GSP Graveyard

[Jesse]

xtremegameservers.org — They just wanted out of game servers. No financial troubles.

[PhantomYoda]

I think we can add Wolfservers to the list. Although the site is still running they are owned by AOWC.

 

Rob actually wanted to get out of gaming. He had been spending more time here then with his wife and kids. He and I pretty much lived at Wolf... even when we were at our normal jobs, or on vacation, or you name it, we still where here working.

 

He had been looking to sell the business for a while, but wanted it to continue as a gamer server provider, which is why we were eventually sold to Art of War Central. Call it more of a resource merger with separate branding... We weren't going out of business or having any financial issues.

 

Wolfservers and Wolfgaming have been around for over 10 years. We were the original EA Ranked provider, among other firsts. We had/have our hands in a lot lol.

[SickPuppy]

Rob actually wanted to get out of gaming. He had been spending more time here then with his wife and kids.

 

Time is the factor that most people overlook when determining what it takes to run a company. Most small business owners put in 60 to 80 hours a week.

[Derek]

Time is the factor that most people overlook when determining what it takes to run a company. Most small business owners put in 60 to 80 hours a week.

 

 

Great point. I probably put close to 100+ hours a week.

[tehrichie]

Time is the factor that most people overlook when determining what it takes to run a company. Most small business owners put in 60 to 80 hours a week.

 

I hear that

[nosit1]

I had to take a hiatus from it all. It was cutting majorly in and running my life, luckily I have the liberty to take the time I need.

[Defcon|Rich]

I had to take a hiatus from it all. It was cutting majorly in and running my life, luckily I have the liberty to take the time I need.

 

There's nothing part time about running your own business.

[dimitrifrom31]

some days you wont have to work much some others you will literally work non stop.

When you gota fix something wrong you can have to work from morning to morning

[GS-Liam]

some days you wont have to work much some others you will literally work non stop.

When you gota fix something wrong you can have to work from morning to morning

 

Quiter days are indeed the best

[Derek]

There's nothing part time about running your own business.

 

We got a winner

[WR-Rob]

We disolved our gaming side of the business because we simply found that with the ever dropping costs of gaming slots it didnt fit with the way our business model was designed. We moved all of our focus's over to other services and have noticed a massive boost in business for doing so.

 

The problem is now days its all to easy to rent a dedi and think your a company. When in reality its far more complex. To many companys pop up then are gone a month later when the hundreds of pounds they planned for are not there.

 

Also with the cost of gaming slots being driven down massivly, infact just over the last 16months is the cost of a game server slot has dropped over £1 per slot. Thats a massive figure to loose. I remember when i got into the trade the average slot price was around £1.50/2.00, now we are looking at £0.50p a slot. That drop in my eyes makes the business not sustainable for the long run, not with the business model we planned.

 

I have maximum respect for the long standing companys trading in gameservers, and think a great deal of them are really providing a great service. But ever more there is all to many companys popping up stealing wording/images site designs and then undercutting the real companys, then they disapear and it makes from a customers point of view a very tricky marketplace to buy from.

[GS-Liam]

We disolved our gaming side of the business because we simply found that with the ever dropping costs of gaming slots it didnt fit with the way our business model was designed. We moved all of our focus's over to other services and have noticed a massive boost in business for doing so.

 

The problem is now days its all to easy to rent a dedi and think your a company. When in reality its far more complex. To many companys pop up then are gone a month later when the hundreds of pounds they planned for are not there.

 

Also with the cost of gaming slots being driven down massivly, infact just over the last 16months is the cost of a game server slot has dropped over £1 per slot. Thats a massive figure to loose. I remember when i got into the trade the average slot price was around £1.50/2.00, now we are looking at £0.50p a slot. That drop in my eyes makes the business not sustainable for the long run, not with the business model we planned.

 

I have maximum respect for the long standing companys trading in gameservers, and think a great deal of them are really providing a great service. But ever more there is all to many companys popping up stealing wording/images site designs and then undercutting the real companys, then they disapear and it makes from a customers point of view a very tricky marketplace to buy from.

 

Agreed,Everything in the shops ect has gone up with the current economy, but game slots have gone down, just doesn’t make sense lol,

[dimitrifrom31]

Agreed,Everything in the shops ect has gone up with the current economy, but game slots have gone down, just doesn’t make sense lol,

 

illegal companies are helping that.

They cut prices cuz they got no extra fees apart from the dedicated machine and Cpanel licence (if not using nulled). Then customers see low prices and when they go to legal hosts and see higher ones they think thet are getting fooled so either they purchase on illegal either they request a discount or dont purchase at all.

Not saying this is happening in 100% of the situations but thats definitely not helping to keep the business up.

[SickPuppy]

What you are seeing in the GSP industry is being caused by several factors.

 

Several years ago there were only a few Game Server Providers and if you wanted to rent a game server you were at their mercy. I can recall paying $6.99 a slot for a single server. As I mentioned in another post if prices get too high other companies will see an opportunity to enter the market at a lower price.

 

Technology is changing rapidly and as it changes the start up cost to enter and maintain a GSP have come way down. Companies that enter into a market late have the advantage of better and cheaper technology.

 

The economy has gone to hell. Most gamers would prefer to rent from a more expensive provider because they mistakenly equate price with quality. In tough times consumers have less disposable income and will look for cheaper substitutes to the expensive products they normally buy. This is true in the GSP industry.

 

No business can be sustained indefinitely. Every product has a lifecycle and without something to renew interest in a product it dies. Everyone needs an exit strategy, at some point you are going to reach the peak of your product lifecycle and you will adapt to a new market, develop a new product, or exit the industry.

 

Look at TCAdmin for example; their game control panel is in the declining stage of its product lifecycle. That does not mean they will not continue to sale their product. What it means is total revenue is declining. In order to sustain their company they are developing TCAdmin 2.0. That will start a new product lifecycle and allow them to gain additional revenue.

[Defcon|Rich]

Interesting concept however I'm a little unsure of your mention of newer companies having the advantage of "better and cheaper" technology. Being one of the "older" companies I can assure you our buying power and use of cutting edge technology is far above most at this time.

 

Gamers prefer to rent from more expensive providers because they are savvy enough to understand that .75/slot business model just plain doesn't exist.. Unfortunately the newer hosters you refer to unlike they're clients haven't grasp that basic concept yet. Suffice to say, The gamers appear to be smarter then most providers in that respect and are just plain tired of switching hosts every other month because they go out of business..

[Defcon|Rich]

On a side note the same thing is happening with the voice server market. The new crop of resellers are trying to break in and the only way they feel they can compete is offering prices lower then anyone else..

 

This is the same type of thing that's ruining the game server business.. GREED. I just hope they have warm clothes to wear because it's going to be a cold winter.

[Derek]

Interesting concept however I'm a little unsure of your mention of newer companies having the advantage of "better and cheaper" technology. Being one of the "older" companies I can assure you our buying power and use of cutting edge technology is far above most at this time.

 

Gamers prefer to rent from more expensive providers because they are savvy enough to understand that .75/slot business model just plain doesn't exist.. Unfortunately the newer hosters you refer to unlike they're clients haven't grasp that basic concept yet. Suffice to say, The gamers appear to be smarter then most providers in that respect and are just plain tired of switching hosts every other month because they go out of business..

 

I guess 0.49/slot business model works though and they seem to be doing a pretty good job crushing everyone else.

[Defcon|Rich]

The only thing "they" are crushing is they're longevity in this industry..

 

If you do the math you'll recognize the errors since the $2/slot guy only has to sell 1 server for every 4 you sell to make the same $$ and as a bonus not have to worry about overloading to break a profit.

 

The voice hosting guys are at the mercy of whoever they resell from so that's a moot point.

[proclan]

The only thing "they" are crushing is they're longevity in this industry..

 

If you do the math you'll recognize the errors since the $2/slot guy only has to sell 1 server for every 4 you sell to make the same $$ and as a bonus not have to worry about overloading to break a profit.

 

The voice hosting guys are at the mercy of whoever they resell from so that's a moot point.

 

Your right about the "walmartofgameservers" most of our new clients come from them complaining about laggy servers (i would guess there overloaded at .49/slot hehe) and poor support. As far as the voice servers we wouldn't even have a page up for them but we do get clients asking for it and it's just a add on service with no profit unless you count pennies.

[Derek]

Your right about the "walmartofgameservers" most of our new clients come from them complaining about laggy servers (i would guess there overloaded at .49/slot hehe) and poor support. As far as the voice servers we wouldn't even have a page up for them but we do get clients asking for it and it's just a add on service with no profit unless you count pennies.

 

They are the biggest for a reason. Clearly they are doing something right.

[Derek]

Just find it funny people are down playing gameservers and there business plan when you guys should be looking at them wondering why they are crushing you guys in every aspect.

[HIS-MOTHER]

service with no profit unless you count pennies.

 

The first thing they teach you in any Accounting class....

 

 

"Count your pennies and the dollars will follow"

[SickPuppy]

Interesting concept however I'm a little unsure of your mention of newer companies having the advantage of "better and cheaper" technology. Being one of the "older" companies I can assure you our buying power and use of cutting edge technology is far above most at this time.

 

But your initial cost was 3 times as high for servers that do not have 1/4 the power and performance of today’s servers. I would bet that you are not using many of the single core or dual core servers that you started out with. By entering the market later new GSPs postpone the expense of server upgrades. Yes there will come a time when they also will have to upgrade and will be at a disadvantage to the new entries into the market but that's life in this ever evolving technology driven industry.

[Steven Crothers]

I'm a bit confused, Defcon would have had that exact same advantage when they got started? It was a different economy, it was different games, and it was different hardware.

 

Sure technology has been "ramped up" since Defcon started, but they follow the trend just the same as all the others. So to make assumptions that a "new GSP" doesn't have the expense of server upgrades that Defcon does is pure ignorance in my eyes.

 

They stay on top of the game, they sell off their old hardware, and they purchase new hardware. Same as everyone else.

[SickPuppy]

Just find it funny people are down playing gameservers and there business plan when you guys should be looking at them wondering why they are crushing you guys in every aspect.

 

I have watched Gameservers for several years now. Even they have been forced to redefine their business model. $.75 a slot public and $.49 a slot private, do you think they would be offering these prices if not for the $1.00 a slot GSP.

 

Gameservers, like so many others, have found it necessary to reevaluate their business model. This is not a bad thing, you should reevaluate and adjust your short term and long term strategies and goals.

 

What we are seeing in the GSP industry is a reaction by the big providers to a flood of new entries into the market. What is interesting is the reason the flood occurred in the first place, because the old timers are partly to blame. Technology changed and operating expenses dropped, however the game server providers were either unable or unwilling to adjust their prices to reflect this change. This opened the door for competition.