The video game industry provides entertainment to its consumers. When money gets tight, people are quick to cut out luxury expenses, causing publishers to feel the crunch. It's part of what makes production of any MMOG a huge risk, so investors are constantly seeking safeguards for their money. Ten Ton Hammer's Danny "Ralsu" Gourley examines four trends gamers may see develop in 2009 that will forever change the gaming industry:
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The $50 box price represents a sweet spot price point that will drive consumers to buy while still raking in the profit. Owners of Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles frequently pay $60 for their new games, showing that the sweet spot for box sales may be stretching a little.
Most CE boxes include a code to unlock an in-game item. The item is exclusive only to players who buy the CE, but it’s never an item that disrupts the balance of the game, and it certainly costs the developer nothing.
I disagree with it not costing the developer nothing. In the big picture the profit to expense ratio makes it seem so but there is still time put into creating the item in game and out. Out being time spent talking about what players would justify the added expense for.
I loved the idea for going strictly Digital Download.
I would do that hands down over driving into the closest city to me and buying it. I understand that it would be the players responsibility to then "burn" their copy for back ups. But I can't imagine that if a company like Blizzard can keep track of what expansions are linked to your account from registering it, that they couldn't implement a way to re download from them in those rare situations what you have already proved to them you have purchased.
Heck throw the CE's into stores and spend a few bucks on a big display to compensate for the marketing loss.
meh..but who am I.
Great article.
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The following weapons are not legal choices in a duel: Steamroller, Nerve Gas, Landmine, Midget.
Shayalyn says
Not to the afternoon delight, because I'm all about that...
I loved the idea for going strictly Digital Download.
I would do that hands down over driving into the closest city to me and buying it. I understand that it would be the players responsibility to then "burn" their copy for back ups. But I can't imagine that if a company like Blizzard can keep track of what expansions are linked to your account from registering it, that they couldn't implement a way to re download from them in those rare situations what you have already proved to them you have purchased.
I can easily see digital distribution as becoming a more viable alternative to major retail launches as time goes on. As it is, we're already seeing a growing list of AAA MMOGs hitting the Steam marketplace - and one of the notable features about the service is that you can indeed re-download any games purchased through your account, so there's no real need for backups.
And after the major uproars with how DRM has been handled by PC games publishers over the past couple of years, having that extra layer of piracy protection on legal copies via a service like Steam will certainly score points vs. other forms of DRM in the long run.
I'm all for keeping some form of 'collector's edition' alive on the retail front as well though. Depending on the location it can still provide at least some visibility if shelf copies are stocked at all, and otherwise it would actually make those copies a bit more "special" considering it would be the only physical form available. Well, that plus I just have a thing for awesome packaging in general
having the CE's on store shelves and digital downloads available for the regular clients is brilliant...sort of, example 2 weeks ago i bought a digital download of a game while i was waiting for the CE to get here in the mail..it came down at about 120-200....for 12+gigs! i can down @ 32000 so it wasn't my connection (never is). but yea fix a few things (like maybe use torrents that have algorithms for passwords so a valid cd key it the only way to extract) and it is totally viable.
pay to beta test is in my eyes a pretty stupid thing. if most testers i run into are paying to test the game the aforementioned sense of entitlement will go through the roof and people will feel they are doing their part by simply paying for the beta. "why should i have to report bugs too, its bad enough i have to pay to test it", is what i think the general population would be thinking. at least make it a contest where the top 10 bug hunters get something really great for all their efforts to make reporting bugs seem lucrative.
i am not really for or against micro transactions, but i think a model that has been pushed aside is the dungeon runners pay if you want to one (think knight online does it also, they used to). when you break it down a 50$ box can easily be offset by raising the monthly sub fee (5$/mo for 10 months..or 10 for 5). i guess it would only really work for a few games out there though (WOW) since if it is a weak game people aren't going to stick around 10 months anyways.
cant wait till next year. hopefully sci-fi mmorpg's can finally come out of the shadows.
I really enjoyed reading this article, but I have another take on this issue, and I hope people will also take their precious time to read my response.
In response, the first issue I want to address is the subscription fee issue. If people really want to play MMOs, they can easily sacrifice something else that they consider 'luxurious' to continie playing an MMOG. For example, if someone smokes a pack of cigarettes a day, the total cost will be around $800. Even if MMOGs increased their subscription fees to $25 a month, that is only 30% of the cost of smoking 1 pack of cigarettes a day. Or, let's say a person eats a bag of chips a day: if subscriptions increase to $25 a month, that is only 55% of funds spent on needless snacks. So, if subscription fees go up, it is easy to sacrifice to pay for MMOGs to play them.
But I think one major issue - at least for me - is a quality versus quantity issue. There is no doubt that World of Warcraft, for example, is a super-power in the gaming industry. There are people who try to sabotage other MMOG efforts. When WARHAMMER ONLINE came out, there were people who logged on every server yelling "IT'S JUST LIKE WOW." However, I think WARHAMMER ONLINE has better quality - as far as customer service, banning gold sellers, and so forth - than World of Warcraft. Also, the best graphics for an MMOG that I have experienced is in Lord Of The Rings Online. Their subscription fee is $9.99 a month.
As someone who loves to play MMOGs, I would pay for quality over quantity. I would pay $60 / $70 / $80 for a retail box and $20 / month subscription fee for an MMOG that would offer comfort of play, versatility in play style, a fun community (where general chat and trade chat is not filled with trash talking) and stunning graphic and video design. I could care less about an MMOG that has 8 million active subscribers. That does not make it a good quality MMOG. If I ever found an MMOG that offers those things, I would make necessary sacrifices to play it.
In a tight economic recession such as this one, it actually costs less to play an MMOG than to go to one's local bar on the weekends, or going out to eat - or even going to the movies. MMOGs provide a relaxed and stress free atmosphere for entertainment. Other, more expensive luxuries, could either be eliminated or scaled down if someone REALLY wanted to play MMOGs.
Another issue as well is people think that they need a $2500 - $4000 machine to play MMOGs. I just got a system (2.5 ghz dual core, 4 gig ram) and added an NIVIDIA 512 MB graphics card installed for less than $800 - runs all my MMOGs fine on high settings (WAR, LOTRO, and WOW - which by the way, playing all 3 costs less than smoking 1 pack a day - just an fyi).
I think that if a company began to emphasize quality over trying to get 8 million subscribers, people will be willing to play that MMOG and tell others about it rather than trying to conform to another companies standard. In other words, a developer does not have to be like, look like, or feel like World of Warcraft to be competitive. People will pay for quality and higher standards - simply because (Americans especially) recognize when a company pours their heart and soul into a product, and not just patches stuff together.
Last edited by coldfusion06; 12-23-2008 at 10:22 AM.
I really enjoyed reading this article, but I have another take on this issue, and I hope people will also take their precious time to read my response.
In response, the first issue I want to address is the subscription fee issue. If people really want to play MMOs, they can easily sacrifice something else that they consider 'luxurious' to continie playing an MMOG. For example, if someone smokes a pack of cigarettes a day, the total cost will be around $800. Even if MMOGs increased their subscription fees to $25 a month, that is only 30% of the cost of smoking 1 pack of cigarettes a day. Or, let's say a person eats a bag of chips a day: if subscriptions increase to $25 a month, that is only 55% of funds spent on needless snacks. So, if subscription fees go up, it is easy to sacrifice to pay for MMOGs to play them.
But I think one major issue - at least for me - is a quality versus quantity issue. There is no doubt that World of Warcraft, for example, is a super-power in the gaming industry. There are people who try to sabotage other MMOG efforts. When WARHAMMER ONLINE came out, there were people who logged on every server yelling "IT'S JUST LIKE WOW." However, I think WARHAMMER ONLINE has better quality - as far as customer service, banning gold sellers, and so forth - than World of Warcraft. Also, the best graphics for an MMOG that I have experienced is in Lord Of The Rings Online. Their subscription fee is $9.99 a month.
As someone who loves to play MMOGs, I would pay for quality over quantity. I would pay $60 / $70 / $80 for a retail box and $20 / month subscription fee for an MMOG that would offer comfort of play, versatility in play style, a fun community (where general chat and trade chat is not filled with trash talking) and stunning graphic and video design. I could care less about an MMOG that has 8 million active subscribers. That does not make it a good quality MMOG. If I ever found an MMOG that offers those things, I would make necessary sacrifices to play it.
In a tight economic recession such as this one, it actually costs less to play an MMOG than to go to one's local bar on the weekends, or going out to eat - or even going to the movies. MMOGs provide a relaxed and stress free atmosphere for entertainment. Other, more expensive luxuries, could either be eliminated or scaled down if someone REALLY wanted to play MMOGs.
Another issue as well is people think that they need a $2500 - $4000 machine to play MMOGs. I just got a system (2.5 ghz dual core, 4 gig ram) and added an NIVIDIA 512 MB graphics card installed for less than $800 - runs all my MMOGs fine on high settings (WAR, LOTRO, and WOW - which by the way, playing all 3 costs less than smoking 1 pack a day - just an fyi).
I think that if a company began to emphasize quality over trying to get 8 million subscribers, people will be willing to play that MMOG and tell others about it rather than trying to conform to another companies standard. In other words, a developer does not have to be like, look like, or feel like World of Warcraft to be competitive. People will pay for quality and higher standards - simply because (Americans especially) recognize when a company pours their heart and soul into a product, and not just patches stuff together.
i'm just going to hazard a guess: you don't actually smoke (and never have). any physically addictive substance is a real bad example (coffee too). though i would guess most people could make some kind of realistic sacrifices.
i think the biggest part of Tabula Rasa failing is it isnt worth 15$/mo. i dont care that that is the current model, it simply wasn't/isn't worth it (5 at best). i do totally agree that i would pay more for a game that truly knocked my socks off, but the past couple years have provided me with none. they make nice time killers (how you are playing them on a stress free level boggles my mind), but none are giving me the experience i got from the first couple: days without sleep, sleep filled with dreams of being in game anyways, not realizing the past 2 hours in game took 10 hours of reality to go through, etc. even if they are of vastly superior quality.
kinda like the first...uh no, not going to use any specific example, but being the first time some "thing" happens people flock to the the location to experience a great new "thing". then there a lot of places to experience the great "thing" and the novelty starts to wear off, and then even later there are tons of places to get the "thing" and people start to stray, some thinking location X has the best "thing" while others think location Y is better. far later complacency sets in and people get "thing" from the path of least resistance (7-11, walmart, w/e). i kinda think game companies have been doing this "thing" a bit too long now and they don't have it in them to revolutionize or blow anyone away, they know the "thing" will sell so why stop making it?
also i would like to see mmorpg's that PUSH my rig (though i don't mean by using sloppy code or having bazillion ship star fights), you start to feel kinda silly constantly upgrading this and that only to be let down by what actually gets released.
secretly i hope the next great thing is VERY VERY quiet, cause a lot of good things get turned to bad things through overexposure.
I pay for 3 people to play a MMO. That’s not $15.00 a month, that’s $45.00, if they raise the cost , then they lost $45.00. That is something they will have on their hands. And will cut the projected profit they thought they would make. If they lose too many people, then the game goes bye-bye.
I am surprised games like Tabula Rasa didn’t go the route of $9.99; they might have gotten more players. Some people do watch their money and might have switched.
As for the digital distribution is a great idea. I buy only on Steam/Impulse now, nothing else.
Gaming's Struggle for Survival in a Tough Economy
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