The Financial Report that Killed Tarkov

The title is a reference to: • The Wiggle That Killed...
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Sources:
Battlestate Games Financial records
find-and-update.company-infor...
Cost of Exhibiting at a Games Convention
www.gamesindustry.biz/the-cos...
Tarkov Gamespot Interview 2016
www.gamespot.com/articles/how...
The Trade Group - Battlestate Games Case Study
www.tradegroup.com/case-studi...
The Trade Group - Trade Show Budgets
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/www.tradegroup.com/wp-content...
Gamescom Pitchdeck
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/media.koelnmesse.io/gamescom/...
Gamescom Booth Cost info
mobilegamer.biz/which-mobile-...
TGS Booth Pricing Info
events.nikkeibp.co.jp/tgs/202...
BSG Unity Development
unity.com/madewith/escape-fro....
DreamHack Hannover Tarkov Arena Tournament
escharts.com/news/tarkov-aren...

[@riloegaming]

⚠⚠⚠UPDATE: Since this was made, I learned quite a bit. There's a lot wrong with this video. I suggest you watch Pestily's reaction to it, as he raises important points. The "point" of the video and ending sentiment rang true for me at the time of upload, but I certainly wouldn't make this video the way I did today in light of recent events. Still a video worth watching! Original comment below. 👇 I used quite a few sources to research this video, and I've linked as many as I could in the description. I highly suggest that you go and check out all the data for yourself and come your own conclusions! All the various opinions people are sharing are very interesting to me, I love to hear nuanced perspectives from all over the communtiy. Thank you for watching, and subscribe of course if you're interested in seeing more like this. Cheers Riloe

[@wolfinthesno]

Idk if you saw my other comment, but suffice it to say, 6% of annual revenue is a general recommendation for your marketing budget for a lot of business at 83 million 6% is just shy of 5 million, even if they spent $500,000 per "con" event that would leave them close to $3,000,000 to spend on other advertising.

[@Ostinat0]

Kudos for having the balls to post this one; I think it provides a valuable community service. I didn't really think anything of the new microtransactions because I had totally forgotten what Nikita had said way back when about wanting a game without them...didn't bother me at all that standard edition players had a new way of getting some of the perks I enjoy as an EoD owner. With the context of his earlier statements in mind it definitely would've had me asking "wait why are they doing this then?" and you offer a pretty compelling theory.

[@BlackVirtue]

Don’t care really, it doesn’t affect anything what you think about their financials. It was obvious to anyone that an online game with no subscription fee sooner or later will need some other income source. And you could say that these conventions and shit are a necessary spending both for hype and to keep the morale of Nikita himself and his dev up, because staying motivated to do very complicated project, same shit for 8 is not easy.

[@4TheFalKen]

Really good video but there was still a lot of information missing. In addition to the Advertising, Cons & Raid series they've opened up a animation studio to handle the complexity of character movement, Development costs extend past devs on PCs, Xsolla take 5% of all sales, They self distribute the game files so they pay for both the storage of and the transfer of that data. This is off the top of my head but I'm sure there is more in legal, accounting, vendor management, ect... What I wanted to highlight though is fundamental to part of your opinion is that BSG are making good revenue off of cheaters buying new account. A lot of those accounts, especially those associated with RMT hackers are purchased as standard CIS account as it's only after this data they were region locked from non-CIS servers which are closer to $30 USD. These same accounts would also have a higher likelihood of being acquired with stolen CC which in turns costs BSG money as they will have to refund the $30 to the bank and possibly pay a $20-50 fee depending on how well Xsolla are at their job. Ultimately though you're right BSG need to find a way of making money, If the community wants to avoid microtransaction then they need to be vocal about the alternatives they are willing to participate in because right now EFT is a bargain for what it costs to run.

[@ChaNnArD-mD]

To BSG: sell an offline only version of the game as a DLC I will 100% buy it for big $$$

[@dn8632]

well this video aged pretty fucking well lmfao

[@gradeyundery4939]

it might go down in the case studies that even youtubers are gaslighting the community into giving money to greedy corporations.

[@R3TR0J4N]

ingl can't beleive my hate towards BSG can be doubled than before

[@grey-god]

I think the addition of a buyable hideout-cat for $5.99 would fix this.

[@3stone1]

I want a dog pls.

[@drinkmorecocacola]

Hideout Rottweiler since I’m allergic to cats.

[@robertolorenzo3906]

make it 4.99 and im buying it

[@riloegaming]

I think that would fix most problems in the real world as well

[@HunterAnsorge-ok9jk]

My hideout cat IRL plays tarkov for me. Dies every time, but plays for me.

[@AramcoPhil]

So... who's here after the announcement of a 100$ "Upgrade" on a 150$ game (EOD Edition)? 🤣

[@DeSalvation]

Fucking scammers, promised us all future DLC (only reason I bought EoD back in the day) removed the maps that were going to be DLC and then removed the part that said EoD comes with all future DLC. They did a bait and switch on their product and it's so fucking scummy.

[@vgamedude12]

Yep. I don't like the videos tone either. It's not the consumers fault they mismanaged funds and the game. I paid 150 usd for this game. This game is p2w with the editions and now with the microtransaction and new edition it's even MORE P2W.

[@mikeb4934]

Don't forget, the upgrade STILL doesn't include Tarkov Arena 😂

[@mattk1358]

They need at least another 500 million to entirely redo the audio system.

[@R3ddyyg]

They need to stop being stupid. They have (had maybe) all the money for having a good game

[@distortions]

@@R3ddyyg You sure seem to know what goes into making a fully fledged game in Unity at the scale of tarkov. Why not apply to battlestate games and be the change you wanna see?

[@grey-god]

@@R3ddyygThis comment alone shows how little you know about game development lol. Youd be hard pressed ro find a triple a game with a budget less than 60 million.

[@R3ddyyg]

@@distortions I for sure wouldn't have started such a project with unity. They did impressive things, but they are impressive because it's on unity, it runs like ass to this day. It ran like ass in 2019 and it runs like ass now. I have a 3070 and a Ryzen 5700x with 32 GB of ram. I wasn't specific, so my fault on that, the game is good. It's ass only on s technical stand point on my opinion, both locally speaking and server side

[@dudeguy8553]

@@distortions He's right, they wasted a lot of money lol.

[@Boarderguy96]

As an EOD player I have absolutely no problem with them "parting out" the EOD bonuses into smaller purchases. Things like unlocking ragmans clothing or buying stash space dont give people an advantage over me in a firefight and if it helps the devs get to 1.0 it seems like a reasonable way for them to make additional revenue.

[@7dyn639]

👏 👏 👏

[@Dusor1]

I agree with you, I personally will most likely buy the extra stash and clothes even though I have EOD

[@EnthusedPotatoes]

Early stash space is undeniably an advantage on the strategic layer and can directly affect the tactical layer. You could even argue it directly affects a given firefight since someone with more resources could potentially bring in better gear sooner, or more consistently. For the absolute top tier of players it may not make a *huge* difference in progression but let's be real, most of us aren't pros. I think it's fine to part it out vs locking it behind big purchases, it's *more fair* even. It's not like it's any more P2W than EOD already was.

[@kcz1093]

It's a joke that after 7 years they still haven't been able to make the $$$$$ to get the game to v1.0. Never mind that the game is still poorly optimised.There are games out there that have vasstly larger scope and scales.They are just greedy and get away with community tolerating all this because there hasn't been any worthy competition on the market.

[@desertpunk6152]

@@kcz1093what's your background that you can say that the game is unoptimized?

[@DeadEyeKiwi]

You also forgot to cover the mini series BSG have produced. They had full pyrotechnics, a lot of CGI done, weapon hiring, set creation, a large crew and cast. Production cost would of been insanely high per episode made.

[@maniacguitar]

Agreed

[@applemacosx1]

Yea but i'd conter that with the fact that a dollar goes much further in Russia. So while yes what they did is impressive at the time i forget the PPP values but its something like 2.5. Meaning that you can get 2.5x labor for 1$ compared to the US. As I am writing this i realize I have made a counterargument to my counterargument because it doesn't explain their exorbitant costs honestly i think something really weird is at play with outsourcing or contracting because i find it hard to belive labor costs account for some 60 odd percent of gross revenue.

[@truthhurtz220]

who gives a shit fix the game 10 year beta zzzz instead of spending money on yachts cocaine and hookers

[@vasiliipopov416]

​​​@@applemacosx1it actually might be even cheaper than you anticipate, since huge part of indie movie/video making production in Russia manages to find locations and even some crowd actors on a favour and friends scouting basis

[@yellowsaurus4895]

it's "would have been insanely high" not " would of"

[@HotSauce0034]

This video is fine wine.

[@AndrewBall44]

There is no way they did TwitchCon for anything short of $1.5m. It was easy a $200k booth, then the booth design and building itself, you have to pay the trade show unions in any show in vegas, and then you have travel, lodging and food for at least 20 people. I'd be surprised if they spent LESS than $2m on that single event. I do a show thats smaller in vegas than that with a booth a 1/4 that size, with a much much smaller team and its over $300k.

[@fpsrussian2696]

cap youre poor

[@IsaiahCreati]

I had a booth at TwitchCon Vegas and I can only imagine the total cost of BSG’s booth. From what I understand, the only point of having a booth is building rapport. If you have any piece of software you can reach so many more people just advertising online.

[@rooknado]

@@IsaiahCreatiExactly, it’s for small creators to garner some attention not for the highlight of the show to, well, show off!

[@forrestallen9354]

​@@fpsrussian2696Some people actually know how to play the game that is life.

[@gutika113]

I work for a small publisher that did e3. We had a relatively small foot print, and it cost us about 1m

[@gansior4744]

So, welcome everyone. Knew you all would be here

[@Pestily]

Awesome video man!

[@atlamors]

@Pestily it aged well, didn't it

[@hqwefg]

I dislike the argument that microtransactions are the lesser evil to cheaters because it makes it appear that they are exclusive, that the moment microtransactions are added BSG will immediately stop any new cheaters, while in reality we will likely have to deal with both now instead of just cheaters.

[@da8197]

THANK YOU, add to that. You want micro transactions for a game that is not out and already has a DLC.

[@nottomclancy2439]

and was also super fucking expensive in the first place...

[@azoicxx]

The -wiggle- *Financial Report* that Killed Tarkov

[@_Jump_Man_]

I haven't played since that video. Probably won't until 1.0 releases.

[@TheSquidNinja]

The Tarkov that killed Tarkov

[@mudbuttt]

Haha yeah that is the title

[@eternalsence3033]

gitgud@@_Jump_Man_

[@bfg3387]

@@_Jump_Man_ if 1.0 will release xD

[@torvic1236]

They can make bank from expanding hideout features and customization. Instead of the shitty underground bunker sell us an apartment, subway tunnel, etc...Posters, wallpaper, furniture, whatever. Have other players visit your hideout. POE does this and I spend hours working on my hideout every league. It's something that's totally optional and doesn't affect other players. Maybe if they start making money with MTX they can start taking the hordes of cheaters seriously..

[@beetyou7]

I'd love to gamble with roubles too, Black jack or other side things that you can do with other players that is not PVP but still fun.

[@fritosgaming]

genius

[@torvic1236]

@@beetyou7 Hell yeah, that sounds like a great idea! It'd be a nice stress reliever after a bad raid.

[@torvic1236]

@@fritosgamingThanks, I have other ideas but the hideout customization is the least intrusive...Finding spray paint cans in raid to camo your guns but making the camo prints an mtx while requiring the in-raid found spray paint. That would require some balancing though to keep it with the aesthetic of the game and not making it over the top. Of course clothing and backpack colors too (No ghillies!). They can do alot with mtx that won't affect other players if they wanted to. They could even do a poll system like OSRS does. Show the community ahead of time and say "Would you be okay with this becoming an MTX?" 70% approval(or whatever they choose) it gets added.

[@torvic1236]

@@royalrumble7185 All those games are free to play. I expect a game that costs $100 to have a decent anti-cheat system. I mean, i get killed by players with 100hrs and 60 k/d....If you have an excuse for why BSG allows that you are delusional.

[@mediocrebears4210]

the video sadly aged perfectly, its been fun

[@itschrixpy8200]

As pointed out from Pestily’s new video, it’s common practice for some companies to try and report their profits in their books as close to 0 as they can to avoid Taxes. I’ve heard of multiple companies doing it, and it probably isn’t that far out of the question for BSG to do it as they’re based in Russia and still report in UK

[@HkRose]

Amazon does it every year

[@deepzd6839]

Exactly. He didn't mention this once in the video so it makes me believe that he has no idea about basic economics. Since this is a privatley owned company, it's always in your best interest to put the proffits back in the company.

[@topgunne12]

Most companies do this. Net 0 is a great thing and shows (whichever) government you haven't made any money and are reinvesting into the biz. Taxation is theft, anyway.

[@shimona500]

yeah, he just glosses over that this is a uk shell entity and seems to forget it 2 minutes later.....

[@dsheshin]

That's exactly what i thought

[@cheesecrow81]

Well, Nikita has to pay for his Dubai residence somehow.

[@metalema6]

Companies spend (on paper) the same amount they earn so that they don't need to pay taxes. In reality that money is just the employees and employers spending their own money through the company.

[@johndiddilyjoe6258]

Explain how it's "employers" or "employees" money? Do you mean they're spending their actual wages and salaries to continue work? And yeah, breaking news, big company avoids paying all its taxes.

[@MrDeathGrip]

@@johndiddilyjoe6258 they probably mean spending their money and putting the purchases as company expenses to pay less taxes.

[@johndiddilyjoe6258]

@Matgames991 Dude, I mean this in no offence, but that is like Grandma level tax evasion. English teachers are smart enough to do that. I'm so sick of average people who know like 1 or 2 business owners acting like they understand how a multi million dollar business handles money. Sorry, you don't, I don't and 99% of people don't understand these things. That's the point. Labelling extras as business expenses or 'encouraging' employees to send their wage to work, is 7/11 level stuff. Come on, we have to be aware enough to know that we're not aware of how these guys do business.

[@MrDeathGrip]

@@johndiddilyjoe6258 none taken, never claimed I know all the ins and outs of business finances, just guessing what he meant

[@retagainez]

This is a generalization that can be false for many countries. There's a reason some countries move funds offshore. Is it true for Russia, that they spend to save on taxes, too..?

[@Eroktic]

This aged so SOONtm

[@mcdjay]

For the trade shows i sell heavy equipment in the concrete world and we do a convention in Vegas at the convention centre once a year and it costs our company about $200,000 all in for the booth. They charge extra for all the furniture if you don't have your own, you have to rent carpet, underlay if you want, you pay for every plug they run, etc..... it adds up fast. That booth if they had it all built by the trade show group it was easily half a million closer to a million. Thats not counting rooms, dinners etc.

[@Derkiboi]

Lmao, my friend is also a construction worker and mentioned this concrete convention

[@Armored_Ariete]

sounds like a good excuse to go to vegas for free

[@Curiousnezy]

dude this algorithm is wild. This was the whisp of warning that we didn't realize xD

[@oswaldcobblepot764]

I worked for an agricultural company at an agricultural fair in Brussels and saw the numbers of that kind of thing. (i won't name the company but just a brand making farming equipment something like John Deer if you will), and while it was a not so huge show in Brussels, nothing compared to the renown of something like GDC, combining the rent of the booth, the marketing agency that designed the stand, goodies, the company that renderd the stand equipment, installed it, uninstalled it, the transport of display vehicles to the show, the salaries of people working on the booth and so on, was about 800k, while the rent of the stand itself was about 50k. So that gives you a fair idea of the spending distribution of the budged of one of these fairs.

[@oswaldcobblepot764]

That said, for tarkov itself, an other issue in my opinion is that i kinda felt that they unofficially allowed cheating to some extent, because it was a source of revenue. But this is a bad move, because i stopped playing after the first month of the last wipe, despite being one of the best imo content wise, i just couldn't stand the cheating issue, and i'm pretty sure there are a lot of people in my seat.. And i really feel like this cheating has been unoficially tolerated to some extent because it sells accounts. Personally i don't want to kill tarkov, being a game dev myself, i kind of feel for them, but i must admit that despite some sort of sad empathy i have for them, the game is dead for me.

[@calebmartin843]

This video was well edited and put together. I just felt like it was all building to a point, and then there was no real resolution.

[@ZuglyUckling]

The "BSG rely on cheaters" section towards the end didn't really address that claim and instead replied "DLC will help combat cheating". While I agree with the response I feel like you have to reply to the claim a little more to get there solidly. Nikita at Dev Gamm back in 2015 talked about how having cheaters in your ecosystem can help drive player stress, which he says is good, and will increase revenue through ban wave - account purchases. Looking at that and then looking at how generally lax BSG has been towards punishing cheaters and how easy it is to cheat in the game comparatively... it seems to line up alright. BSG seems to be getting quicker with banning cheaters which maybe shows them trying to "squeeze" them for accounts more and more until they have them mostly removed towards launch at which point they will be relying fully on DLC for extra income... maybe, maybe. Hopefully they want to get rid of them eventually and will continue ramping up speed of punishment and detection, along with eventually addressing the basic net code vulnerabilities the game has. Source w/ vid: www.reddit.com/r/EscapethisTarkov/comments/qv01oc/nikita_byanov_opinion_about_cheaters_in_2015/ P.S. Took so long watching the video and then typing this reply that I forgot to log in for my hideout stuff before the 4 hour patch downtime 😥

[@ZuglyUckling]

Reposting this without the reddit link. The "BSG rely on cheaters" section towards the end didn't really address that claim and instead replied "DLC will help combat cheating". While I agree with the response I feel like you have to reply to the claim a little more to get there solidly. Nikita at Dev Gamm back in 2015 talked about how having cheaters in your ecosystem can help drive player stress, which he says is good, and will increase revenue through ban wave - account purchases. Looking at that and then looking at how generally lax BSG has been towards punishing cheaters and how easy it is to cheat in the game comparatively... it seems to line up alright. BSG seems to be getting quicker with banning cheaters which maybe shows them trying to "squeeze" them for accounts more and more until they have them mostly removed towards launch at which point they will be relying fully on DLC for extra income... maybe, maybe. Hopefully they want to get rid of them eventually and will continue ramping up speed of punishment and detection, along with eventually addressing the basic net code vulnerabilities the game has.

[@SquishEESpark]

@@ZuglyUcklingHonestly, trading cheaters for optional micro transactions is something I can live with.

[@chivacetana]

I saw that same thing half way through. Once he got to budget of the twich con. I was like “where is going with this”.

[@zolarefromastora322]

@@ZuglyUckling "back in 2015 talked about how having cheaters in your ecosystem can help drive player stress, which he says is good, and will increase revenue through ban wave - account purchases" you're lying. he was talking about free to play game Contract Wars. he said that it was surprise to him that cheaters can boost revenue from microtransactions. but they fight the cheaters despite the fact that biggest donators was cheaters

[@n0denz]

BSG entered the round with all their best gear just to get ratted at exfil.

[@Gekkoid]

damn what a plot twist, they were the exfil campers

[@Oisyz]

Completely speculation, but I have a feeling they were getting players complaining that "early adopters" had a chance to buy the L4 Stash and new players would never have that opportunity with the the EOD edition being removed... so they had to add it back in somehow. And, since they are potentially getting close to a "full release", it's expected that they'd make a big push for marketing.

[@stormlah]

sounds like good old "problem-reaction-solution" to me.

[@ThisIsGlitch]

i do think that's the case for stash, but both cosmetic progression and offline coop don't make sense and probably are just for cold hard extra revenue. We fear tarkov will get littered by these timesavers

[@C3Rl3]

EOD ended weeks ago.... This was planned my man.

[@LemThurdy420]

Be careful, thats alot of Copium your smoking!

[@artfulldodger33]

I have EOD (actually have a second EOD too cause I love the game) and am able to buy another 10x28 stash space (which is equivalent to Standard acct stash) on top of My EOD Stash for the cost of €52/£44/$56 approx (incl Card Payment fee's). Don't really see the point as I can achieve same result each wipe with a few containers... this should be for Standard accts and Left Behind editions only or something I feel. But hey any moneys welcome I guess.

[@tabloxyt5356]

U predict the future my man unseen

[@tylerdee61]

it's so crazy to have watched this vid when it dropped 2 months ago and to be here now, watching it again.. smiling serenely as i nod along. what a ride tarkov has been

[@dankvada4588]

Tarkov Unhead Edition Gang....Guess Riloe was right after all XDD BSG is down bad

[@arienkeyghobad7486]

Question - were you able to validate that BattleState Games Limited (filing entity in UK) is the only operating unit of BSG? Can you definitively conclude that the Cost of Sales line excludes inter-company expenses?

[@cutegamerboy]

Exactly

[@arienkeyghobad7486]

@@cutegamerboy I don’t understand how anyone can draw any conclusion on BSGs financial health without first understanding if they are looking at the complete picture. IMO - the UK filing entity is a subsidiary (a shell company) and the “cost of sales” line is inter-company expense (a payable) to BSG in Russia. Unfortunately it’s impossible to draw any conclusions (including my opinion) without the filings from BSG in russia.

[@sabbath8989]

@@arienkeyghobad7486 Exactly right Onepeg did video on this subject. This video has almost 0 research done.

[@GucciGeorg]

I also commented on Pestily's reaction to this, but sorry, as a financial analyst, the original video is maybe the worst financial analysis I've ever seen. Making losses is nothing to worry about for some time, especially as a startup. Then, you should analyze financial performance indicators if you want to see if the company is in peril. P/E Ratio, PEG Ratio, P/S Ratio, Debt-Equity Ratio, Debt-to-EBITDA Ratio are actual indicators a Stakeholder (us players) should be interested in. Only a shareholder (which none of us are) should be interested in profits. Another point is that high R&D expenditure would benefit all players but harm the bottom line of the P&L. Looking at 'They Made Losses,' 'cost of sales,' or other very surface P&L values is kind of saying nothing lol. If you don't have insight into such values, it's best not to make this video at all. I understand we love this game but talking about financials should be the last thing a player does, especially if the analysis is so surface level. If you want to include some better financial analysis in a future video, feel free to hmu.

[@LevitatingGaming]

I'm so glad you're saying this. I love riloe's videos but this one is just typical BSG controversy engagement hype. Even titled the video similarly to the famous wiggle video... Really trying to drum up some drama here. Anything for views though, right? I wouldn't know though, maybe I don't get any views cause I refuse to make vids like this lol

[@wannabelikegzus]

money for cosmetics is totally cool in my book, especially if there's a suite of default cosmetics/whatever that provide the same camouflage. Especially for the long-term success of a game that doesn't have a subscription model, this is basically the only way to keep the game afloat.

[@bumi5892]

dude i love the little details in the edition 3:20 like in game soundeffects XD , You made a great video, from editing, collecting information and above all providing us with the sources of this video. I just realized that you are the same channel from which a few weeks ago I watched another video talking about the realism of using pmc in video games.

[@riloegaming]

Cheers!

[@Raider19D]

The Cheaters are keeping the game alive by funding the devs. The sad reality of Tarkov. They get banned, bam buy a new account.

[@madvova118]

That statement that there were repurchases at a large rate. To be honest, I highly doubt that is cheaters to that extent, most likely its repurchases of third party sites that resell keys and such since tarkov is not on steam or any platform, just on their website. So they sell off the keys to third party websites for cheaper that they resell at a slight markup to the price that they bought from the Tarkov company. That would qualify in financials as repurchases rather than new purchases and such, since not many people just outright buy through their website, in some countries its banned, and not all payment methods are accepted too.

[@iNarga]

this vid aged like wine love the content big dawg

[@doeterniettoe4395]

9:38 Yes they did mention. They mentioned a very long time ago that Sewers was going to be a DLC.

[@riloegaming]

DLCs and microtransactions are completely different things.

[@tomblairau211]

This aged well very quickly, it's UNHEARD of!

[@DarkForerunner117]

Coming back to this video is heartbreaking... You knew the future and how it was going to end up. You seemed to have hit the mark and cracked the code on the situation on their reasoning of their fucked decision to blow off their fans. I love this game and dont want it to die, but if its the result they want its the result they are gonna get. RIP Tarkov 2024

[@Match0Man]

Last wipe patch and content which brings to the game is amazing, I think there extra space in stash is not P2W more like QOL thing. I would say I would buy even some exclusive clothing tbh thx for vid

[@nikotinslv]

At this point, i think we wont be seeing 1.0 ever.

[@scaredstar9127]

Discovered you recently today and glad i did, good spoken and good edited keeping my attention while constantly giving me relevant information

[@wills3625]

This video is now more relevant than ever

[@jaeger9950]

He was right

[@SexyComrade]

First full video! Just as awesome as shorts! Keep it up. ❤

[@Tridgit]

this is a good take, a good analysis, and you did your homework. subbed

[@cpanic1153]

I work in the trade show industry and can 100% confirm that your numbers for booth costs are wildly understated. By a factor of 10 at least. And all of the costs to create the booth fall on the exhibitor, not the trade show. I guarantee their total budget for twitchcon alone was close to 10m.

[@mikerak6283]

I mean it's been pretty obvious that the game has been funded for the most part by cheaters for *YEARS*. The game objectively peaked in late 2019 - early 2020 as far as player count and sales is concerned. Their inconsistency in bans and their exaltation of "We are proud to announce we banned xx,xxx amount of cheaters this ban wave!" was just faux transparency to make it appear as though they are doing enough to combat the cheater issue, when in all reality they heavily rely on cheaters to keep the game afloat.

[@pizzahutstricklin]

How can I get my more casual friend into a game that's already pretty complicated and hard for new players if the first thing he has to do is buy co-op so I can show him the ropes in some off lines?

[@AverageDoggo]

"That killed Tarkov" Yeah I don't know about that one chief

[@trodenn4977]

no offense, but I'm not sure I understand why the title of the video has "killed" in it?

[@evanpeacock6103]

Click bait

[@tinychamberz]

its a play on goats video titled "the wiggle that killed tarkov"

[@Patchess]

Tarkov is dead, long live tarkov

[@riloegaming]

A joke (reference to "the wiggle that killed tarkov" ) sort of to poke fun at the idea of a single video "killing" a game. And in reference to the idea that dissecting a game's financials "killed" the "ART" of the game for me, personally, like I talk about in the video

[@nicolasgonzalez629]

he predicted the future, he wasn't wrong

[@brentonsisemore1122]

Yikes. It was pretty cool while it lasted. I think I might just escape tarkov.

[@dskpnk]

So what about today's update dude, our worst nighmares are becoming real...

[@kemita]

Expenses at Twichcon were couple mill. Anyone with a bit of knowledge of organization in these type of events can tell you in a blink analysis.

[@In.New.York.I.Milly.Rock.]

"Finally closing in o the finish line" Are... are we playing the same game? This is nowhere near finished lmao

[@Dutch_fellow]

This xD it's based on spaghetti code and in this way will never hit a stable 1.0....

[@cousinpatsey2471]

I think, with regards to this, "finish line" means all planned maps are in, quests/traders/etc. Feature complete. I'm relatively new to this game, but I don't see a world where this game is finished and polished up to a AAA quality. Not without a comically bigger studio, with several times the funding.

[@alexh7641]

@@cousinpatsey2471not even AAA titles are polished these days. I don’t know why people hate on BSG so much their an indie dev studio and the game has plenty of content. They could release it as 1.0 as it is now and it would still be a great game.

[@ChemySh]

@@cousinpatsey2471 for AAA studios, "feature complete" is usually at least 1 year before 1.0 release... as much as I love semi-realistic shooters, unfortunately I dont feel good paying for unfinished games

[@cousinpatsey2471]

@ChemySh respectfully then, this game isn't for you then. It's a small studio, with an overly ambitious game. It's going to have polish problems with it. That's unfortunately just a part of the deal. For what it's worth, I hope another extraction shooter like Marathon gets to that polish level for you.

[@lukaxa888]

So here we are, after their announcement... Its sad

[@andresmenon3743]

Quick Note. Marketing isn't a part of the cost of sales because marketing doesn't change as the number of copies sold goes up or down. These are fixed costs, not COGS or COS.

[@NoahBroome]

Fantastic content, really appreciate the thought and research put in

[@steadyrow]

Well looks like you called it

[@nicolasgonzalez629]

aged like wine

[@Generic_One]

This video is fine wine especially with context now

[@OnlyRats_]

I love how none of the guns used in the b roll have magazines in them

[@eddzar420]

Im perfectly fine with MTX as long as it doesnt become in game items or weapons. Cosmetics, cases, clothing, stash space, some weapon skins and even maybe custom paint jobs for your hideout is all stuff that isnt game breaking.

[@FourFour-ee1tf]

why would you care about ingame items or weapons with 0 skill they mean nothing. also buying stuff from bsg would meen less buying from cheaters and therefore lesss cheaters... nobody uses their brains anymore... just sheep.

[@revisit8480]

The only ones profiting from MTX are streamers and BSG. If you care about MTX, or are OK with it, YOU ARE PART OF THE FKING PROBLEM.

[@CloudyDayProduction]

@@FourFour-ee1tf Yeah aite man, give someone highest tier armour possible including faceshields etc with weapons at low recoil with 1-shot chest against me with a PM and nothing else, I have a feeling they have a bit of an advantage. Nobody uses their brains anymore, just sheep :^)

[@FourFour-ee1tf]

@@CloudyDayProduction honestly ive killed more altyn boys than i care to remember with bullshit weapons. also that shit wont save you past cqb range in the current state of tarkov im not even great but my level 54 ass hits like every shot full auto and that stam drain hits hard now with all the extra hits you can get so easily. Imagine being a sheep imagine.... trust me bro your altyn on factory might save you but anywhere else with how audio is and ill hear your heavy altyn zabralo ass 90m away with my lvl 30 perception and some 30k tac sports. Next time brother think.

[@orderofdusk2382]

@@FourFour-ee1tf Okay let me ask you this, if BSG starts offering MTX for in game items, doesn't that create an incentive to make MTX-only items that are OP in order to drive up MTX sales? Do you really think that being able to buy in game items with MTX isn't going to give whales a significant advantage?

[@Ctrl_Fury]

They would probably sell more copies if they actually delivered on the Single-Player experience.

[@obsn7809]

Wasn’t the first time i come across your vid, definitely earned a sub, keep up the good work gg

[@HowlingBird]

This aged like fine wine!

[@cklinetv2722]

Wow. You ended up being right about it all...

[@ericball4666]

When I first started playing EFT I predicted that BSG would have a revenue problem. While game sales can support development they aren't a good revenue stream for an online game.

[@mgs85]

Yeah, but when would they have a revenue problem? It's not smart to predict a revenue problem from a one-time purchase recurring cost venture. That's obvious, to everyone.

[@ericball4666]

@@mgs85 Obvious to everyone except Nikita.

[@paininthepatoot]

thanks for this. I have been wondering for some time now how they can sustain the game over time and no one was interesting in talking about it. Sales eventually decline so it either DLC or mirco tranactions to sustain it.

[@CrazymanWnT]

Great video! I think that like you said there's no point going into their spendings, companies always do spend a lot and invest back since they will get lower taxes at the end of the day. I think specifically there microtransactions that got added are great. I would rather have this as long as it's not something that directly gives an edge to the game. Would be fun to see maybe some skins or more customization features and then they could also monitize that but make it also achievable by not paying(just really hard).

[@notblake8617]

wow. what a wonderfully crafted story about perspective and a truly amazing persuasive essay. the flow of this video was flawless and honestly had me on the side of micro transactions at the end, a position i would have never defended before

[@nopoint2427]

Good video, makes perfect sense why they're fucked and need income

[@tacostealer16]

once again knocking it out of the park Riloe! clean articulate and to the point. amazing as always. i always enjoy your stuff. glad i found you on tik tok. keep up the awesome work man.

[@Dustydabs]

This was an amazingly well considered and constructed video. Its so refreshing to see a content creator provide such a mature and intelligent perspective on these topics. Great work 👏 Long live Tarkov!!!

[@kokonut5]

RIP Tarkov

[@SwissMarksman]

Holy fuck. Aged like Wine.

[@eg39701]

"We aren't making enough money!" *Refuses to put it on Steam* *Doesn't elaborate.*

[@animekid69]

I love this game and the devs for their attention to detail in a game. It is single-handedly my MOST played game. I wasnt thrilled with the micro-transaction announcement, but you've certainly given me a lot to consider. Sub earned

[@maxgreen2365]

I think it’s also important to recognize what the Ukraine war is doing to the Russian economy and it’s citizens. It’s a no brainer that BSG and Tarkov have been affected by that.

[@stanman4025]

Love your vids!!! 💪🏻💪🏻 keep up the good work Riloe !

[@SpacePonder]

My jaw dropped when I learned how much it costs to make a game. I knew it cost a lot, but just to be reminded of it is mind-blowing.

[@MrMOXIE5]

My fear is that they add micro transactions and we as the players see it as a way to stop the cheating, so we all buy it. Then at the end of the quarter report the share holders and owners of the game see their most profitable quarter ever, why would they willingly lower that profit by going after the cheaters when they could just do nothing and take the money from both ends?

[@termitreter6545]

Tbh the idea that BSG doesnt go after cheaters isnt backed by anything anyway. And, if BSG wants cheaters to rebuy the game, then theyd ban em as fast as possible anyway, so how could you tell the difference? Imo the whole "cheater finance tarkov" thing is kinda of a conspiracy. Its just has so little evidence and is mostly backed by people being mad about cheaters.

[@ZuglyUckling]

@@termitreter6545 Nikita at Dev Gamm in 2015 gave a talk that included him saying: "By the way, about cheaters.. I would like to tell you something, but it will be, surely.... Am I recorded? Or no?.. Then I won't say. But cheaters are.. yeah... so.. it is a serious issue that works always in two ways..For me it was a revelation and, and how to estimate them it is up to you..BUT If there are thousands of cheaters, this will raise the donations in the game, because cheaters will lead to distress every other player, and the main rule to lead players to donations - you HAVE to have every player in distress" It's hard to call it a conspiracy when looking at him saying that and how slow they are to ban and how easy it is to make cheats for the game.

[@retagainez]

Problem is game design. If you analyze the game design, you find that the technology not only encourages cheaters, but also the game design does too. Better game design, means they sell a game experience that's better than what cheating software can offer. They don't improve the experience, the cheaters stand to profit. It's analogous to selling better software than what piracy can offer. There's a reason why piracy is still prevalent, too.

[@madeira5650]

We paid $110 for the game, which is the price of 2 full-fledged AAA games. What do we get for this money? We have a game with a huge number of cheaters, literally an unplayable number of cheaters. A terrible technical condition that does not allow most players to play on the streets of Tarkov. And most importantly, donate, donate in a game that cannot be released for 8 years, donate in a game that costs as much as 2 games, donate in a game that is in beta. The game is in beta test, we haven't even played what we paid for yet. We're just testing a raw game, and it already has donations, it's terrible.

[@foobs6896]

Thank you for making this, I've been able to send this to my friends who didn't understand this choice from bsg

[@qweets-]

This video was super well made and very informative, definitely subbed. First video I've seen from you wish I found your channel sooner =)

[@shortrates]

This didn’t age well.

[@NK73080]

Oh it aged perfectly

[@YouDeserveToDie666]

it aged like fine wine

[@nopoint2427]

Aged perfectly, $250 lmao

[@Czar59]

Your video is incredibly poignant and prophetic considering what just happened with unheard edition

[@kazkoks]

They missed on concept with Arena entirely. The main player base and why Tarkov become popular is by authentic realism and immersion. It whas not just about game mechanics it was about whole atmosphere. What they did with Arena is they took main game mechanics but shifted the whole atmosphere completely to different direction, with comic voice lines, animations and unrealistic versus arena scenario that breaks immersion completely. To have such realistic mechanics and put them in such unrealistic atmosphere is a crime. This was main reason I skiped the Arena.

[@Omni_Actual]

This is one of the best youtube videos I've watched in the last year. Thank you for your hard work on this. I also am going to bookmark this because having done the YT thing a bit myself I know the comments are going to be rife with hilarity from people who didn't finish this video. 🤣

[@Joe_BlackTVs]

Play stupid games - win stupid prizes. Don't tolerate ruzzkies, that's it

[@loucummins7918]

Great AI script.

[@riloegaming]

Dawg

[@E6PO1]

Lol you guys so scared of AI you see it everywhere. Literal babies. Don’t be scared Lou, AI is coming and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

[@iRDaBrit]

Wanted to add - I've been part of many booths for CES over the years in Vegas, and there's no way that booth cost them anything LESS than around $1.5 to $2 million. Of course once it's designed and built you can ship it to the next convention and then store it for next year, but then it's usually revised and updated with an ongoing maintenance cost.

[@FallenActual]

From BSG copyright claiming YT channels in the early days from criticism, ignoring major issues and QoL that needed addressed throughout the years, going back on their work multiple times, making 2 other games when EFT isn't finished. I'm not shocked EFT is dying. its been dying for a long time. Look at Arenas progressions and matchmaking balance and you wonder why it didn't sell well. They are simply Dirty DEVS and they were destined to fail, I'm just surprised it took this long. Edit: Since Alpha it was obvious cheaters were rebuying accounts every time they got banned, why do you think the never got rid of EOD for ages and why cheaters would buy EOD thinking it would look less suspicious if spending that amount of money. I honestly think the game needs to die they have every opportunity to make a great game, they had a golden goose and they forgot to feed it.

[@Arotatinglie]

Great take, Riloe. As a newer player, I first bought the standard then eventually bought the pfe edition and I was happy to support it, since it’s a super fun game and is the most rewarding game I’ve played in a long time.

[@justconnor6519]

Well written, and fantastic editing on this.

[@jwag301]

I was always skeptical of their original roadmap plan to make all the maps separate and just link them into one big map at 1.0. When i heard about arenas it just strengthened my belief that they are never getting to 1.0.

[@spncryang]

Amazing Video man, keep up the good work much love

[@ratstuff137]

My initial thought on the stash space buy in was that it was gonna be that any account could spend like 5 or 10 bucks to make up the space that EOD has.

[@lasagna5032]

Great video, I honestly have been thinking about this for awhile and to be fair its quite concering how critical the fanbase is and hopefully we can swallow our pride and just let this shit slide, money is money man.

[@Peebinater]

If I can buy a gamma container Im doing it. I missed out and only got the beta.

[@collincanik7354]

Saaame. I had the game for a year or so but never actually got into since the person who got me to buy it didn’t really play it at the time, a week after EOD got taken off the market is when I started actually getting into tarkov and I 100% would have bought the EOD edition had it still been available so I can have the stash space and gamma, but now I’m trying to grind for the epsilon so I have just that extra bit of stash storage and I’m struggling to do task partially because of cheaters and chads that are already way ahead of me, it’s rough.

[@Regolous]

Thank you for the time you put into this, it has made me rethink my option on micro-transactions as well.

[@the_courier_live]

I hope that bsg would do it the way that ghosts of tabor does it. That it’s just skins or weapons that are very similar to base game ones.