SOE Becomes Daybreak / Russian shutdown
- Thread starter Laerazi_sl
- Start date
-
Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
Utnayan
F16 patrolling Rajaah until he plays DS3
- 16,525
- 12,566
And the scapegoat is that the market no longer supports subscription based models. Which is ridiculous. Sub based models are still supported when an MMORPG is properly managed, and unfortunately, we have one. And even then there have been a lot of mistakes regarding content being dispersed for the amount of money spent on "Access" to WoW.
F2P brings in an enormous amount of money. When a game goes F2P, it doesn't mean it is dying. It means the publisher is willing to make a boat load of cash, but without the predictability of the revenue stream from projected (easily projected) subscription revenue during the product cycle.
Unfortunately the way F2P is gone today is what we have, but we can only blame ourselves for it. We are the suckers that end of paying money for it.
Raes
Vyemm Raider
- 3,264
- 2,720
Yes, it's a calculated risk when the decision is made pre-launch. Post launch it's a desperate attempt to keep from going under.
Not really, its just a formalized gametime buying system. CCP sells gametime cards as ingame items for RL money and then the players can turn around and sell those on the AH for ISK, but no one is playing EVE without CCP getting the RL $ for a sub.
Anyway, I think the fact that no sub game has succeeded like WOW is more due to the issues those games have and less due to any real change in the market. The only sandbox game developed by any studio that was even semi competent was EVE. Darkfall was the best sandbox game released since WoW and that shoudl tell you all you need to know. The guys releasing games against WoW itself have all failed because they suck at programming compared to blizzard and even when they steal the entire spec sheet no one wants to play a reskinned version of WoW that runs slightly worse.
Convo
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
- 8,767
- 617
The FTP model really just comes from a lack of confidence in your product. Ultimately the games were not offering anything new so most games were tagged with a "more of the same" from players. I get the easier the access to play the better argument, but it just drives the risk of recouping money up. Not to mention that in my eyes they're also conceding a bit that their rep is bad and people won't risk a box price before reviews, which can be misleading or dead on. I'm not quite sure the indrustry even understands itself at this point. Too many hybrid games for sake of making PVP viable content because they can't pump out pve fast enough, which ends up just upsetting both player bases. they do shit for all the wrong reasons
Shonuff
Mr. Poopybutthole
- 5,538
- 791
I've said the same for awhile now. But you wonder, is that because they have no budget?
Soygen
The Dirty Dozen For the Price of One
- 28,433
- 44,761
Miele
Lord Nagafen Raider
- 916
- 48
WoW did 231 million dollars in 2013 from the cash shop alone. Swtor did 139 million dollars from the cartel market. Both these figures are revenues and not profits and both don't count the subs money.
For something that sells mostly cosmetic/useless stuff, you could argue that those numbers are very good. The hours required to create a mini pet are probably single digit from a single person or maybe two, the fact that this mini pet can sell 250.000 copies at 10$ each in a single week, speaks volumes. This generates the revenue that keeps the company running well and steady.
Subscription based games are doing poorly because few are willing to commit to more than one title and most choose WoW as their "main" game.
For something that sells mostly cosmetic/useless stuff, you could argue that those numbers are very good. The hours required to create a mini pet are probably single digit from a single person or maybe two, the fact that this mini pet can sell 250.000 copies at 10$ each in a single week, speaks volumes. This generates the revenue that keeps the company running well and steady.
Subscription based games are doing poorly because few are willing to commit to more than one title and most choose WoW as their "main" game.
- 26,228
- 39,931
But lets not forget what this did to SWTOR. I played that game at launch for about a year or so. Back then they had these mini bosses all over the fucking place, and they all pretty much dropped orange gear, the type that you could put the mods into them. Anything from armor, to guns and light sabers. It was cool to search for and hunt these fuckers down. Even to equip your alts.
Well here comes the F2P and cash shop and what do they do? They remove all this sweet orange gear from these elite mobs loot table and place all the shit in the cash shop.
This is what F2P and cash shop does for games....
Well here comes the F2P and cash shop and what do they do? They remove all this sweet orange gear from these elite mobs loot table and place all the shit in the cash shop.
This is what F2P and cash shop does for games....
radditsu
Silver Knight of the Realm
- 4,676
- 826
zzeris
King Turd of Shit Hill
- 20,288
- 85,929
F2P brings in a ton of money. Why not use both if you can? SWToR and WoW both bring in cash shop money. Why would a company cut off its right arm to please a small segment of the gaming pop? Many old school gamers are now willing to pay for some extra benefits as well. How many people bought Naxx and extra packs on Hearthstone? Spent just a bit to get where you wanted in LoL? Putting players behind an artificial time wall is no different than a paywall. One guy is getting benefits because he has more free time. He may not even be more skilled considering all the salt on these forums.
Malakriss
Golden Baronet of the Realm
- 12,657
- 11,973
He's likely talking about champion mobs and heroic areas which had better drop rates for the stuff. They've only added a new planet per expansion aside from daily areas, and they're still lacking the extras from the original release including those things.
- 19,525
- 72,214
I hate F2P/cash shops. The problem is, if you're making a game, there's literally no reason not to do it unless you just hate money.
tad10
Elisha Dushku
- 5,533
- 595
So according to this people shouldn't actually play games? They should just give money to Blizzard/Trion/Daybreak and be given an end-game raider in return and be done with it? Because time invested in playing a game is no different than spending money on what that invested time could have gotten you?
When you play Monopoly do you not bother rolling dice and moving around the board? Do you just auction off the deeds for money to the players? #AskingForAFriend
What's the weather like on your planet? #SameFriend
- 1,977
- 3,884
PoE is a great example. You mean to tell me you can't play the entire game, up to and including the 'end game' for $0? No shit! You can play the game enough to know if you want to drop 20 bucks on it for stash tabs that then lets you optimally play the end game.
The 50 hours you played prior to deciding you wanted to do the end game is hopefully worth twenty fucking dollars.
That's textbook free to play.
Here is a recent Gamasutra article on MMO pay models. It uses TESO as an example but the IPD concept can apply to all of them.
Gamasutra: Isaac Knowles's Blog - ESO goes F2P: Was Zenimax stupid like a fox?
Gamasutra: Isaac Knowles's Blog - ESO goes F2P: Was Zenimax stupid like a fox?