Post by Morreion on Feb 16, 2015 16:54:18 GMT -5
The Soapbox: Has F2P worked for SOE? (Massively OP)
Lest anyone forget, the free-to-play business model took hold of the western market due to the desperation of Turbine. With apologies to Funcom and its early Anarchy Online efforts, Dungeons and Dragons Online was the first western MMO to fully give itself away, and it did so because that was the only way that Turbine could convince more than five people to play it. The thought, presumably a correct one given DDO’s continued existence, was that if you could somehow hoodwink a few hundred thousand people into playing your game — and more importantly lay eyeballs on your storefront — a few thousand of them might actually spend money.
Turbine did the same for LotRO, and the rest of the industry got in line as the F2P dominos fell one after the other. There were and still are some notable holdouts, but by and large the industry now throws itself at anyone who happens by in a puppy eyes attempt to eke a bit of profit out of huge user numbers...
I feared for SOE and its peerless stable of titles the moment I heard that acquisition announcement last week. The ridiculous name change coupled with that picture of the SOE logo being removed from the HQ in San Diego made me an incredibly sad panda.
Successful companies don’t get bought out by the Columbus Novas of the world. SOE was clearly overspending and quite likely losing large amounts of money due to both players who don’t pay for what they consume and due to the development of new titles including H1Z1, Landmark/EQN, and even PlanetSide 2, for which SOE built its own engine and about which CEO John Smedley recently remarked that it has only just become profitable despite launching in 2012.
We’ll never know all the details, of course, but it’s crazy to imagine that giving expensive products away for nothing and relying on the continued generosity of big-spender minorities didn’t play some part in the chaos.
I think Jef is right on this one. All may not be well in the saturated western F2P MMO field. Look at how SOE recently got involved in serious controversy when they tried pay to win with H1Z1.
Lest anyone forget, the free-to-play business model took hold of the western market due to the desperation of Turbine. With apologies to Funcom and its early Anarchy Online efforts, Dungeons and Dragons Online was the first western MMO to fully give itself away, and it did so because that was the only way that Turbine could convince more than five people to play it. The thought, presumably a correct one given DDO’s continued existence, was that if you could somehow hoodwink a few hundred thousand people into playing your game — and more importantly lay eyeballs on your storefront — a few thousand of them might actually spend money.
Turbine did the same for LotRO, and the rest of the industry got in line as the F2P dominos fell one after the other. There were and still are some notable holdouts, but by and large the industry now throws itself at anyone who happens by in a puppy eyes attempt to eke a bit of profit out of huge user numbers...
I feared for SOE and its peerless stable of titles the moment I heard that acquisition announcement last week. The ridiculous name change coupled with that picture of the SOE logo being removed from the HQ in San Diego made me an incredibly sad panda.
Successful companies don’t get bought out by the Columbus Novas of the world. SOE was clearly overspending and quite likely losing large amounts of money due to both players who don’t pay for what they consume and due to the development of new titles including H1Z1, Landmark/EQN, and even PlanetSide 2, for which SOE built its own engine and about which CEO John Smedley recently remarked that it has only just become profitable despite launching in 2012.
We’ll never know all the details, of course, but it’s crazy to imagine that giving expensive products away for nothing and relying on the continued generosity of big-spender minorities didn’t play some part in the chaos.
I think Jef is right on this one. All may not be well in the saturated western F2P MMO field. Look at how SOE recently got involved in serious controversy when they tried pay to win with H1Z1.
