A few DCUO Population numbers

Sorry for the mix up, meant to say Columbus bought SoE for a cheap price.

Don't forget the DCUO is only one of the brands in library, with likely the biggest being the EQ brands specifically the coming EQ Next.

This doesn't really contribute to the population conversation but I thought it worth pointing out that I don't think the valuation of DCUO weighed as heavily as you think when SOE was spun off.

DCUO was SOE's biggest title except for Planetside 2. Everquest is close but i always felt the other two were more well known and played. So if the 2nd Flagship title is on the decline, the main Flagship game won't be far behind (Although it has 1000x less Micro Transactions)

I've not seen any revenue numbers that support that statement but even you're right, you're glossing over the fact that they years of investment developing EQ Next which has huge built-in brand recognition. So from an Income Statement perspective DCUO might weigh in (again assuming you are correct), however from a Balance Sheet perspective it is only one of many assets.

Really that all has very little to do with this thread's topic which is the population and whether it is an indication that the game is on life support. My short term hope continues that they'll announce the coming slate of content soon and that ought to mitigate some concerns.
However as far as I'm concerned the real kicker will be the combination of cross-play as well as XBox inclusion. If they can get that done sooner rather than later it would certainly inject a volume of players into the game that would make all of this a moot topic. Even then let's be honest, the nature of this game is that sooner or later they'll shutter it up and move on, so if and when that comes I'll move on to something else. I just don't think it will this year or any time in the immediate future.

The worry is not in the actual numbers but rather in the trends and relative positions, DCUO has one major disadvantage in terms of its financial model in that it is a licenced product, the IP costs before you do anything with it. Ironically this is the biggest selling point and most unique hook the game can exploit yet the one that recieves least attention (and least prominece post level 30). DLC needs break with the regimented generic cycle and make more of the DC in the title, because its something no other mmo can compete with.

Equally the design of the game emphasises certain problems, notably in this case the population, each DLC adds instances and raids that fragment and divde the player base isolating them from one another, even on a busy day the perception to new players can be of an empty world. We have some truely iconic and wonderfully realised envirnoments in DCUO.....we need more excuses to spend time in them, notably imo a DLC that adds day to day heroic acts and villainy making us active in the open world, bread and butter comicbook stuff rather than impossible to realise world shaping events, this way the sense of life and population is enhanced and encouraged.

In terms of game structure someone a while back coined the perfect phrase don't sell players stuff they need, sell us stuff we want. Exapnd the f2p game at least to tier 5 in terms of participating content but extract styles and the more esoteric drops to be exlcusive to p2p. Make superifical, style and power customisation what we pay for, within the powerset make how the players look something we can customise...even when doing the same thing combat wise there is everything to be gained by allwoing us to make ourself look cool individual and badass (ie does a water powerset need to be anything other than a reanimated fire power...use these shortcuts to mushroom the power choices while in the background mechanically differnt poweersets are developed etc).

The real point is that there is so much potential to be mined, the last few updates (well the last 20 or so) however have been taking backward steps, initially that was necessary to find the baseline for the game...but now urgently the direction needs to be reversed, break the regimented cycle of 'dlc=solo/duo/alert/raid in new instance' and capitalise on what we have now, send us back to gotham and Metropolis and expand central ciy (or even dedicate it to pvp), mix and match to create the idea of player indviduality and reward with more iconic DC meetings and joint ventures (let people battle alongside Batman....don't keep patornising the cheap common enemy idea for heroes and villians) etc.

Was meant to be sarcastic..not a native speaker maybe I shouldnt try
Numbers like 1.45kk are off. Only DB knows. I just wanted to point out that the current monetization and lack of players IMO might be a problem for the healthiness of the game IF the numbers presented by the OP arent completely wrong. (I think they are somewhat acurate)
Results COULD (for example) be ongoing hiding of elite gear behind ReplayBadges and the "DPS-Cycle"(RespecTokens) as well as DB only maintaining instead of improving the game in the long run-> Still no Crossplay, UI, PVP mess, broken content 2 month after GU..
Thats why I think even the "everything alright crowd" should at least admit that player numbers could be better.
As already mentioned before an improvement of the F2P- concept including the marketplace is badly needed to acquire new and satisfy existing players.

I am surprised the devs have not come here, just to take a look our something because this is one of the main corncerns of the community at the moment.

F

Funny thing is when someone asked where to buy Membership they had zero problem responding.

That question can be answered w/o players misconstruing and changing it to benefit their agenda.

Then again, apparently not.

The point is that when it came to them potentially making money, they responded instantly. But when it's something actually critical and important they ignore it. Stop white knighting them.

I'm a white knight because I pointed out that you were using it to your own point? Which you just said right now. "They ignore community issues, but if money is involved..."

If pointing out the flaws in conjecture and misconstrued information makes me a white knight, then okay, I'm a white knight.

They read the community posts. They don't respond because of what you just posted. You want them to respond, stop changing their words.

Then they need to man up. Hiding only makes it worse evidently. They could've stopped this when OP first posted. Simple as that.

:|

Man up to what? Anything, and I do mean _ANYTHING_ they say will be changed faster than a circle of kids playing telephone.