Just How Profitable is eRepublik?
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by Major Lee Hung
Some time ago I released an article estimating the profits of eRepublik, which I predicted to be at least £340,000 per year; possibly even up to £1,000,000 when not calculating everything at minimal amounts. I decided to follow this up in February by posting the actual information, but this was unfortunately deleted by an admin for 'flaming'. Now that my famous points have began to disappear, I'm going to make a second attempt!
Background Information
eRepublik Labs. Limited - Incorporated on 12th September 2008 in Dublin, Ireland. Six directors and 33 shareholders. Noted as a 'publisher of software'.
Financial Data as at 31 December 2011
2012's data is currently unavailable
Year 2011 - 2012:
Turnover: €2,408,865
Net Assets: €6,725,117 (+22.25% on previous year)
Cash: €1,488,751 (+201.31😵
Current Liabilities: €193,700 (-5.28😵
Shareholders
Only listing top shareholders
27.80% - Gergat Trading Limited
16.36% - Alexis Bonte
16.36% - George Lemnaru
10.17% - FCPI Capital Croissance
Estimates
Based on the huge increase of money from 2011 to 2012, we can anticipate that profits are at around €1.3mil to €1.6mil now. This puts eRepublik in a strong position for its future expansion plans in to the mobile/table market.
V1?
The financial information from previous years tells a very different story - a story of why, if they stuck with V1, eRepublik would no longer be around. V1 seems to have been a very difficult time for eRepublik Labs. Profit for 2009 was at -€601,691, a very different story to what you're seeing today. The further investments before V2 were likely a financial bailout so to speak for the company, after suffering heavy losses.
Currently however, eRepublik recovers all losses since its founding in one year, making it one of the more profitable browser-game startups in the world.
Future Direction
eRepublik Labs last year acquired a known smartphone app developer, which indicates that the future plans are to dip in to the big smartphone/tablet market. We can probably expect that something is currently being developed, and in the last six months the eRepublik directors have been giving many interviews hinting at such a move.
In the meantime, eRepublik continues to be their flagship product, and based on the recent acquisitions, could even be turned in to a more app-based product.
Bonte talked in November about the acquisition of Alien Flow, a Spanish games developer. He believes tablets are the future of strategy games, and that the lack of innovation in products such as Facebook games give way to eRepublik's future drive in to the app market.
New Game?
Based on the facts available, only the following things can be guessed about the next eRepublik Labs game:
-It will be a tablet/smartphone strategy game.
-It won't be a 'casual game', as they realise this market is now over-saturated.
-They believe Europe is moving towards indie games, and away from the big studio games, this indicates that the next game will be very different to what's currently out there.
-There's hints that it won't be an online game.
-The drive is moving away from community, and towards accessibility.
Thanks for reading! Hopefully the article isn't deleted again; all information is publicly accessible anyway.
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Comments
Great article! Voted and Subscribed!
voted
extremely interesting article.
Indeed.
Voted
Nice analysis. Personally, I'd suggest using a continuous improvement system of some sort - like EVE Online's learning system or research on ogame or something like that. Not the system used in, for example, SW:TOR where you have lvl cap and get feats instantly when you "buy" them from the instructor as soon as you level up. Having only one important skill (like strength here) is limiting.
As for smartphones/tablets, people often overdo their games and end up with a game that kills your battery inside an hour or so. Having simple interface, without 3d is much more useful for tablets. Also having a game only on tablets is kinda stupid. If you have a server and some rpc connection between the game client and server, you can easily make your thin client for both desktop and tablets (maybe even browsers if the client is simple enough).
Third, I disagree on the community aspect. People like to have a market where they can trade stuff and create some virtual profit. And teaming up with your friends to achieve something is usually fun. The best part of this game, for example, is the community, at least IMO.
you have my vote, now it explains why most old player leave erep or do 2-click mode.
Agreed! They're looking at doing 3D HTML5 games I believe on smartphone and tablet, their emphasis on tablet. Strategy games typically require a lot of the processor to keep up with the various calculations every frame, whereas the GPU and such isn't really designed for a 3D game on the average tablet.
GPUs are usually OpenGL ES 2 and that's quite enough for a 3D game to work. The problem is that most people don't keep their tablets and phones plugged into the wall all the time, so playing such games is ridiculous. Maybe if they find a ZPM (from stargate, ½h·ni = lowest quantum energy which they supposedly harness), then the mobiles and tablets might actually have a battery powerful enough to run such a game.
Didn't even know Hostilian spoke English o_0
How yes no, of kourse meesa speekz engrish : P
voted
I don't see how sticking to facts could be constituted as "flaming"...puzzling.
Mostly because I included the tax arrangements too. 😛
Is this an audit?
Kinda!
They are very cash heavy, keeping this much cash in a business normally means more acquisitions are on the cards.
only solidifying our aspersion that the game turned crap because admins turned to profits instead of players!
can't believe I missed this 🙂
great.
v