Gaming Nookie

The Gaming Formula

The way games are introduced has changed from what it was before. In the past, you just had to look at the price tag of the game and immediately you had an inkling how good it was. Super Mario Bros. 3 was far more expensive than Mappy or Joust, and so it was assumed it was better (not saying that it was not).

In the onset of gaming, having a hefty price tag told us the games had a lot of resources thrown at it and so the large dent it could make in our parents’ wallets. For the most part it still held true: more expensive consoles and their more expensive games were often the best in the line. Supply and demand also took part in this in that if the game was really good, it would be sold out quickly therefore jacking up the price.

Nowadays, it seems the best games are free. The Internet introduced a whole new gaming arena, with players just sitting out there, waiting to try out your game. If you charged for it, you’ll get fewer people to play your game. You charge them later, when they are already hooked into the game. No cash out at the start, which makes it seem free.

They’ve done this for offline games before but online games seem to have followed this formula since time immemorial.

• Release a beta to a few choice participants, letting them become your promoters
• Launch the free version and entice people to play through ads.
• Once you get a certain threshold, launch the paid or subscription version.
• Sit and wait for the money to flow in.

There are a few fallouts after it becomes paid but those that stay and are “locked in”, to use marketing lingo, keep the company afloat. It kept the serious players and those who had time to keep up their online relationships or their virtual goods. Honestly, though, there are too many online games out there. If you can get a group of your online buddies to hop through the various beta versions, you’d still be able to keep your core group as well as enjoy free gaming. Not something dedicated MMO gamers would do though.

Guildwars went with the old route though. You would have to buy the game itself, just like a console game and priced similarly, before you can play. The idea is to get the people who want to play games for the endings and cinematics. It worked for the most part, since the gameplay and the marketing strategy matched. It also kept those who bought the game playing, to earn back what they paid for. They are looking at going the normal and cheaper route, though, to entice new players since they already have a player base established. It might be a bad move, though, since the existing players would become ticked off. It might look like you did a sleight-of-hand with them.

Anyways, the moral is to keep your service free on the ‘net then charge later either for premium services or for keeping their existing accounts. Now, we just have to manage a way to pay without buying those damn cards for every MMO we play…

posted by Glenn @ 1:29 PM