Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
General: Community Spotlight: Fifteen Bucks
MikeB
Community ManagerAdministrator RarePosts: 6,555
This weeks Community Spotlight focuses on the thread “The 15 bucks…” by Pelu. In the thread, Pelu takes a look at the history of the $15/month model that is now an industry standard in the MMOG genre, and why we shouldn’t be complaining as much as we sometimes do about it.
)
Read more at Community Spotlight: Fifteen Bucks.
Comments
I'm sorry, but the title of the spotlight just makes me think about Jay's Rap from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
"Fifteen bucks, little man. Put that %&^ in my hand. If that money doesn't show, then you owe me, owe me, owe..."
I have to disagree. Actually, Wow can take the luxury to reduce a bit their subscription, while the other games with far less subscribers wouldn't be profitable.
I compare MMO market with Operating systems market. Windows is dominating with a big niche competitor (Apple)that is not even close and f2p (linux).
At this point, expecting that a company investing in developing a general purpose operating system is for say the least naive.
This is the main scenario for mmos. Only niche games have some chance and still are heavily bombed by ex-wow players desperately looking for their next wow which isn't wow.
Heavy attacks prior and during release usually end up sinking those already fragile new mmos into dispair.
The next challenge for games from famous companies like FFXIV and SWTOR is to shake the market enought to be a decent game and still profitable one.
man if WoW just offered a promo like LoTRO with a "get in now and only pay 9.99 for the rest of your life" the competion would die up and wow would rocket to a billon subs i wager
I think either WOW Cataclysm or Star Wars will raise it to $19.99 or something.
I just dont see it, folks moving the price up to 24.95, Not in this economy
Im of the opinion where I just dont get where people say $25 dollars a month is too much. mind you, since im european, im already nearly paying that, as I pay 15 euros a month which is $20. But going on to other parts, well, yeah once you factor in electricity and line and broadband cost it comes to a bit more.
However. as movie was mentioned. that can cost me round about 30-40 euros just for that. and a proper night out? ow. that can be as high as 150 euros. (needless to say, that doesnt happen often.) The only ones who will say that it too much, are people who are in school or college who may be unable to work cos of their age, or can work but college comes first, cos well, it can set the tone for what you want to do in life ( and good luck with that btw) So yeah, I can see where they wouldnt want it to move.
However, at the end of a day, WOW and companies like that are businesses. They will raise it one day. (maybe not WOW first however, cos catalysm is sure to raise them some money.) At the end of the day all that will happen there, will be some screams, and maybe some people will leave. but the majority will pay up. and those who left, will quite possibly in time come back anyway.
I have to disagree with this Spotlight.
In a f2p game, such as DDO, it's fine to charge extra for game components. Since they didn't make money off me on the sale of the game or on a monthly basis, they need to get income somehow.
In a subscription based game there is no reason to charge me extra for game content. Paid character transfers, name changes, etc are fine as they are "out of the ordinary" and the company has to stop and take time to honor your request. Charging me a sub fee, then nickel and diming me for content is not the right way to do things.
Seems to be a starting trend that companies give less "free" content less often and have started added extra pay-to-have content. Look at WoW, in vanilla days there were major patches about every 2.5 months. During BC that was up to every 5 months. Now in Wrath it's 3 patches in 15 months (and counting) with vanity pets for sale for extra cash, faction change for cash, etc. Crytpic charges subscriptions, but then adds more content that has to be paid for separately. Heck even Dragon Age Origins had something similar on launch day, charging $5 for the storage chest despite the fact you already dropped $50-60 on the game.
Games only need around 20k-25k subs to break even, anything above that is profit. So Cryptic doesn't "need" to charge me $2 to have klingon races in the Federation, they just want the extra $2.
What this article doesn't consider are some trends in the industry and country in general.
(1) Salaries have remained mostly flat from 2000-2010. Hence, your costs for developers should not have risen drastically. In fact some studies state that median household income has dropped over the last decade.
economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/a-decade-with-no-income-gain/
(2) Costs for bandwidth have dropped dramatically while the amount needed has not grown in proportion. As an example I paid between $1000 and $1500/month for a T1 in 2001. Eight years later that same T1 only costs me $300/month. While newer games send more data, they don't send 3-5x more data. So their fixed costs have dramatically dropped in this regard.
(3) Hosting/Hardware costs have dramatically dropped. Granted, I've never priced something out like what they'd be using for a server, but I have put together some pretty large clustered databases. Again the costs have dropped tremendously, while their data needs have not increased to fill that space.
(4) Networking is much simpler for the average consumer. With the advent of cheap broadband, nearly everyone has a LAN or the ability to hook to a friends server for some multi player gaming. There are tons of cheap/free alternatives... although mostly in the FPS/RTS variety.
So overall, MMOs are cheaper to run now than they were 10 years ago and people have far more options than they did if they want to play a game with friends on line.
They also have to contend with the cost of a SP game. If $15/month is a base line, then the value is 4 months of content = single player game. Bump up the price to $30 (micro trans or straight subs) a month, and now I could buy a new game every other month or so. If you don't already provide that level of entertainment, I can go buy new SP games and have lan parties with my friends.
I have very little sympathy for the state of MMOs right now. They are cheaper to run than ever and yet we seem to be getting bled dry by many titles.
I think 15 bucksis too much as it is. What do you get for paying 15 bucks? The ability to play 1 game online. I repeat; ONE GAME. I dont see where they see the justification in that when you can pay 4 to 8 amonth for xboxlive which enables you to play their nearly entire library at no extra cost
I know I'm comparing apples and oranges and dont want to start a pc vs console war but thats the way I see it
In the early days of EQ1 the sub fee was only $10. SOE raised it to $15 not long after EQ1 was a hit claiming, among other reasons, the increased cost of bandwidth on their part.
I think the reason console owners get more online stuff "free" is that you paid an extra $10 on the game. You also bought the console. Unlike my PC, which can play any PC-compatable game regardless of who makes it, a 360 can only play 360 games. So, by giving 360 owners "free" online content they are basically rewarding you for buying that console and encouraging people who don't own one to go buy one.