[General Article] WildStar: Revenue Model Revealed

BillMurphy

One question that arises over and over when it comes to WildStar is whether or not it will be free-to-play or subscription or hybrid. In a world exclusive first, we reveal the subscription model for one of the year's most anticipated titles. Read on!

WildStar Online will not be Free-to-Play. It won’t be Buy-to-Play like Guild Wars 2, either. What does that leave, boys and girls? That’s right, you heard it here first: WildStar will operate via the classic subscription model, with a tasty EVE-like caveat Carbine is calling CREDD.  Last week we caught up with Jeremy Gaffney to chat about the revenue model for WildStar and why Carbine is betting on the subscription model over the new hotness of F2P and microtransactions.

Read more of Bill Murphy's WildStar: Revenue Model Revealed.

Vorch

I'm happy for those who prefer this model. I'll stick with B2P, though.

Looks like it's gonna be an amazing game, regardless Love what they're doing with housing.

 

quseio

IN BEFORE THE WHINEING COMMENCES, wait does first whiner count?.

rodingo

Interesting.  I wonder how long and how successful this will be for them..... 

doug200463

I have to agree with Vorch, subscription games are obsolete.. idc if you can grind and buy time with in game gold.. still have to pay a sub... time/money.. Ill stick with my f2p/b2p games... too many good games out there that dont require a sub, to mess with one that has a sub.. plain and simple.

 

Avarix

“We’re not watching the competition too closely at all, really.” Why? “Because business model does have an impact, but in general good games do well. And we know what we have is good and worth that value. But more importantly, the elder game needs to be there, all the content needs to be there, the features list needs to be full. If we have those things, and we do, we’ll be fine.”

 

That quote makes me think they might actually get it. I will be paying close attention to this game now even though I didn't care for the leaked footage.

 

BearKnight

I've said it before, and i'll say it again. If World of Warcraft would be more successful on the "F2P" or "B2P" system it would move to those systems. Blizzard KNOWS how the game is played. Well done, high quality, products do NOT go into the F2P or B2P markets, you just don't make the same returns as P2P and you keep undesirables out.

 

Good on you WildStar, although you're a WoW clone I'm slightly more tempted to try you now.

 

 

....slightly

 

 

Scalpless

Interesting. I must say I still don't see the target audience of this game. People who want a WoW-that's-not-WoW? Is there enough of them? Personally, I attribute WoW's decline in subs to people getting tired of the whole model, not the game itself.

I thought they were going to make a sub-free WoW with some nice additional features, but I guess not. Maybe I'm just not interested in the whole "quest to endgame and raid" model and don't understand what the people who are want, but... eh. Right now FFXIV seems to be a better choice for group-focused content, unless you're someone who loves raiding.

Bacchira

No cash shop, that's sweet. My interest for this game increased a lot.

zimike

Subscription games more more since if they have heavy sandbox elements. However, this game seems to be mostly themepark.

xthemanimal

Agreed with Vorch and Doug as well. I decided a while back not to support the subscription model. This game looks great though so I hope people have fun with it!

expresso

Great news Subscription should keep most of the whinny kids out, but it will need to quickly grow a user base for it to continue as subscription but no doubt they are ready to go F2P if needed.

katahl

im glad they went with subscription, im tired of playing games where the players don't have an investment in the game, and most F2P and B2P are pay to win from my experience anyway and end up costing as much if not more than sub games (ie: buying a mount in some games can cost $30+ and that's 3 months sub in this). I would like to see a Lifetime membership option though, that's something all sub games should have.

 

reploidx

I give it about a little over a year until we get a "Freemium Hybrid subscription announced" news update. Game looks good, but I never intended to play it even if it was F2P or B2P. Rift had the same stance as this and look where they are.

JeroKane

Originally posted by Bacchira
No cash shop, that's sweet. My interest for this game increased a lot.

This!

Finally, just like FFXIV, a game again where I can just pay a single fee each month and have FULL Access to the game, without a Cash Shop being shoved up in my face every time I turn a corner in the game.

Angerina

Originally posted by Scalpless

Interesting. I must say I still don't see the target audience of this game. People who want a WoW-that's-not-WoW? Is there enough of them? 

The target audience are people who played Vanilla and Burning Crusade, people who had to manage their mana, who used CC and discussed every trash mob group in heroic dungeons. The kind of players who crave a challenge, not accessibility. 

C_Glass

Originally posted by JeroKane

Originally posted by Bacchira
No cash shop, that's sweet. My interest for this game increased a lot.

This!

Finally, just like FFXIV, a game again where I can just pay a single fee each month and have FULL Access to the game, without a Cash Shop being shoved up in my face every time I turn a corner in the game.

 

I find it funny that people are elated that they can avoid a cash shop (with its vanity items, oh noes!) but then gladly drop a 60$ bomb on a videogame plus a sub. 

doug200463

Originally posted by reploidx
I give it about a little over a year until we get a "Freemium Hybrid subscription announced" news update. Game looks good, but I never intended to play it even if it was F2P or B2P. Rift had the same stance as this and look where they are.

 

Exactly... dont forget SWTOR, Age Of Conan.. 

 

arbacus

Exactly what i wanted to read well, done carbine!

NoxiousBass

No complaints here, the CREDD option is very clever, gives a diferent option to get play time AND kicking the gold spammers teeth in? Brilliant! I will be playing FFXIV for now (an excelent MMO) until I get to try Wildstar out for myself. When the time comes I have to choose one.

Nitth

Originally posted by Angerina

Originally posted by Scalpless

Interesting. I must say I still don't see the target audience of this game. People who want a WoW-that's-not-WoW? Is there enough of them? 

The target audience are people who played Vanilla and Burning Crusade, people who had to manage their mana, who used CC and discussed every trash mob group in heroic dungeons. The kind of players who crave a challenge, not accessibility. 

Well, apparently wildstar has none of that. so....

Their official stance is "we want people that are not currently playing an mmo or are new to the genre"

NoxiousBass

No complaints here, the CREDD option is very clever, gives a diferent option to get play time AND kicking the gold spammers teeth in? Brilliant! I will be playing FFXIV for now (an excelent MMO) until I get to try Wildstar out for myself. When the time comes I have to choose one.

Ratts

And so the watch becomes, how long until it makes an F2P transition?

Sholvacri

To be honest I'm glad another new game is going subscription. I'd rather play a game where everyone pays the same amount of money without any sort of advantages if you pay extra, like exp boosts or any boost for that matter, extra inventory space, etc. All those are pseudo P2W things that tend to lay in the grey area where we can't decide if it's really P2W or not, and I don't like it.

 

I hope Wildstar does well with this kind of model, if they keep their word I'll probably buy the game, since I'm interested on fair games where the important thing is playing the game and not the cash shop.

 

 

Kraadak

Im liking it. Thats what I wanted to hear. As long as I get full access to everything for my sub , they can have my money.

As for people going on about F2P,  I really dont undestand why some people expect to get a game thats cost $100m to make for nothing. Carbine are in business to make money not give away.

 

Scorchien

Great move by NCSoft...