Some (vague) revenue numbers from a WSJ article:
Gazillion Chief Executive Dave Brevik said the company had $11 million in 2013 revenue and he expects $25 million this year based on the number of daily active users and the number of players converting from free to paying customers.
He said “Marvel Heroes” has three million registered users, and the game has doubled the number of daily active users and its monthly revenue during the past five months. The conversion from free to paid users is also strong, with roughly 14% of total users now paying for special characters, time savers and other items to make the games more enjoyable. The ARPPU, or average revenue per paying user, is more than $50 a month, Mr. Brevik said.
Roughly 85% of Gazillion’s revenue comes from “Marvel Heroes,” and the company’s recent valuation reflects the promise of the game, Mr. Brevik said.
“The sins of the past are going to be erased. This [recapitalization] gives us a way to put that in the past and really flourish,” said Mr. Brevik, a gaming veteran who helped create Blizzard Entertainment Inc.'s “Diablo” before assuming leadership of the reorganized company last year. “We’ve just begun to scratch the surface.”
They’re really good at making paying feel worthwhile, I’ll tell you that. Marvel Heroes isn’t the only F2P game on which I’ve spent money, but it’s easily the one on which I’ve spent the most (well, besides my Hex Kickstarter pledge, but that’s a little different), and it’s in pretty rarefied company getting my money at all.
Good to see your stealth finally ran out…
Especially once the more rare varieties of team-up gear go in. One thing I did with Colossus is stack size increases on him, which also helps, though I’ve gotten more used to finding my character in the midst of the chaos.
Silky
1624
For lack of better term I main BP and I find him incredibly powerful. He is the most powerful 60 out of the 1/2 dozen or so I have but that may just be better itemization. I have no issues running cosmics with him but he really shines in X-Def. I built him as a ranged energy fighter mostly revolving around fan of knives and mobile mine field. With + area items mobile mine field does some insane damage. MMF has its share of problems such as inability to use in tight spaces but against mobs in open spaces it’s lights out. The worst of these areas is Fisk tower where it is unusable except for the Kingpin fight itself.
I haven’t geared him for unaware damage but the 1000 or so he gets from skills helps a ton. Doras automatically soak aggro once you use your stealth and you can engage at any range. My build doesn’t do as much single target damage as a bleed melee BP but I can put the target dummy down in 20 seconds so it ain’t that bad. I routinely get 850k brutals with Wrath of Bast. I am still striving for BiS gear but currently I have 51% dodge, 45% defense, and 20k HP. With that being ranged I rarely go down.
How so?
I LOVE the look of his signature by the way, that alone makes me want to buy him. Oscuros just started with him yesterday and can’t wait until he gets it.
Silky
1626
I love his signature as well but BP purists detest it as not panther-like. I’m not heavily invested in the canon of Marvel Universe so that part doesn’t bother me. I just loved Diablo 2 but couldn’t get get into D3. Mobile Mine Fields biggest problem is it fails to deploy consistently; particularly around obstacles. It’s spread pattern also takes a bit to get used to but I find it works like a charm in Midtown and X-Def and wide open Boss lairs for the most part. With + radius items I find a single target is hit by multiple mines making it very damaging.
Anybody that complains about any facet of this game being out of character or noncanonical or whatever need to realize that Marvel signs off on every single detail in this game and for that matter insists on some stuff that doesn’t always necessarily make sense (like giving Cyclops a melee tree).
Wait…I’m a BP purist, and I think it’s great. What part of it isn’t panther-like? The giant, glowing panther?
I’ve got a melee/AoE build of BP that is fantastic in the campaigns and gets murdered in X-Def and cosmic terminals. I’ve been thinking about using a retcon for range instead (MMF is the only one I use), but I wasn’t that enamored with that play style when I was leveling him. Decisions, decisions.
Still keep going back and forth on Spidey or BP. Spidey is 50, going to take him to 60 and try some stuff. BP I like, but the difference in mobility is huge. Stealth is nice, and that sig is crazy good. Need more Odin marks like mad though. So slow.
Scott
1630
Spidey is 50, going to take him to 60 and try some stuff.
I still really enjoy Spidey. I have excalibur up to level 4 with him. I want to get it to level 5, and then prestige and have fun being overpowered for a while. BP I play a bit then get frustrated by how little he actually rolls, and park him for a bit. Everything else is great though, and sits around 53 for me. I bet with a legendary BP would do very well in cosmics.
Put a savage axe of ares on Moonknight last night and played around with him in a few cosmics. He’s serviceable, but slower then some of my other characters due to handling the trash. (As was discussed earlier). MK is getting a great new costume, so I was thinking of prestiging him too. I’m at the point where I’ve played most of the characters I like, and don’t have a ton of interest in others like the Hulk, Punisher, etc. Gambit still looks fun, but seems poorly ranked on the Heros forum.
Moonknight kills bosses like no other, that alone is pretty fun. Mash his sig and it’s crazy. I do fine in cosmics either in a group or solo with my BP, just the lack of mobility is a bit irritating. I also really need a rune or two to finish a runeword to help with spirit use, it’s pretty high on my build and can leave me sputtering sometimes.
I have excal on BP, but it’s not even rank 1 yet. It just seems like a really strong pick for any melee since the def and heal are pretty nice. Would likely use the same on spidey. Taskmaster is a blast, but I’m trying not to further confuse my choices ;)
Hark, what Runeword are you trying to make for BP, River of the Soul? If you are using bleeds, also consider a Maht’s Arrowhead (available in story ch7).
For a low mobility character, ziggurat of Kargul is an awesome artifact choice, since it lets you teleport.
Excalibur is a strong pick for melee if you want a mix of offense and defense. I use one on Daredevil. The downside on a character like BP, of course, is that it locks you into melee. The conversion recipe that turn legendaries back into Odin marks is supposed to be going away at some point, but I hope they will keep it, since it encourages build experimentation.
I don’t know. The heal on -everything- but Lemuria seems kinda worthless imo, because of the 1 second cooldown. If it was actually “on hit” it’d be fine, but in most cases it’s not.
Scott
1634
Moonknight kills bosses like no other, that alone is pretty fun. Mash his sig and it’s crazy.
I feel like I miss a lot with his sig, and its probably my fault. One issue is that his other attacks have longer ranges, so sometimes switching to sig means I’m out of place and whiff on the sig. Other times its really hard to see exactly where that boss is to target with the sig as well, like in x-def. The chaotic battles also mean its tougher to click near the boss to get in the perfect range. Sometimes I feel the sig gets interrupted too. MK’s sig is great, when I can get it to hit, otherwise I’m just sad :).
I almost feel that Cap is better with both bosses and all around the MK. Cap has his bash skill, and another skill that hits for 40% extra against elites. Caps shield throw is better then MKs bounce, and his shield torque is also very effective. Add in that Caps sig helps ALL of his skills with huge damage boosts, and allies, and he’s a winner. Cap also can parachute jump and stun.
The more I think about it, the more I feel Cap is underrated and bests BP and MK in most ways. And as Cap says, he’s been doing it a long time…
Either river or lunar, both seem like they would greatly help with spirit costs. Current BP build only has SS as the bleed, not using daggers. Not sure which of the two builds I prefer. The heal on hit effect on some items and cores might have that internal cooldown, but it’s still quite noticeable and far from worthless imo
I haven’t tried Lunar, as I’ve never found a single moon rune. But if what you need a man rune or something for River, I’ve got tons.
Nearly every proc effect has an internal cooldown (1 sec if not listed). From a thread yesterday, it seems that Lemuria does not, but there are also hidden coefficients on AoE abilities that are applied to procs that keep the area abilities from being drastically better, so a slow melee power might have the normal chance to proc an effect while a spammable area power might only be ten percent of the listed chance.
Going back through the story for all the power points and other rewards is so clunky and unfun :(
They’ve talked about changing it so it isn’t necessary. I only bother with the power points most of the time, and only on characters I have some thought of playing post-60. Once you have it down, getting the points takes maybe 20 minutes. You just need one character with the waypoints on all the difficulties. Make sure you have bodyslide up when you head to ancient ruin in Superheroic so you can port back after talking to Heimdall.
How does that work? You can’t change characters after going through a waypoint, can you?
some of them you can, and some you can backtrack one zone portal, switch, then go back in. Working my way through all the difficulties with spidey to get the waypoints. At least his mobility helps here.
