Why do you have to buy MMO's ?

[veedubfreak]

Wow cost 50 bucks when it came out. To be able to play the full version, you have to buy both expansions. Its still far more than 10 bucks to get into the game at this point. And calling even 130 million insignificant shows you have no grasp of corporate greed.

Also, something to remember, most MMOs never reach the playerbase that WoW has. Most hover around 500k to 1 milllion players, so those initial boxes are a large percentage of their income.

Also, remember that when most MMOs come out, there is a large amount of people who buy the game for 50 bucks, then stop playing after the initial "free month". Those people would end up heavily cutting into the amount of money the game made.

 

[BlueHeaven]

Gw ftw

 

[Peter.Cort]

The kind of continued support that a MMO requires really I feel can only be kept with a monthly payment, not a single payment.

 

[Logarithms]

Link: Activision|Blizzard Investor Relations

Search "product sales" or something similar in the quarterly reports. I am not an economist nor an investor, but if I wanted to understand the reasons behind marketing, sales, cost of production, etc, then this is where I would start my search.

 

[Trink]

Oreo fails to say that he used to pay for Runescape, as did I. And even when he didn't play it he kept playing! Probably still is haha. But I totally agree, free MMO's for sure!

T

 

[Poizen22]

Gw ftw

im with you i far enjoyed guild wars much more then any other game i ever played. i am very exited for gw 2.

 

[Rumel]

$15 x 12 months = $180 year + Cost of game so what just over $200 for a MMO?

Verse = $50 no subscription. Doesn't matter when I want to play it. I can play it whenever I want and don't have to PAY TO PLAY.

That's how I feel about it. I hate having to pay a subscription for anything.

 

[Oreo]

Oreo fails to say that he used to pay for Runescape, as did I. And even when he didn't play it he kept playing! Probably still is haha. But I totally agree, free MMO's for sure!

T

Your not who i think you are, wait, you are ?!

Shutup! I only paid after because i didn't realise.....

 

[drewjustforyou]

ummm

50$ for the game, and then you can CANCEL the subscription whenever you feel like it. I often go hiatus, and feel secure knowing I can come back to my character whenever new content comes out, get bored with it, then cancel again.

I agree though, if new mmos came out free at first (even if only at first) itd be a great boost to their player base, I think World of Raids got it right with the free open beta.

and I would much rather have a subscription for a game I enjoy then rent/buy games @ more money/month.

1 time investment is much better then multiple time investments, though I have been looking at gamefly lately.

I would like to know how many games you people who dont pay 2 play mmos buy a year? I buy last years games myself, spend about 20$ a month on games, and about every 3 months I reactivate WoW

which is cheaper then?

 

[wafflehammer]

$15 x 12 months = $180 year + Cost of game so what just over $200 for a MMO?

Verse = $50 no subscription. Doesn't matter when I want to play it. I can play it whenever I want and don't have to PAY TO PLAY.

$230 a year for hundreds of hours of mmo play

OR

$50 every month for a FPS that last for 10-20 hours.

that's $600 a year vs $230.


But back to the point. I think it's stupid to have to buy the game. WoW you don't have to buy it (hassle to find it..but you can find it on their website) and those 14-day trail disc that cost a dollar have the page that leads to the download i think