A Key Economic Indicator

[VicToMeyeZR]

I've honestly never heard of Hostile Contact before being pointed to this thread by another GSP owner recently. I'm not sure what the point of comparing the size and scope of a $1/slot company to a company charging 3x as much would be. There are a lot of factors involved....hardware, bandwidth, power costs. If the economy is so bad, why am I still chugging along at $4.50-$7.00/slot for our service? If anything, I have the good name and leg room to lower pricing considerably to offer the same pricing as lower market tiers...I don't do this because it would cheapen the brand and lessen the service quality. It is not hard to offer service at $1/slot...

 

And at the price you better provide a HELL of a service. Like do everything you customer asks for CFG file changes, INI file changes, file uploads, everything. Thats a ridiculous price, and anyone that pays that much is an idiot.

[Defcon|Rich]

Correction. It's not hard offering $1/slot servers if you have a sound business plan and can purchase machines well below market pricing..

 

Doing the math it doesn't add up. You figure the average GSP will rent machines at a cost anywhere from $170-$200/m for a base level server.

In order to break even they need to have 17-20 servers on that machine. The problem is machines in that price range will at best handle 8-10 servers without causing serious lag conditions. Personally I'd only suggest 5-6 servers on that configuration for best performance.

 

At the end of the day you lost money. Even if you possibly could fill the machine with 20 servers you've merely broke even. What then? Add a few more servers? At $1/slot you could add 5 more servers to that overloaded machine and pocket a whole $50..?

[SickPuppy]

Correction. It's not hard offering $1/slot servers if you have a sound business plan and can purchase machines well below market pricing....... the average GSP will rent machines at a cost anywhere from $170-$200/m for a base level server.

 

You are correct if your business model in sound and you build and deploy you own equipment the operating cost averages out to about $140 per server (Dual Quad Core). You can average $400 in revenue per server. Multiply that by 17 servers, that is $6800 a month or $81600 a year with an operating cost of $28560 net before taxes $53040.

 

Hypethically speaking that is, I am not claiming to own 17 servers. Not yet anyway, but if all goes well it wont be too long.

[Brandon]

You are correct if your business model in sound and you build and deploy you own equipment the operating cost averages out to about $140 per server (Dual Quad Core). You can average $400 in revenue per server. Multiply that by 17 servers, that is $6800 a month or $81600 a year with an operating cost of $28560 net before taxes $53040.

 

Hypethically speaking that is, I am not claiming to own 17 servers. Not yet anyway, but if all goes well it wont be too long.

 

I'm curious, what fps do your hl/hl2 servers run at?

[Derek]

I'm curious, what fps do your hl/hl2 servers run at?

 

I would guess default.

[{-SMAKU-}_MotorMouth]

500 fps for HL/HL2 and all of our CSS are 100 tick at least. None of that 33 or 66 crap.

[Steven Crothers]

500 fps for HL/HL2 and all of our CSS are 100 tick at least. None of that 33 or 66 crap.

lol @ that

[Derek]

lol @ that

 

My hero!

[{-SMAKU-}_MotorMouth]

I could care less if you believe me or not. I don't have to satisfy you my customers are all I need to please. We don't build slow servers!

[SickPuppy]

lol @ that

 

We run FPS boost on all servers and set the FPS to 600. On the HL1 based games you have to up the +sys_tickrate to get them to 500 FPS. There seems to be a FPS cap using windows server 2003. The problem most of you are having when you try to run at that FSP and Tic is CPU resources. This is not an issue if you are running Dual Quad Core Systems. We have never been limited by CPU performance or RAM. Bandwidth usage is the primary limit to how many installs we can run. If you put more than 30 on a box you can expect to pay some Bandwidth overage fees.

 

-game cstrike -console +ip XXXXXXX -port XXXX +maxplayers 20 -tickrate 100 +fps_max 600 +tv_port 25501 +exec server.cfg +map de_aztec

 

-console -game garrysmod +ip XXXXXXX -port XXXX +maxplayers 10 +exec -tickrate 100 +fps_max 600 server.cfg +map gm_construct

 

-console +sys_ticrate 300 +fps_max 600 +ip XXXXXXX -port XXXX +maxplayers 10 +exec server.cfg +map esf_cell_games_night -game esf

 

Our command line editor allows the member to select the tick rate they want. 66,75,100

 

 

If your systems can't run those Tic rates and FPS then build better systems.

[SickPuppy]

Well if you watched the presidents speech about the economic stimulus plan the outlook is not good for 2009. He stated that even with a stimulus plan, 2009 is going to be a rough year. You don't need to be an economist to see what is happening in the GSP industry.

 

First it was gameservers, now Darkstar communications, the big server providers are dropping their prices to $.75 a slot. I have received word through the grapevine that one of the larger GSPs is now considering dropping their prices to $.49 a slot for public servers.

 

Hostile Contact should close another deal by Friday of this week. This will add several servers and quite a few customers, can't say how many due to NDA. We would like to purchase one additional GSP this year in order to meet our 2009 goal of 500 customers, if you are thinking about selling now is the time to do so.

[jbiloh]

Gameservers is charging $1 / slot. The lesser amount was related to a sale they were running.

 

At 50 cents per slot you're better off cutting grass.

[JasonF]

At 50 cents per slot you're better off cutting grass.

 

LMAO! Nice one Jon. These guys will eventually price themselves out of business so let them keep it up.

 

Sickpuppy, I am not trying to be mean or flame you but I would invest some money in a more professional website design rather then worrying about buying GSPs to increasing your client numbers. A professional appearance alone can net you some clients without having to invest money into a current GSP business.

[SickPuppy]

I don't think a new web site is going to increase my net by $4300 so I will keep investing in GSP buy outs

[JasonF]

I agree but if you are serious about growing your business and competing with the big boys you should show that to potential clients. I would compare it to someone showing up for a job interview in a suit vs another person who shows up in a speedo and wife beater.

[jcroom]

Unless his business model revolves around buying new companies, then it's like showing up to that job interview in a Speedo, for a swim team.

[SickPuppy]

I am not competing with nor am I trying to compete with the big boys, my goal is to take over all of the little guys.

[KP-Dallas]

SickPuppy,

 

Good one man

[SickPuppy]

It is better to be at the top of the little league than it is to be at the bottom of big league

[KP-Dallas]

I Hear ya man...........nice chating with ya on live chat tho