World of Warcraft Operating Costs

Posted by Daeity On Sunday, August 8, 2010

There's a wealth of information out there on Blizzard's announcements or meetings that describe their cost of development and operating expenditures, however many of them are down-right contradictory.

Note: When I refer to Operating Costs by the way, I'm talking about EVERYTHING related to operating the WoW Servers and Employees (e.g. staffing, customer support, their Avaya phone switches & sets, HP servers, electricity, etc.)

Here are the top 5 common beliefs:

1. WoW cost $100 million for development and total upkeep for 4 years (Source)
2. WoW cost $200 million for development and total upkeep for 4 years (Source)
3. WoW cost $200 million for total upkeep but not development (Source)
4. WoW cost $100 million for development and/or total upkeep (Source)
5. WoW cost $63 million for development that took 4.5 years (Source)

If you read the articles and comments, you can certainly understand that there is a lot of confusion over this number.

Let's take the most expensive number - that WoW upkeep costs $200 million over 4 years (it's 47 months actually). On average, that's $4.25M per month.

That number seems extremely high considering that there are only ~2.5k servers (~15k blades / ~730 realms worldwide) utilized. Until that is, you read this:

"That's $200 million for the total cost of upkeep since the game's November 2004 release (presumably not including the initial cost to develop the game). This includes payroll for the entire staff, hardware support, and -- apparently the biggest infrastructure cost -- customer service."

That makes more sense: the biggest upkeep cost in that $200 million figure is customer service. So, that $4.25M per month figure is probably a lot less now considering that there have been significant numbers of lay-offs in the WoW offices and support teams, and that the server count has pretty much remained the same since the announcement.

Also, some Blizzard employees have stated that they have reduced yearly operating costs by $500,000 and have introduced new policies that have resulted in multi-millions of yearly loss reduction. (Link)

So it's safe to say that all World of Warcraft operating costs are at max $4.25 million per month. Realistically though, it's probably half of that amount or less now.

Keep this figure in mind, it's important for another post that I've been preparing. :)

Blizzard's Next Gen MMO - Another Update

Posted by Daeity On Saturday, August 7, 2010

It appears that Activision Blizzard's quarterly earnings report came out yesterday after my post, it actually addresses one of the updates I had provided in regards to Blizzard's Next-Gen MMO - ie, Activision is investing heavy into the new MMO, which will kick development into high gear "very soon" as previously stated.

They'll be moving employees over from other departments (e.g. Cataclysm team) within the next few months.

What's funny about the Activision Blizzard news release though, is that people think that this is "new" information. Hundreds of online news services have been posting that Blizzard's MMO will be based on a NEW IP which is apparently "new and exciting" information. That information however is actually over a year old.

So anyways, one item I forget to mention in the previous post was the release date for the game. As mentioned, even though they've been working on the "next-gen MMO" for 3 years - there hasn't been a lot of progress. Analysts have predicted that the game will be released by 2012 or 2013. However, at their current pace (although development will start increasing soon), a release date of 2015 is more likely (with beta testing in 2014).

A streaming MMO is a possibility for the next gen consoles (PS4/XBOX720) but I still have no confirmation on that from my source. There have only been some discussions and some unrelated experimentation (from the next gen MMO project). And there's basically no team tasked with creating it as of yet (not until they confirm that it can actually work well).

Other than that, Blizzard biggest concern for their product on next gen consoles is the interface.. if motion-tracking software is a bust (which it is), expect standard keyboard/mouse setups for the consoles. Blizzard will probably release customized kb/mouse hardware as well for the consoles. (Gotta milk revenue wherever you can right?)

Note: The reason I say motion-tracking tech (like Kinect) is a bust for their next-gen MMO is because it's not really applicable for twitch-based/fast-action combat. It's fine for dancing, jumping, and fun kids games.. but not a game with consequences and competition where accuracy of commands and every second is critical. As it stands, the retail product has been called very laggy, unresponsive, and inaccurate. Check out Microsoft's faked Starwars Kinect footage by the way.. the actor mimicked everything the character on the screen did (the entire exercise was probably practiced over-and-over to make it look real). It's not good when a product is constantly failing during demonstrations.

Serious WoW Gold-Making Strategies - Part 2

Posted by Daeity On Friday, August 6, 2010

Outside of Tailoring & Enchanting (previous post), Inscription is currently the best profession for making gold. However, it can be rather time consuming because there are so many people competing on the Auction House, and you have to monitor your sales every 30 minutes to ensure that no one is undercutting you.

If you're okay with that, investing 2-10G of mats and getting a return of 20-100G per Inscription is a very lucrative method. Especially with Cataclysm coming out soon, you can make a killing on low-to-mid level inscriptions.

The other method which I use quite often is Cross Faction AH Trading (2 accounts are required for this, so get a friend to help you out and you can split the profits.)

There are plenty of guides to trading Gems/Ores/Epic Recipes from one PVP faction to another, however all of the servers I am on have identical pricing on each others' Auction Houses. So, those Gold Making tricks have never worked for me.

However, what DOES work (and very well) are selling faction-exclusive recipes and pets.

1. [Recipe: Kaldorei Spider Kabob]

Create a new Night Elf toon (no leveling required), run to Dolanaar, and mail yourself 7 Small Spider Legs and 2 silver. Go to the Cooking trainer there, learn first recipe, then a quest appears. Accept it, turn in the Spider Legs for the recipe. This toon can then be deleted (and a new one created) once you mail the recipe to your primary character.

Transfer it through the Neutral AH to the Horde side and put on the Horde Auction House for 300-500G. This recipe also sells on the Alliance AH for 100-200G.

Most NE toons just learn this recipe when they first start out and forget all about it. It's hardly ever on the AH, and folks need the extremely rare recipe for their achievements.. they usually have gold to burn too. I buy out Spider Legs on both Auction Houses so that I can quickly mail the cooking quest requirements to each toon I create too.

2. [Recipe: Roasted Moongraze Tenderloin]

Same approach as above.
Create a new Draenei toon, level to 6, get "The Great Moongraze Hunt" quest from the hunter trainer at Azure Watch. Transfer through Neutral AH, sell on Horde AH for 300-500G. You might be able to get away with 1000G each, since it's even more rare than the Night Elf recipe.

3. Unlimited Supply Faction-Specific Cooking Recipes

Buy for pennies, sell on the opposite faction AH for 15-30G each. I typically sell 3-5 of EACH on a daily basis.

I usually just focus on the recipes sold by Kendor, because I can buy 12 or 24 at a time, mail them to my counterpart in Booty Bay to transfer through the Neutral AH. However, there are a ton of other "rare" faction-exclusive items below that you can also sell on the Neutral AH (have to sell much cheaper) or on the opposite faction side.

PURCHASE ON ALLIANCE SIDE:
[Recipe: Beer Basted Boar Ribs] - Sold by Kendor Kabonka
[Recipe: Blood Sausage] - Sold by Kendor Kabonka
[Recipe: Murloc Fin Soup] - Sold by Kendor Kabonka
[Recipe: Redridge Goulash] - Sold by Kendor Kabonka
[Recipe: Westfall Stew] - Sold by Kendor Kabonka
[Recipe: Seasoned Wolf Kabob] - Sold by Kendor Kabonka
[Recipe: Crocolisk Gumbo] - Sold by Kendor Kabonka
[Recipe: Crocolisk Steak] - Sold by Kendor Kabonka
[Recipe: Gooey Spider Cake] - Sold by Kendor Kabonka
[Recipe: Goretusk Liver Pie] - Sold by Kendor Kabonka
[Recipe: Fillet of Frenzy] - Sold by Laird
[Recipe: Loch Frenzy Delight] - Sold by Khara Deepwater
[Recipe: Clam Chowder] - Sold by Kriggon Talsone & Heldan Galesong
[Schematic: Blue Firework] - Sold by Gearcutter Cogspinner & Darian Singh (Sells for 25-40G each on Horde AH)
[Pattern: Black Whelp Cloak] - Sold by Clyde Ranthal
[Pattern: Black Whelp Tunic] - Sold by Amy Davenport
[Pattern: Herbalist's Gloves] - Sold by Harlown Darkweave
[Pattern: Raptor Hide Belt] - Sold by Androd Fadran
[Pattern: Red Whelp Gloves] - Sold by Wenna Silkbeard
[Pattern: Bright Yellow Shirt] - Sold by Danielle Zipstitch

PURCHASE ON HORDE SIDE:
[Recipe: Bat Bites] - Sold by Master Chef Mouldier
[Recipe: Crispy Bat Wing] - Sold by Abigail Shiel
[Recipe: Crispy Lizard Tail] - Sold by Tari'qa
[Recipe: Heavy Crocolisk Stew] - Sold by Ogg'marr
[Recipe: Lynx Steak] - Sold by Landraelanis
[Recipe: Roasted Kodo Meat] - Sold by Wunna Darkmane
[Recipe: Scorpid Surprise] - Sold by Grimtak
[Formula: Enchant Chest - Lesser Mana] - Sold by Kithas (Sells for 40G each on Alliance AH)
[Schematic: Red Firework] - Sold by Sovik (Sells for 25-40G each on Alliance AH)
[Pattern: Raptor Hide Harness] - Sold by Tunkk

4. Same approach as #3 but for Faction Exclusive Pets.

Snakes in Orgimmar (e.g. [Black Kingsnake]), for example, sell for 40-50G each on the Alliance side, and you can purchase an unlimited number of these. I sell 2-3 of each daily.

HORDE
[Crimson Snake] – Xan'tish, Orgrimmar
[Brown Snake] – Xan'tish, Orgrimmar
[Black Kingsnake] – Xan'tish, Orgrimmar
[Brown Prairie Dog] – Halpa, Thunderbluff
[Cockroach] – Jeremiah Payson, Undercity
[Golden Dragonhawk Hatchling] – Jilanne, Fairbreeze Village
[Red Dragonhawk Hatchling] – Jilanne, Fairbreeze Village
[Silver Dragonhawk Hatchling] – Jilanne, Fairbreeze Village
[Black Tabby] - Drops only from Alliance-friendly NPCs.

ALLIANCE
[Bombay] – Donni Anthania, Elwynn Forest
[Cornish Rex] – Donni Anthania, Elwynn Forest
[Orange Tabby] – Donni Anthania, Elwynn Forest
[Silver Tabby] – Donni Anthania, Elwynn Forest
[White Kitten] – Lil Timmy, Stormwind
[Snowshoe Rabbit] – Yarlyn Amberstill
[Great Horned Owl] – Shylenai, Darnassus
[Hawk Owl] – Shylenai, Darnassus
[Blue Moth] – Sixx, The Exodar
[White Moth] – Sixx, The Exodar
[Yellow Moth] – Sixx, The Exodar

There are also Parrots in Booty Bay, some people are too lazy to travel there to buy them or don't even know where they are sold. And the Argent Tournament pets sell for 1000-2000G each, but they require work and time to collect the required points to purchase.

5. [Recipe: Savory Deviate Delight]

My other favorite. I buy these on the Horde AH for 10-100G each, then sell on the Alliance AH for 900G. I can sell 1 or 2 daily easy.

6. Faction-exclusive even-more-rare recipes/plans. Time consuming, but high reward.

Create a new Deathknight character, run through the intro quests, and then level up their professions (options below) as quickly and cheaply as they can. Do the quest, get the reward (non-BOP recipe), and sell on the opposing faction's AH for big money. They will take a longer time to sell (because no one is ever looking for them), but you can sell for 2000-5000G because of their rareness. (Trade Chat announcements help.)

ALLIANCE SIDE:
[Plans: Golden Scale Gauntlets] - "The Origins of Smithing" (Req: Level 40, 205 BS)
[Plans: Heavy Copper Longsword] - "Supplying the Front" (Req: Level 12, 35 BS)
[Plans: Ironforge Breastplate] - "Gearing Redridge" (Req: Level 16, 100 BS)
[Recipe: Tasty Lion Steak] - "Costly Menace" (Req: Level 34, 150 Cooking)
[Pattern: Moonglow Vest] - "Moonglow Vest" (Req: Level 18, 90 Leatherworking)
HORDE SIDE:
[Recipe: Discolored Healing Potion] - "Wild Hearts" (Req: Level 11)
[Plans: Barbaric Iron Boots] - "Trampled Under Foot" (Req: Level 36, BS 140)
[Plans: Barbaric Iron Breastplate] - "Barbaric Battlements" (Req: Level 32, BS 140)
[Plans: Barbaric Iron Gloves] - "Joys of Omosh" (Req: Level 36, BS 140)
[Plans: Barbaric Iron Helm] - "Horns of Frenzy" (Req: Level 36, BS 140)
[Plans: Barbaric Iron Shoulders] - "On Iron Pauldrons" (Req: Level 32, BS 140)
[Pattern: Kodo Hide Bag] - "Kodo Hide Bag" (Req: Level 10, LW 10)

If you have no need for the recipes/plans, you could just use existing characters if they are high enough level.

As you can see, there are a ton of ways to do this. Use Auctioneer to determine which recipes are least available on the AH to find the most valuable and rare if you want. I just do a fraction of the amount listed above, but I can still pull in 3000G per day easily (1-2 hours work max, no boring grinding.)

I have no idea why gold farmers spend all of their time grinding when 10x the amount of gold can be made using the strategies I have posted. =]

The "Gnomish Cloaking Device" completely breaks you from combat when used - it's the engineer's Vanish or Shadowmeld and can be used to survive wipes, drop aggro, and leave combat.

The Gnomish Cloaking Device used to NOT break combat/lose aggro (it was previously useless) - but it was changed in an undocumented patch so not a lot of people know about it, which is why the device has been forgotten.

It requires 200 Engineering to use and the Limited Supply item is sold by Zan Shivsproket in the basement of Ravenholdt Manor. (Recipe sells for 15-25G on the AH by the way.)

What few people know, though, is that it allows for a new Rogue strategy: Keeping your normal stunlock rotation even if the target uses a PVP Trinket in the opening CS/KS moves!

You see, once the Cloaking Device breaks you from combat you are invisible for 10 seconds. During this time, you can refresh the duration another 18 seconds by popping an Invisibility pot (which can't be used while you are IN comat) OR simply go back into Stealth, re-equip gear, and then re-open with Cheap Shot. =]

This works great in PVP and I have tested many times with great success (and to their surprise). It's like having 2 Vanish skills available (or 3 with Preparation.)
  • Druids can also activate the Cloaking Device, jump back into Prowl mode (immediately or within 10 seconds before the Invisibility wears off) and re-open with their standard attack rotation.
  • Mages: Extra long Invisibility. 20s + 10s (w/ Glyph) + 10s Engineering trink + 15-18 second Invisibility Potion
Disadvantages:
  • 1 hour cooldown, can't be used in arenas.
  • You have to lose a Trinket slot for this.
  • Warlocks can see invisible players if they have the associated buff.
  • DOTs break invisibility (use Cloak of Shadows before popping.)
Other than that, this can be used in World PVP/BGs or in serious Duels (ie, for Gold). It catches players off-guard and typically causes a lot of confusion (especially when you "Vanish" 3 times).

Anyhow, it's a balancing act of big disadvantages and big advantages.. I'll leave it up to you to decide.