WildStar MMO is P2P, etoilet crying himself to sleep

[Ruzbeh]

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/632/feature/7690/WildStar-Revenue-Model-Revealed.html

First, let’s laydown the basics for you.  The box for WildStar will cost you the now standard price of $59.99, which gets you 30-days of free game time, and three week-long passes for friends to try the game too.  After that, you’ll have to pay $14.99 a month, or cheaper ($13.99 for three months, $12.99 for six, $10.99 for a year) if you pay for multiple months at a time.

But why not Guild Wars 2’s model, which has recently proven so successful financially for the other big western NCsoft release? To this Jeremy said that it becomes really tricky with a B2P game to walk the line between not stretching development costs too thin while selling the right things in the store, and keeping content coming to the game on a consistent and interesting basis.  He believes ArenaNet does amazingly with this, but that the model isn’t for them.

This begged the question that a lot of our users point to: F2P games, while improving a great deal in recent years, are often seen as lesser quality than subscription games because of their “bargain sales” and sometimes being known as “Pay to Win” games.  Jeremy said that there are plenty of games that don’t have to resort to these tactics: League of Legends, Dota 2, even Wargaming’s titles have turned a leaf and changed their business model to not screw their customers over. The important part about going F2P or Subscription isn’t the revenue model, says Jeremy, it’s “whether the game’s any good.  Quality speaks louder than cost.” It doesn’t hurt, he added, that with a subscription model, players know they’re not getting part of the game, they’re getting it all.

Nailed it. This is exactly how I feel about F2P and P2P. F2P may not screw customers over anymore, but the shops are still annoying. I'd rather spend time playing the game than spend time having to determine whether there's something in the shop I should be buying. Or be bombarded with mysterious chests that I can only open by buying a $3 key in the store.

WildStar might actually end up being half decent.

[Joe Molotov]

La bomba, F2P within 6 months but it will be too late to save it, complete server shutdown within 2 years.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Well they seem to think this is the way to make their money back quick.

Wonder if the f2p is already done and they are just waiting.

Joe: i swear to god most mmos now are made with a 2/3 lifespan in mind, they must be

[Rufus]

I heard you can actually earn subcription time in-game, like in EVE.

[Human Snorenado]

Nailed it. This is exactly how I feel about F2P and P2P. F2P may not screw customers over anymore, but the shops are still annoying. I'd rather spend time playing the game than spend time having to determine whether there's something in the shop I should be buying. Or be bombarded with mysterious chests that I can only open by buying a $3 key in the store.

[etiolate]

My interest in this game keeps going down. It's like Carbine is full of people that actually believe in the nonsense burnt-out mmo addicts spew across the net, instead of having any rational sense or clue about the market. I was still planning on picking the game up if it was B2P, but this is just a bait and switch tactic. They'll have a F2P option within the year.

And that seems to be the view many have on this. Nobody is going to buy in on launch if they're worried that the game is going F2P anyways. You just can't justify a sub model anymore. No game is good enough to warrant a mandatory sub. It doesn't help that the beta has been negative enough for them to push back the release date.

I just don't get carbine. There's some asper-disaster going on there. They had a lot of good elements and then decided to go after "the WoW crowd" and all its regurgitated nonsense.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Yes wow has some magical thing no other mmo has ruzbeh.

[Great Rumbler]

Yes wow has some magical thing no other mmo has ruzbeh.

It does: Blizzard fans.