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2016 esimtes .. now f2p MMO are more than 3x p2p MMO in the US
nariusseldon
Member EpicPosts: 27,775
https://www.superdataresearch.com/market-data/north-america-digital-games-market-report/
US numbers:
f2p MMO $1794M +4%
p2p MMO $547M -13%
wow .. a decline of -13%. In fact, p2p MMO is the ONLY category in decline. Everything else is going up.
And $547M ... if we take the monthly sub of $15, it is $180 a year. 547M/180 = 3.03M. So only 3M or so will pay for a sub in the US. How many is going to bet 90% of that 3M subs to WOW, and there is no more p2p MMO market, except for WOW?
US numbers:
f2p MMO $1794M +4%
p2p MMO $547M -13%
wow .. a decline of -13%. In fact, p2p MMO is the ONLY category in decline. Everything else is going up.
And $547M ... if we take the monthly sub of $15, it is $180 a year. 547M/180 = 3.03M. So only 3M or so will pay for a sub in the US. How many is going to bet 90% of that 3M subs to WOW, and there is no more p2p MMO market, except for WOW?
Comments
When a pay to play game has a cash shop it's the most abhorrent thing there is, not only do you have to buy the base game for $40-60, not only do you have to buy expansions for $20-50 but you are forced to pay a monthly fee for the privilege of accessing it. You are paying to buy what amounts to a demo. As I mentioned before, when these pay to play games have cash shops it's incredibly disgraceful because the cash shops directly influence design and you are paying for no reason.
I have no idea why mmorpg players are so accepting of this nonsense, there is no other type of game where you would be asked to pay $40-60 for a game that ceases to work after 30 days unless you continue to pay. Can you imagine the rage if star wars battlefront asked for $60, then a $60 season pass and a$14 per month to access it on pc?
Also before someone says the sub pays for wages, not when they have cash shops. The cash shops make more than the subscription does. The only people who like subscriptions are snobs who want to keep people they think of as lesser out of "their" game.
This is a time where $49.99 gets you paid alpha testing with unfinished and buggy content. $12.99 gets you 1 outfit for your character. Look at any market data on online gaming and you will see a continuing increase in F2P games and mobile games with micro-transactions. The big three markets (NA, Eur, Asia) are all consistent with this trend. The profit from microtransactions and F2P cash shops increases, while p2p subscriptions decreases.
Let's face it, this is the future of online gaming, and we are partly to blame for it. Stop giving these companies so much money. As much as people complain about cash shops and early access games, then how come so many people keep paying for these things?
In fact, from the data my OTHER topic, at least for mobile game, 1% of paying (not all, just paying) players are responsible for 58% of the revenue.
Yeh .. and even that is in decline (-13%). So just being the best of p2p is not even enough to remain flat. No wonder Blizz stopped reporting sub numbers for WoW.
I guess saying D3 sold 30M copies, or the 40M hearthstone players are more impressive now than the declining WoW sub numbers.
can't think for self...
Must follow crowd...
Must enjoy what I am told...
Does Superdata count B2P as F2P or P2P? or do they even take them into account at all? Surprised that they charge this kind of dough without even talking about B2P games.
Hey Nari, why don't you pay the $2,999 for the full report so we can find out if B2P is included. IMHO without B2P I kinda find the report to be a little incomplete. Which in turn leads to believe the Data aint worth shit.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
~~ postlarval ~~
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
The MMO crowd is so weird now. Most people claim to want high quality and frequently updated games, but cry about subs (and even box price sometimes). These are usually the same people who pound on their keyboards with the fury of 1,000 suns when cash shops add something that can give an advantage.
People often wonder why there hasn't been that "it" MMO for years, look in the mirror friends.
Bring back subscription MMOs
I want all content included with regular updates... no cash shop for in-game items...
Account stuff like, name changes, server moves, etc .... maybe but for my 30$ they should figure out how not to even need that kind of stuff without charging...
There would be no $60 season pass with a sub... it would be $60 box price and $15 a month... you get all content...
Free does not = better. It does not fit into the equation at all as to whether or not i will enjoy a game. If you are griping about paying $15/month to access a game, then obviously you should be spending your money and time on other things, not f2p cash shops.
The real rip off is the cheap level of much of the developer content. Whales are literally spending money on looking good while picking up crap.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
So, when a western dev wants to release a game in the east, they almost always have to adopt a different payment mechanism for that market. This requires extra development, maintaining two codesets etc.
Given how large the eastern market is, combined with the (potentially) higher revenue, western devs just stopped making p2p games. It's not that f2p is the superior payment model, its that developers are forced to use it in the east and they may as well say millions on development by using the same payment method everywhere.
With that in mind, the statistics you've found mean nothing about the popularity of p2p vs f2p. The data is incomplete. All it is really showing is that there are less p2p games around now than last year.
Also, we know from previous discussions that superdata uses an incorrect definition of MMO and they basically just include anything they want.
2. The last Superdata report indicated that Lineage made more money than WoW in Q4; when the company financial reports came in they showed the opposite. So to repeat: this should not be taken as gospel.
3. The OP did a calc that came in at 3.03M. That is slightly less than half of WoW's average monthly sub number of c.3.1M in 2015.
No the monthly fee is basically profit.
Yes there is "a" cost. Search engines incur costs and when they first came out people had to buy them. However the costs were low enough in 2005 for GW1 to to launch without a sub and now - Destiny, the Division, TESO etc. (costs embedded within the box price).
PSN and XBox Live have costs as well - and they charge less and "give back" a lot more. And you can sub to SW BF and others and get guaranteed content drops. When it comes to "the cheap level of developer content" many would simply say "what content" the norm now is none at all (there are exceptions like FF)..
Ah the fabled one content patch that Blizzard said there will be between expansions..