Update on Pre-Purchases?

"AUCKLAND, New Zealand – 11 April 2012 – Following a hugely popular public test weekend, the makers of Indie Action RPG Path of Exile, New Zealand-based Grinding Gear Games, have launched a ‘crowd-funding’ campaign where players can pre-purchase game currency and receive rewards such as Closed Beta Keys and exclusive in-game pets in return.

In first six days the free-to-play ‘ethical microtransaction’ funded action RPG has sold over USD$200,000 worth of supporter packs to 13,000 fans."

And that was a month and a half ago, before the last public stress weekend. Are there any new numbers? The first public stress test got 50,000 new players. How many were attracted by the second? I imagine there was a lot of money made on pre-purchases after that weekend.

Last time Chris spoke of it, they were 'somewhere around $350k', and that was either just before or just after the second open weekend. I think it was just after.

As usual, they're being pretty tight-lipped about it. Doesn't bother me. I can do a bit of math and guesstimation in my head. For example...I can tell you this:

There are at least 25 Diamond supporters (confirmed)
and my last path of exile transaction was #32314.

My second last was #32269, and my first was #152 -- my Diamond purchase, in fact, April 5th.

Between that, I bought three in a row, and they were indeed orders #18699, #18698 and #18700 -- April 21st.

This leads me to believe that the order numbers are counting from 1 upwards, 1 per order.

If this is so, then:

There have been at least 32,314 orders with pre-purchasing, 25 of which were diamonds. Therefore 32,289 orders were NOT $1000, but at least $10. So I think it's safe to say that GGG has made, to date, AT LEAST $322,890+$25,000=$357,890.

That's not taking into account how many of those non-diamond support purchases were $25, $50, $100 and $250, so it's obviously a very conservative figure. And since we have no idea how much has actually gone into making the game so far, it certainly can't be counted as profit.

I might be completely wrong, of course...just playing games with what I think I know, as ever.

edit: bad math. Bad.

See man, I have just enjoyed this game enough that the idea of GGG only getting 357k makes me angry. remember, they are the ones who are ok with that number, and aren't trying to shill us for more. They do the fair and non greedy thing, it makes me want to be greedy for them.

I think that $350k figure was actually before the second open weekend, given Chris's statement about the video being recorded "a few days in advance" of the big day, which was obviously the 15th. Interestingly enough, Charan started that other thread that has the video interviews in chronological order. Hopefully that thread gets a sticky and can be updated as new videos come out, as a sort of archive of the game's development history.


Also, surely they've gotten more than $357k by now. As Charan stated, that figure assumes that everyone who isn't a Diamond simply got the $10 package, and we all know that there are many, many Supporters, Bronzes, Silvers and Golds. Probably the figure is really getting closer to $500k by now, and by the end of next month, I'd be surprised if it doesn't cross well above that amount. If I had the money I'd certainly as hell get a silver package myself. Alas, I do not, and I just have to learn to deal with that, LOL.


Chris has stated that they have put "millions" into the game so far. Of course, we don't know exactly how much he means, but I'm hoping that it's a relatively low number of millions, as their prospects of making their money back within the first couple years are looking very good in that case. :)

Early days yet. That said, a lot of this money came from people not so much wanting to use the cash shop for goodies as those wanting to play the game NOW.

...Unfortunately I have a suspicion that the latter may be worth more to players than the former.

"

Charanjaydemyr wrote:

Early days yet. That said, a lot of this money came from people not so much wanting to use the cash shop for goodies as those wanting to play the game NOW.

...Unfortunately I have a suspicion that the latter may be worth more to players than the former.

Well sure, the $10 packages will fall into that category, but the higher tiers will probably get a lot of new buyers as the closed era comes to an end (we want our kiwis and goodies and forum titles), and once the masses are able to get in without having to buy a key ... well ... I figure there will be a bit of a divergence. On one side will be those who just want to screw around in a game and be n00bish in all their ways. But on the other will be those that get addicted and end up buying a lot of stuff once it's available, hehe.

Thinking optimistically, I think they're in okay shape.

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VideoGeemer wrote:

I think that $350k figure was actually before the second open weekend, given Chris's statement about the video being recorded "a few days in advance" of the big day, which was obviously the 15th. Interestingly enough, Charan started that other thread that has the video interviews in chronological order. Hopefully that thread gets a sticky and can be updated as new videos come out, as a sort of archive of the game's development history.


Also, surely they've gotten more than $357k by now. As Charan stated, that figure assumes that everyone who isn't a Diamond simply got the $10 package, and we all know that there are many, many Supporters, Bronzes, Silvers and Golds. Probably the figure is really getting closer to $500k by now, and by the end of next month, I'd be surprised if it doesn't cross well above that amount. If I had the money I'd certainly as hell get a silver package myself. Alas, I do not, and I just have to learn to deal with that, LOL.


Chris has stated that they have put "millions" into the game so far. Of course, we don't know exactly how much he means, but I'm hoping that it's a relatively low number of millions, as their prospects of making their money back within the first couple years are looking very good in that case. :)

This popped up just as I replied to the OP, actually, so my 'early days' is responding to that, not you.

Firstly, that media coverage thread *is* stickied (it's still on the first page, after all) and I hope everyone helps me keep it current by simply posting new stuff in it rather than the pre-existing new threads that had to be bumped and crap.

You're right, I'm getting my dates confused. It was likely before the second open weekend. Still, going by my figures, there were 32k or so orders total AFTER that weekend, so the math, while still rough, is somewhat plausible.

I'd genuinely love to know how many gold supporters there are.

My guess is they haven't quite cracked 500k yet. Not yet.

As for how much has gone into the game so far, I think it's been too much a labour of love to be an absolute figure easily pulled up on a spreadsheet itemising all possible costs, starting with whatever the GGGang ate when they first convened in that garage way back when. I also think that's their business and not really our concern. Our concern is doing what we can to help them stay afloat, be that financially, with beta testing feedback, or just a word of encouragement here and there. That's what we can do, so we should.

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Charanjaydemyr wrote:

Firstly, that media coverage thread *is* stickied (it's still on the first page, after all) and I hope everyone helps me keep it current by simply posting new stuff in it rather than the pre-existing new threads that had to be bumped and crap.

Hell yeah then. I just have the page up in a tab, so I didn't see that. :)

Hopefully as others add new items, you'd be so awesome as to update the original post? :)

"

You're right, I'm getting my dates confused. It was likely before the second open weekend. Still, going by my figures, there were 32k or so orders total AFTER that weekend, so the math, while still rough, is somewhat plausible.

Well, all I meant was that Chris said that $350k figure before the weekend, so surely it's a lot higher now. Your figures confirmed that they're well above that point by now. :)

"

My guess is they haven't quite cracked 500k yet. Not yet.

Maybe not, but I suspect they're getting close, and by the end of Closed they'll be well above it.

"

As for how much has gone into the game so far, I think it's been too much a labour of love to be an absolute figure easily pulled up on a spreadsheet itemising all possible costs, starting with whatever the GGGang ate when they first convened in that garage way back when.

Yeah, it's probably more complicated; good point. And true enough about how our primary concern should be in helping it to succeed if we care about its future. :)

Well to be honest the only thing I care about is the game being successful enough to stay around for many years. It SEEMS to me like this is a promising start. The press release from April seemed to indicate that they are not in the least counting on player pre-purchases for development; the only reason that pre-purchases exist is because so many people begged for them so the game could reach Open Beta sooner.

I hope the game is financially on target and development is going well... The last thing I need is another Hellgate: London going under and then getting greedified by some new Korean owners.

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I hope the game is financially on target and development is going well... The last thing I need is another Hellgate: London going under and then getting greedified by some new Korean owners.

This game won't go under. Not for a while, at least, because we won't let it. :)