The fourth-quarter financials for City of Heroes Freedom are in. Sales for City of Heroes were up 18% from last quarter, and up 6% from Q4 2010.
We knew sales were going to be up this quarter, the only question was by how much. Now that the game's whales have bought their year-subscriptions and hundreds of dollars worth of Paragon Points each, will we see the numbers continue to rise in Q1 2012, or will they start to decline again? [Q1 2012 financials are in, and unfortunately the game's revenue has continued its overall downward trend: down 16% from Q4 2010. Revenues are now lower than they were the quarter before Freedom's launch. Looks like Freedom has failed to turn the game's sales around. The only question left is: how low can the revenues get before the game closes? - ED]
But for now, Freedom is a success, if a modest one. That's good to see.
Year-on-year the game's sales are down 23% due to "user attrition", but Freedom seems to be reversing that trend, at least for now.
NCSoft earnings releases page.
Only NCSoft knows why the game is still running, and they're not talking. Somebody in power over there really likes the game, or at least really likes the new title Paragon Studios is working on. The game has been very fortunate to be spared the axe for the past couple of years, and I'm glad, I'd hate to see it shut down. Once an MMO is gone, it's gone. There's emulators, but those are basically zombies: it looks like the game you knew but the spirit is gone.
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