Why hasn't anyone tried a cheaper sub model?

[Jibjub]

I got to thinking yesterday: why are sub costs for MMOs almost ALWAYS 13-15 dollars (US)? If I remember correctly, that was what Everquest was in the 90s. And most all AAA titles for the past 2 decades have done the same ... sink or swim.

So why not try $3.99 per month instead of doing a cash shop (or with a cosmetic cash shop) instead of the standard P2P at roughly $15, B2P and F2P. Or has someone tried that and it doesn't work?

Taking SWTOR as an example, what if they had launched with a sub of 3 to 7 bucks (around the cost of Netflix)? Or even Wildstar. It seems like that would have garnered a lot more players and continued interest. What is this legacy cost for MMO subs and why doesn't any develop/publisher challenge it?







Off topic, when posting this I saw the option to "Disable Smilies" and thought it said "Disable Similes" and I was all like "Why would I care if people use a simile?"

[Echo of Soul]

Good question. I think that would work very well for some games. I might not want to pay 15 bucks every month for each subscription but I'd happily pay 5 bucks for a couple of games.

[flarecde]

I imagine there'd still need to be a cash shop to offset the difference then.

[Segus1992]

Off topic, when posting this I saw the option to "Disable Smilies" and thought it said "Disable Similes" and I was all like "Why would I care if people use a simile?"

It's for your own post, if the smilie codes interfere with what you're trying to write. It's not for the thread as a whole.

On topic, it's probably because they don't consider that to be compelling enough for people to pay it. They want to maximize the profit (obviously), and they problably don't feel like lowering subs would do that.

[zealo]

I seem to recall runescape using a sub fee in that range at about 5, although that was years ago now, they might have increased it since.

[Airlick]

I imagine there'd still need to be a cash shop to offset the difference then.

As long as cash shop would contain strictly visual or pure convenience items... The problem with such model is that subbers feel entitled to EVERYTHING, so even if they paid 5$ instead of 15$, they wouldn't understand that they are just paying for the access to the core of the game, not to everything the devs add in cash shop.

[Acidbaron]

Since we are nearing two decades now and the prices haven't gone up since that point. While production value has been increased.

[I-Thalos-I]

Final Fantasy 14 uses a two tier sub.
The full 15 one to get access to all character slots or one for 10 bucks to have one character slot.
Since one character can learn all classes I see no point in having more characters so I use the cheaper one.
No regrets there and I prefere that sub model.

[Deleted]

Industry wide price fixing.

/thread

[Yriel]

As long as cash shop would contain strictly visual or pure convenience items... The problem with such model is that subbers feel entitled to EVERYTHING, so even if they paid 5$ instead of 15$, they wouldn't understand that they are just paying for the access to the core of the game, not to everything the devs add in cash shop.

I'd say rightfully so. There are a large number of F2P games out there where the cash shop has only visual or convenience items (in fact almost all of them). Why would you pay a sub (even a low one) for what is essentially a normal F2P game ?
If there is a sub, no matter how high, there should only be an absolute minimum of cash shop items (or none at all).
Blizzard only gets by with their sub + cash shop model because they are Blizzard.

In the end i think it's just a matter of accessability. People are more likely to try a "free" game then a sub game, even if the sub is only a few bucks. So if the average F2P user spends 5$ a month in the shop then a 5$ sub would probably lessen the comparable income since not so many users will try the game.

[Littleraven]

Wasn't Final Fantasy XI cheaper? Not sure if it still has a sub but I do remember back when I was playing it for a short while it was only like 7 bucks. Not sure if that had to do with it being the Xbox 360 version or not though.

[ro9ue]

As someone who has experience with App pricing (maybe not a direct correlation), I can tell you that ANY pay wall is just a huge fucking wall in general. So going from $15 to $10 or to $5 isn't really going to matter as much as just opening up the flood gate to F2P and having 10x the amount of customers picking from your microtransaction shop.

For example if say had 100k subs at $15 a month and then dropped to $10 and gained maybe 50k, it's just a wash. If they completely drop the sub and get 1m where 10% convert $20/mo they actually get a bump.

Those are just arbitrary numbers but they should highlight my point.

[unbound]

F2P and B2P is the next evolution.

A good video to watch that has a lot of history regarding MMOs, where they used to be and how they have evolved...especially in regards to pricing strategies - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgkoz5EZTok

[Katchii]

As someone who has experience with App pricing (maybe not a direct correlation), I can tell you that ANY pay wall is just a huge fucking wall in general. So going from $15 to $10 or to $5 isn't really going to matter as much as just opening up the flood gate to F2P and having 10x the amount of customers picking from your microtransaction shop.

Pretty much this. Having a paywall of any kind stops a lot of people from playing because of the decent amount of completely free options that aren't that bad since a lot of people are just looking for a way to kill a few hours here and there and not a long term investment. It doesn't have to be THAT good to keep someone entertained.

That said, I would be subbing full time to a lot more games if the sub fee was less than the $15. SW:ToR, WoW, FFXIV, ESO, TSW, LotRO and probably Wildstar too. I imagine I am not the only one who would be doing this.

[Edge-]

There are games that have like Wizard 101 or...crap, I forget the horse MMO's name now.

Basically, it's not really viable for bigger budget games. Drop it to $10 and you need to get 33% more subscribers to make up for the $5 loss per sub. And given the climate for big budget subscription MMO's right now, that's an extremely risky ask.

[Heathy]

I'd say check time code sellers, picked up 60 days of rift patron myself only last week from g2a, £10, like half price pretty much. they had 180 day codes on there for like $30.

depending on the game you can sometimes get sub time cheaper. F2P games are all about the grind anyway most of them have tradeable premium. I'm guessing its not cheap to run/rent a data centre.

[Faroth]

Final Fantasy 14 uses a two tier sub.
The full 15 one to get access to all character slots or one for 10 bucks to have one character slot.
Since one character can learn all classes I see no point in having more characters so I use the cheaper one.
No regrets there and I prefere that sub model.

If you pay 6 month blocks rather than month to month, the full character slot sub is the same price as a one character slot month to month. I know because I was going to downgrade to the single character at one point and decided it wasn't a difference.

I only poke around at alts on rare occasions when I want to play with different visuals, though if you're a serious pack rat and have an FC with vault space, you can move goods through the vaults to alts for expanded free retainer storage.

[unfilteredJW]

I really like FF14's lower sub. 10-11 bucks for one character is pretty awesome. I know it's just a couple bucks but, it's a couple of bucks.

[Fencers]

They have tried it. Usually it's not really a big draw to customers and most customers are willing & expect to pay $15/mo. Charging like $8 or $10 a month is then a loss of 30-40%.

[kail]

This sub still exists to the consumers and they will weigh the value of the game against it (entirely subjective but still). A F2P game will still net a multiple amount of players to try out the game at least and enjoy what is free. Higher player count = higher chances on cash shop purchases.

If a game company is going to double dip with both, then it will really drive out players. In the end, the game's quality and popularity will dictate its success regardless of payment model.