Install Steam
login
|
language
简体中文 (Simplified Chinese)
繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese)
日本語 (Japanese)
한국어 (Korean)
ไทย (Thai)
Български (Bulgarian)
Čeština (Czech)
Dansk (Danish)
Deutsch (German)
Español - España (Spanish - Spain)
Español - Latinoamérica (Spanish - Latin America)
Ελληνικά (Greek)
Français (French)
Italiano (Italian)
Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
Magyar (Hungarian)
Nederlands (Dutch)
Norsk (Norwegian)
Polski (Polish)
Português (Portuguese - Portugal)
Português - Brasil (Portuguese - Brazil)
Română (Romanian)
Русский (Russian)
Suomi (Finnish)
Svenska (Swedish)
Türkçe (Turkish)
Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
Українська (Ukrainian)
Report a translation problem
Discussions Rules and Guidelines
Report this post
Read the other posts before you post, may save you some time
The figures vary wildly from game to game or from company to company, but generally speaking, the average budget for a AAA game that's being released on PS4, Xbox One, and PC seems to be around $60-65 million (development and marketing):
http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Video_game_costs
https://www.techspot.com/article/771-cost-of-making-a-game/
For the sake of argument, let's say that Warner Brothers had a budget of $75 million for this game, and that in order to cover any costs that snuck in at the last minute (including any salaries that weren't already in the bulk of development) and still make a profit, they need to reach sales of $125-130 million. That's around 2 million copies.
Considering that Shadow of Mordor sold 500 thousand copies in its first week of release, and 1.26 MILLION copies by week nine, I don't think 2 million is a particularly difficult target for Shadow of War to reach - even if every single player just buys the base game and doesn't spend a cent on this, micro-transactions, or the DLC that will doubtlessly come out in the future.
http://www.vgchartz.com/game/77129/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor/Global/
(Also, look at the tributes to deceased fans/employees that other AAA companies have done, like Nintendo with Breath of the Wild or Blizzard with just about every game they release. These have ranged from a secret location to a full-on quest, and in pretty much every case, the developers either put them in the base game or added them in a later update without charging anything for it. The only way WB/Monolith wouldn't profit from the DLC if they included it for free, or gave away 100% of the sales to charity, would be if they spent more on designing and programming this one character than any sane human would call "reasonable". And I don't think that's the case.)
WB: "If you buy this, we will give a percentage to the charity!"
Non US Customers: "Oh great! I will buy it straight away!"
WB: "Oh by the way, you're outside the US... sooo...none of the money from that sale a second ago is actually going to charity"
Non US Customers: "Wait... but you said it would? Wheres my money going then, did you lie?"
WB: "We are not profiting"
Non US Customers: "That didn't answer anything!? Why lie? Why say its for charity in areas it isnt? where is the money going?!"
WB: " ... "
That is pretty much how it came across
Which also leads to
"Did they intend to sell it at full price under the guise of charity all along? Was it a way to hide day one dlc? Did they mislead us on purpose?"
Now the whole thing could be some accident or something we don't understand, but without any words on why or how we are at a loss.
It has nothing to do with the $1.50 they take from the actual charity sales, we understand that, almost every charity on earth profits in some way from the charity donations to keep itself running and pay for costs.
But it seems everyone is intent on trying to twist the story into claiming people want that $1.50 to go to charity when that is not the case at all.
Yes, it's called marketing.
Your conspiracy in the small line is funny.
I will continue to watch people act like idiots without a brain because "Muh Emotions! Screw the facts! I feel morally right in my fuzzy heart."
Actually sinds 1.50 dollars is 30% of the costs I think we can safely assume these are platform costs. That said, WB isn't confirming that neither denying it so basicly leaving it unclear.
The remainder of the 3.50 dollars is supposed to go to the charity but like it is said on the vid I posted that on the trailer their is subtext that is easy to miss that it says that anywhere outside the US and 6 states in the US actually won't be given to charity leaving it to most likely WBs wallet.
Now while WB isn't denying this but confirming this on their official twitter the main issue basicly is that WB shouldn't have put that in the vid so subtly because many seem to have not noticed it either and may have bought the DLC believing they were donating money for a good cause, while it actually may not, therefor shouldn't be called a charity DLC or at the very least it should have been put in the trailer on a more clearer way.
Then their are those who feel it to be ethicly or morally questionable that a memorial of a dead person should be something to be profited on. So that leaves anger with people also.
XD Btw do you have a youtube channel? When you post that vid I'd like to have a look see.
What facts are there, other than WB saying "we won't be profiting off the DLC in these other regions" (which basically means nothing)? If there's legal reasons why they can't donate the money to charity or even explain where the money's going, then fine - but for ♥♥♥♥'s sake, you'd think they'd at least be able to tell us that, instead of just leaving everyone to speculate.
I understand some of the points he's making, that thousands of people working at WB and Monolith who weren't even involved to begin with could get absolutely screwed by this, and that most people covering this don't have all of the facts. But with that last point lies the major problem. Misinformation and transparency.
WB, whether intentionally or not, has kept vital information on this hidden from the community, while seemingly trying to hide what they were required by law to disclaim as legally as possible. It's this lack of transparency on their part that screws everything up. When information is kept from people, they naturally assume the worst. If you assume the worst, it does two things; let's you prepare for the worst, and provides a pleasant surprise if you were wrong. It's because of this, paired with some of WB's unfavorable decisions in the past, that most people had no reason whatsoever to not assume the worst.
Then you have their response to the backlash, which accomplished very little. Why? Because it was short, vague, and late. All they said was that they weren't profiting from it. That's it. No explanation of where the money is going, no explanation of why it's set up like that, not even a bloody apology for not giving us all of the details. Not only that, but the fact they didn't rush to correct the situation until after it had blown up for quite a while gives the impression that they didn't have any immediate answer other than admittance to wrongdoing, or that they somehow didn't anticipate any real backlash.
And now, all mention of the Forthog Orc Slayer on their media platforms (YouTube, Twitch, and Twitter) have been completely removed. Videos, streams, tweets, all gone. The fact that there has not been one peep about it from WB or Monolith since that makes it evidently clear that this is damage control, the kind you would do to hide a mistake rather than facing it. The steam store page for the dlc still remains up, but all official advertising of it is gone, the majority of coverage condemns it, and the description (fortunately) disclaims the information that sparked this first thing. If they were trying to make considerable money off of this, chances are that they aren't anymore, and not because of some change of heart on their part.
Ultimately, regardless of whether or not any wrongdoing has or is happening at WB, it is their fault that all of this has happened. A lack of transparency equals a lack of trust. Not to mention that the game had already faced controversy due to it's MTs, over-advertisement, and the deal with Totino's. If there was no wrongdoing, complete transparency could have prevented all of this.
I honestly feel terrible for Monolith. They just want to make a good game, but WB has ruined so much for them. The real tragedy? WB will likely blame them in the boardrooms if the game fails, despite the fact that WB are the ones causing the issues.
Hear! Hear!
If you say so - On the bright side you don't need to look that far from the I part because clearly much of the obvious didn't compute for you!
Monolith wanted to financially support their fallen friend's family, is what it looks like
I don't know how much this DLC would cost to make and sell, so I cannot say wether they are profiting at all, and the only people with exact numbers are probably working for WB, so...
Yeah, and why donate from profits? ... Or did a charity event for a family? Or give DLC free, and link to the donation site for family? ... Or ask HumbleStore to hold special bundle from WB to the family? With this DLC sitting at tier 1 ... Or why we simply dont make something, which don't ruin the game?! And make people to cancel pre-orders?! ... It's just a dumb questions i know ... but whatever ... Best way is making our costumers pay for us, and profit on their solidarity ...