Oh well, I called this back in January 14, so not surprised in the slightest. Think it was very obvious back then, so was only a matter of time.
"in terms of the B2P model - I'm quite sure their plan will be to make as much from box sales and subs for the first 6-12 months then go F2P with item shop like Lord of the Rings. This way they make back their money in the quickest time possible and once the population starts dipping, boost it back up with the F2P model."
It doesn't really matter to me, because I don't really think the game is very good. But, at the very least, if things improve substantially I won't have to pay a sub to check it out.
I can say that this switch to B2P pretty much puts to rest that notion that this game was carrying over a million subs like the ESO fanboys would have you believe.
Oh well, I called this back in January 14, so not surprised in the slightest. Think it was very obvious back then, so was only a matter of time.
"in terms of the B2P model - I'm quite sure their plan will be to make as much from box sales and subs for the first 6-12 months then go F2P with item shop like Lord of the Rings. This way they make back their money in the quickest time possible and once the population starts dipping, boost it back up with the F2P model."
I think I would almost grudgingly have to agree with this.
It almost seems to me like companies are playing the hardcore sub only crowd for suckers, with their sub models. Why not? They have nothing to lose. If the subs show up in force they win. If they don't, then B2P or F2P and they still win.
Not good for the crowd that prefers subs.
FFA Nonconsentual Full Loot PvP ...You know you want it!!
Oh well, I called this back in January 14, so not surprised in the slightest. Think it was very obvious back then, so was only a matter of time.
"in terms of the B2P model - I'm quite sure their plan will be to make as much from box sales and subs for the first 6-12 months then go F2P with item shop like Lord of the Rings. This way they make back their money in the quickest time possible and once the population starts dipping, boost it back up with the F2P model."
Not sure how you an call something that hasn't happened.
In commonly used parlance the game hasn't gone / isn't launching as a F2P game.
People don't call CoD, Assassin's Creed, GTA, BF, Civ, The Sims etc. etc. F2P games. They are referred to as B2P and - generally - have paid expansions / DLC.
Admittedly Zenimax are introducing a cash shop, optional subscriptions, paid DLC and may even have paid expansions that are not included with the optional sub but - as of today - you can't call the game "F2P" - in the sense that f2p is commonly used.
6-12 months after the console launch - who knows; I doubt it but that is simply my view.
And many others talked about the possibility of a change to a B2P model when they announced the delay of the console launch in the middle of last year. Not sure anyone expected all the extras they have thrown in but there was a discussion.
It will never ever go free to play. After the first expansion they will more than likely bundle the vanilla version with the expansion and give that away for 'free' , but they will never give anything on its own for nothing.
Console is the equalizer, Lotro, Age of Conan, Warhammer, Swotor, and any other 'failed' game you want to list that started with a sub and switched to F2P didnt have a console version. The only other game like this is FFXIV and they did what ZoS wouldnt they released their game on Playstaion only and bypassed Xbox. Which they claimed was due to cross server restrictions but that was a lie they did it because Microsoft wouldnt drop their sub for them just like they wouldnt drop it for ZoS.
ESo could be exactly like FFIV right now if ZoS had been willing to snub Microsoft and just release the game on version they could keep a sub with.
But like I have said in the past Bathesda ,makes a lot of stand alone games and thus probably didnt want to burn a bridge.
I love it. I subbed to the game soon after the announcement, just so I can go back to level up my dragonknight. I only ever got to lvl 28 after playing the game for 3 months at launch lol but I am quite casual....
But I will probably pop into the game here and there and play it, just like every other TES game. I am not a huge fan of subscriptions because I spent 10-12 hours a day in the office working and another 20 hours a week studying so I dont like subs but I would rather have subs than f2p games.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Now I will buy it and not have to contend with 20 bazillion people in the starter zones doing the same quest as me. I also won't feel like a moron for paying full price plus subbing all this time just to find out that if I had some patience, I'd have more money in my wallet.
Patience is a virtue.
Even better, I'll wait just a little longer until there's a %50 off sale on the box price. No big hurry, it'll still be there. Not like there's some kind of empty desert of good games to play in the meantime.
Now that they're in cash shop mode it just becomes another game where they can add all kinds of contrived silly shit like purple dinosaur mounts that they have to alter the lore of the game for in some obscure fashion just to justify putting it in the game and selling it for $5.99. That should make all the unemployed soccer moms positively ecstatic. It's not nearly enough to be completely shit at the game, you absolutely must make a mockery of it and be abrasive to the player base and positively annoy them by hopping around the bank vault on your hot pink 8 foot tall rhinoceros, while you give them epilepsy with our ambient shimmer and shine strobe light pet, just 300 pimp tokens. Nothing says "I don't give two hairy froggy fucks about this game" like spending arbitrary amounts of your husbands hard earned cash on stuff that even in virtual world terms is retarded and worthless.
Yeah!! Rock on freemium army, thanks for your contributions to the genre.
Now I will buy it and not have to contend with 20 bazillion people in the starter zones doing the same quest as me. I also won't feel like a moron for paying full price plus subbing all this time just to find out that if I had some patience, I'd have more money in my wallet.
Patience is a virtue.
Even better, I'll wait just a little longer until there's a %50 off sale on the box price. No big hurry, it'll still be there. Not like there's some kind of empty desert of good games to play in the meantime.
The game can be found for 10 bucks now, that's way cheaper than 50%.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Called it over a year ago, with exact model they gonna do, so i feel good. It is a good game to play alongside GW2. Now that it will finally be out of alpha/beta on (real)console launch.
Comments
I feel totally indifferent. If I thought the game was any good I'd be playing it already.
I also think they've been planning this all along and I find it highly unethical.
Oh well, I called this back in January 14, so not surprised in the slightest. Think it was very obvious back then, so was only a matter of time.
"in terms of the B2P model - I'm quite sure their plan will be to make as much from box sales and subs for the first 6-12 months then go F2P with item shop like Lord of the Rings. This way they make back their money in the quickest time possible and once the population starts dipping, boost it back up with the F2P model."
It doesn't really matter to me, because I don't really think the game is very good. But, at the very least, if things improve substantially I won't have to pay a sub to check it out.
I can say that this switch to B2P pretty much puts to rest that notion that this game was carrying over a million subs like the ESO fanboys would have you believe.
I think I would almost grudgingly have to agree with this.
It almost seems to me like companies are playing the hardcore sub only crowd for suckers, with their sub models. Why not? They have nothing to lose. If the subs show up in force they win. If they don't, then B2P or F2P and they still win.
Not good for the crowd that prefers subs.
FFA Nonconsentual Full Loot PvP ...You know you want it!!
Not sure how you an call something that hasn't happened.
In commonly used parlance the game hasn't gone / isn't launching as a F2P game.
People don't call CoD, Assassin's Creed, GTA, BF, Civ, The Sims etc. etc. F2P games. They are referred to as B2P and - generally - have paid expansions / DLC.
Admittedly Zenimax are introducing a cash shop, optional subscriptions, paid DLC and may even have paid expansions that are not included with the optional sub but - as of today - you can't call the game "F2P" - in the sense that f2p is commonly used.
6-12 months after the console launch - who knows; I doubt it but that is simply my view.
And many others talked about the possibility of a change to a B2P model when they announced the delay of the console launch in the middle of last year. Not sure anyone expected all the extras they have thrown in but there was a discussion.
It will never ever go free to play. After the first expansion they will more than likely bundle the vanilla version with the expansion and give that away for 'free' , but they will never give anything on its own for nothing.
Console is the equalizer, Lotro, Age of Conan, Warhammer, Swotor, and any other 'failed' game you want to list that started with a sub and switched to F2P didnt have a console version. The only other game like this is FFXIV and they did what ZoS wouldnt they released their game on Playstaion only and bypassed Xbox. Which they claimed was due to cross server restrictions but that was a lie they did it because Microsoft wouldnt drop their sub for them just like they wouldnt drop it for ZoS.
ESo could be exactly like FFIV right now if ZoS had been willing to snub Microsoft and just release the game on version they could keep a sub with.
But like I have said in the past Bathesda ,makes a lot of stand alone games and thus probably didnt want to burn a bridge.
So what we have now is what we have.
I love it. I subbed to the game soon after the announcement, just so I can go back to level up my dragonknight. I only ever got to lvl 28 after playing the game for 3 months at launch lol but I am quite casual....
But I will probably pop into the game here and there and play it, just like every other TES game. I am not a huge fan of subscriptions because I spent 10-12 hours a day in the office working and another 20 hours a week studying so I dont like subs but I would rather have subs than f2p games.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Knew this day would come.
Now I will buy it and not have to contend with 20 bazillion people in the starter zones doing the same quest as me. I also won't feel like a moron for paying full price plus subbing all this time just to find out that if I had some patience, I'd have more money in my wallet.
Patience is a virtue.
Even better, I'll wait just a little longer until there's a %50 off sale on the box price. No big hurry, it'll still be there. Not like there's some kind of empty desert of good games to play in the meantime.
Now that they're in cash shop mode it just becomes another game where they can add all kinds of contrived silly shit like purple dinosaur mounts that they have to alter the lore of the game for in some obscure fashion just to justify putting it in the game and selling it for $5.99. That should make all the unemployed soccer moms positively ecstatic. It's not nearly enough to be completely shit at the game, you absolutely must make a mockery of it and be abrasive to the player base and positively annoy them by hopping around the bank vault on your hot pink 8 foot tall rhinoceros, while you give them epilepsy with our ambient shimmer and shine strobe light pet, just 300 pimp tokens. Nothing says "I don't give two hairy froggy fucks about this game" like spending arbitrary amounts of your husbands hard earned cash on stuff that even in virtual world terms is retarded and worthless.
Yeah!! Rock on freemium army, thanks for your contributions to the genre.
The game can be found for 10 bucks now, that's way cheaper than 50%.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Apparently people like it..
Well.. My guess?
In a year from changing, noone will be making polls like this. Noone using a PC will care about that game anymore.
i like the B2P because i dont have to pay anymore ...
i dont care about the internet scum entering the servers. They buy the game for $5 and will behave exactly as i expect.
i will just disable the chat window completly and keep playing for free until i am bored again.
ah i forgot it will be interesting to see all the crying because of overloaded servers and lots of link deads.
People will not be crying about overloaded servers when they use MegaServer technology. It will be the same to everyone as it always feels.
There Is Always Hope!
we talk again after 1.6 went live...