Why Is There No Big Budget F2P MMO?

[SuperSpaceCat101]

Do investors not like supporting a MMO made to be F2P?

[Tokru]

Because F2P can't support a big budget game?

[Deleted]

The only one I can think of that I think can be considered big budget MMO in the free to play scene, is Planetside 2.

Actually former SOE, did exclusively F2P, question is if they could be considered big budget.

[Dinoboy]

Well - As an investor yourself, what would it take to convince you to invest in something that would compete with not only WoW, but every other F2P game in every genre? Especially when people willingly throw monthly fees and micro-transactions at already existing content.. And come to think of it, why are we talking in terms of investors?

[Deleted]

Moved this to video game chat.

[Deleted]

SW: TOR was a big budget MMO, and it is free 2 play now

[Cosmic Janitor]

Do investors not like supporting a MMO made to be F2P?

It a risky and expensive endeaver in a market that is already quite saturated.

We also have a gaming OT forum for this.

[SuperSpaceCat101]

Moved this to video game chat.

Thanks. I realized my mistake when I saw a Video Game Chat. I just joined the forums so my bad.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Moved this to video game chat.

Darn, too late, I should stop opening multiple tabs and working through them <<.

[SuperSpaceCat101]

Well - As an investor yourself, what would it take to convince you to invest in something that would compete with not only WoW, but every other F2P game in every genre? Especially when people willingly throw monthly fees and micro-transactions at already existing content.. And come to think of it, why are we talking in terms of investors?

Well mainly because it requires millions of dollars to make a MMO with high quality features. I assume the individual has no millions of dollars just an idea to pitch to investors. I think a big budget MMO developed with F2P in mind would be more successful than a subscription MMO forced to go F2P because their shop and future content is well planned.

Because F2P can't support a big budget game?

Well there is a game called Crossfire which is F2P and makes millions in micro-transactions. League of Legends is a F2P MOBA and manages to make millions in micro-transactions too. I assume the micro-transactions is enough to pay development for new content. A F2P MMORPG would attract a huge crowd at launch because it costs the player nothing to play the game. A well planned shop with tons of goodies at launch might be enough to pay off the development costs and prosperity can actually be gained. Since it is F2P the decline of interest will happen at a slower rate or might even go higher depending on the game's quality.

[Graeham]

F2P MMO's are viewed with a lot of suspicion by western audiences and whilst they can be done well they're usually riddled with clunky limitations and microtransactions that encourage you to spend much more than what a monthly subscription would cost on optional and 'optional' items.

I'm very much in favour of the P2P and B2P models myself.

[Hottage]

Because investment in something would mean the expectation of returns on investment.

[Noxina]

1. Most new MMOs kinda fails, and stay in the shadow of WoW. Thus make it hard to be profitable I guess.
2. And isn't all F2P games actually "Pay For This Amazing Thing And You Will Be OP"-game? And in the end you end up paying way more than the B2P games anyways. I know for sure I have spent waaaay too much money on LoL, dem skins.. And that gives absolutely no advantage at all.

[Nynax]

SW:TOR was a very big budget MMO, and it is free to play (granted that's because it initially tanked)

And similar to what others have said...most investors aren't the creative "lets give it a shot cause it looks fun" types. They work off probabilities and usually prefer to know ahead of time that there will be a return. Now imagine managing to get millions invested in a massive project and then saying "you know...we're thinking of just giving this product away for free. Don't worry though! We'll make money because people like their clothing to match!"

- - - Updated - - -

Oh and I would add that LoL I wouldn't consider a big budget MMO in this sense because it wasn't big when it started, and as a MOBA there is very little content needed to launch compared to an MMORPG like WoW.

[Airlick]

Do investors not like supporting a MMO made to be F2P?

Wasn't Blade & Soul released as F2P?

Anyways, I suppose F2P just doesn't pay the bills. It's good for PvP-focused, small scale games like LoL or WoT, but not MMORPGs.

[Azalis]

SWTOR was one of the highest grossing MMOs last year (#4 in the world according to the last report). It didn't even come close to expectations, but it is still a very successful game

[SuperSpaceCat101]

Because MMOs need lots of content to be successful - you don't get that with F2P games.
If you notice most F2P games are PvP-centric because PvP games don't need endless amounts of content to have lasting entertainment.

At first I thought that too but it seems the F2P method is enough to cover the costs of MMO development. For example; League of Legends made 624 million in 2013, earned an estimated amount of 1 billion dollars in 2014. SWTOR had an estimated development cost of 300 million, below 624 million. Destiny had a development cost of 500 million, still below 624 million. League of Legends has managed to make more money than the development costs of past and recent big budget MMOs. The money gained from microtransactions is enough to cover development costs for the highest quality.

If microtransaction is planned correctly, a big budget F2P MMO may be possible. Imagine a shop with cosmetic armor that evolves its appearance as you level, people would buy it to show off. Since it was planned to be F2P it would have more alluring items. Proper planning could also keep the F2P MMO from ever being P2W. With the big budget they can create tons of cosmetic items in time for launch. All the alluring items will be available for the mass influx of players to purchase which can easily generate a lot of wealth to fund future content.

F2P MMO's are viewed with a lot of suspicion by western audiences and whilst they can be done well they're usually riddled with clunky limitations and microtransactions that encourage you to spend much more than what a monthly subscription would cost on optional and 'optional' items.

I'm very much in favour of the P2P and B2P models myself.

Yet new subscription based MMOs tend to fail. I am wondering if the budget is determined by how persuasive the developer was to investors. Perhaps there needs to be a new big budget F2P MMO in order to compete with WoW and make as much money as LoL, who reportedly earned a billion in 2014.

Because investment in something would mean the expectation of returns on investment.

Yeah, I think the convincing power of the developers need to be high in order to make a big budget F2P MMO possible.

Edited: Changed ''dethroned'' with ''compete'' and ''a'' with ''an.

[sophos1]

Archeage is a big budget F2P game.

[Airlick]

Archeage is a big budget F2P game.

Apparently failed horribly in the West. Also it's pretty much as restrictive as SWTOR's model, playing F2P is like playing a glorified trial. It's "sub or GTFO" once you start getting into the game.

[SuperSpaceCat101]

Archeage is a big budget F2P game.

No one really knows the budget for Archeage. A few estimate Archeage's budget to be around 65 million which is not the regular budget of a triple AAA title.