Star Vault has released their fourth quarter releases for 2012, and the news isn’t all bad. Net sales lowered to 463,307 Krona ($72 thousand, approximately) from 501,252 Krona ($78 thousand) in the third quarter. Net profits continued deeper into the red at -895,699 ($140 thousand, approximately) from 706,844 in the third quarter ($110 thousand).
The fourth quarter saw the release of both Mortal Online’s free to play as well as the the launch of a donation system. Overall, according to the report, the model has compensated for the loss of license sales and Star Vault has seen positive development in all areas.
The number of subscriptions in the fourth quarter was approximately the same as in the third, with a slight increase following free to play. Sale of licenses will no longer be reported due to the new business model, as they have been discontinued.
In Henrik Nystrom’s notes, he discusses that the expansion Awakening went well, but did not increase sales as expected. Nystrom references 2012 as a transitional year, noting donations as important to continued development. The company is still working to be listed on Steam, and while the new cash flow has been positive, it has had no effect on the fourth quarter. Star Vault expects to break even in 2013.
(Source: Aktie Torget Press Release)
MMO Fallout 
LOL. This guy has been saying he will break even for years now. Their former community manager was on forums talking about how the population was BOOMING (before F2P) and just wait until the report would come out. Well, it’s out and they had the 3rd biggest quarterly loss in their history. It was the worst quarter of 2012.
Their problem isn’t a business model. Their problem is that they are a bad company with a bad product. Changing how people pay for that isn’t going to make a difference.
At least they are trying, mo isnt a “bad” product, it is an innovation in a market dominated by imitations of tired out big budget games. SV is attempting to move the mmorpg genre in the direction it should be going with limited resources and should be applauded for it. Too many other small companies would make a samey ripoff for a quick buck rather than bring out a fundamentally new style game.
Well, given that almost everyone that tries the game no longer plays, I would say your opinion regarding it not being a “bad” product is in the minority.
Game is bad. Company is bad.
Thus they lose money for 2 years straight.
This company and game deserves to be put out to pasture. Lots of new sandbox games on the horizon. Some from big names (EQ Next) and some from unknown small companies. Good companies will survive, bad ones will fail. SV is failing, not because of their size, but simply because in the minds of most people that tried the game, they deserve to fail.
You’ve no idea how ignorant you sound mate, I’ve both “tried” and “played” the game for two years, I’m proud to have subscribed and even donated to SV to keep the dream of this sandbox alive. Few companies and games can boast a more dedicated audience than what Star Vault has.
Even to this day I recruit Free-to-Play players and new guys, within a couple weeks after being shown the game and how it functions almost 85% of those new players subscribed. Not because the game is perfect or the group is amazing, but because they share the same vision of potential that many of us grizzled old Star Vault – Mortal Online veterans have. A sandbox game where true skill matters, to rival Ultima Online before Trammel.
So I say on behalf of all my fellow Mortals, YOU CAN SHOVE IT BUDDY!
You know what they call a small group of people who listen to a leader that says obvious untruths, ignores clear facts, and live in a state of paranoia that everyone else is wrong and out to get their dear leader?
It’s called a Cult.
You guys can keep on blabbing. The chart speaks for itself. Your Dear Leader sends out minions after every quarterly report to talk about how things are much better NOW, and how the report was talking about months ago. Yet, somehow when the next report comes out it shows that nothing changed and most people that tried the game quit.
And to the guy who claims “alot of other people” are still playing the game since beta. Well, once again I simply point you to your company chart that shows QUITE FEW people actually try the game and keep playing.
For your own sake, be careful if they offer you “Kool-Aid”
@ Shazzam
Sounds like your another noob who either couldn’t dig the roughness or buggyness of the game… or you just got banned for being another fail hacker.
I’v played this game since beta… and alot of other people have too. Yeah it has bugs, and theirs alot of problems after every major patch, something goes in, something bad comes out… but it gets fixed eventually.
I am personally happy with what SV at doing… it is a small time company, thats getting helped by its customers who want to see it rise up. They want to see it rise up because as thuggy said, its innovative.
MO is the first ever game that I have had an adrenaline rush from lol, the first fear of death and losing all your stuff!, especially with all the psycopathes out their! (mo wouldnt be much without them! 😀 )
I think people should stop bi*ching about it, if you dont like it, get lost, dont play it, its not your type of game… as for the other hero vets that still play! hail to da north! (norbit reference)
To Shazzam
I tried the game for about a week before subscribing. I really really like the game, and am willing to deal with the flaws for now to see what this game plays in the future. What some people seem to forget is there’s people out there that will play buggy games for hours and hours because they love the time in between the bugs more than they hate the bugs. It’s not a hard concept to grasp. The opinions of some may be “screw this game” but in the same hand, the opinions of others may be “I love what this game has to offer, I’ll deal with the bugs”
Just because people have differing opinions doesn’t mean that anyone is wrong… If you don’t like Mortal and Star Vault, then don’t sub and donate. But don’t go telling everyone how much of a crap company you think it is. You talk about a hoard of fanboys that defend Mortal and Star, yet here you stand cursing and lamenting it’s existence, like some sort of anti-fanboy.
No Julian, quite the opposite. What I say is quite simple: If enough of the people who try a game like it, they will stay and the game will succeed. If most people that try a game think it is poor, they will leave and the game will fail. Do you have any idea what the retention rate of Mortal Online is? It’s miniscule. We do not know the exact number because they lumped game sales with subs but we can safely say it is low single digits.
I said nothing about a “hoard of fanboys”. It’s once again, quite the oppossite. There is an incredibly vocal yet tiny group of people who serve as acolytes.
The proof is quite simply in the numbers. The chart speaks for itself. Good games need no defense and bad games lose tons of money. It is clear which category Mortal Falls into.
Simply look on this very site for the SEOs comments from each previous quarterly report
:
https://mmofallout.com/2012/08/23/mortal-online-q2-2012-sales-down-profit-up-slightly/
https://mmofallout.com/2012/05/24/mortal-online-q1-2012-sales-up-mortal-online-on-major-gaming-platforms/
https://mmofallout.com/2012/02/15/star-vault-reports-50-increase-in-sales/
https://mmofallout.com/2011/11/24/star-vault-q3-financial-reports/
Plenty more. Simple point of this: Do not believe a single word the CEO says and each successive report proves him to be wrong.