Gamespot Complete news

[Mark Asher]

CNET announced their third quarter financials. They lost money, but think they will make a tiny profit BEFORE they factor in depreciation and amortization, whatever that means -- wouldn't it be better to just say that they'll make a profit after all their expenses are factored in? I hate that kind of doublespeak.

Anyway, of interest was the blurb about Gamespot Complete:

"GameSpot Complete - a fee-based service offering gaming news, product demos and reviews, tips and tricks, video game downloads and streaming video files - ended Q3 with 37,500 paying users, a 67 percent increase from its June 30 membership of 22,500. Launched in early May, more than 75 percent of GameSpot Complete users pay the annual subscription fee."

Not bad, though 37,500 subscribers would be a tiny magazine compared to CGW, PCG, and CGM, and those are monthly, not daily operations. What's with the "more than 75 percent of GameSpot Complete users pay the annual subscription fee" though? Does that mean that nearly 25% just buy monthly subs? I guess that's the equivalent of newstand sales to continue the magazine analogy.

[Dave Long]

The real question is whether that 37,500 paid subscriptions is covering bandwidth, hardware and salary costs for the year. If it is, then Gamespot Complete is a Complete Success.

--Dave

[Rob de los Reyes]

Not to be a git, but the reason you write financial announcements that way is to capture the difference between financial accounting and tax accounting. Because the legislature uses the tax code as a means of getting at certain broad policy goals, you end up with oddities like that.

Here's the thing, you'd like to have a tax accounting loss (so you don't have income to tax), but a financial accounting profit so everybody knows you're making money. Depreciation and amortization are tax concepts that let you claim the "loss" of the value of tangible and intangible goods, repsectively, over time. For example, your office building is now a year older and, for tax purposes, it's now worth less than it was. Even though you're not paying out any money on that "expense", you still get to count it against your income. Of course, Congress monkeys with the depreciation tables at will in order to stimulate the purchase of capital goods and the like, so any semblance of real world function is lost. . . . Which is why your financial accounting numbers look different, and why you need to write press releases explaining the difference.

Or something like that.

Anyway, I hope your question wasn't just rhetorical and that I didn't just waste a lot of your time. :)

[Mark Asher]

There's no way those subscribers are covering the expense of running Gamespot. It's possible that subs + ad revene + share of revenue generated by sales resulting from clickthrus are, but not the subs alone.

Rob, thanks, I didn't know that, and in about five minutes it will have left my short-term memory and I won't know it again. I have a brain of +10 resistence against financial information, which explains why I'm currently on a schedule to be able to retire comfortably when I'm 82.

[Alan Dunkin]

Uh, how much are the Complete subscriptions?

--- Alan

[Tyjenks]

I am working as a Bookkeeper (and a lot of other shit) for a small company right now and this is the first time my work knowledge has applied to anything on this board. Hooray!! OTOH, :cry: . My job bores me to tears most days.

[Anonymous]

Uh, how much are the Complete subscriptions?

--- Alan

They currently have a $19.95 special on the yearly rate. (It's usually $24.95) And it's $4.95 if paid monthly.

Peter

[Wholly Schmidt]

Ahhhh! I'm taking my first accounting course in college and I come to gaming sites to get away from scary words like amortization!

Ok, it's not that bad. It's actually almost interesting to hear things I'm learning about being applied here. Almost.

[Alan Dunkin]

Hmm yeah, that's not a lot per year.. maybe they make up th rest in advertising or selling souls or something.

--- Alan

[Kalle]

Hmm yeah, that's not a lot per year.. maybe they make up th rest in advertising or selling souls or something.

--- Alan

How much does a soul go for these days? I sold mine to a classmate in the 5th grade for 50 cents, not counting inflation, has the price gone up?

And yes, I am completely serious when I say that.

[Anonymous]

Some years back, when "The Simpsons" was still a decent TV show, and not an employment project, Bart Simpson sold his soul to Milhouse for $5. How's that for inflation? :)

Peter

[Kalle]

I think that episode was what inspired me to do it. Was many years ago though so I can't be sure. I know that I've never had any problem with automatic doors not opening for me, dogs barking at me and the other general cartoonish nastiness that happened to Bart.

Life's not a cartoon, who would have thought.

Speaking of the Simpsons and souls, I like the Halloween episode where Homer sells his soul for a doughnut. Now that's cheap.

[Ben Sones]

Not bad, though 37,500 subscribers would be a tiny magazine compared to CGW, PCG, and CGM, and those are monthly, not daily operations. What's with the "more than 75 percent of GameSpot Complete users pay the annual subscription fee" though? Does that mean that nearly 25% just buy monthly subs? I guess that's the equivalent of newstand sales to continue the magazine analogy.

It may not matter, because running a website (even a website that requires Big Bandwidth) costs a fraction of what it costs to produce a monthly magazine. So 37,000 subscribers may be plenty. Only the folks at GS know for sure. I wonder what their ad sales are like--with magazines, that's a lot more important than subscription payments.

[Brad Grenz]

I met a guy once who collected souls. He had a form contract and everything, $20 a pop. I thought I could do better and tried Ebay. The facists took down my auction before I could even alert the media! That was back in like '98.

[Mark Asher]

Not bad, though 37,500 subscribers would be a tiny magazine compared to CGW, PCG, and CGM, and those are monthly, not daily operations. What's with the "more than 75 percent of GameSpot Complete users pay the annual subscription fee" though? Does that mean that nearly 25% just buy monthly subs? I guess that's the equivalent of newstand sales to continue the magazine analogy.

It may not matter, because running a website (even a website that requires Big Bandwidth) costs a fraction of what it costs to produce a monthly magazine. So 37,000 subscribers may be plenty. Only the folks at GS know for sure. I wonder what their ad sales are like--with magazines, that's a lot more important than subscription payments.

I dunno -- I counted 29 people (none of them advertising people) who work on Gamespot or have some responsibility to it. Then factor in the bandwidth costs and what's probably a larger freelancer budget than the mags have, and you have some hefty expenses. Heck, they've got 13 people listed as Editorial.

[Ben Sones]

That is a pretty large staff. Like I said, I don't know what their financial situation really looks like--I'm merely speculating. Not having to deal with the monthly production costs that magazines do, they can probably stay afloat with a smaller audience. How small? I dunno.