A billion to take on WoW, time for mass amateurization

by justingibbs on August 12, 2008

Apparently WoW is so dominate in the fantasy space that future MMOs are looking for greener pastures to explore.

Sports just makes the most sense. Loads of people like football. At Monumental we want to take national pastimes and make them MMOs – things like fishing or trainspotting. Fantasy is very well serviced. I’d need a billion quid to take on WoW.

- Monumental CEO Rik Alexander

A billion to take on Wow? While I can understand that is a daunting sum, I doubt exploring every genre under the sun will prove successful either. What they need to do is change the model, not just find another genre. What they need, what we need is mass amateurization. Of course that probably means less profit than what WoW is pulling in, but how long will WoW be able to hold onto that profit margin – especially if mass amateurization is unleashed on the market?

Mass amateurization is the web’s normal pattern. Travelocity doesn’t make everyone a travel agent. It undermines the value of being travel agent at all, by fixing the inefficiencies travel agents are paid to overcome one booking at a time. Weblogs fix the inefficiencies traditional publishers are paid to overcome one book at a time, and in a world where publishing is that efficient, it is no longer an activity worth paying for

- Weblogs and the Mass Amateurization of Publishing

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Tagged as: mass amateurization, WoW

  • Maybe just long enough to release Diablo 3, leading up to the next big MMO title by blizzard? Probalby longer, seeing w3 and d2 are still being played. You have to give Blizzard credit for 'the magic touch', consistently making the most successful, most anticipated, and frankly most interesting games for mass audiences in the field over a range of genres (hack n slash, RTS, fantasy/sci-fi, MMORPG). Their promotional and hyping campaigns are on a new level and they seem to know their market like no other gaming company.

    Even though i stopped playing d2, w3 and Wow long ago, their stories still stick with me, and the visuals/narratives send shivers down my spine. Sports don't do that to me, no matter the game play, they don't create memorable expriences, neither do the f2p mmorpg's, wow spin offs and most of the sci fi shooters - the exceptions for me being Q4 and GTA4.

    The combination of that incredible (viral) narrative combined with the best experiences in gameplay, a reputation of setting the industry standards and simply amazing marketing makes the billion dollar investment rather 'conservative' as far as I'm concerned. Got to remember in a quick and dirty calculation wow is doing a turn over of 8 million x 10$ a month + sales of (1 core game + 2)*10 million* avrg of 30$ in single sales = 960$ million a year + 900$ million in single sale units. given those numbers, I'd take on the 1 billion dollar investment any day :)
  • I completely agree that Blizzard is doing everything right, that's the problem if you find yourself trying to compete with them. But as any businessman will tell you, you should think twice before taking an entrenched leader head on. My suggestion isn't to simply find where WoW isn't competing but to actually change up the business model while you're at it.
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