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Billing Models for MMO’s

Why Does it Have to be One Way?

Another Eye-Bleeding Post by Ryahl

In a previous post, I examined the western subscription model for MMO’s and discovered that the model peaked in 2004. There is unquestionably an upswell in favor of Free to Play (F2P) and a number of titles have gone Free to Play in recent years. Industry leaders are on the record stating that F2P is the future of MMO’s and at least one planned AAA MMO intended to launch F2P. However, the F2P model itself is greeted with some trepidation from fans of the subscription model who view it as either a money grab or a form of buy to win, neither of which is deemed palatable.

In this post, I want to review various billing options available to MMO’s and offer an assessment of strengths and weaknesses of each. From that, I will pull together something I refer to as the “box plus” model, which synthesizes the various billing options into a multifaceted subscriber model. In a future post I will use an existing MMO as an example in a hypothetical conversion to the Box+ model.

The Many Ways to Take My Money

There are a number of potential revenue models for game companies. However, no specific model is perfect, each comes with its own problems. Additionally, each model appeals to some gamers and turns off others. Not all of these revenue options have been tried by MMO’s and I won’t review all possible options (for instance, billing by the minute has been dead for over a decade and there is probably no reason to bring that one back).

The Monthly Subscription – this is the tried and true model for the western MMO market. Developers like it for reasons I addressed in the last post. The downsides are that it appeals to a very small number of consumers. It does not appeal to eastern and younger players. Additionally, the very switching cost that used to be a strength of this model seems to work against initial buy-in. However, it appeals to some consumers and remains the staple premium buy in western model.

Buy the box – this is the classic PC game model. You buy the box, you get the game. It is the approach used by Arena Net for Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. It is also the approach used by Blizzard for Diablo 3 (not exactly an MMO) and by most cooperative and single player PC games. While these are not MMO titles, they increasingly offer persistent online multi-player options, they are converging into the MMO market. It appeals to a broader audience than the subscription model. Additionally, it remains the premier way in western markets to reach customers. Retailers, and increasingly digital outlets (like Steam or Amazon) provide ideal channels to reach new customers, assuming you keep a new box … Continue reading →

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