I don’t read the Wall Street Journal myself so that’s why I have to say thank you to Massively for posting their article mentioning the WSJ article on the new trend in Free-To-Play among MMOs.
With Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online and now EverQuest II jumping into the Free-to-Play space this sort of model is getting a bit more attention.
The shift, which game companies in Asia figured out years ago, underscores how broadly a once foreign-seeming approach to business is coming to permeate the games industry.
U.S. games companies are far more dependent on retail sales of software in stores than their counterparts in Korea and China, where rampant software piracy forced local companies to be more inventive about making money through methods like virtual goods sales.
The article doesn’t go into much detail about the effect it has although there are quotes from Martin Tremblay, president of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment concerning the positive impact it has had on DDO.
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July 30, 2010 at 3:24 pm
It’s like going to some of those amusement parks,..paying to get in,..then get to this cool attraction and the guy’s like”oh no,.this is extra”,…
“but I paid at the door.”
Reminded me of F2P :p Except they took away the cover charge.
So I can understand why the asian co’s would come up with this in response to piracy,.but did we really have that here with our MMO’s?
Are we making changes based on something that isn’t a problem here?
I played a bunch of those F2P asian games, ..they suck…the attraction is not the content/gameplay for them,..the attraction is “going shopping”!
Whereas here,..I want the content! I will pay for your games and expansions, make them cool!
I know this comment is late,..and I am interested in the store,..but partly because I don’t have a say, it is coming anyways, so I am rolling with it.
like the tail wagging the dog or something,.eh?
July 30, 2010 at 3:34 pm
F2P does seem to be the future of online games, whether we like it or not. I am tempted to try out F2P EQ2 while I wait for the new zone in LOTRO. You can play as a frog person & it sounds cool.