The writing has been on the wall for quite some time, but it looks like some developers are finally going after the bait that WoW has been dangling in front of them: subscription based gaming.
At a recent event, Take-Two (Bioshock, GTA IV) dude-in-chief Zelnick was heard to be talking up Blizzard’s business model, and how appealing it is for other developers. He even went as far as to talk about subscription based triple AAA titles with on-going transactions between the customer and the gaming studio. Basically, paying a monthly fee to play every game you own.
Well, that would just about ruin gaming. Ready to pay every month to play your copy of GTA IV or Bioshock? Because that’s probably where this discussion ends.
Personally, I can’t see how any gamer can be suckered into paying a subscription fee for a game for any longer than 4-6 months, but then again, I’ve never been into an MMO before so that’s a place I just don’t understand. Even still, as much as I hate it, I know that there will be lots of gamers out there who would still do it, especially if that’s the model that everybody switched to.
I mean, really? Will I have to pay $20 if I want the multiplayer, another $10 for the level editor, and another $30 for the campaign? I’m not sure what this points to down in the future, but I sure as hell don’t like it. I don’t know how Valve is the only company that seems to get the consumer, and has come through boldly with Steam. Nobody else seems to know how to do it. If only Valve were like Apple and were able to distribute all games through their platform. Sadly, that’s not the case.
What do you guys think? Gloom and doom in our future?
Source- Kotaku
Well, as I’ve said before, I put off buying WoW for 2 years (maybe more?) out of principle. You buy a book ONCE. You buy a movie ONCE. You buy the same game game…every month? It just boggles my mind that people will do that.
Although, obviously somethings wrong because I’ve been playing the new WoW xpac all day that I bought for $40…and bought s 2 month subscription 2 days ago for $30. What can I say? Its fun.
Hypocrisy, thy name is Bit.
Yeah, I’m totally fine with it if maybe the original purchase cost hardly anything, but that won’t be the case. If you play it for a year, you’ve essentially purchases the game several times over.
That sucks. Come on! Get your fudge together and sell it as one big glob!
As bit said, games also should be selled once. If I have to pay for game modes, screeeeeww them!
I have played an MMO, and it took me a long time before I realized that a game is not worth it. People who pay $120 a year or more to play WoW dont look at it in terms of just the cash. They see the fun they have playing with others and the fact that they have a game they never get tired of and are usually mindbogglingly addicted to. Also they can argue that with so many players, all the millions on WoW, that they need the cash for bandwidth, maintenance, and patches.
Im done with MMOs, even KOTOR wont lure me in. I dont see a point in paying. They arnt worth it. Besides, can you imagine if you had to pay to play Oblivion? Better yet, imagine payign to play Fallout 3. For every month you own that game you are charged. And yea, once you reach lvl 20 (yea theres a lvl cap wtf) you are basically done. You are as good as you can be until the company says so. Just wont fly.
If gaming companies care more about money than their games and their fans, then F them. I will quit gaming…if that becomes the trend, I will stop. Plane and simple. Gaming is relatively cheap if you do things right. This new idea….its BS
If that becomes to happen i can’t affort to buy me several games a year. And so as I there will be more customers that buy only one game per year, and that would kill a lot of brands. They know that so I don’t think this will happen. And what will happen to the casual gamers? They won’t pay for singstar or party games every month.
I think some people will try this, but the current model makes billions, so why mess with it?
Because they want more billions. I mean, for an MMO I understand paying some monthly fee of some kind, simply because upkeeping the servers has got to be a heft undertaking.
But why should I continue to pay Bungie for playing Halo 3? We’ll see what happens.
Just seems like a cruddy thing to even think about when people are losing houses and jobs.
That’s my point: people will stop playing if they do that. You think all those “casual” Wii gamers or people who these for their kids are going to do that stuff?
I would stop playing. I have enough old games that I can enjoy those for the rest of my life. They would lose more than they would gain.
So…
you are telling me
– I have to pay $60 for a game.
– then a monthly fee for XBL
– AND a monthly subscription fee to EA
I call bullshit.
And don’t pull the “well you pay $15/mo for Warhammer,” because this isn’t an MMO where I’m paying to help keep up multiple servers with a ridiculous amount of people 24/7.
I play on the PSN. NO fees there!
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I call bullshit.
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There you have it.
psn FTW
Thatsomol’ bullshit.
weel i’m going to be contraversial and come in on the producers side. lets take halo. the game made a klling when it came out. then it made xbl rich as thousands more people subscribe just for halo 3. the first map pack then sold well. all myfreinds got it. then cod4 came out. many people moved away. bungie make new map pack. it sells half as well as the old one. from their point of veiw, the obesely rich microsoft is making money from everyone who sighned up to xbl because of halo. buge no make a lot less.
to deal with this, i tink any xbl game should get a cut based o it’s popularity.
so, to be fair, games stop makig money over time. the gaming industry is prodominantly about money.
also, wow has to run lots of servers, employ moderators, catch hackers and make new content frequently.
that’s not very clear is it? i’ll summarise:
1. games that require moderating, servers and constant additional content i.e. WoW, are fair to charge subscription fees.
2. if online multiplater is free then the producers should be allowed to charge for additional content, runscape (shudder) used this princible, offering a free version and a vastly superior subscriber service.
3. IT’S BULLSHIT!
I atill think that games should get a cut of the XBL profits based on the number of users per month. want to keep your fav studio in buisness, play their game.
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3. IT’S BULLSHIT!
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There you have it again.
The main reason why I DON’T play MMO’s is because of the monthly fee. If video gaming decides to do this monthly subscription bullshit, I’d probably go insane. Or I’d join The Underground, a secret network of people who bootleg video games and play them on old yet trusty consoles and PC’s in an effort break from the norm and defy conformity.
Damn. That’d be sic.
cossacks a nut-job!
moving on, don’t play MMO’s. They ruin your life. i can’t play them. i spend to much time on my xbox.
Well, looking at this reasonably, it’s ridiculous. If one company does this, other companies don’t have to follow suit. For this idea to work, every major game producer in the world would have to get together and orchestrate it. For one company to charge monthly, there will be many others who don’t. Fear not, fellow gamers, I don’t think this will come to fruition.
if the others don’t follow suit, they can expect a sudden spike in player numbers
I think it is a rumour based largely on…well…nothing, so he bigged up a business model? talked about what could come of it if other companies do it??? Seems to me like some business ploy bullshit, pretend like it is the next big thing, then when your next big title comes out, with people thinking this will be in-tow. BANG you do the complete opposite. Seems like a good bit of marketing, also they would not be able to change the current games, rumours like this will start a small spike of people buying up games so they don’t have to buy the version that costs them £150 a year…
no?