If it would be possible to re-vitalize this game by purchasing it, splitting the cost between everyone in the community willing to contribute, and if the price is fair enough to purchase Poxnora, would you all be down to do it? And if so, do we have individuals that are familiar with coding and programming? This is how desperate I am to keep this game alive. If there's at all a glimmer of hope to ensure this game survives, I'm willing to consider the various paths around the crossroads.
The game currently has 2547 runes (according to the checklist). Sokolov said that each art asset is $500-1000 so at $500/art the Pox artwork would cost $1 273 500 at minimum. That doesn't include the sprites, the systems or anything else, just the art alone. In other words: that's a damn big load of money.
thats the cost to produce though...not really the cost to buy whole sale from a dieing company. that said I still think any final numbers would be well outside the range of this community.
Did the developers not recoup their investment by selling runes with all this artwork to us? And after these runes have been sold in big quantities and have been in circulation for a while, wouldn't the value of the artwork go down?
They really missed their chance on getting income from merchandise. They should of been selling pox t-shirts with the custom art, pop figures, statuettes, wall posters, books, and more....they really needed expand their secondary income =/
best bet is who ever is on top right now making decisions is looking for a buyer already. I personally hope blizzard takes this game over.
I would have pruchased poxnora hoodies etc. I mean how hard would it have been to sell stuff like that? If the game is bought by blizzard it will just be remade i bet. They have loads of cash to spend.
You don't sell a game for what it cost to make. It sells based upon its sales and physical assets. Another perspective is that the game is worth whatever someone will pay for it. Since Pox has next to no sales, it's basically worthless unless the owner, Art Griffith, revitalizes the game or seeks a quick sale. I've tried to contact Art Griffith through DOG website and LinkedIn about selling the game, but he's hasn't responded to anything. All the games, Pox, Spacewars, and I'm assuming the others, have been abandoned by him. The leads on those games have all verified that he's out of communication. This is the most up-to-date information.
It always sound easier than it is. The truth is Pox did try a merchandise store early on (when there were more players) and it made a piddling amount of sales. As someone who does run a business like this, merchandising is a whole new ballgame requiring time and expertise and you don't just go into it. At the same time, it's most profitable when you can mass produce directly with the factory, rather than "print on demand" as a lot of people do now. In general, art for a niche game with a niche audience isn't going to be making much once you factor in the labor and legwork required. Pox isn't Magic the Gathering in terms of userbase who wants the art.
It's true that you CAN get art for 50-100 nowadays, but when Pox was in its heyday the freelance art market wasn't as saturated. At the same time, 50-100 tends to be personal, non-commercial rates and you will find that if you want to be able to commercially exploit the art, the costs then to run higher. At the same time, given Pox's production schedule and pipeline, the game also needed contractors who were reliable and could provide sketches/WIP at specific points in time (you may remember one or two expansions being delayed or having runes pushed due to an artist failing to meet deadlines, or in one case, literally ripping art off other people and we had to scramble to get replacement art).
It's pretty easy nowadays with places like Printful, Redbubble and Zazzle, but some things to keep in mind: Margins are pretty thin on these kinds of things, you are taking like less than 10% goes to the creator in many cases It depends on the terms on the original art piece/contract with the artists, in some cases you don't have merchandising rights These things make positive ROI based on volume, which is why you see merchandise for popular culture stuff more often than for niche things These markets are extremely saturated with tons of good art, and typically you get sales not because of your art, but because of your IP I am sure it would have made SOME money, but it's hard to say how much, but it certainly wouldn't have a significant amount.
Bladed Corpse Thong There was other merchandise, but that sticks out as what I assume was the #1 seller.
If every youtuber can do it, I think a full scale business should be able to manage it. It might sound like i think it's easy but i don't, regardless i still think it's a mandatory for most games like these now a days to remain relevant. Each piece of pox merch is a small little reminder pox exists.
It would be remade to reflect the characters that currently exist in WoW/Starcraft/Diablo, similar to Heroes of the Storm. So instead of, say, Serkan, we would have Vol'jin. Actually, now that I think about it, a Blizzard version of Poxnora would be pretty wicked and fun.
The point wasn't that you'd make as much money as a youtuber it was that most of them with less then a few people can easily setup and manage fully functional merch shops.
Well apparently DOG is willing to let the game end in a 404 error. So at this stage you can end this thread. Whoever thinks Blizzard will buy this is smoking something illegal. They create original stuff, not market other companies dead games. Besides, I and others have tried multiple venues to get ahold of ANYONE at DOG and there is no response. This game will simply die and there will be no glory attached to it unless someone can actually get DOG to respond. This may be @Gedden's middle finger to Pox fans for booing him on his version of a Pox revamp.