Drop monthly fees for MMORGs, industry urged

Game companies looking to launch Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) should give up hope of charging subscription fees, according to researchers.

"World of Warcraft, with over 10 million players, exceeded expectations for subscription-based MMORPGs, but it's unlikely any other publishers will achieve the same in the near term using a subscription model," said analyst Michael Cai, director of broadband and gaming for Parks Associates.

[NewSchoolGamer]

this is a start.

How about they just charge us 60$ for MMOs and 20 bucks for 6 months

[Andreiy]

on pc games cost $50

[NewSchoolGamer]

but they should increase it to 60 bucks so that the change from monthly fees to no monthly fees is not brutal

[Madgunner]

im all up for free or no monthly charge for an MMO but lets be honest here i dont see that happening with a game such as wow, the game is constantly like a living breathing enviornment, ur actually paying a monthly subscrition to keep up the servers workers and all kinds of stuff... reduce the price... yes that would be nice... drop it in all... no your stupid... like i said .. take a look at wow your paying monthly for something... this isint xbox live you know...

; )

[Enigma_2099]

While I myself will not pay continuously for a broken game, there are many who will as ong as they feel they're getting their money's worth.

You want people to pay by the month, just concentrate on making the game good...

[Monty_The_Great]

literally a worthless article. Your telling me people would rather play a game for free then pay a monthly fee? No way, get out of here. Duh people don't want to pay, there are plenty of free MMORPG's out there for people to play. Yet they all still get stumped by WoW. There is a reason for that, and that is simple, you get what you pay for, or don't pay for. If people wanted to play free MMORPG's so bad and didn't want to pay, all they have to do is a little searching on the internet, and poof, you can find free MMORPG's, but they don't. Sorry, I am just rambling

[rbanke]

As a MMO designer (a small indy one, but one just the same). I dont see a non subscription model doing so well. MMO's require much much more in the way of administration than a standard online multiplayer game with dedicated servers. You have support to deal with (gamemasters, program support, server maint., etc) on top of that the most important difference, MMO's typically offer constant improvments and content additions. Doing all that for a flat one time fee is just not realistic. Although, I believe a free client with a subscription model is the best answer.

[Skerj]

You're smoking some special f*cking crack (yes the vulgarity is needed) if you think Blizzard (or anyone for that matter)is letting go of 150 million PLUS a month in RESIDUAL income. Would you? HELL NO, that's around 1.8 billion dollars a year they make from ONE game. Despite what people would like to happen or would like you to believe, the monthly fees are needed for MMOs.

You think server fees, GM salaries, and programmer/designer salaries for constant updates come magically? Not at all, they'd have to sell the games regularly to recoup costs and then they'd have to somehow generate enough profit to pay for the aforementioned things. I don't think ad services will be paying enough to make them want to give up that kind of loot yearly.

[Caxtus750]

How??

10 million people dont miraculously pay for their own servers, their own technical support and new content every month. You get new updates evey month and a steady stream of new quests. They get next to nothing from disc sales so need the money to keep going.

It is a step backward getting rid of the fees and therefore a stream of new content etc. Who wants another Guild Wars? (no offense to GW - it just isnt very integrated. The game is still ahead of its time and with all the talk of "cloud" gaming this is exactly where the industry will head. Crap article.

[rob6021]

Nickling and diming players so that People who are rich in real life get an advantage over the normal players - is an MMO no one wants to play lets face it. God if i want to lose myself in another world, Its not going to be one where people who are well off in real life translates directly into the game. All these games are competitive in one form or another and the playing field has to be level. Rich people have enough perks in real life.

[DOOMZ]

Guild Wars anyone...

[Shortstop]

And in response: Industry laughs

[f789790]

That is a lot of money.