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Lifetime subs bad idea?
raykor
Member UncommonPosts: 326
I’ve read other devs admitting that lifetime subs are a horrible idea for a sub-based game so why are these guys going down that road? If this game turns out to be a successful—albeit niche—venture, then the developers will need a reliable long-term income stream. I simply can’t understand why a game committed to an old-school sub-based business model, is offering lifetime subs.
Comments
I think it was based on feedback from people to include a lifetime sub option to the kickstarter. I wonder if that option is only going to be a kickstarter only thing, once the game goes live people might not be able to get a lifetime subscription. Even when you look at it right now there is already a limit to the amount of people who can get a lifetime sub even with kickstarter.
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its only for kickstarters funders, once KS ends, i assume it'll never be available afterwards.
its a nice way to thank the backers.
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It's usually too good a deal for those who purchase it, as they either save hundreds of dollars over a few years, or the game goes free to play and the lifetime subscribers get permanent premium accounts as well as monthly stipends of cash shop currency.
I'm still racking it in with all the games I bought lifesubs for. xD
BEcause they are getting large money upfront for that
It's not lifetime subs.
it's three years sub free then 1 dollar/year.
So in fact they are promising to run the year for a minimum of 3 years.
1$/year is not like a free forever for you?
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Ask the players who did a lifetime sub on TSW then to learn it went F2P after that.
Thats why they only promise free subs for 3 years, they don't want to have the same issues like TSW... that's what I think atleast...
Company's now adays use Life-time subs like Lawyers.
MAGA
Like he mentioned. It is a niche game. And esp at start it is lot flavor of the month kind of thing. By giving a life time sub they get at least some money in front if it is in the end not the flavor of the month succes. At the moment I see around 6000 backers that is to less for even a niche game if those are the only players who will be active. Ofcourse there will be more, but with life time subs they will get a bit more money to keep up the server etc.
Still I myself like the life time sub option and most of the time if it is a option and I like the game I take the option. First reason is now I know what kind of income I have etc and second reason is that most the time the life time option comes with some extra gifts.
Well the one usd /year is also very expensive (450 USD if I remember).
How many MMO's HAVEN't failed within 3 years and wen't down?
i gotta admit I am a bit tempted though for 1 USd sub /year.
I did the $250 digital copy life-time sub option. If you have the coin, I think it's one of the best options available. If the game is $50 and $15 a month after the first month, you'll spend $50 + (11x$15) = $215 in the first year on the game. So, for $35 more, I get a lifetime sub combined with founder points and access to Alpha testing?
With most PvP oriented games, I tend to play them about a year, then I stop because they keep introducing gear-grinds from PvE to continue to compete in PvP. This game says it wont do that, so I suspect I could play this game longer than a year. Hence the life-time sub is really cheap from that perspective.
The only way the life-time sub option isn't going to be worth it is if the game sucks donkey balls when released. However, should it ever get improved, you can easily jump back in later.
250 USd gives no lifetime sub.
It gives you 6 months free sub, 6% off monthly sub.
USD 450 gives you 1 USD /year sub.
Oh didnt see theres two 250$versions.
You might want to double check at the kickstarter page. $250 WARRIOR FOREVER gives you the lifetime sub.
Lifetime sub can mean either one of two things - extreme shortsightedness on the part of the devs or an additional/different revenue model planned for futher down the road. In the case of CU, I would bank on the latter because the former is highly unlikely.
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I don't think the Lifetime sub is a bad thing in the case of this Kickstarter.
For me, the possibility of a lifetime sub on a higher Tier plus some other goodies shot my pledge up $500.00. I suspect this will be the case for others as well.
I suspect if CU is funded that a lifetime sub may not be offered when the game goes live, and that the percentage of players that have the lifetime sub will be relatively small.
If I get three years out of CU I'll be happy. I suspect if CU is a success we'll see the game either expanded or a bigger, more feature robust sequel planned.
Searching on the word "forever" on Kickstarter, as of the time of this post, there were:
594 Warrior Forever ($250)
135 Hero Forever ($350)
9 Physical Phat Loot Forever ($450)
99 Whole Shmear (Hero Forever $500)
So, currently there are going to be 837 people with the lifetime subs, or about 15% of the current kickstarter pledges.
The minimum to get a digital copy, and a free month is $25. The minimum for the lifetime is $250. They haven't released anything about monthly subs, but they did sound like they would have tiers, and such, so I am thinking $8 or $10 a month maybe? It sounded like they didn't want to do $15 if I remember correctly.
At $10/mo it would take 23.5 months, including the free month (and minus $25 donation min to get game) to equal the Forever pledge, so basically if you played for 2 years only, you would come out about the same, if you play longer it is all money savings after that. The presumed lower monthly fee brings the value of the lifetime down a little.
At $8/mo it would take until the 30th month to start seeing the positive side of the forever subscription.
I didn't factor in all the aditional bonuses, character slots, founder apps, etc...So if that stuff actually ends up meaning a lot, it would significantly make you get into the 'positive' much faster. You also get quicker access into the game at the higher tiers.
The games that have gone free to play, from what I have seen, they still offer the lifetime member points/cash in the cash shop, so while I am not in that situation for any game, I imagine they are still making out on most of these games....As f2p means they try to make you want to buy stuff in the cash shop, or need to, depending on the model.
So I would say it all comes down to how much faith you have in the project, if you think it will fail completely, then it is a bad idea, if you think it will launch and become f2p in 6 months (which I would have to say I doubt, they seem to want to build like Eve, even if it starts out slow) it would depend on the consideration you get in the cash shop....If they do build it like Eve, then you are going to make out in the end and be very happy you did it.
If I wasn't hesitant about the no pve (and I know why they are doing it, and I agree it makes the project more doable on their budget), I would consider it.