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Preferred Pricing Model
khanstruct
Member UncommonPosts: 756
I know, this talking point is beaten to death here, but I'm looking for a slightly more specific response.
My team is currently building a cyberpunk MMO called X-Shift. (Yes, we have a team of experienced, industry vets, and yes, we're funded. So let's get past all that hullabaloo.)
I was discussing numbers with my business guy today. His original plan was to go with a subscription AND a cash shop for cosmetic items. I quickly put an end to that. Cuz... no.
Now, I do want to have micro-transactions because of a very important design decision. It's not milking the players. It's not giving an unfair advantage to paying players. It's simply a choice we made based on the design of the game. (I would explain this further, but it's a rather involved aspect of the game, and not really relevant .)
However, I do understand the appeal of each different model.
Subscriptions help ensure a serious playerbase. It promotes a strong community and keeps out fly-by-night trouble makers. It also ensures that players pay X amount and get a complete game with no frills and ala-carte gameplay.
F2P with a cash shop brings in a huge market. It allows everyone to play the game and decide for themselves whether or not they want to pay for something.
Now, initially, we will likely also be looking at doing Buy 2 Play with a cash shop. The reason for the initial purchase is because we will need a significant amount of cash right away to payback the folks who are funding us for the years that we make ZERO money (if you were wondering why companies do that).
So! My question. Of all of these various options, which do you prefer and why? Do you have other, outside-the-box suggestions? Obviously, I'm leaning towards B2P with Cash Shop. Bear in mind that A: We are not looking to take advantage of our players, but B: We do need to generate ongoing profit. These investors won't be paying us forever.
Thanks for the input! And check out our FB Page.
My team is currently building a cyberpunk MMO called X-Shift. (Yes, we have a team of experienced, industry vets, and yes, we're funded. So let's get past all that hullabaloo.)
I was discussing numbers with my business guy today. His original plan was to go with a subscription AND a cash shop for cosmetic items. I quickly put an end to that. Cuz... no.
Now, I do want to have micro-transactions because of a very important design decision. It's not milking the players. It's not giving an unfair advantage to paying players. It's simply a choice we made based on the design of the game. (I would explain this further, but it's a rather involved aspect of the game, and not really relevant .)
However, I do understand the appeal of each different model.
Subscriptions help ensure a serious playerbase. It promotes a strong community and keeps out fly-by-night trouble makers. It also ensures that players pay X amount and get a complete game with no frills and ala-carte gameplay.
F2P with a cash shop brings in a huge market. It allows everyone to play the game and decide for themselves whether or not they want to pay for something.
Now, initially, we will likely also be looking at doing Buy 2 Play with a cash shop. The reason for the initial purchase is because we will need a significant amount of cash right away to payback the folks who are funding us for the years that we make ZERO money (if you were wondering why companies do that).
So! My question. Of all of these various options, which do you prefer and why? Do you have other, outside-the-box suggestions? Obviously, I'm leaning towards B2P with Cash Shop. Bear in mind that A: We are not looking to take advantage of our players, but B: We do need to generate ongoing profit. These investors won't be paying us forever.
Thanks for the input! And check out our FB Page.
Comments
Be careful asking here. Most are just looking for free games so they will vote F2P and give very convincing arguments.
But here is the real answer. Their are millions of people looking for a good deep mmo.
IT'S BEEN YEARS SINCE WE HAD ONE !
You have two clearly defined choices:
a) Make a run of the mill MMO and add it to the list of over 200 games on the list here. Complete with Cash Shops, and simple play. This style is typical and your game will last for about a month before it dries up and on life support.
b) Invest a lot and have an mmo that will last for years. Where people will log in with there community, with content that takes at least 6 months to get to end game. NO Cash shops at all. This will cost you millions.............Yes, it will be expensive, but the only other option will be on the list of the other 200 games, with a large group of free players.
Your choice
I like when a games Sub has a loyalty program that rewards the player for an unbroken sub for various time lengths.
This is a perfect example on how to get on the average list of over 200 games that dries up in 30 days.
That said I don't play a subscription game now.
The one game I have my eyes on is b2p and will be sort of community run, but for that I would pay a subscription too.
Good luck running the numbers - there is no best answer as basically it all depends on your game.
If it is good people will play and pay for it.
Just to put this out there, I have no intention of making "another MMO". I am not making an MMO because I played someone else's and thought "I wanna do this, but kinda different!"
I dreamt up X-Shift 15 years ago, coming out of playing Ultima Online while designing pen and paper RPGs. Sure, since then, concepts have been modified and inspired by other MMOs I've played, but X-Shift is its own beast entirely.
Open world (no quests... although you may pick up the occasional "job").
Classless skill-based (collectible, uncommon and rare skills).
NOT gear-centric (your cool leather jacket does little more than look cool... and keep you warm).
Customizable housing, player shops and trade halls.
System and player-run legal system.
A very dynamic fame and reputation system.
Tons, tons more.
And yes, it seems like I'm biting off more than I can chew. But! I'm working with some world-class pros. Their experience includes Final Fantasy, Fallout, Parasite Eve, Area 51, Star Trek, Game of Thrones (the show), DCUO, SWG, and soooo many more.
From what you said OP , your game full of custom things and it will be great with F2P custom cash shop and sub option instead of B2P + cash shop .
Of course there are also option with sell original game like GTA V then develop multiplayer option latter .
Buy-to-play won't really work for you in my opinion. B2P works off of generating hype. I know nothing about your game, but I'd be surprised if you can generate enough hype to justify the model. With B2P you are generally asking for a large upfront investment based on hype.
Free-to-play with a cash shop will likely generate you the most revenue, provided you can maintain a steady flow of new players. It can get easily out of hand from a developer's perspective. Even with the best of intentions, you will find yourself in a position where you are constantly deciding whether to create paid content or free content. It's a pretty vicious cycle that may trick you into shoving way too many things behind a paywall if you are not careful.
What I am doing with my Minecraft project is a free-to-play model with a tiered subscription. The way I look at it, we want to build our game around a friendly community. If people want to chip in money towards our development on our regular basis, they can do so through a subscription. Depending on how much money they want to donate, they can choose from 3-4 subscription tiers. This lets the younger audience chip in (5$ / month), but also prevents us from exploiting people who want to pay the most (there is a 40$ limit).
I did consider a "Humble Bundle" approach, allowing the players to choose what they wanted to pay, as long as they paid at least 1USD a month. BUT, as generous as some players can be, I can see that being awesome for a couple months, and then quickly drying up.
Good luck with your game.
Give me a game with meaning full open world PvP with Guild politic and castle warfare and ill be all over it with my subs
Cash shop is my least favorite payment option due to the fact the Devs get greedy and either put items in there that u must buy on a regular basis to be able to compete, or items so border line that they can claim there not Pay to Win but it still give unfair advantages or removal of some of the game play experience from other players that havant payed for that item or what not.
Atleast with sub everyone is on even footings i wouldnt even midn if the dev got a bit greedy and put cosmetic items in a cash shop aswell as a sub aslong as they offer 0 benefits gameplay wise appart from cool look (That can be turned off by other players because sometimes being able to see the armor the enemy wearing is important knowledge to have)
The Player base for a P2P game (PC MMORPG's) tends to be younger. The P2P base (as they are all spenders) tends to feel that they should have more say in the game (as they have spent money). They are typically more hardcore, and play many more hours. The disadvantage is that if the game doesnt change to meet their needs, they leave.
The Player base for a F2P game (PC MMORPG's) tends to be older. The F2P base (as they are not spenders) tends to take/leave the game as it is (they leave if the dont like it). They are typically more casual, and play less hours. The advantage is that a small % the F2P players turn into hardcore (paying) players, who stick for the long run.
F2P with a cash shop is ok, but you are missing half of your revenue potential if you dont offer a sub. Why would you NOT offer the most common option?
Starting with a P2P approach (Box, Sub, Founders Packs, etc) is the best option, unless you are planning on doing a soft launch. The key to these initial sales is the build up, and marketing. This gives you quick sales from the start, which is hugely important to offset marketing, and to help grow your game. It also gives you time to work on things like your 3/7 day retention, and the depth of your content. You are going to need to make many unforseen adjustments to your game before you can relaunch it as F2P. The depth of content, and amount of polish for F2P are much higher requirements... because people just leave, and you never get ANY money from them. You can afford to find these pain points with a P2P model, while riding off the initial launch bump.
I dont consider any of my suggestions exploitative, or bad... I consider them the best way to get the money that will be needed to make your game grow and prosper. I am looking at this from an industry perspective, as I have too many years under my belt to be just a player.
In a competitive game the PvPer is looking for a a fair battlefield to play on(if there is even a hint of them not being able to play on a fair field /uninstall), in an open world PvPer game the PvPer is looking to be rewarded with a kill after going through the effort of setting up their victim(if their victim survives after doing everything right because of a cash shop item /uninstall).
Likewise having unlimited free scouts/spy-alts/neutral-healers/whatever else that scales with game accounts in a normal MMO will ruin your PvPer most likely.
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One thing that's getting money out of pocket for EvE even when I don't play it is it's offline benefits for being subbed. EvE is just one of those games that I know I'll be coming back to even when I'm not playing now.
So something you might want to consider.
The ability to buy ingame time while not innovative anymore is pretty nice as well.
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Getting me to install a new MMO is a pretty hard sale these days. I have a half dozen other MMOs I could back to on an established character, especially when some new game doesn't really offer anything new.
Practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent.
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Perfect example is all these founder packs games,they can all get the heck off my boat,they are corrupt/lame SCAMS and would love to see everyone of them go bankrupt.Gaming should NEVER be about who spends more,it should be 100% fair across the board with nothing hidden or misleading.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Not gear centric? Wardrobe with quested skills?
Is that very dynamic fame and reputation system PvE or PvP or both?
I'd probably go F2P at least for the initial launch since you won't have millions of dollars for marketing. My favorite model is B2P but your franchise has to have familiarity to pull that iff.
I think EVE had a great idea with the PLEX system. Charge a sub for your game, but add an in-game marketplace that allows players to purchase PLEX for in-game currency. You might need an economist on hand though, to make sure that your game's economy stays regulated and doesn't over-inflate or totally devalue itself. EVE has made it successful, but their economy probably has as much depth as the NYSE. I have heard of whole college dissertations being written on the EVE economy, so yeah... this wouldn't be an easy one to manage.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
It works like Freemium (optional subscription), but with a few significant differences.
Client is free, account is free, no box price.
All activity in game is behind a paywall, with payment made in virtual currency.
Free accounts are allocated a base level of virtual currency daily. This allows casuals free access to the game with a limited amount of activity and short gameplay duration, which is preferred by casuals anyway. Free access accounts can play all content, can join guilds, can hit max-level (it will take a while), and are not otherwise restricted.
Virtual currency rolls over like cell phone minutes, so daily allocations (if you login and claim it) accumulate.
Beyond that gameplay is pay as you go. Hardcores play longer sessions, and pay for the privilege of doing so.
Optional subscription is offered for a monthly fee which significantly increases the daily allocation of virtual currency. Fee is priced competitively, so almost everyone who plays is a subscriber.
Item shop items (pay for speed, pay for gear, pay for services, etc) are on the same currency as 'pay 2 grind', so even free players have access to premium items (although it will take a while to accumulate currency).
Item shop items are offered in limited availability, and at random. You don't just walk into item shop and buy what you want. You buy what you can, when you can get it. This abstraction changes item shop into a game mechanic.
End result (in my opinion): Subscription with free trial, most players pay, free trial is adequate for casuals and die-hard non-payers*, pay 2 win advantage is significantly limited by item shop availability.
NOTE: This technique works best with lobby based access to content. Application to open-world would need to be reworked, of course. But the same concepts could be applied.
* edit: one group that this monetization system will turn away is did-hard non-payers who expect long sessions. I consider this a win because they won't pay ever anyway and eat server resources disproportionate to their contribution to the game.
Payment model isn't about what people prefer but what makes the most money.
You want to know what people prefer? Look at the market.