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So, what's next in the revenue model, lifetime subs?

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Comments

  • Biggus99Biggus99 Member Posts: 916

    I'm not a fan of lifetime subs because I think it gives the developers an excuse to be lazy down the road.  Is SWTOR worth a lifetime sub?  Absolutely.  But I don't want any developer to have all my money I'm going to spend on the game up front, because if they don't develop the game they way they should, and lose my "subscription," then so what?  They've already got my money.  Also, I'm not a fan of shelling out $200 for a game up front before I at least get to the endgame content and have a few months to know if they game is going to hold my interest.  I can say I'm going to love an MMO and play it for years, but I have really no way of knowing that for certain due to whatever real life circumstances or just boredom from the game might set in. 

  • popinjaypopinjay Member Posts: 6,539


    Originally posted by Reizla

    The other GREAT examples of how things wend bad for lifetimers are the Cryptic MMO's (CO & STo) as well as DCUO (went F2P within the year FFS)

    Actually dollar for dollar, you're wrong about this.

    You may have stopped playing LOTRO, but you can still play it and get full benefits. If you had been playing you'd have saved around $700 like people still playing now.


    Every game other than Hellgate London offered a lifetime actually saved the players money over the deal, which DCUO will do as well.

    As long as the games never fold the person will always end up making out over the life of the sub than any other way, especially F2p because they have to keep buying things.

  • RoinRoin Member RarePosts: 3,444

    Originally posted by GMan3

        If the lifetime sub price is $300.00 (USD) or less, I would seriously consider buying it.  At that price I break even at 20 months which is pretty good in my book.  I've never bought a lifetime sub before, but at the same time NO game has been as fun to play for me either.  Heck, I even was having a lot of fun with crafting and I normally hate crafting.

    This is exactly how I felt.  I absolutely hate crafting.  Yet I could not stop myself from crafting during my time.  I'd even hop on my ship just to watch people working at the crafting station (in between Warfronts).

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  • KeoghKeogh Member Posts: 1,099

    I've purchased "Lifetime" subscriptions to Lord of the Rings Online, Champions Online and Star Trek Online, only to have them go free to play.

    I bought those subs prior to getting to play the games.

    Even though I have enjoyed my brief time in the open beta weekends, I will not purchase another lifetime subscription.

     

    "Don't corpse-camp that idea. Its never gonna rez"
    Bladezz (The Guild)

  • SuperXero89SuperXero89 Member UncommonPosts: 2,551

    If people are still dumb enough to purchase lifetime subs, why not offer them?

  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 6,057

    Lifetime subs are not a good idea for game companies.  That's why Turbine has halted any such deals and now stick to monthly subscription plans even though it's been years since release.  Lifetime subs are really for companies that are low on cash or have little faith in the longevity of their game.

  • waynejr2waynejr2 Member EpicPosts: 7,771

    They are not going to have a lifetime sub.

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  • VikingGamerVikingGamer Member UncommonPosts: 1,350

    Offering lifetime subs is the same as a company betting that their game will fail hard in the next two or three years. They will not offer lifetime subs anytime soon if ever. I would bet my house on it.

    All die, so die well.

  • TerranahTerranah Member UncommonPosts: 3,575

    I swore after STO I would never do lifetime sub again.  I'm gonna stick by that.

     

    Unless ofcourse they offer my my own private Deathstar.  Then who knows....lol

     

  • laseritlaserit Member LegendaryPosts: 7,591

    Originally posted by Terranah

    I swore after STO I would never do lifetime sub again.  I'm gonna stick by that.

     

    Unless ofcourse they offer my my own private Deathstar.  Then who knows....lol

     

    Lol hey Bioware... Mr Big here. I will pay you $1 million dollars if you program me my own personal death star and let me pew pew.

    "Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee

  • Hyperion5182Hyperion5182 Member Posts: 66

    Lifetime subs if the game lasts longer than their rate are not a bad deal I might do it if the price is right however after being burned in previous games i'm gonna wait a while before buying in.

  • TerranahTerranah Member UncommonPosts: 3,575

    Originally posted by laserit

    Originally posted by Terranah

    I swore after STO I would never do lifetime sub again.  I'm gonna stick by that.

     

    Unless ofcourse they offer my my own private Deathstar.  Then who knows....lol

     

    Lol hey Bioware... Mr Big here. I will pay you $1 million dollars if you program me my own personal death star and let me pew pew.

    Can you imagine of that was your personal home in space.  Think of all the storage space!

  • KappadonnaKappadonna Member UncommonPosts: 119

    No. I already knew from beta that Star Wars won't last me until either Tera, GW2, or TSW arrive early next year (hopefully). Star Wars plays exactly like Warcraft and while there isn't anything wrong with that, I'm tired of it. I've been tired of it. The combat. The abilities. Talent trees. I Need something a little more fresh or creative. 

    And any MMO, regardless of how good it is/was - even UO from 97-2003 - I would never pay a lifetime sub for. I have nothing against lifetime subs. They make sense for people who consistently play an MMO for a long while. However. Most MMOs I only play shortly, or in bursts, because most aren't worth playing long term. Even in UO I took large gaps of time off. And while the liftetime subscription would have saved me money in that game, I think it's the only one it would have done so for. And even then, I don't know going in how long I'm going to play a game. 

    I think lifetime subs are really up to a person's personality. For people who tire and move on quickly, they are always a bad choice. I'll always be a month to monther.

  • Dynamic1325Dynamic1325 Member UncommonPosts: 70

    For a sub game, not swtor particularly,  I wouldn't mind some sort of: take a survey / watch ads to subsidize the cost of my monthly fee. So long I don't have to supply a phone number, my name, my address, or email address to said 3rd parties.

     

    Game companies should hook up with someone to do this imo.

    I wouldn't expect to be able to pay for the entire monthly fee this way, but who knows what they could come up with.

     

    Edit: Really, even with the f2p item shop games, let us do something w/o spending money to earn shop credit, surveys / ads etc...

  • SpawnLODSpawnLOD Member Posts: 33

    As much as I love the Star Wars IP and enjoyed both Beta weekends that I was apart of. I have seen to many games that did have a lifetime sup where the people that did purchase them got royally screwed over. Plus I dont think it would even benifit them to offer it. They will want to try and keep gaining subs well past the price that a lifetime sub would even offer.

  • A.BlacklochA.Blackloch Member UncommonPosts: 842

    I usually play mmorpgs until the "end game" and raiding is the only content left. That's where I usually bail out and find a new game, so no, no lifetime subs for me. Ever.

  • fenistilfenistil Member Posts: 3,005

    Lifetime offers won't be offered again in an mmorpg UNLESS company developing this game will need mone - badlyy.

     

    Both Lotro and Cryptic which offered lifetime accounts they both needed money either for developing expenses / paying interest rates or / and for improving their balance sheet and cash flow to get bettter price when selling themselves to other company.

     

    So whenever you see P2P game go Lifetime now - game will go or at least announce F2P / freemium in few months.

     

    Deal like with Lotro that you got years of playtime won't happen again.

    Lifetime allow for big money inject but then you're worthless to company as a customer, so company has to create another way to generate revenue from you thus microtransactions.

     

    Notice that WB afer buying Turbine and changing Lotro to freemium, does NOT offer lifetime anymore. Because it is not profitable in anything other than short-term.

     

    So nah - thanks but no thanks. I won't bu Lifetime again and I am telling that as a person that had Lifetime Lotro account.

  • SouldrainerSouldrainer Member Posts: 1,857

    Originally posted by Kyleran

    It's pretty obvious from recent events that EA is going to probably pull out all the stops to maximize the revenue streams from SWTOR.

    Name the events.

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  • omomeomome Member Posts: 203

    BioWare/EA are going to offer Mass Effect 3 free with one year sub to TOR.

     

    Yeah right, you wish.

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