PS3 MMO

[Reasonable]

Mummelmann said:

Reasonable said:

Mummelmann said:

Devilstation said:
It would be great to have something as adictive as DiabloII on PS3. Maybe DiabloIII. However, there is no way i am paying a monthly fee.

Exactly, you and millions of others. I feel much the same way, especially if one is going to play several MMO's over time, it'll cost you a whole lot. This also makes MMO development very hard; either you make it free or you make sure that your title is of such quality that you'll remain loyal to that one game. Over 90% of MMO players play only one game, but not out of choice, rather becuase of fees!

I'll be shelling out for Age of Conan when it arrives, and stick to that. And besides; Sony has maintained that online gaming on the PS3 should and will remain free. In other words; a free console MMO must have extraordinary sales in order to make profit, being able to make profits solely on software sales!

Dude! What are you talking about? NCSoft already has no fees model on PC with Guild Wars! I thought that fact was fairly well known as I've seen quite a few articles looking at the difference with their approach vs the traditional monthly fee. I've never checked the sales but my kid plays it and the service looks great so they must know how to make it work

 

The Guild Wars game has sold fairly well, or even very well here in Scandinavia so the revenue from software sales is high. They also release expansions all the time, or chapters if you will, and these cost as much as the original game. So basically, you'll end up loosing a heap of content if you refuse to purchase anything besides the core game, so it's not really hugely different from monthly fees in that sense. And these expansions and the game itself has high dev costs, and all the other obvious disadvantages I mentioned for consoles still apply. Fact is; making MMO's is very expensive (Age of Conan has a budget of over 200 million NOK), so if you have no fees monthly, you need to sell software add on's or big amounts of core software to make money on it. So, whether you pay (here in Norway) 100NOK a month or purchase a 250-300NOK expansion every 3-4 months, it still ends up costing the player quite a bit, making the two bussiness models more similar than one would initially assume.

Of course; with the optional expansions you actually have a choice whether to spend more, but when 95% of the players have the packs and you don't, there's basically nothing there for you in the end, which is why (as the developers know) you'll end up buying the expansions anyway and net them steady revenue even after the core game's purchase.

 

Actually, that choice element is the crucial difference.

I don't think you lose out if you don't upgrade because you don't lose any of the features in the original (or core) package.  My son hasn't bought all the expansions and I note it hasn't hindered his play in any way.

And if you do decide to buy the next release, you know for a fact you're getting essentially more content for the same game - is this really difference from buying Halo, Halo 2 and Halo 3?  Halo 3 is only Halo with extra polish and levels at the end of the day.

The problem with the fee in MMO is that updates can be few and far between and it can seem like you're paying just to keep playing the same core content.  With the NCSoft model you only actually ever pay for new content when its ready - and you even have the choice of not paying.  On a console I think this is like buying Warhawk but not extra levels - doesn't hinder you playing the levels you have.

I guess until it comes out its a moot point but this is the best model for an MMO to work on a console IMO.