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Star Wars: The Old Republic : LA: All Business Models on the Table
Posted Sep 09, 2009 by Michael Bitton
LucasArts' President Darrell Rodriguez spoke to the guys at GamesIndustry.biz recently about Star Wars: The Old Republic, and some interesting comments regarding possibilities for the game's business model surfaced during the conversation:
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Q: There is a lot of talk about the business model for MMOs - subscription, free-to-play... nothing's been announced for Old Republic yet, so is everything still on the table in that respect?
Darrell Rodriguez: Yeah, we're considering it all, absolutely. You start looking at how different communities, territories such as Asia, actually play games, and we start to consider it all - especially if we want it to be a worldwide phenomenon.
Does this simply mean multiple business models might be used in different territories, or is there a possibility of seeing a different, universal business model being applied to The Old Republic? Hard to say! What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments!
The full interview is available here.
Pretty sure he meant different territories, but I'm also sure they are watching how well Turbine does with DDO Unlimited.
It scares me when you talk business models with companies such as EA and LucasArts because we all know they want the almighty dollar today. Also with so much talk of microtransactions its giving me the heebie jeebies all over. Monthly fee +microtransactions just creeps me out even though I don't blame people for wanting to make money off their product. I just hope whatever it is that it will be affordable for everyone.
True but thats a bad example. DDO turned f2p + microtransactions because only a handful was left playing the game. They should do what Guild Wars does, f2p model with a store that sells more storage space, character slots, make overs, game of the year upgrades, I would even pay for extra inventory space if there was no monthly fee. I would even go for $9.95 a month plus an Old Republic store ala Guild Wars style. You will see how fast people will love EA and Lucas Arts for this.
Well EA imho pretty much was the one that started it for MMO's.. because waaaaaay back in Ultima Online they had premo services.
To show you what I mean (and yes some of these are newer offerings)
http://www.uogamecodes.com/store/prod_detail.asp?ProdID=UOSTYCODE&CartID={4CA50D4F-5D39-4A28-AFBC-AAD5B63370C3}&PromoID=996
should take you to the uogamecodes area... and the "advanced character templates" were one of the first things.
They had tried this in at least one other MMO (that they shut down later) but to a lesser degree. After EA took over Mythic they also had a "launch poll" about bringing premium services to DAoC.
In the west I would expect them to do something like this.. as opposed to Free + Item Mall...
Plus this is EA so it shows the type of things they have been doing for years already.
i will happily accept whatever model allows us to have the most frequents and quality amount of content. i dont care if i have to pay or not. The content is what i care about!
I agree. I've been waiting a long time for this kind of game. Star Wars: The Old Republic is turning out to be, what I thought Star Wars Galaxies was going to be and should have been. Yet wasn't, due to Sony's stupidity. Its funny almost every thing they have talk about, what's going in to Star Wars: The Old Republic. Was in my mind while playing SWG. I always thought stuff like, you know it would be cool if and now its happening. Can't wait, no matter what the business model is.
"Q: Stories in games in an interesting subject - some feel that games should tell the player stories, others prefer that players make up their own stories. The Old Republic seems to be more about the latter, which is a bit of a change for LucasArts games, isn't it?"
Just... wrong. SWG was originally about the latter. SW:TOR is ALL about the former. It's a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, but it's still a story where the components are pre-written. You assemble them. SW:TOR will tell the player their story, where SWG, which was originally a sandbox game before it was destroyed by the NGE, provided the setting but allowed players to tell their own stories completely. There is no "change" for LucasArts games, unless you are contrasting SWG to SW:TOR, in which case it's the opposite of what was said.
Clarification: I'll be playing SW:TOR, I love BioWare games, nothing I said is negative, blah blah blah. Meatbags.
If the revenue model is anything other than a flat-rate subscription for the game, then I'm out. I AM willing to pay more than the current median MMO sub prices if need be.
No micro-transactions that affect game play in any way, shape or form. Period.
No real-world ads, period (I play persistent world games to escape this kinda crap).
Micro transactions would almost certainly kill this game for me. Even fairly innocent ones like bling or extra bank space would be hard for me to swallow.
The simple fact is that if they think they can make $10 a month off me with Micro transactions that are all "Bling" then it is only a small step to think they can make $15 a month if they put in game altering items.
1 game altering item for any amount of money, and odds are I am off to the next game.
What in the hell does this have to do with payment methods? It just sounds like a misplaced rant to me. WTF lol.
True but thats a bad example. DDO turned f2p + microtransactions because only a handful was left playing the game. They should do what Guild Wars does, f2p model with a store that sells more storage space, character slots, make overs, game of the year upgrades, I would even pay for extra inventory space if there was no monthly fee. I would even go for $9.95 a month plus an Old Republic store ala Guild Wars style. You will see how fast people will love EA and Lucas Arts for this.
I have no doubt it will be something much closer to this. But I would be suprised if there is not a monthly fee in addition. IE, 9.99 yet with similar things to what guild wars offers.
Good to see not too many people predicting doom since this could just mean other areas pay differently just like every MMO out now already does.
As long as we don't see a store that has +1 lightsabers and such, a MT store is fine. One like GW or WoW is perfect, and accepted by those who aren't slow to think about things.
/toss BS Flag
A multi-million dollar investment already has a business model in place or otherwise such a project becomes a DOT COM Bomb. Now revising a plan due to market changes is possible, which then tells me, that the original business model (subscription based) is not as viable compared to others; or so they are thinking.
And why do interviewee's freakin keep using the word, "absolutely"?
I'm not here to spread doom and gloom but I just hope they really don't try to be like Champions Online and do a subscription based game and microtransactions in the same game. If they do, that is a deal breaker and I will refuse to play the game.
I am all for microtransactions in a F2P game, but if I am paying a monthly fee, that better include all content developed for the game.
We will really help set a bad precedent in MMOs if we accept P2P plus cash shop. I want that concept to fail miserably.
Well, hopefully this will not be the case.
So if the game was, lets say 9.99 instead of 14.99 a month, and had a shop like Guild Wars or hmm, WoW, you wouldn't play it at all?
Good to know that people still decide on things without knowing all information.
Out of everything i have ever read about SWTOR i have never been dissapointed until now. What is this world wide phenomenon bullshit? What happened too we are not catering to "this" or "that" type of person. And why does he keep saying phenomenal!? I did not like this interview. Fuhk Darrel Rodriguez. Fuhk em.
If they go MT I'm out. Would be an a really awesome fail just made for another column at mmorpg.com "the biggest preventable fails in MMO history"
Awww they can't be THAT stupid...
...I hope.
If they go the subscription plus microtransactions route and the microtransactions effect gameplay in any way it will hurt their subscriptions a lot. I won't play it. They have to determine their level of greed.
I don't care how good their game is, it is meaningless to develop a character when others can just throw money at it and do the same.
And with the rising costs during the recession or any economic downturn is going to further increase the gap between those who cannot afford to keep playing online games and those who can afford it.
Guild Wars has a hugh sucess because not only they are F2P and have store but they have zero tolerance for cheaters and exploiters. Zero tolerance for gold spammers and scammers.
EA and LA are in the business of making money, they do not care about the subscribers, as long there are games being made, online games to be played they will keep the cash flowing regardless of how the subscriber thinks or feels. The scammers and gold spammers will never go away while you have cheaters and exploiters doing thier thing and companies that encourages such things.
Regardless of what happens in the near future, the business of online gaming will continue until people had enough and stop buying and paying. But that will never happened, only time they go out of business is if we go into a global depression, nuke war, or the government becomes a police state.
So if the game was, lets say 9.99 instead of 14.99 a month, and had a shop like Guild Wars or hmm, WoW, you wouldn't play it at all?
Good to know that people still decide on things without knowing all information.
"So if the game was, lets say 9.99 instead of 14.99 a month, and had a shop like Guild Wars or hmm, WoW, you wouldn't play it at all?"
Uhh, yeah. I thought I made that quite clear. It has nothing to do with monthly fees, it has to do with the idea of monthly fees plus cash shops. Your point about a lower monthly fee is irrelevant to what I posted. And it seems like plenty of others feel the same way I do about cash shops.
"Good to know that people still decide on things without knowing all information"
Do you know how ridiculous you sound? My post had nothing to do with making a decision without knowing all the information. That's why I used the word "if", genius.
I guess you thought you came up with some brilliant point about a $9.99 fee but you FAILED to explain why that would matter or what that has to do with what I said. I don't play WoW and I don't play Guild Wars so your point was pathetic.
Please stop sounding so uninformed. Thank you.
If it is a persistant world..then MT would be a bad idea. If it's like GW or DDO..then i dont care..probably wouldnt play long though.