Seriously SE???

[Noshpan]

Let me put it this way: If it were as profitable as you're implying, why are there so few P2P MMOs left?
"doing the math" is no substitute for simple logic in this case.

It's not that they aren't profitable, it's that the global economy is still in such a shit state right now. As to the "why's" of that is a topic for a different discussion, which can get stupidly heated because of the divisive nature of politics these days.

[Zakka]

40 bucks for a game is a steal these days,

I will be ordering it once it get a little closer to release date. xD

[CGMidlander]

Au ra are reskinned Miqo'te. They surely didn't put much effort into making yet another "humans with weird ears and a tale" race.

You're making that assumption based off what, exactly? The superficial details you glanced from the trailers?

Until we see the quality of lore written about them, the amount of new and unique movements that have been motion captured...etc. , it'd be unfair to assume.

[Moqi]

You're making that assumption based off what, exactly? The superficial details you glanced from the trailers?

We have artworks and models, it's really not just an assumption. Lore and animations have nothing to do with sticking a bunch of dragon ears and a tail on a jailbait and calling it a day. Coming up with that look wasn't a 40$ effort, you can tell that much already.

[Raist]

c'mon give me an estimation more concrete, realistic and convincing than mine.
I can't be completely wrong here.

Well, as a company they directly employ just under 3600 people (http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/company/outline.html)

Corporate Profile
Company Name 	SQUARE ENIX HOLDINGS CO., LTD.
Established 	September 22, 1975
Headquarters 	SHINJUKU EASTSIDE SQUARE 6-27-30 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
160-8430, Japan 	

    MAP

Representative Director 	Yosuke Matsuda, President and Representative Director
Stock Ticker Information 	The First Section of Tokyo Stock Exchange(9684)
Common Stock 	15,368 million yen
(As of March 31, 2014)
(Number of Shares Issued and Outstanding) 	(115,575,696)
(As of March 31, 2014)
Net Sales 	155.0 billion yen

    Digital Entertainment 94.6 billion yen
    Amusement  47.0 billion yen
    Publication  10.2 billion yen
    Merchandising  3.8 billion yen

(Fiscal year ended March 31, 2014)
Number of Employees 	3,581
(As of March 31, 2014)

Note their revenue figure in there (155B yen, or ~1.3B USD). According to their own financial statements they profited just under 11B yen from 31 March, 2014 to 31 December, 2014. That works out to just over 90M USD in profit for the last 9 months of 2014. That was after shelling out over 5B Yen (~45M USD) in taxes alone. They also had over 16B yen (~13M USD) in combined liabilities to account for. You can review the reports yourself if you want:

http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/

Percentage-wise, they aren't retaining a gross amount of revenues if you compare the figures to other players in the industry.

[CGMidlander]

We have artworks and models, it's really not just an assumption. Lore and animations have nothing to do with sticking a bunch of dragon ears and a tail on a jailbait and calling it a day. Coming up with that look wasn't a 40$ effort, you can tell that much already.

Lore and animation most certainly do have importance in differentiating races.

Otherwise, Miqo'te are just Hyur with cat ears and tails right?
Roes are just resized Hyur with different skin colour?
Elezen are really tall Hyur with pointy ears and small heads.
Lalafell are small, fat Hyur, I guess.
Au Ra are Hyur with scaly patches, a tail, and dragon horns.

Damn, SE is so uncreative with all these bipedal races.

[Raist]

30m$ from 1m copies.
>50m$ more realistic tho.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/67805...eborn/67744170

You do realize that there was a large portion of players that migrated to 2.0 for free.... and periodically BOTH 1.0 and 2.0 went on sale for considerably less than the list price right? I saw 2.0 frequently up on newegg and other sites for $20 both shortly before and after the relaunch. Not to mention the odd Steam sales and such that crop up from time to time. Just saying.. you can't just do simple math like $30 list price X 1M users.

They also have to account for distribution costs for those sales as well--even for digital distribution, there is a cost they incur even if it is indirect. Bandwidth is not cheap. Stamping, packaging, and shipping product costs money.

You seem to be looking at the price tag and assume that is profit (or at least the bulk of it). You'd be surprised how much loss some companies actually take selling a product up front in order to make money on the back end in order for you to continue using that product. Look at consoles, printers, and computers for example. They practically give you the hardware in comparison to the cost to eventually get the product to the shelf (not just production/shipping mind you, there is also the long cycles of R&D, testing, marketing, etc.). But, they get money back through the consumable items and additional licensing as you spend money to use them after you buy them.

[Raist]

We have artworks and models, it's really not just an assumption. Lore and animations have nothing to do with sticking a bunch of dragon ears and a tail on a jailbait and calling it a day. Coming up with that look wasn't a 40$ effort, you can tell that much already.

Have you ever tried to render custom animations on a computer? Much less 3D models? A lot of time can go into designing and testing the models to try to safeguard against anomalies. You never know just what the impact of altering the wire frame of a character may have on additional layers that must be applied to it--especially when those existing assets may not have been designed with flexibility that would account for the new wire frame modifications. A slight alteration in the core shape of an object can cause some really strange glitches down the line when other things are made to interface/interact with it.

And then there is all the peripheral content as was already mentioned. Story, missions, voice acting, new motion capturing.... a lot more may be going into this than you realize.

[Catsby]

#Nopreorders 2015

[Moqi]

Lore and animation most certainly do have importance in differentiating races.

Visually, they don't. That's what I'm talking about but you keep bringing up lore like it's got anything to do with it. Mi'qote too are humans cat ears, yes. It's lazy and cheap, we had them and Padjal already, for 40$ they'd better put more effort in it. You can justify it lore-wise anyway you want, but female Au ra still look like a bunch of 17 year girls at a Mean Girls halloween party.

a lot more may be going into this than you realize.

Big whoop, it's their job. It's not like I'm paying SE every month for them to do exactly that...