I'm not convinced. They're a publicly traded company; if they have an asset which generates no revenue, whose value will diminish over time, and which brings a certain amount of bad PR (and the sale of which would generate some good PR), they can hardly refuse a generous offer from it without questions being raised by shareholders.
I think the difficulty is more that the amount of money that would be difficult to justify refusing is considerably more than CoX is worth from a purely business perspective (at this point, if you brought it back, the hard core would resubscribe, but who else?) so essentially it could only happen if someone independently wealthy did it as a labour of love.
yup. but would be good PR in the long run?
More than likely, even if they brought it back soon, say in the next few months, there would be alot of up front costs from hiring to potentially an office building for the studio to operate out of for resurrecting a product that now especially at first will bring in relatively low income levels, and potentiall take long time to recoup those costs. Many ex players already sworn off ncsoft lead COX. And mroe than likely the vets taht do return probably wont feel comfortable spending as much as anywhere as they did prior. Thus which could lead to potentially another shut down situation whether because it's not bringing enough money or actually unprofitable and then restart the bad PR thing all over again. Why would they risk that?
They could sell, but NCSOFT is not the first and probably wont be the last to turn down crazy amount of money for their assets. Microsoft tried to buy facebook long time ago for about 17 billion. Z-man turned them down. Many people thought at the time he went bat crap crazy to turn down 17 billion. Luckily though in hindsight it was the right move as viewed by many but usually it dont work out like that. Think about all the porducts since 1940 that companies are still holding on to but havent seen production in decades. Why are they holding on to those assets that are not generating any sort of income and some been gone so long that it's assets that are probably near worthless now and hardly anyone remembers it? Who knows.
From the looks of it, if in fact the bad PR did as much damage as some here say it did, then more than likely they wont risk that happening again especially with the same crowd of people by bringing it back and the likely hood that it will make the same or less than it was making prior to the shut down.
on the flip side, buying an asset is a two way and pretty complicated process. Its not as easy as showing up with a bag of money saying "Here, now hand over COX." And given that there havent been any actually faactual proof of what was offered, those offers might in fact been not so generous at all or filled with too many strings attached. I.E. wanting NCSOFT to take the fall for future lawsuits on a product they would no longer own. Not saying that is or was or will be the case but merely an example.
Or hell it may be very well that NCSOFT dont want to sell, but just because there was offers and because NCSOFT turned them down doesnt mean automatically it's due to ncsoft. NCSOFT can sell any time. The asset is not bringing in money but it's not costing money either. But selling it may indirectly cost them money especially if they ever choose from now until end of time wanting to get back into the super hero mmo. One key to business is to never shut a door permantly that one may want to open again. Simply close the door but always leave a crack in it. Fantasy games are a dime of dozen. Super hero games, I dont think there are even a dozen. NCSOFT more than likely knows this and probably dont want to be kicking themselves later down the line when they try to get in cold turkey in the super heroo mmo if and when it does take off. As long as they hold that asset, that is less work, less copyright paper work they must fill out, and the IP and concept is already there. And since many people say they will never forget COX, that means the name is known within a market already compared to having to start completely from scratch and trying to avoid being sued for infringement on something they used to own. Right now, the asset is like a ticket, a rain check, and as long as they hold on to it, no one can use COX or the lore. If they hand for a quick buck or two then it's basically a gift drop to real or potential present or future competitor. Thus may be the reason for the high price.
Like if a a person was running a software company and a competitor needed the office space that isnt being used. some people may give it to them. Many will not especially if that office space is all the competitor needs to get ahead of ya. But in business, charity and for the warm fuzzy feeling usually dont mesh unless it would be significantly profitable. There are many products being sold that if the company wanted to be warm and fuzzy and care about the customers they would lower the price of said product and assets they are not using would simply be given away just so a few people cheer them. Cheers doesnt always equate to money. It can be viewed if people was serious about spending money seriously and ensuring the health of the game they would have done so while it was alive. Now that it's dead, bringing it back especially if the bad PR was in fact a factor, it's the unknown. People want NCSOFT to make guarantees but what guarntee is given to them? Aka, besides a few warm and fuzzy cheers, what is in it for them and what guarantees do they have?
