How much do you suppose it costs to develop and maintain DDI?

[Grymar]

$2 million doesn't go as far as one might think.

Exactly. When I saw that $2 million figure, I was shocked at how low that was. High end operating system and database tools can alone cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. They have to have 20 to 50 servers at the low end ($5k to $10k each) and very high bandwidth costs.

I work in a moderate sized company (1000 or so employees) and have a strong web presence. For us a $2 million project is a big project, but not huge.

I would hope their actual revenue is in the area of $5 mil, otherwise I don't see them making a huge profit on it.

 

[Jack99]

I agree, especially since I don't see any great incentive to join the group on WotC site. I'm wondering what happens if someone doesn't renew the subscription? Is he automatically removed from the group?

Yes. One of the regulars of ENworld let his sub lapse to test it - I believe it was darjr or whatshisname.

 

[Mark]

How much do you suppose it costs to develop and maintain DDI?

Are we including the severance packages of all the people on the project who have been canned?

How profitable do you think it is?

Given that the numbers are probably inflated regarded how many people have downloaded and signed up on the boards but either don't actually use it and/or have dropped it, I'd still guess they probably make some sort of profit. Not that it matters since the tools included in it are likely all but prototypes for tools to be used in the next edition focused on a heavy computer-integrated strategy. Most of what I have been seeing indicates that without the DDI most people would not play 4E or at least not run 4E, which further indicates to me that the numbers of 4E gamers is also limited by that usage. As I say, though, the profitability of this edition's computer tools are irrelevant to the necessity of their development.

 

[ggroy]

Competitive salary plus benefits for a full time, solid developer or manager? Let's call that $100K each. Five Full Time Employees (FTEs) have now eaten a full quarter of that income. In my experience, development of a fully-featured, multimedia application takes a team of more like 10 people (developers, QA, and management inclusive) if you want it done well and in reasonable time. So now half that money is gone.

Do we know whether the original development was done in-house, or was it outsourced to somewhere like India or China where costs are considerably lower?

 

[Shemeska]

Do we know whether the original development was done in-house, or was it outsourced to somewhere like India or China where costs are considerably lower?

Original development was outsourced to Radient Machine, which no longer exists. That group from what I was told, had some Indian employees as well as US devs, and a lot of the artwork and modeling work being done was itself outsourced to China.

 

[Shemeska]

Yes. One of the regulars of ENworld let his sub lapse to test it - I believe it was darjr or whatshisname.

Yep. The DDI group is a minimum certainly based on that. However there's another question I have, and which there has been some confusion over I think.

Since they produced a combined login for Insider and the Forums a while back, even if you don't actively use the forums, I believe that by logging into Insider, you're automatically given membership in the forum DDI group, regardless of using it or even being aware of it. If so, the number in the DDI group would be a spot on number for DDI subscriptions, allowing some wiggle room for anyone who might remove themselves from that group. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[mudbunny]

To the best of my knowledge, you are only counted in that number if you have both a subscription to DDI and have a WotC community account. People that are part of DDI but have never gone to the WotC community site or started a community account are not counted in that group.

 

[darjr]

I agree, especially since I don't see any great incentive to join the group on WotC site. I'm wondering what happens if someone doesn't renew the subscription? Is he automatically removed from the group?

Yes. When your DDI sub lapses you are removed from the group. I let mine lapse in part to test it.

 

[Jack99]

To the best of my knowledge, you are only counted in that number if you have both a subscription to DDI and have a WotC community account. People that are part of DDI but have never gone to the WotC community site or started a community account are not counted in that group.

That is indeed what we have been told. No way to test it, as far as I can see.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

Are we including the severance packages of all the people on the project who have been canned?

Given that the numbers are probably inflated regarded how many people have downloaded and signed up on the boards but either don't actually use it and/or have dropped it, I'd still guess they probably make some sort of profit. Not that it matters since the tools included in it are likely all but prototypes for tools to be used in the next edition focused on a heavy computer-integrated strategy. Most of what I have been seeing indicates that without the DDI most people would not play 4E or at least not run 4E, which further indicates to me that the numbers of 4E gamers is also limited by that usage. As I say, though, the profitability of this edition's computer tools are irrelevant to the necessity of their development.

God, you mean that DDI is just an experiment, and yet they were able to create the most awesome tools for roleplaying ever? And 5e will be fully computer-supported? I´m beginning to salivate heavily.

Even if running 4e without DDI is pretty easy.