RIFT revenues reached $100 million in 2011, Trion secures new funding

by Jef Reahard on Jan 19th 2012 11:30AM

Fantasy, Business Models, MMO Industry, News Items, RIFT

How successful is RIFT? That's hard to say without knowing how much it cost, but it's safe to assume that Trion executives are smiling after the game generated $100 million in revenue in only 10 months.

CEO Lars Buttler told Reuters that the company is still considering an initial public stock offering, and it has also secured an additional $85 million in funding as it readies RIFT for the South Korean and Chinese gaming markets later this year. Trion is also developing an MMO shooter called Defiance and an MMORTS known as End of Nations.

Source: Reuters
More coverage: GamesIndustry.biz

Tags: business-models, defiance, end-of-nations, fantasy, finances, funding, Lars-Buttler, mmo-industry, rift, sci-fi, trion, trion-worlds

Reader Comments (63)

Doing the math that would put active subs between 250-400k players. That is a pretty successful MMO and one that will continue to have a place in the market for a while to come.

@Solidkjames My calculations put it at around 500k players. Frankly, I find that very hard to believe, and I wonder why yourself as well as many other posters aren't questioning that figure. The linked article states that Trion brought in 100m in revenue, but there are no 10Q's or public investor information portals on their website or anywhere else. The last public information I can find on them is from 2008 from the edgar (sec.gov) website.

Basically I call BS on that 100 million number. I can tell you I'm a billionaire, or that I own a Porsche, or that I'm a Nobel Prize winner - if I don't have anything to back that up, you wouldn't believe me, and I would turn a skeptical eye towards Rift as well. Also, what is the teacher's union of Ontario doing investing 85 million dollars in a risky company like this?

Finally, RIFT is boring. That statement might get me downgraded, but it is a flat out grind grind grind, the aesthetics are rather drab (especially when compared to wow and swtor), but most importantly is the soul-crushing grinds. I could also mention absolutely back-breaking bugs in certain PvE encounters, extreme class imbalances, and a PvP system that is also an insane grindfest. All of this might be forgiven, except for that fact that it it takes forever to do simple things like max out your rep that you need for certain head or pants enchantments.

I understand that everyone here wants to root for the little guy, to topple the Big Bad Blizzard monster, but hating on wow and cheering for David isn't going to make a boring grindfest any better of a game than it is. I don't wish ill of anyone, but I can't share the enthusiasm many of the other posters have in rooting for Trion.

Apologies for the wall o' text.

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This is good, shows that companies can still enter the field in the middle of the pack and do well. I am really not a big fan of rift, but they did do a lot of stuff right.

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