Monthly Fees?

TheBishop

    I was just wondering when did monthly fees go up from like 8 to 10 dollars to the standard 15 dollars?  Has inflation effected these subscription prices or was it the increasing bandwidth demand from more complicated games?  I am just wondering this because it just seems like EVERYONE uses this price and yet I seriously doubt they all require the same bandwidth, use the same servers and are serviced by the same company.  Do they make their price off the cost of actual bandwidth or are they trying to make a little extra profit based off the fact everyone is content with paying that price?

tunabun

Originally posted by TheBishop

    I was just wondering when did monthly fees go up from like 8 to 10 dollars to the standard 15 dollars?  Has inflation effected these subscription prices or was it the increasing bandwidth demand from more complicated games?  I am just wondering this because it just seems like EVERYONE uses this price and yet I seriously doubt they all require the same bandwidth, use the same servers and are serviced by the same company.  Do they make their price off the cost of actual bandwidth or are they trying to make a little extra profit based off the fact everyone is content with paying that price?

Supply and Demand.  IF they truly thought they could get more out of the gaming populous they would hike the price further.  The only reason they haven't is because they wouldn't get as many subscriptions.  Look for sub business models to fade if the companies do not attempt to use long term contract style plans.

TheBishop

Originally posted by tunabun

Originally posted by TheBishop

    I was just wondering when did monthly fees go up from like 8 to 10 dollars to the standard 15 dollars?  Has inflation effected these subscription prices or was it the increasing bandwidth demand from more complicated games?  I am just wondering this because it just seems like EVERYONE uses this price and yet I seriously doubt they all require the same bandwidth, use the same servers and are serviced by the same company.  Do they make their price off the cost of actual bandwidth or are they trying to make a little extra profit based off the fact everyone is content with paying that price?

Supply and Demand.  IF they truly thought they could get more out of the gaming populous they would hike the price further.  The only reason they haven't is because they wouldn't get as many subscriptions.  Look for sub business models to fade if the companies do not attempt to use long term contract style plans.

    I see what you mean, I just find it wierd to have all subscriptions at one price.  Even the very old games have a 15 dollar price tag to it.

seabass2003

You can usually get that price to go down further by opting to buy a 3 month 6 month 9 month 1 year subscription though. $15 is usually the price for month to month.

Soraellion

Actually, afaik it has always been around the $15 mark, back in 2001 that's what I paid for DAoC and now I still pay it for EVE and CoH. And while everything around us has become much more expensive (even more in Holland when we switched to the Euro, the Euro has twice the value but we still spend like it wa the old one, some things have actually doubled in price) MMO's haven't had an a price increase.

I'm quite sure that (like everything else) a lot of things have become more expensive, manhours and all that, but I think that their internet bill has gone down due to faster speeds needed to host their services become more normal and 'affordable'.

Daggra

Yeah it really is a matter of greed. Some might try to justify the cost with growing development costs but all in all MMO's aren't getting THAT much more advanced. Not rapidly anyway...



I wouldn't even hold it to $15.00. It wasnt that long ago that $10.00 was standard for all MMO's, and I'm sure sooner or later a cocky game company will come around and make a 20.00 a month subscription claiming that their game is so amazing they need to charge higher. Sucks but everything slowly costs more as people begin to earn more in general.

warror

I hope subscriptions don't go up beyond $15. Alot of subscribers are young people without jobs or only work part time so raising the price beyond $15 would probably lower the number of subscriptions. A parent may tolerate paying $15 a month for a subscription for their 9 year old but anything higher and that  and the 9 year old would have to get a job in order to raise money to pay.

zethcarn

Originally posted by warror

I hope subscriptions don't go up beyond $15. Alot of subscribers are young people without jobs or only work part time so raising the price beyond $15 would probably lower the number of subscriptions. A parent may tolerate paying $15 a month for a subscription for their 9 year old but anything higher and that  and the 9 year old would have to get a job in order to raise money to pay.

I don't expect subscription fees to go up anytime soon,  as in the next 5 years.  The MMO market is just too competitve right now and it will only get more competitive before it slows down.