DC Comics or whomever can help bring this game even MORE to the mainstream. What OTHER game out there comes close to what DCUO offers? Why can't upcoming DC Movies offer a 30 sec cut scene of the game? With players playing it? Showcase the TON of Hero and Villain NPCs in it...showcase actual players styles, game play....the bosses...the storylines.... What would that hurt? I'd think that would be a win-win, to me.
WB/DC isn't under any obligation to advertise the game, though, and ad space isn't cheap. Chances are good that any responsibilities and costs for advertising fall to Daybreak/Dimensional Ink, and outside of the anomaly games like WoW you rarely if ever see widespread advertising for ten year old games. As a side note, I think there was a prime opportunity missed for at least some product placement advertising in the past. Warner Brothers was one of the studios behind The Big Bang Theory, and I'm sure they could have worked Sheldon's on-and-off feud with Wil Wheaton into Sheldon playing DCUO as a villain just so he could go after Wheaton's Robin. LOL Anyhow, I get the frustration when it comes to DCUO and advertising, but the situation is what it is.
This is sad but true. I get the impression that in an Alternate Reality where DC Universe Online is "Marvel Universe Online" advertisers and Disney would be ALL OVER IT....... I'd gather that Marvel Universe Online would be TWICE as big as it is NOW...more support...more advertising....more players...more resources..... Heck you ALREADY HAVE Marvel LEAGUES in this DC game LOOL......................with many COOL clones of popular Marvel characters.... It is like WB / DC Products - while potent in many SINGULAR regards - are ALL OVER THE PLACE and not UNIFIED......... Just a sad state of affairs.
I don't really question the amount of support Daybreak/DI gets from DC in terms of the IP. From what I understand there's a lot of back and forth and over the years DC has loosened up on some of the restrictions placed on the game. But as far as resources, support and advertising for the game, that all falls on the company making the game from what I can tell. And DCUO came into being in the SOE days, where they had at least two Everquest games, two Star Wars games, Planetside and some other projects that were being worked on. Had it been a situation like WoW where DCUO was the only MMO under the company banner or if there were fewer games being made by SOE at the time, more resources probably would have gone to DCUO. But that wasn't the case. DCUO was never really THE game for SOE, it was A game in their library of titles. And that trend may be continuing a bit. Even though they've gone quiet on the topic, there is another game that Dimensional Ink is working on right now. So some of the resources that might have gone towards DCUO development may have been directed towards the new/unnamed game. And while I do love me some Marvel stuff, after seeing all the ads placed on home video releases I think I could do without what could be a heavy hand on their part in a Marvel MMO. Every single mobile game ad looks to be referencing the movie of the moment for Marvel, and while that is fine it could be a bit tiresome to have to have EVERY content release for a Marvel MMO tie into the current project. I like that DCUO is a bit more free to go their own way on the game's story and content and not be terribly beholden to whatever media is coming out. It's just very easy for me to imagine Marvel being a little more heavy handed (and maybe too involved) in a Marvel MMO.
Perhaps you mentioned eastern comics (manga) as a comparison but I never once purchased a comic both physically or digitally. I however since this game went live have been spending money left and right and mind you comics aren't that expensive. In this day and age anyone can just watch comics for free on YouTube or other sources. DCUO at first wasn't free to play but it has been for some years now and even more soon to have free DLC's. I might not have the numbers as to how DC comics are doing right now but it's clear DC/WB/ATT isn't that impressive when you compare Marvel and Manga. The first Wonder Woman was really good, the second one was trash. Justice League sucked big time and it was only until the Synder version that it did some justice to it. Disrespecting Henry Cavil by removing him as Superman and hiring a different actor, BvS was not that interesting especially that version of Lex Luthor. Meanwhile all the marvel movies have been amazing, the new shows such as Wandavision, Loki, Falcon and the Winter Soldier and now Black Widow; c'mon.... Sure they announced a third season of Titans but really, there was so much hate about Starfire and the list goes on. Fortnite wasn't a thing when this game was announced yet they're going to include Superman on their meanwhile DCUO is getting tanked by fans because DC/WB/ATT can't let us have the emblem, before it was green lanterns but whatever..... DCeased was amazing except for the fact Deathstroke was mentioned to have a better healing factor than Superman in regards to the Anti-Life equation. UGH!!!! I honestly don't know what else to add but I do know I been supporting DCUO more than DC/WB/ATT supports their own license.
Marvel had two big advantages when it came to their films. First, they started small but built on what they had made. Each film after Iron Man not only used the world established in the first film and built more Marvel Universe aspects on it, but they also refined their formula on the story telling. Choosing the right directors to bring those stories to life fit in there as well, so even the weakest of the Marvel films (from a box office standpoint) still stands as a decent film. Second? They got the right person for the job of overseeing things. Feige has proven time and again that he knows what he's doing and that he at least got the source material. If he hadn't, he would have been gone long ago. And while Snyder is a good filmmaker, he was not the right person for overseeing DC's cinematic efforts. I shudder to think of what Shazam would have turned out to be if his influence had been in place. As I said he's a good filmmaker, but I don't think he quite got it when it comes to the source material. As far as what DC/WB/whoever owns it now goes? Their toys, their rules. They get to make the calls on what is done with the IP and how it can be used, and it doesn't have to make a lick of sense to us. We don't have to like what offerings they put out or the decisions they make. But we as fans do have to acknowledge that it's theirs to do with as they see fit. The most we can do is support the stuff we like and leave alone the stuff we don't.
Your initial premise was that DCUO was financially carrying DC Comics, my point was that your premise was incorrect. Unit sales of American comics (specifically DC, for this discussion) have been on a pretty steady decline for the last decade or so while other comics (like manga) are seeing a rise in sales. The point being that even with the decline in unit sales DC Comics generates far more money for itself than it makes off of DCUO (thus showing the err in your premise). My use of manga's increase in sales during the same period shows a continued interest in comics (thus the drop in sales isn't just from an overall waning of interest in comics in general). When you get into unit sales, Marvel and DC have both been suffering for around the same amount of time. The why's on that are a whooooooooooole other discussion (art, stories, price per comic, etc). That's been the saving grace for Marvel. Their cinematic offerings have been plentiful and are often exceptional from numerous standpoints and this has made them trainloads of money. Along with that though, when people see these offerings done in such an appealing way they are far more likely to want to play a game based around that universe than if the movie is utter crud (looking at you, Harley Quinn movie and Wonder Woman 1984). Don't get me started. No, really. I have another long, ranty post somewhere with the Zatanna VFX package from Fortnite where I suggested/complained how DCUO should have a dedicated team to making new emote and VFX packages (like re-skins for powers) and sell them for Station Cash. To date we still have nothing like this nor has there even been a public discussion of it by any Devs (at least that I know of). While I think we both agree there's a lot more DC/WB could be doing, I have to give credit where it's due and they have come a loooooong way from the game's first few years when word came from DC through the Devs and to us that we would "never" get iconic emblems (like GL, Batman, etc).
This needed to be stated again due to how very important it is for this topic. Marvel has a small group who oversees storywriting, themes, etc and looks years ahead to plan plots and such. DC is very "siloed" in that respect with lots of people running their own fiefdoms and no one really steering the ship fully (this is slightly true for the comics but exceptionally true for the cinematics). As an example, Ryan Reynolds mentioned this as part of his thoughts on why Green Lantern failed... This, along with various interests trying to tug the movie into various directions (comedy, action, dramedy, etc) brings us back to the point that one of DC's biggest cinematic issues is that no one person nor group seems to be fully in control of steering the ship.
It's not really, but I do agree on the part where I am also supporting the game alot, with my wallet or previously with the Gazette and currently with videos. But I was a DC Comics fan way before and this was my reason to start playing the game. I was introduced by a friend that he is more of a Marvel guy and while he doesn't play anymore I kept playing lol. I don't see DCUO as something that carries DC Comics or vise versa. It's kinda It's own thing and this is also cool. I wish it had more support from DC Comics, and was promoted on big DC Comics events. You never see DCUO there. Sometimes DC Comics will retweet or post about new episodes for DCUO, but this is pretty much it.
