Top Ten Free-to-Play Games - FusionFall Poised to Clean up

[Ralsu]

Cartoon Network's FusionFall Employs a Family-friendly Revenue Model

With World of Warcraft dominating the MMOG market, Danny "Ralsu" Gourley believes other developers are left with scraps and niches. One niche that several free-to-play games try to reach is children, but now Ralsu tells Ten Ton Hammer readers he's found a game designed for children that will be a commercial success because of its family-friendly pricing:

The longer parents and children play together, the longer the parents are apt to subscribe for the children. Futhermore, getting parents to play FusionFall with their children might be to the only way to get those parents to stop playing WoW. The affordable pricing and mass appeal of Cartoon Network characters could propel FusionFall into the limelight with a huge subscriber base.

Read "FusionFall Poised to Clean up" to see more.

[Ralsu]

One thing I wonder is how free-to-play companies will react if FusionFall is a commercial success with its pricing model.

[bobfish]

By end of Friday oer 1.5 million characters had been created on Fusion Fall. Its a good solid game, fun from the start though there are a few level ranges where you need to grind.

This I think is where we will see the market really going for the masses with WoW being the first and last big MMO. I can also see free to play games offering a more clinical range of items in the cash shop alongside a cheap subscription system to maximise returns without pricing themselves out of the market.

[unholyblackdeath]

Dungeon Runners does the same thing with its "Premium membership" yet somehow it managed to get on the "Free To Play" list. The most powerful items are only available through subscription, it says on the Dungeon Runners site. Is this an oversight, or am I missing something here?

[bobfish]

Both Dungeon Runners and Fusion Fall are Free to Play games, offering a paid for service in addition is no different to offering an item shop/mall.

[Ralsu]

Originally Posted by unholyblackdeath

Dungeon Runners does the same thing with its "Premium membership" yet somehow it managed to get on the "Free To Play" list. The most powerful items are only available through subscription, it says on the Dungeon Runners site. Is this an oversight, or am I missing something here?

The difference is that you can experience pretty much the full game with DR without paying for the membership. You get to fight the same creatures and complete the same quests. In FusionFall, you will hit a point where you have "finished" the game for all intents and purposes until you pay for a sub.

[RipperMcGee]

Originally Posted by unholyblackdeath

Dungeon Runners does the same thing with its "Premium membership" yet somehow it managed to get on the "Free To Play" list. The most powerful items are only available through subscription, it says on the Dungeon Runners site. Is this an oversight, or am I missing something here?

You are missing something. As Ralsu stated, you can play Dungeon Runners from start to finish, all 100 levels and all dungeons, for free. There are incentives to pay for membership, but you're never required to do so. As far as the items go, that's a little misleading (something that has, unfortunately, been propagated by NCSoft). There are member and non-member versions of every single item in the game. Here's a write-up I did on the member vs. non-member loot system:

Linky...

Fusion Fall, on the other hand, is most definitely not a F2P game. It's a subscription-based title with a non-expiring free-trial. Yes, you can play for free forever, but you'll never be able to leave the starting zone, never level past 4 and never get more than 4 nanos.

In regards to Fusion Fall's revenue model, it's incredibly aggressive. They're obviously taking aim at games like ToonTown and Wizard101. As an example, Wizard101's single-player subscription rate is $9.95/month (I've always thought this was too high) and their family subscription rate is $6.95/month/player. As you can see the single player subscription rate for Fusion Fall is less than the family subscription rate for Wizard101. While I think Wizard101 is a superior game, the reality is that non-gamer parents will probably look for the best value and Fusion Fall wins, by far!. I currently pay $34.75/month for my entire family, whereas I'd only pay $15.90/month with Fusion Fall. That being said, Wizard101 has done a great job giving players the option of using a RMT system in lieu of their subscription model, which can significantly lower the overall cost, especially for casual gamers. The downside is that you have to manage and track your expenses.

All that being said, what do you actually get for your money in Fusion Fall? Per their official FAQ:

What are the benefits of having Unlimited Access?

Subscribers get total access to the world of FusionFall. Every nook and cranny of the universe is yours to explore!

Unlimited Access includes:

* Full access to all areas of FusionFall
* Access to optional In-Game Communications
* Access to optional Unlimited Forum features
* Ability to collect all 36 Nanos
* Hundreds of additional missions
* Ability to create up to four characters
* Access to Live Customer Service Chat
* The chance to be a true hero!

Limited Access includes:

* Ability to create two characters
* Access to a limited portion of the FusionFall world
* Menu chat in-game
* Access to the FusionFall Forums as a read-only guest
* Ability to collect up to four Nanos
* No credit card required

I collected four nanos by the time I was level four and hadn't explored very much, so it seems like the f2p content is pretty limited. There's really no benefit that I've seen to having more than one character, so I'm not sure why getting twice as many characters is incentive to pay. There aren't any classes, everybody starts in the same zone and does all of the same quests. Additionally, everybody has access to the same skills and weapons. Why have more than one character at all? Also, the "Ability to collect all 36 Nanos" is a bit redundant, as benefit. After all, if you have the ability to explore all the zones and do all the quests, you have the ability to collect all the nanos. It's not like it's a completely separate, tangible benefit.I also don't consider the ability to post in a game's offiicial forum as a benefit one should have to pay for. I understand the logic behind it, especially with a kids game, as a way to keep out trolls and idiots, but I still don't think one should have to pay to post on official boards. Honestly, I think the benefits could be broken down like this:

Unlimited - you get to play the entire game

Limited - you don't

The rest is just marketing babble. Regardless, the game is decent, it has a great IP and the price is right. Fusion Fall will be huge. The other games will be forced to compete or will suffer for it.

[megaflux]

im with the ripper. it is more of a free trial than free to play. it also costs 20$ for a box @ebgames, but so does dungeon runners.

REAL cool game, loads of fun, supports 360 controller...but it is NOT a free to play game. i cant see many kids staying on starter island just to level with their friends who's parents are out of work either.

[unholyblackdeath]

I see. This reminds me of Runescape, where free accounts are so severely limited that you may as well not bother unless you are a subscriber. Dungeon Runners almost looks worth a try but I think I like the item mall formula better. It is more honest. Honesty is a quality I admire in a company and it makes me more likely to spend a little cash with them.

[Deg]

Originally Posted by Ralsu

In FusionFall, you will hit a point where you have "finished" the game for all intents and purposes until you pay for a sub.

The question is, how far along does the game progress before this happens?

Cheers,
- Deg -