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Massively article showing they are not sure about the subscription model
alexhpy98721
Member UncommonPosts: 264
There is also this: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/450862/interviews/interview-bethesdas-pete-hines-on-the-legacy-of-wolfenstein-and-the-eso-subscription-model/
This shows they are not sure on the subscription model.
My take on it is that they are waiting for the release to decide if they want to go F2P.
What do you guys think?
Comments
Are we reading the same thing? What part of the answer is making you think that they're not sure about the subscription model? He basically laughed-off the "anxiety" part of the question they asked.
Typical Massively to spin it that way... unless they just plain didn't understand the answer...which is also entirely possible for them.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
It is what they said... yea i HOPE they will keep the sub model but i can`t help thinking it will go F2P because most people won`t play a sub based game....
That said i`ll buy it anyway and see how it does even if it goes F2P i`ll keep the SUB as i did with SWTOR.
Can I haz free games?
I am happy with my sub-based games. I hope they stand strong on keeping them.
Does that "most people" include the 10 million subscribers to WoW? If anything, "most people" are subscribers and F2P is basically just hot air made up by the gaming media.
Having read his full comments and not the usual Massively hack job on anything ESO related, I don't feel anything has changed. Is there going to be some anxiety? Sure, what responsible executive wouldn't be a little anxious. As good a job you think you've done, you never truly know how it will turn out until the paying consumer gets a hold of it too. But, I also thought there was a lot of confidence in his remarks.
I think it's very simple. If the market believes the game is worth $15/mo, the sub model will succeed. Especially if they fix any problems that pop up and continue to crank out new material at the rate he is suggesting. If not, well then the market won't pay for it and they'll have a decision to make.
MMO`s have a lot more players than that. There are F2P games that dwarf WOW... not saying they make more money, but they sure have more players.
What i said is pretty much what some EA suit said about why SWTOR went F2P - because most people did not want to pay 15$/month for a game.
WOW had a freak success but it has not been replicated since.....
World of Tanks has 75m players... they had 1.1 million concurrent players in january.... and is a F2P game. There are more like it... overall the F2P side of the industry is bigger than the sub-only side of the industry.
I still like sub games and wish ESO would stick with a sub... but its unlikely.
I think you need to re-read Justin's spin article from Massively vs what Pete Hines from Bethesda actually said.
For reiteration: spin vs reality.
"We felt like the subscription model fit best what we wanted to do, not because we want you to pay per month to play the game, but because we want to provide real and meaningful content support on a regular basis."
Massively is just creating another article to get more hits on their site. Your post is perpetuating that drama of the ongoing subscription vs F2P nonsense.
Ok, so if anyone wasn't entirely clear of the bent of your thread, now we know what is going on. It's "Another One of Those" discussions to add to the pile. Gotcha, bud
I wasn`t trying to hide what i`m thinking... its pretty clear written there... unsure why you think you uncovered some dark secret.
I know most people come and say every MMO will beat WOW and all that... truth is NONE did, all went F2P or shut down. So the odds are... you know... ESO will do the same... unrelated to how good the game is.
I`m buying ESO anyway and even after SWTOR went F2P i went with a sub for it but i`m sure that ESO will eventually go F2P because most MMO`s make more money that way. As long as they are not pay2win(SWTOR isn`t) i`m ok with that as it usually means more players...
Conventional wisdom is the safe way of thinking. But then when a precedence is broken, it basically throws all conventional thinking out the window. For a time, everybody thought nobody could even touch Everquest's numbers until a little game called WoW came along and shattered all conventional wisdom. Pretty much all of those who predicted nothing could touch Everquest felt like idiots and probably pretended they knew all along.
I'm not saying that ESO is going to overtake WoW, but I think they have the potential to make a big splash in the MMO world if they can produce a quality game and continually expand it . You brought up SWTOR. Yes, SWTOR had a huge budget and was considered a tent pole type MMO. But they made some pretty big blunders like not having much endgame to speak of. That's pretty much the dumbest thing you can do with an MMO since people will eventually reach the top (quickly, in the case of SWTOR) and have nothing else to do. That's when the subscriptions bleed. It has nothing to do with the payment model and everything to do with poor execution.
Well I read the article, not Massively's garbage retelling of it.
Seems like he was being honest. He's anxious about many things with the game. Seems sensible to me.
those f2p games that dwarf wow, have a whole different investment plan... they where mostly developed by a small team in just a few months (LoL, DoTa) and they consist out of just a few minor detail maps...
There is no MMO comming close to WoW... in numbers. MMO´s cost over 100 million to develop these days... thats huge, and keep costing lots of money after release, as most of the development team will keep developing new content
And WoW proofs that if a game delivers the quallity, people will pay to play.. GW2 prooved that despite being quite succesfull at initial sale, the game kept loosing money despite being free to play. If the SUB model doesnt work anymore this might mean the end of AAA MMO´s
ESO might be the game convincing the console crowd of the Sub model...
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
My two cents.
First off, we have to stop comparing games to WoW, they have done very well & that's a pretty high bar for any new title to hope for.
Where I believe the difference will be for ESO is that, unlike WoW, the elder scrolls is an RPG franchise. They have spent years building an audience of millions who love their games & look forward to every new title. WoW was an RTS that went the route of MMORPG & was extremely successful. What WoW has contributed to the gaming world was to expose a lot of people to MMOs who normally might not have played an MMO or RPG. They also have had a solid 9+ years of success with a subscription model. I think this will only work in ESOs favor.
I believe that lots of people, myself included, have waited years for a game with the Elder Scrolls pedigree to make an MMO. I wrote to Bethesda in '97 about that very thing. What I also believe is that Bethesda contributed a lot of hard core RPG fans to the WoW universe which helped in their success. Until ESO there hasn't been another MMORPG to hit the market with this franchises credibility.
WoW is it's own animal, love it or hate it, it's not going anywhere. I know that there is a viable, paying customer base for ESO as well. Even if they never reach 12,000,000 subs; 5,000,000 x $15 a month is nothing to sneeze at either. At the very least they'll be getting $15 a month from me.
There are plenty of trolls and sociopaths in subscription only games... ever played Eve Online?
I'm really disappointed with how Massively has allowed this shift to inaccurate and distorted "reporting". I'm seeing too much of this sort of stuff lately. I used to go there daily. Think it's time to just delete them from my bookmarks. What happened to ethics?
Competition happened.
Everyone and their dog has a "YouTube channel" these days, and the average gamer would rather watch a quick video than READ some long-ass boring text (with big words) on a webpage. A webpage that nowadays often contains a link to a YouTube video anyways.
So the "traditional" game sites are fighting for their lives. They need to boost their clicks, referrals and page views. If they don't, they won't get included in the big game "reveals", interviews and beta key giveaways. Controversy is always a good way of attracting eyeballs...
And burning bridges with developers in the process it seems.
Played a bit but didn't like it. It was like an Excel spread sheet with chat. I agree that there are freaks in every MMO but at least sub keeps some of them away. In recent MMOs I had to turn general chat off just because it was full of complete shite and trolling.
Well that is the ultimate breeding place for sociopathic evil beings that dream of world domination or just of a career as a sadistic killer
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)