The True Cost Of Making A TCG (Hearthstone vs Splinterlands)
In this video, I dig into the costs of producing a AAA trading card game like Hearthstone and compare it to the recent Splinterlands monthly expenses that Matt revealed during the recent DAOn Hall. Many have come out saying these expenses are too high but I believe having context is important.
The shocking truth is that to produce a game like Hearthstone probably costs $40M per year. Compare that to Splinterlands which at this point is trying to run bare bones at about $3M and this actually makes a lot of sense. If the team had an additional $37M to work with on an annual basis I can imagine the game would be much further along, but this is the reality we are in and I do believe they are doing the best with what they have.
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Question is what is the source of revenue for Hearthstone to enable them to handle $40 million expenses per year?
Not sure as I don't play the game, but I'm assuming card sales?
All this talk about IP and code stack really has me wondering what the actual endgame is for SMC and the SPS DAO. I just assumed the whole idea of Web3 Gaming and becoming truly decentralized through the DAO was to allow the centralized company, SMC, to fade off into the sunset as the SPSDAO slowly took over all aspects of running the game, paying the SMC staff, and maintaining business operations.
We need to come to grips with the fact that as long as we stay on Hive and move toward decentralization, it will be unlikely to attract the types of VCs that will invest a large sum of money to be able to develop like Hearthstone did. That's fine by me. If I need to ride out into the sunset grinding against the last folks standing, so be it. I ain't leaving because I'm still incredibly excited about what this game can become!
That's true, I wouldn't expect VCs to want to come into a situation they cannot control.
So we are on our own to persevere with our DAO. I hope the end game is for SPS DAO to swallow SMC and operations to achieve the dream. We are only a set or two away with a plan for new SPS distribution schedule. The light shines bright!
Thanks Aftersound. I found this video helpful in providing another perspective on some of the costs associated with the salary of developers.
I'll sit in the middle as it's important to scrutinize a lot of things when it comes to funding. Of course, I believe splinterlands will do better with enough funding. I believe with the right fund, the team might not make the same mistakes they've made in the past. I don't know about Hearthstone, but in 2021 splinterlands was easily one of the biggest stuff in web3.
Thanks for sharing! - @azircon
