I suspect PS2 has lost SOE money?

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Nurath, Jan 31, 2013.

  1. Salryc

    And many of us disagree. I've spent approximately $150 on this game. My husband has also spent a similar amount. That's roughly $300 from my household alone. Why? Because it's a fun game, with limited time commitments (play 10 minutes or 4 hours, and you get enjoyment with out the lack of rewards some games have for short time log ins).

    You see, to me, it's worth it to spend that money, because it's a lot cheaper than dinner and a movie, makes us happier to do, doesn't require nearly the same planning and commitment to pull off, plus our investment is still there the next week (Yep, I still have ever gun and camo I've purchased). Have you ever looked at the price of common "couples" activities? Eesh! This is definitely a good value.

    I think those graphs show that the "new" has worn off a bit. Less people are playing 12 hours a day, and from anecdotal evidence, this appears to be because the player base is older than the typical shooter. We still have trash to put out, dishes to clean, and jobs to wake up and get our behinds to. Playing a few hours here and there is feasible, but during the winter holidays we had more time off, more time to sit around and game all day (and it's a great way to avoid the inlaws).

    I still have items I want to purchase (need more weapons for my MAX, haven't even started on LA yet, gonna need new camo once the next continent is released, etc), but being a responsible adult, I find this to be a cheap hobby!
    • Up x 5
  2. LordMondando

    1) Steam grapths is crap.
    http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/...ding-to-steamgraphs.86690/page-2#post-1136980

    2) No telling what percentage of the player base actually uses steam, or if it is even in the majority.
  3. mina5

    i think it SOE is doing well . even when path is not smooth (hacks,bugs,ALL THE GUNS LOOK SAME etc.).
    and i hope it will do well for many years to come .
    for me PS2 is only mmo what i like .PS2 is one of the best games for me in very long time. And i hope to see it after 5 years.
  4. PsyStorm

    I love this game and have spent money on alpha, 6month membership, boosts every week and about $300 or so in ststion cash. I started out playing mostly infiltrator then moved to engineer and the magrider. I keep finding other classes that interest me so invested on the scythe, combat medic and light assault!

    This game has many ways to enjoy it and my main issue is the infiltrator and some base configurations. Once the next patch is out I suspect I will be even more happy. Also want to add that I installed the game with steam and without. I never use steam anymore so I would be one of those negative figures. I would like to see a cert refund since I wasted so many certs on the infiltrator and Sony is not even acknowledging our masive amounts of threads!
  5. Phaze

    Who knows... there are probably a lot of important things going on with PS2 beyond just a bottom line #.

    It certainly doesn't FEEL like a disappointing launch.
  6. Hot Kinky Jo

    My partner and I have and still do play a number of pay to play games, we are also 4+ years financial members of a gaming group caled SAW or Soldiers At War, predominantly a Day of Defeat group but we have over 12 servers we own running CS, DOD, Left 4 Dead, Battlefield 3 and many other games, some are started as needed, this costs us approx $10 every 3 months.
    The other pay to play games have cost us around $5-15 per month to play ea.
    A Couple of the MMORPG games we have invested in closed shop and are no longer available.

    The model here is good free to play and its your choice if you want to pay to unlock or just get CP so if your happy to pay that, its your choice but you should try some of the other pay to play games there are good ones out there, but we have found the social aspect of gaming is what makes the game more so then the game.

    Once i work out what characters and how i intend on playing them i will spend about $50 on PS2 but I just cant see anything that great about PS2 worthy of spending that amount of money you or some of the others have on the game.

    Cheers.
  7. Ianneman

    Holy hell those graphs really do tell the tale of PS2
  8. maxkeiser

    Agree. Good post.
  9. ScarabParamit

    I would even pay 100$ for this, but as it is right now i will never pay a dime.

    BTW...Next time use Caps-Lock, i almost missed Your Post ;-)
  10. centurionvi

    Damn near every Walmart in the country was sold out of SC cards for the 3x sale, I doubt they're hurting.
  11. Neopopulas

    I for one, don't use steam - i shut down EVERYTHING i can to get the most out of PS2 - so i'm sure that isn't accurately displaying all players anyway.
  12. Locke

    I think the game has a bit of a crisis of identity at the moment. There isn't enough of a "meta game" for people who want that sort of strategic game to be satisfied but at the same time it doesn't appeal to those who have the K/D mentality with its big random battles and vastly different strength weapons (particularly those who just farmed with aircraft for a month straight to get ridiculous k/d). I really think SOE should of run a longer beta and released in early January rather than having that big gap over Christmas and the New Year post-launch where nothing was going on in terms of developer community relations or game updates. Maybe slightly less people would of tried it initially but maybe more would of stayed.

    Hopefully the "Road Map" additions will really help to bring more people back. I guess its going to be partly down to the players to spread the word about improvements but also SOE needs to make sure they are investing some money in continuous marketing.
  13. Gumbo

    I'm not a kid. I'm a 40 year old adult who has a good job, my own 2 bedroom flat that is 3 years away from being paid for. I'm in no way elitist.

    I go out up the pub every Saturday with my mates and a play games online.
    • Up x 2
  14. Crywalker

    Same, assuming the game looked like it'd stay active for a long time. Which I'm not sure about with PS2.
  15. Typheran

    So? what is your point? Do you know why some T.V. Shows are canceled? You don't have a say in it, but it happens. Companies use a number of family's with special cable boxes that report what they watch. The T.V. companies then use that information to decide what is worth keeping and what is worth canceling.They use those family's as a microcosm of the population as a whole.

    Xfire and Steam are just the same. A good chunk of people that play this game DO use those, and while it isn't a precise number it DOES reflect trends of players in the game.

    Ignoring those numbers would just be stupid.


    With all that said... I'd actually very those numbers as people migrating away from a new game. It happens with every game. The initial flash draws them in, but they quickly go away to the next new game. I do however realize that mismanagement of the free 2 play model and hacking probably add a good chunk of those players too.
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  16. HannaDest

    You are close to an age where the "inner kid" comes out again. His point is henceforth valid. :p
  17. Hodo

    Considering not everyone uses either of those to play PS2, basing any assumptions on playerbase based on two sources that do not cover 50% of the total population of the game is a fail.

    And I feel that its quite the opposite. SOE has probably made money on PS2. I doubt it has been a financial windfall but it has more than likely broke even if not better.

    I feel the F2P/P2P model is done quite well, it isnt OP to those who spend money on the game, and its not unplayable as a F2P player. And there are things in game that you "want" to spend money on.
  18. Morpholine

    Unscientific method:

    Log in, begin playing.

    Count how many people (friendlies and enemies) are using a camouflage of any type. It may be easier to count the ones that are not.

    Realize every single one of those camouflage patterns was purchased with Station Cash, and most of those players have likely spent even more cash in other areas not as easily differentiated from a free player. All of which is revenue to SOE.

    Realize 100% free players are a very, very small minority of the PS2 population.
    • Up x 1
  19. Zapier

    And what is your point? You do know why most, if not all, T.V. shows are not initially aired during the holidays? You do know why most shows actually stopped even airing new episodes during the holidays and would instead take a 2 or 3 week (sometimes even a couple months in the case of those mid-season 'breaks') hiatus? Because, they realize the holidays are not a good time to hook an accurate fanbase.

    Games and MMOs are much different in that regard. Put it out during the holidays and you can expect more people to try it, spend money on it, gift things related to it, etc. Hook as many as you can while people have the time and then wait to see where the numbers stabilize at. If you believe SOE or any gaming company doesn't anticipate losing potential customers after big decisions or initial launches, then you aren't doing your homework.

    Hell, I cancelled my subscription to Netflix after the crazy price hiking (and poor content left), as did many people. There were even people who were calling it the end of Netflix, yet I still see them out there. They anticipated losing many people after that decision. Maybe not as many as they did, yet they're still living the dream. I suspect that's similar to SOE's feeling.
  20. Cl1mh4224rd

    I haven't had any problems and I've been using Steam since a day after PS2's launch (minus a few experiments).

    It's a bit wrong to state that the game "runs through Steam". Steam is essentially a launcher for the game, nothing more. If you're tight on resources, though, I can understand not wanting Steam running in the background. However, before my system upgrade, even running PS2 without Steam didn't give any noticeable increases in the game's performance.

    That's a result of the dates he selected. Here's the graph starting from PS2's release: http://steamgraph.net/index.php?action=graph&jstime=1&appid=218230&from=1353301200000&to=End Time