Wouldn't it be cheaper for you to provide some great server software, but people would have to host it themselves, like it was done years and years ago with games like Day of Defeat, Half life etc.
Or maybe I'm missing something - it's been a while since I played those type of games.
The primary reason companies do not follow the tried and true method of game design is that they can't extract money in the form of microtransactions or server rent if they provide the full game (including server).
Also, as part of the server software it could include the marketplace, which would sit on the game developers servers, so all transactions would go via the game developer and maybe they could give some commission to the person hosting the game.
They might go buy another game though... A healthy community built around a self-hosted server tends to hold people for long periods of time.
It's more like Destiny, World of Warcraft or Diablo in that there are RPG elements, a grind for loot and the possibility to meet other players.
Minecraft as a project over the years easily cost more than 20x to make than The Division, I'm glad it's successful, but I don't know if it's really apples/apples.
At that time there were 25 employees, all living in Stockholm Sweden, the cost of a developer there in 2011 is roughly 60-75k SEK/mo (lets say 60).
(25x(60x12))x9 = 15M SEK in Salaries.
Not including: marketing (usually more than half the total cost of making a game), build servers, distribution servers.
To put that into context: Final Fantasy IX is on the list of most expensive games ever made and cost 40M EUR.[0]
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_video_g...
Massive seems to take three years per game, and according to Wikipedia has 650 employees. It's pretty hard to see how you get to 20x from there.
(Genuinely curious)
I'd love to hear an insider's opinion on: Why aren't more games developed like Minecraft? Bootstrapped, slowly crafted over years rather than months, soft launched, minimal marketing, iterated on, etc.? Why is "pump out and hype an AAA game as inexpensively as possible" the only option Serious Game Companies™ go with?
Most Indies (early access on Steam) either never come out of early access or come out relatively Luke-warm.