Boards›Gameplay

Welp, at this explains the lack of Janna nerfs in the last weeks.

SaltyToplaneGoat··12 votes·609 views

A 1350 skin? Well, usually I'd say that skins don't rake in that much money, but with such pricing...

Well, that makes 10€ per skin sold, given that according to some random statistic only 1% of players even buys stuff for real money (number taken from unreliable memory, so handle with care), and then we assume that of those people maybe 1% will buy it (altho it surely will be more given Janna's massive playrate and winrate), on 62 million players that makes a minimum of 6.200 customers, all paying 10 bucks each, making 62.000 bucks the minimal amount of cash they are going to rake in with it. Good, now let's assume that five people worked on this skin for a month each, and I'm just going to assume that they are all just going to be paid 5.000 bucks a month (no clue, I just pick a random high number here), makes still 37.000 bucks in profit.

All for one skin, and that is the number assuming potential customers being 1% of 1% of the playerbase - and let's not forget I'm only talking about one single skin here and am not accounting for the champion being widely popular due to a mix of the meta favouring her so hard and her outdated design just fitting abit TOO well into her intended niche.

37.000 in profit... well, that's more than what I earn in a year, that's for certain... I guess that's what you get when your playerbase is in the millions...

7 Comments

Davaken2 votes

Some very qustionable statistics and math.

SaltyToplaneGoat1 votes

Yes, given that artists don't necessarely earn that much a month, and that there might be a lot more people buying the skin, the actual profit this skin will bring might be much higher.

The "Only 1% of players uses RP" or something was something a Rioter said some years ago, so that's the part I'm somewhat confident in. Taking 1% from there as potential customers is just me picking the lowest number possible that might still sound reasonable.

Davaken1 votes

I googled the "Only 1% of players uses RP" statistic and I couldn't find shit. My problem with the math, is that you just assume so much that the actual numbers used feels completely useless. Also, considering that the actual income of the skins has no impact on the wages that the artists earn, this math is based on pure speculation, and doesn't even prove a valid point.

SaltyToplaneGoat1 votes

Yes, but let's be honest, 1% of the playerbase sounds like a reasonable approach. I doubt you just find something that specific via google, you'd have to scan red-posts of the last 4 years to possibly find that.

And probably it's more than one percent of players. I mean, let's rewind back to before league had 60 million plus players, why would they bother with a feature only expecting it to be used by 1% of their entire playerbase?

My numbers were chosen in a way that it would give a possibly low but realistic result, even if the actual result might be much, MUCH higher. It doesn't change the fact that skins are pretty much "easy money", even if only a fraction of a fraction of the playerbase buys it. They are low in production cost and time, but bring in a load of profit. I mean, just look at the champs that got the skins: Janna, Yi, Fiora... none of these champs have big particle or model work. You can't tell me that this is something a professional team worked months and months on... low input, big outcome -> massive profit.

And obviously since he potential profit is just massive it's not weird for Riot to meddle occasionally with game balance in a way that will make these champions be strong and popular by the time their skins hit. Or less meddle than to "conveniently forget" to nerf a cerain champion for some weeks, that'd be the less obvious thing to do. They are a capitalist company, not an artist collective - a game studio is always a weird hybrid of both of these, but I sometimes wish they'd put less focus on skins and more on actually awesome content. As of right now it feels only like they make profits with skins so they can fund making even more skins...

Zero Drive1 votes

I should have bet money when I saw the lack of Janna nerfs. I told my friends "Betcha they're going to give her a skin before they nerf her".

SaltyToplaneGoat1 votes

She's the highest winrate champ in the game with massive popularity resulting from that. Not giving her a skin would be economical madness - if an average skin with 0,01% of the players buying it already rakes in that much cash, then just how hard is a skin for a super-much played champion going to hit?

I'm not exactly happy with Riot just doing the economical thing and only pumping out skins left and right instead of proper gameplay content or content in connection with lore. It feels not like they make the skins to support their studio making other cool stuff, it's more like they sell skins so they can pay for the production of more skins, which will give them even more profit. And who can blame them? It's the thing that brings in cash, and that's not even accounting for any money from the Esport sector...

commit an hero1 votes

Honestly this will sell more in China than it will in the US guaranteed. I mean the skin line is aimed at the Chinese more than it's aimed at the West.

More from Gameplay

3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay764 comments
7,167
votes
3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay156 comments
3,510
votes
UPVOTE FOR URF
Gameplay606 comments
2,440
votes
Yes plz.
Gameplay456 comments
1,721
votes
3 Refunds per season, up vote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay114 comments
1,716
votes
When is ANYONE at riot going to address the awful new player experience?
Gameplay634 comments
1,383
votes

More by SaltyToplaneGoat

As a 600k Soraka main the very existence of Senna is just a slap in the face
Gameplay198 comments
247
votes
Congratulations Riot, with this patch...
Gameplay252 comments
234
votes
Wouldn't it be possible to code the Nami Ult as a lot of tiny projectiles?
Gameplay141 comments
199
votes
The focus on Esport will be the downfall of this game.
Gameplay137 comments
175
votes
I do understand that Akali as an assassin needs massive damage and mobility, but...
Gameplay207 comments
170
votes
We shall remember the date as Caitlyn has become completly obsolte...
Gameplay201 comments
167
votes