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Tilted Cat Head
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
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First of all the way that I understand that they have created their backend is that it isn't just run on one single server. Each server is many blades and many blades are set in clusters.
Depending on how Blizzard sets up their costs, this could be an expensive contract for them.
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World of Warcraft Will Stay on AT&T Servers
March 4th, 2009 : Rich Miller
Some customer renewals are more important than others. Hosting deals don’t get much bigger than AT&T’s contract to host the infrastructure for World of Warcraft, the world’s largest massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) with more than 11.5 million players worldwide. AT&T said Tuesday that game publisher Blizzard Entertainment has agreed to a two-year renewal to host World of Warcraft in North America.
AT&T has been working closely with Blizzard Entertainment for nine years, providing hosting for World of Warcraft and the Battle.net online-gaming service. “We’ve been pleased with AT&T’s service over the years, and we’re confident in their ability to continue to provide the quality support we need,” said Paul Sams, Chief Operating Officer of Blizzard Entertainment. “This renewed agreement allows us to stay completely focused on our games while AT&T applies its hosting expertise to help us offer the speed, reliability and security our players expect.”
AT&T’s Gaming Core Team hosts Warcraft’s infrastructure in multiple data centers, providing network monitoring and management. The AT&T Gaming Core Team was formed in 2004 to host gaming operations using AT&T’s IP network. The team consists of engineers and hosting specialists who provide round-the-clock support to companies offering MMO games.
AT&T’s data center network spans more than 2.6 million square feet of space in 10 countries. The company recently announced it will expand its data center hosting capacity in Atlanta, Annapolis, Md. and the New York/New Jersey metro area in the U.S., as well as in Hong Kong, Tokyo and the United Kingdom globally.
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now AT&T is expanding their datacenters to the tune of $1B, so they aren't giving this away to Blizzard for nothing. Also because AT&T knows that Blizzard has a lucrative userbase, they probably have a decent profit margin as well.
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AT&T Expands Data Center Network
February 23rd, 2009 : Rich Miller
AT&T is expanding its data center network, and will expand its Synaptic Hosting cloud computing service to additional sites as part of a $1 billion investment in infrastructure in 2009, the company said today. AT&T will expand its data center hosting capacity in Atlanta, Annapolis, Md. and the New York/New Jersey metro area in the U.S., as well as in Hong Kong, Tokyo and the United Kingdom globally. AT&T’s data center network spans more than 2.6 million square feet of space in 10 countries.
The telecom giant also said that it would expand its AT&T Synaptic Hosting platform in new “super IDCs” in Singapore and Amsterdam as well as three additional sites within the United States. AT&T also said it was expanding its managed hosting services onto the client premises, a move that can deepen already ’sticky” managed hosting relationships.
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I don't care if something is reasonable or not if there's no other player in town, that is to say, I don't have to pay $5 for a cup of coffee from the nice restaurant down the street if I can go to diner and pay $1. But if I want to be in that nice restaurant, I have to fork over the $5.
I still think you don't consider just how much upfront costs there are to games. GTA4 supposedly is the most expensive which was $100M to develop. But the real profit money isn't in the box or the software, it's the subscription and the merchandising.
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World of Warcraft was first announced by Blizzard at the ECTS trade show in September 2001.[44] Development of the game took roughly 4–5 years
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That's 4-5 years with NO INCOME on that product. None, zero, zilch. Do you think they are making any money on Starcraft 2? or Diablo 3? That's all sunk in development costs which are in the millions of dollars these days. This isn't just the personnel, but the hardware that they design on, and the software that they use for modeling, engines that are licensed, code that is licensed, etc.
Here's an article about the costs to maintain, it's from 2008.
World of Warcraft Cost Blizzard $200M in Upkeep Since 2004
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World of Warcraft Cost Blizzard $200M in Upkeep Since 2004
That includes staff payroll, hardware support, and customer service -- for the last four years.
By Kris Pigna, 09/16/2008
World of Warcraft screenshot
Everyone always talks about how monumental a money generator World of Warcraft has been for Blizzard, but here's a figure you don't hear much about: How much does WoW actually cost Blizzard to maintain? According to Kotaku's report, Blizzard stated during their Analyst Day conference call yesterday that the price has been over $200 million since the game launched in 2004.
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.
We don't have figures for exactly how much revenue World of Warcraft has generated since its launch, but we can at least do a little arithmetic (and some loose estimation) to try to put this in perspective. Most recently, Blizzard put the total number of WoW subscribers at over 10 million. According to Gamasutra, this number includes those "who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card...as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access." It does not, however, include expired subscriptions and prepaid cards, or promotional subscriptions.
Okay, so let's do a conservative estimate, and say even 1 million of these counted subscribers are still in their free month. That leaves 9 million paying subscribers who, at the $15 fee, are generating $135 million every month. Hell, even if you adjust that to, say, $120 million (since many subscribers may be paying for slightly discounted 3- or 6-month subscriptions), that still means Blizzard more than recouped their entire upkeep costs over a four-year period in just two months. We believe the words you are looking for are "hot damn."
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I don't want that kind of gaming culture either, but yet it already exists, and has existed since the days that the Pac Man look and feel laws affected how gaming and computer software development is today. Look at the FPS and fighting games, they aren't much different, as are the MMOs or the RPG arena.
Bring it down to the Popcap casual gaming level and you really start to see the originality of game development that was the hallmark of the 80s gaming culture. The smaller development houses can be freer with their ideas and development because well, it costs little and the payback is large.
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