For every decent article I write on this website, I’m inundated with people asking me to talk about “the great fall of Rift,” and how the game is apparently sliding down a population exodus to match or beat that of Warhammer Online all those years back. Still, when I have to make announcements like Rift placing more servers on Trial status and making sure everyone knows it is not the same as a merger, and assuring people that Rift’s consistent promotions to bring the client price down cheaper than a McDonald’s value meal is actually an aggressive marketing strategy by Trion rather than the desperate grab for players that some make it out to be, my job becomes rather difficult.
So my greatest asset is figures. Hard figures released by the developer, not half baked xfire statistics or polls on a thread where 80% of the people voting “I cancelled and hate this game” have never even purchased the game. According to Reuters, Trion has pulled in over $100 million in Rift during 2011, according to Trion CEO Lars Butler. And with impending releases in Asia, this figure only stands to increase over 2012. Trion has also received an injection of $85 million (this is not figured into the revenue) by investors.
$100 million in revenue feels more realistic when you account that at least $50 million of that came through initial box sales when Trion reported one million sales, before the major price reductions began. Figuring out the actual number of boxes sold (digital and retail combined) would be next to impossible with all the promotions Trion has done over the past six or seven months.
(Source: Games Industry)
MMO Fallout 