Comments on: You Think MMOs Are Expensive Now? Just Wait

By: LAS

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:43:25 +0000

Certainly – if you’re only playing a little a week the economics are worse – of course, since there is a huge margin before they actually get inline with even other games, not to mention other forms of entertainment, you don’t have to play that much to get the full benefit.

Also – I thought it was an interesting comment the other day by one of the WoW community managers that despite them ‘ruining the game’ multiple times with changes, the latest being the pet store, subscribers continue to grow. I personally think that they’ve tapped only a small fraction of potential players and there are plenty of people not even aware of that type of game.

By: Tesh

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:17:00 +0000

“World of Warcraft is extremely cheap”

It depends considerably on how much time you spend in the game per month, as any subscription game does. I can spend the $65 it would cost me to start up WoW and pick up Torchlight and a couple of used DS tactics games that will last me a whole lot longer than a month, and I can play them whenever I blasted well please. Even $15/month can go to other used games that all play for longer than a month (and don’t summarily amputate my access if I take a break).

The assumption that players will play WoW for 80 hours a month is at the root of the “cheap” argument, and it just doesn’t wash with every player. Most notably, in a saturated market, everyone for whom the model *is* cheap is already playing. It’s those that believe otherwise that you need to capture, not just find new ways to fleece those who have bought into the “it’s cheap” mindset.

It’s those people, customers with cash currently *not* buying (likely because they are time-constrained and a sub doesn’t make sense), that is likely the biggest population that will make the business of MMOs in the coming years.

By: Sean

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:50:58 +0000

To the point you make in the last paragraph, I think the Forza 3 racing game is taking advantage of that idea. You can race all the races to get the cars, or just go in and buy them. There are probably others, but it’s a reasonable guess that multiple other games will follow suit. I think part of the balancing act they’re going to have to deal with is when/if people feel that they aren’t getting the game they think they’re paying for when they plunk down the initial hard earned cash.

By: LAS

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:19:43 +0000

A worms ripoff with less than 1mm subscribers isn't quite the same thing as the largest MMO in the world making a pricing change. Oh, also, GunBound is free to play ... making your comment entirely irrelevant.

By: WonderJoust

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:48:31 +0000

GunBound has been doing this for years. Journalistic fail.