Gaia Online costs $25 million a year to run
When you take a look at the casual-focused Gaia Online, you probably don't think that the community-central site has been costing around 25 million each year -- well, according to company CEO Craig Sherman. It's kind of surprising to hear, since Gaia was a small start-up and has only been asking for around 100k to 500k for brands that want entry into the world of Gaia. We guess you have to spend money to make money, but that's a whole boatload of cash to throw at such a small start-up.
It seems to have paid off for the creators of Gaia Online, at least. They're reportedly starting to see deals in the higher six figures range. We're happy it worked out for them, but this is definitely a good example of how risky the MMO market can be even for any sort of game a developer might want to put out there. We shudder at the thought of how much cash has been dropped on some of the upcoming mainstream titles this year.
