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[Column] General: The Return of Subs: FFXIV, WildStar, and ESO
BillMurphy
Former Managing EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 4,565
We've all seen the trend towards F2P in recent years, but with WildStar and Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, and ESO sticking to subscriptions, is the model truly on its deathbed?
Two years ago I felt BioWare were plugging their fingers in their ears when they decided to stubbornly pursue subscriptions with Star Wars: The Old Republic. It was clearly not the right decision for them and you’d think that if the trend itself weren’t enough, the game’s spectacular failure would have really sealed the deal for anyone looking to go subscription-based. With that in mind, it’s hard to say if Square Enix and Carbine are simply making a calculated decision here or that they are just equally as stubborn and doomed to a similar fate.
Read more of Michael Bitton's The Return of Subs: FFXIV, WildStar, and ESO.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
Comments
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Of the three I believe Wildstar has the best chance of pulling off rating a sub. Of course that's based on the developers talking up end game progression like difficult group content you can't just zerg with any old pickup group in white gear and raid progression worthy of it's name.
When GW1 launched, the death of the subscription payment model was triumphantly announced on game forums all over the internet. Yet it prevailed.
When SWTOR went F2P, the death of the subscription payment model was triumphantly announced (again) on game forums all over the internet. Yet it prevailed.
When GW2 launched, the death of the subscription payment model was triumphantly announced (this time with conviction) on game forums all over the internet. Yet it prevailed.
When EQ:Next revealed that it would be a F2P game, it was widely accepted that the death of the subscription payment model was finally and irrevocably at hand. There were celebrations and "I told you so's" on game forums all over the internet.
Then FFXIV:ARR, Wildstar and ESO happened...
"The subscription payment model is dead !"
"Long live the subscription payment model !"
I wonder if these games will be different enough to warrant the p2p payment model. Like others mentioned, the bar is set really high for p2p.
Thinking from a company's perspective, it seems more lucrative to launch as p2p with preorder deals if the hype for your game is high enough. You can always fall back to a hybrid model that so many other MMO's use. I wouldn't be surprised if they already considered how that would work.
But I am cynical about these things. I tend to see part of the MMO community as easy marks for marketing deparment because of the way they behave as fans instead of critical customers.
But who knows, maybe they will succeed where others had to let go of p2p.
You have a lot of old school gammers that just plain get headaches from this newer mmo crapola,
IM glad they did such a great job on FF 14 ARR heck with that old school vibe back now , YOU bet im gonna keep my sub for life on that game and im 38 yrs old.
so narrowminded, that is the problem with p2p people, which I was for years, until RIFT went free2play. Their model is flawless, and it doesnt have any problems what so ever with f2p
Sub may not mean "better" community. But it does mean "different" community. You have to admit F2P mmos and P2P mmos have a different feel from each other. The tone of the game changes. When Rift when F2P, it just didnt feel the same anymore and that was a subtle cash shop.
For an mmorpg to work for me, I want to know that everyone I'm playing with is paying the same price. Maybe its just me, but I like the feeling of "we're in it together" that a monthly sub creates.
Cash shop games don't have that. You get whales that show off the crap they bought and the freeloaders that lol at the "suckers" and thank them for the free game. Its not the same vibe.
Thats the best way I can describe it for me personally.
ii will wait till next year and see how these titles go before i revisit a sub game. so far no game has made me go 'YEZ!!!! ill pay 14.99 per month take my money!!!!-its got a better gaming community!!!'
<.<
Swotr's failure had nothing to do with it's sub cost, and everything to do with the game itself.
To me that just seems like personality traits. Instead of the whale bragging about everything they bought, and the Freebie putting him down for doing it. IN a P2P you have the min-maxer bragging about all that he's earned and showing it off, while the casual guy puts him down for having no life.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
game feels even better for me, shorter queues, more people for events, its great. And I havent spent a dime, but got a ton of free stuff from their cash shop. Havent seen any item I have to buy in the store, and I havent
Of the new "big" sub games coming soon, I see it going down like this:
FFXIV- Will survive but not thrive. Will carve out a little niche for itself and eventually settle in at around 100k subscribers.
WS- This I see really taking off. Its the first sub game since WoW to have pleasing graphics and a sense of humor. I think it actually could hold 1mil+ subscribers.
ESO- Ring ring. Here comes the fail mobile. Hate to say it but this is TOR 2.0. Start off with huge box sales and then watch the subs plummet.
To me that just seems like personality traits. Instead of the whale bragging about everything they bought, and the Freebie putting him down for doing it. IN a P2P you have the min-maxer bragging about all that he's earned and showing it off, while the casual guy puts him down for having no life.
Choosing how you spend your time in a game and choosing how you spend your money in a game are not good comparisons imo. Id also argue that the player driven economy is one of the VERY few unique aspects of an mmorpg. No other genre has it. Cash shops undermine a defining feature of the genre.
I say the opposite, there is no way that Wildstar ever comes close to 1 mil subs, its half the game TSW is, I cant get into details since I am bound by the NDA, but I havent been able to play for more than an hr straight without being bored out of my mind
I have said it before, and will continue to say it: I cannot afford F2P games. Do your math: It is cheaper to spend 15/month for a year, than end up paying over $200.00 in transactions (low end of those that play F2P games and actually want to be competitive) during a 1 year period. I have seen people EASILY spend $800+ dollars in a game they liked, and upwards of $200 in one sitting, buying virtual items with a chance at getting something good out of it...
If companies feel they can get more money going F2P, good for them... but I will not be a pawn in their game.
As much as I want ESO to be awesome I have to agree with you.
Wildstar is the only unknown to me of the three. ESO is to "mainstream" to get the kinds of subs they are looking for so is F2P waiting to happen and as you said I think FFXIV will crave it's place in the market even if small. The only question with FF is will SE be happy with those numbers or will they push F2P.
Wildstar's P2P future will live or die on it's execution and we just have not seen enough of the game to know how that's going to play out. I doubt even the closed beta testers can really tell how well the game is going to execute things like long term progression yet.
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
From the numbers of people playing and getting excited in my guild (we're by no means "small") I tend to agree.