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Message no. 1
From: Steven A. Tinner bluewizard@*****.com
Subject: Video Game profits (Was - SR future products ...)
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 23:19:25 -0400
>Don't bet on it. MW3 will make more money in one year than all of FASA's
>stuff put together in the same year, most likely.

And if you had read the rest of my post you would see that the money gets
spread a LOT thinner than the cash made by ANY SR book.

Sure, granted the video games make lots of cash.
But most of it gets sunk right back into production, and paying off the
dozens of other companies that are needed to get the product to market.
SR's money is SR's money.

Don;t confuse total gross income with profitability.
I work in the software/financial industry.
Trust me on this one. ;-)

How the heck did we get on this topic?
Weren't we arguing atmosphere? ;-)
Message no. 2
From: Twist0059@***.com Twist0059@***.com
Subject: Video Game profits (Was - SR future products ...)
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 23:52:14 EDT
In a message dated 8/17/99 11:22:18 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
bluewizard@*****.com writes:

> >Don't bet on it. MW3 will make more money in one year than all of FASA's
> >stuff put together in the same year, most likely.
>
> And if you had read the rest of my post you would see that the money gets
> spread a LOT thinner than the cash made by ANY SR book.
>


I did read the rest of your post. I'm telling you that a video game rakes in
more cash than a single RPG company sees in a long time. A $30 RPG
rulebook brings only a few dollars after all expenses and distribution costs
have been handled. And then you have the consumer bases. A game like Deer
Hunter has outsold, IIRC, the yearly total of BattleTech units. And that was
a cheesy, moronic video game. Why'd it sell? Because it was the brain-child
of WalMart and was pushed in the faces of hunters and their rugrats. And
there's the great power of video games. They are everywhere. Impuse buys R
Us.

And then you have the expansion per successful video game. How many new
players came to SR when SR3 was released? Practically nothing compared to
the kind of numbers that jumped onto Resident Evil 2 or Tomb Raider 2. So
the expenses of creating a new game to a hit series is nill compared to the
profits that series brings. And the big video game companies don't have to
hire out to other companies either. Everything is done in-house.

A company like FASA has to sell out of various scattered game stores over the
country or directly (which greatly cuts down on impulse buys by the
youngsters). A video game gets pushed at every department store, electronic
game store (at your local malls), video rental shops, and not to mention Toys
R Us.

RPGs are a hobby industry. Video games are for the great masses.




-Twist
Message no. 3
From: Twist0059@***.com Twist0059@***.com
Subject: Video Game profits (Was - SR future products ...)
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 23:54:44 EDT
In a message dated 8/17/99 11:22:18 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
bluewizard@*****.com writes:

> How the heck did we get on this topic?
> Weren't we arguing atmosphere? ;-)


This is a spin-off, I believe, of some great mind saying "Tom [Dowd] was a
"pud"." This resulted in "Why do you think he got shunted down to
FASA
Interactive". Then: "Who says FASA Interactive was a demotion?". And
finally your recent post about how FASA Interactive probably doesn't make as
much money as FASA and so it could be looked at like a demotion.





-Twist

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Thwap!