Torchlight - 500k Sales

I would suggest it's about two things:

- personal finances
- MMO financing

Runic already said it cost them $2M to make Torchlight (this is all-inclusive with startup costs). I would guess Travis and others might have re-mortgaged or cash-in retirement funds to get these sorts of funds (could you and a handful of mates find $2M to start a game development? I couldn't).

The game sold well but we don't know how many sales were at $4.99 (Steam sale), so we can't tell how well they did. Either way, I'd suggest it wasn't anywhere near enough to repay their personal stakes and ensure enough cash for the entirety of their MMO development.

I assume this is a small MMO, but they still cost a lot to make. Now Travis gets a nice cash bonus and PW can assume responsibility for financing the MMO.
 
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
11,842
Location
Sydney, Australia
Is this typical nowadays that some companies tend to take over others ?

Is taking over actually a kind of business principle ? As soon as it generates profits, take it over" ?

I mean - personall, I would prefer developing companies to be independent as long as possible - and the publishing and the markting should be done by others. Clearly divided tasks between two partners.

But no, companies want to be everything at once. Not wanting developers to stay independent.

I wonder, why ? Because, companies which are small and efficient can generate as much profits - measured against their size - than big behemoths.

It's like … We once had small food shops here. We called them "Aunt emma Shops". They're all gone now.
Now, they are replaced by huge food-selling companies, so-called "discounters", like Aldi and Lidl, and "sell-everything-food-and-non-food" companies like Walmar(k)t.
For the customer, this has both pros and cons :

pro: lower prices
con: lower service, monoculture

The bigger they become, the more they want to squeeze out any possible competors. It's like … some sort of entity becoming insane, and wanting to control EVERYTHING.
(I'm speaking of so-called "meta-cultures" and "meta-beings" here, which can be companies which act like a bee hive or so.)

Yeah, I totally agree with you. I am sure games will be more awesome if the developers sell it themselves. It's like buying groceries from farmers directly. They are always fresher cause the farmers grow them and pick them the day they are selling them. Also, they know the products very well and know what's the best for consumers. But a lot of times, it does work like that. We need big retail stores like Safeway to sell groceries coz they can bring more varieties and can bring the products to a lower price :lol: What's more some of the safeways open 24/7 which the farmers can't do coz they have more tasks than just selling the products. They have to plant them and take care of them.

Like you said, there are pro and cons and both of the situation.
 
Joined
Jul 12, 2011
Messages
11
Back
Top Bottom