As a game that was able to claim over 1 million users before it even shipped back in March 2011, Rift’s success was nearly assured. A couple of new pieces of information have recently come to light, expanding on that pronouncement and setting the stage for Trion Worlds’ MMO future.

Fact number 1 is that Rift earned over $100 million USD in 2011. Because they didn’t release until the end of the fourth quarter, that means that they actually brought in over $100 million in only nine months. Extrapolate that out see ”what if” they’d had a full year, and the number jumps to over $133 million USD. Yeah, we’ll call that a success.

Or should we?

It depends, of course, on how much the team at Trion spent developing and publishing the title, including expenses to continue maintaining the servers, pay GMs and community managers to police the forums and in-game activities, and work on upcoming content that may or may not eventually make it into the game. In order to explain this more fully, here’s a quick accounting terminology lesson:

• Revenue – the sales price, money coming in. Includes download fees, retail boxes, and monthly subs.
• Cost of Goods Sold – this is where you total up all your research and development costs, as well as computer equipment and software to make the game.
• Overhead – what it costs to keep a roof over the dev team’s head, complete with electricity and running water.
• Profit – the revenue minus the CoGS and the overhead. That’s the number we’re really looking for, because who cares if you sell something for a million dollars if it cost you two million to make it?

Trion Worlds is not a publicly traded company. That means you can’t buy stock in it, and they don’t have to publish their financial details. For this reason, we can’t really know whether or not the game is a financial success. However, fact number two is this: Trion has repeatedly said the game is raking in the cash, and there was even a rumor of them filing for an IPO — that’s an initial public offering, and would mean that the company would be going publicly traded. In fact, CEO Lars Buttler told the press back in October 2011 that it’s going to happen at some point in the future. He also said that the game is profitable, and we can only hope that was an honest statement.

While Rift is the first game that Trion Worlds has put out, it isn’t intended to be the only one. In fact, there’s an MMORTS in the works as we speak called End of Nations. Trion is also working on a service called Red Door, which will be a publishing portal for third party developers. That may help them keep generating revenue on games without having to sink the development costs on their own.

Also recently announced is that Trion Worlds has another MMO in development, this one in collaboration with the SyFy channel. Tentatively titled ”Defiance,” this one will be an online shooter with a science fiction theme. The game will work in conjunction with a television show on the cable channel network and the results of one will affect the other.

All in all, the future still looks bright for this fledgling MMO, and future expansions and content update patches are definitely in the works. If you’ve not yet seen what Rift has to offer, check out the game’s official website for a link to the free trial. If you tried it in the first month or so, you should check back for news of future free weekends.

Published on: 21 Jan, 2012

By: TJSonntag

Want more informations ? Look here: Rift Online overview

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