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Why do MMOs cost $15 to play?
VultureSkull
Member UncommonPosts: 1,774
Why are most MMOs set at $15 a month for the sub?
Who set this figure that every MMO company seems to follow religiously?
There are only a finite number of MMO players in the whole world, and although some people sub to more than one game at a time most i imagine can only afford to sub to one. I am sure a lot of people play sub one game and then cancel to sign up to another and so on. Peeps leave MMOs all together and some come on board, making the fluctuation very small.
Imagine if the monthly sub for an MMO was $2, that would mean i could stay subbed to 7 games at the current cost of one, implying that the MMO companies share my $15, and since i only sub one game at the time now they would not really lose out in the long run, as i would no longer bother cancelling my sub when i tire of one game (unless i am 100% sure i will not come back).
Do these MMO companies have annual meetings to discuss prices etc? Something they may find worth considering, or will that flaunt the anti-competition laws as price fixing? Are we sure that it is not current going on now? As every sub seems to be exaclty the same( except a very very few). Is there no competition between MMOs on the monthly sub?
Comments
My answer to this applies to most things in life.
Answer: Because they can.
I don´t know why it´s 15$ probably just a figure someone thought suited a while back. Personally i´d much rather pay nothing for the box and then 25$ a month instead. Or a flat 20$ rate if that would provide beter quality games.
All statements I make is from my point of view unless stated otherwise.
Prices used to be different. When newer games came out the prices inched up. Its settled around 15 now, but i see that rising in the future as development costs skyrocket. Right now noone is confident enough to rasie the price, especially in a recession, that night drive potential customers away before even trying the game.
I dont see how the prices can come down, unless they lean more heavily on paid services and micro transactions. The cost of development keeps increasing, the content and quality demand from the consumer keeps increasing, so that means companies have to charge more money to pay for all that.
But why $15? There is probally survey data, metrics, research, ect that puts $15 as the most the average gamer will spend on a subscription.
I was thinking that SWTOR or FFXIV might be first to go over the 15 dollar line, but I kinda changed my mind about that. I think it might take a couple of years before that happens, but it surely will raise eventually.
edit - Well 15 dollars doesn't sound much, doesn't it? What if it would be 20$? I think couple years old single player games don't go for much more than that nowdays. It seems a lot bigger sum to pay. The monthly fee of MMORPG's is supposed to feel like small amount of money, so it's much less noticeable loss for your wallet during short period of time. It's a great way for game studios to make money and piracy isn't a problem, that's why in the future something similar happens to single player games. There's already some requiring constant online connection.
Waiting on Xsyon & betaing stuff
Agreed.
Its was sometime during EQ (think actually a little after the release of Anarchy Online) that $15 became the norm price per month. Before that I can remember UO being like $9.95 a month.
But yeah, I think they did what every business does and surveyed cost data and figured $15 a month would keep them in the black for a while to come in the future.
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
Also might have a little to do with other countries currency.
As mentioned, MMO's used to vary some in price, around the 10.95 - 12.95 US range. I'm not sure who went to 14.95 first, but once WOW adopted it that became the defacto standard that most games quickly moved to.
Now the standard market price is pretty much controlled by Blizzard, because what developer dares to charge more than the industry leader in MMORPG subs.
The mistake many Dev's make however, is that to charge WOW prices your game better be full featured and well polished like WOW to justify the same price tag. EVE IMO is such a game and in fact, I pay slightly more for it due to some sort of overseas surcharge fee.
I think some of the indy launches would have been a bit more successful if they had offered their game for less (at least initially) until they got the polish and content up to par with the market leaders.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Keep in mind that many MMOs offer deals of less than $15/month if you buy more than 1 month at a time. The two MMOs I am currently playing cost me $13 and $11 per month respectively.
Also, even at $15/month, that's a hell of a lot of value compared to almost any other form of entertainment, where you might pay that much or more for 2 hours.
While 15$ does suck to pay. I think that that price will do nothing but go up in the future. I don't care for WOW but be glad that Blizz doesn't charge more for thier game. They could charge 20 to 25$ and half oe more would probally suck it up and pay it. Heck they charge full price for and xpac and people buy it.
How many delicate flowers have you met in Counterstrike?
I got a case of beer and a chainsaw waiting for me at home after work.
This is the MMORPG genre, not some multiplayer genre that people should hop in and out, when these games would become like you say 2$ then community will be more gone then it already is today.
I don't know why people should be playing 7 or more MMORPG at one time, doesn't make much sense in a genre like this, as said it's okay for the in/out crowed for multiplayer games and yes I know some just treath this genre like that.
Let it be 15$, that's 50cents a day, and subs don't need to compete, but games have to, to keep players playing their game regardless how much the sub is aslong hte game is fun and got devoted players playing it.
Though I would like to see some sort of price drop depending on time played, let's say someone has been subbed to a game for 4 years, each year that person keeps ingame his sub-fee should drop 1 or 2$ each year, I am amazed Blizzard doesn't do something like that, they surely can with all the money they make, they could in fact become the cheapest MMORPG alive today , tho I am amazed how some people would say Blizzard could even ask more sub-fee.
Yeah, I think it was SOE that started charging $15 first and the others followed (I remember AO and UO still being $9.95 a month when EQ was $14.99.)
But I agree that a lot of Indy companies would probably benefit from starting out at a lower monthly rate than the current norm untill they get thier game stable and headed in the right direction. More people would be accepting of the lower monthly rate and would maybe stick with the game through its rougher times than they would if the price was on par with games like WoW.
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
Actually, the MMORPG genre is rapidly approaching the model you described, with shallow content that can't keep players entertained for years at a time so jumping in and out of them when content updates occur makes a lot of sense.
Players might be willing to pay 6.95 a month for a year rather than 14.95/mo for a game they're only going to play casually.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Unfortunaly you are right, and the largest blame lies with those players, not with the company's, aslong players keep accepting that we will see this genre become more and more just multiplayer games, unfortunaly, but I also know that people like to keep blaming the "suites" which suprises me everytime I read topics about that, where people don't really think about the true cause.
It's a standard atm, until some big company decides they need to raise it. Right now, going from 15 to 20 would raise so much nerdrage that I doubt anyone dares to try it.
But what is15 really, or 20? Almost nothing, any kid can make that kind of money in few hours. Stop being so lazy.
If a game makes me stay out of a bar even for one night, that pays several months sub.
They could charge us $5 a day and still have more then enough to pay for the server, building, ect.
But the name of the games money not a good game not anything but box sales and money.
Why is Darkfall so Grindy cuz it has 0 content keep them confused with the grind they wont notice the utter lack of everything besides pvp. (i play it by the way but not resubing done with it)
WoW was the same way keep them busy at the end of the game with really hard dungeons with shit for odd's of getting anything so they keep paying to get this 1 piece of gear a month.
Its all just Smoke and mirrors.
.50 cents a day seems pretty resonable to me.
Aye, If you look at the $15 a month in terms of unneeded purchases you would make in that month, you would see that the $15 a month is really a good deal.
Like in the area I live for example.
$15 a month would buy you:
-2.5 packs of smokes if you are a smoker
-3 beers at a bar
-1.5 movie tickets
-3 happy meals
-2.5 big mac value meals
-a medium 1 topping pizza
-3 coke/pepsi 12 packs
-maybe two 12 packs of Bud
-One 12 pack of imported beer
-5 comic booiks
That right there is why I dont mind paying $15 a month for a game I like. If I didnt spend it there, it would probably be spent on something stupid anyway... Something that would most likely be of a single use. At least $15 spent on an MMO a month gives be 30 days of usage...
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
well, i still wonder why mmos cant stand up with singleplayer games in form of quality, sence we pay so mutch more for it it should give more than a world and some text and flashy animation.
story and full voiceover shouldnt be to much to ask for imo!
they are $15 a month cos you guys will pay $15 a month
MMOs are $15 / month for a couple of reasons.
One is that most MMOs that charge $15 / month also come with 24/7 in game support and other service features. There is one noteable exception: Aion Online which doesn't offer 24/7 in game support or 24/7 out of game support.
All the extra services in an MMO are expensive to maintain so we pay for those as a base cost then there is the profit. I suspect that $7-10 of a $15 subscription goes straight into paying for the services: support, equipment, bandwidth.
The second reason is because we are willing to pay that much. NCSoft figured this one out and released Aion without any of the extra services that we usually find in MMOs and yet players are paying full price for it. That means the market is willing to accept less services at the $15 price point.
I think it is only a matter of time before another MMO comes out and charges more per month than $15. But, that MMO will need to be full featured and very well done. I suspect that a niche product could get away with a higher premium as it caters to a more specialized market segment who will be willing to pay the extra for a game that caters towards their wants.
I know a lot of people who maintain multiple MMO subscriptions. Heck, at the moment I have three paid accounts in good service right now. $45 / month for my primary source of entertainment isn't bad at all and I play very little of late - less than two hours a day on average (that's combined for all three accounts.)
Since you seem to not know anything about development and programming in general... don't rant against things you don't have clue about. Thanks.
On Topic:
The reason is, 15$ is just enough to cover future development and support given to all subscribers. In addition, those companies want to make more many than they need to just survive, which is logical.
There is another simple reason why prices don't change in a significant manner. Imagine a new game coming up that charges 20$. Everyone would expect it to be "better" than comparable games that charge 15$. If it can't reach the expectations, it will fail.
Same goes to games with a lower price: People would expect it to be a crappy game, having less content and such than other games.
Ya know, when you whine about paying 15 bucks amonth, you prove you're still living off of an allowance from your parents. 15 bucks is nothing, we should be happy it's stayed at 15 for so long. By all rights, it should be up to around 20 by now if not higher.
looks like i know more than you already, sence you thank for something you havent even been given!
If you are going to provide an inferior product at a price equal to the market leader then economics says that you should not expect to make any money since noone will want to use your product.
The trick is to provide a product of equal or better quality or provide a product tha is sufficiently different that you can't really compare it to the market leader. Otherwise you have to compete on price or you will not be able to compete at all.
Didn't see anyone mention it but runescape was 5 bucks a month last I checked.
You can complain about the graphics but the content is tight, they have lots to do and random event mini-games to entertain you while you are doing other things because they happen randomly. Also accessible anywhere you have the net being a browser game unlike the larger mmos coded in C so you can access it on a different computer than your home computer.
It should be more than 15 by now. Fast food prices have risen and minimum wage went up in the last few years so eh, be happy it hasn't.