ThinksMedia

How not to entice new customers to your game

Monday, January 25, 2010

Paying a premium for the ‘privilege’ of being allowed to pay $15/month to play an MMORPG, its been going on for more than a decade now, and while it made a little since in the beginning, now it feels like an antiquated idea whose time has passed.  Back in 1999 when Everquest came out, there was very little competition for this type of gameplay, and there was limited proof that a subscription model could make money for  a mainstream computer game.  This is no longer the case in either argument in 2010, and the industry should wake up and take notice.

I understand that there is a large outlay of cash to develop a modern online only interactive universe type of game, and I can appreciate the desire to recoup that investment as quickly as possible.  While that may seem like a sound strategy, it may not be the best way to maximize long term, or even the near term return on investment.  The real pot of gold for any of these ventures is the monthly subscription base, with its continuous stream of revenue. It is vital that you quickly gain a large base of paying subscribers to overcome the ongoing costs of maintenance and additional content to keep players happy. If you can’t very quickly gain these numbers, your game will stagnate and wither away quickly.  Yet here we are, looking at game after game being released, with the publisher expecting potential customers to pay a premium of 2-3 months subscription cost before even getting to find out if they like the game.

Proponents will argue that having someone pay upfront gives them a feeling of being invested in the game, and so they are more likely to continue to pay a monthly fee once their initial free month expires.  I would say that this is a specious argument, as it flies in the face of basic logic.  I am really to believe that if I pay a large amount upfront to play a game that I am somehow more likely to pay even more money to it each month if I don’t like it because I feel like I’ve wasted my initial purchase if I don’t continue to throw money away to something I don’t like???  The other side if this issue is that you are fighting an uphill battle with many potential customers already having been burned paying $50 for a game they realized all to late was crap, now you are there asking for their money and they are asking themselves if the risk is worth it.   The other argument I hear is that if you don’t charge a premium up front too many people will want to play the game just to see what its all about and overload the servers…what…so you want less players?  Now I know that the initial release of any online game has some challenges when it comes to server capacity, but I cannot believe that the increased revenue from the increased install base could not be used to overcome this problem.  Lets not forget that if you eliminate the premium pricing structure, you can also eliminate the large black hole that is retail markup, since 20-30% of that retail box cost goes right to the retailer and packaging costs.  Eliminate the need to buy a box, and eliminate that money sucking void.

Right now, any new MMORPG needs to overcome the behemoth that is World of Warcraft.  You have to somehow entice players who either are playing or having played WOW to come try your game, and what better way to do this than to offer the game without a premium up front cost on top of the monthly fee!  Yet hear we are, with game after game asking me to pony up $50 or more to give them a test drive, when the real profits are to be had by getting me addicted so I pay five times that much in monthly subscriptions. At this point I’m afraid that just isn’t the smart move.  I know that some will argue that I would pay the same price for a regular non subscription game, even if I knew I would likely finish it within the 1st month, and that is true to a point.  The difference is that a MMORPG does not have a demo for me to try, and it is a very rare thing for my wallet to open if I haven’t gotten to try a game first.  But just as important, these multiplayer games have a dynamic that cannot be inferred without playing them yourself, live with other players.

My suggestion is for game makers to offer the game for free when you start your monthly $15 subscription, or at most require a 2 month subscription to start.  You will get more subscribers and in the end, make more money…provided your game isn’t total crap.