Originally Posted by Darsithis Originally Posted by

HA!



You're way off. I'm going to go through this, again, for your benefit. Below is the calculations:



It would be very expensive to rebuild their code and databases to match a specific patch and period of time AT current market rates for developers, much less their own teams (who are paid more due to seniority). My company, of just 10 people, spends $1.2m a year in wages, taxes, benefits, and healthcare, and we're 10 people. Most developers (new hires) for this would be about 60k a year, and you'd need a few teams to pull it off including leads ($100 - $120k), designers, head of management. If you hire new people, there is weeks of ramp-up time and lost money if any of them leave. Don't forget Blizzard would have to shell out for benefits, matching plans, taxes...



Here is the list of things they'd need to do:

1 - Locate the oldest code they can find

2 - Rebuild or roll back pieces until it reaches a point where it matches 1.12 (if that is their target)

3 - Weave all security, exploit, and Battle.net code into the old code

4 - Weave in hardware updates and new device drivers into this code

5 - Rebuild the databases and restore missing quests and items from 8 years ago

6 - Find or rebuild the original textures and objects that have long since been upgraded through the years

7 - Playtest, QA test

8 - Hire or move developers/support/CM's/GM's to support these servers



The costs. Imagine the costs. 20k players paying $15 a month is about $300k a month, or $3.6 million a year. They wouldn't even break even, if estimates are conservative. They'd need far more than 20k and they'd be sinking a LOT of money into something they have no idea if it would pay off.



Your idea that it would be tens of millions a month would mean they'd have to have, at least, for $10m a month, 625,000+ players, and for twenty million (since you said millions), 1.25 million players, in the first two months. That is incredibly unlikely.



Blizzard doesn't have to give you any information. They're a multi-national corporation with teams devoted specifically to determining the cost-effectiveness of rolling out classic servers and they've decided it is too expensive. They've said so, multiple times, details of which you can find in any of the Wall Of No posts here.



Finally, unless they HIRE new people to take over building these servers, they will have to take teams, entire teams, off of current content, which would piss off the millions of current players they already have just to make YOU happy.