Hello. The current model Warhammer 40k: Eternal Crusade is going for is "pay once, play forever" with mixed-in F2P Ork Boys. Sounds great, but I've got one concern - sustaining the servers. When an MMO has a monthly subscription fee, it has a steady amount of income flow, which is incredibly healthy for both the game and it's developers (look at Blizzard). However if the MMO has you pay once and then sustains itself on in-game store purchases (GW2), the cash flow is unpredictable. Obviously there are going to be huge surges of money during expansions, but again, you don't know what happens next. Also, if an MMO has a subscription fee, some players will feel obliged to play until the end of their subscription to get their money's worth, even if they get bored. During that time there is a big chance they'll get interested with the game again, renew the subscription and keep playing. Overall, I'd really advise Behaviour Interactive to consider this payment model: 10$ - 15$ a month + F2P Ork Boys. There could be no subscriptions during the closed beta, when the people who bought the Founders Packs will be testing the game. After launch or open beta subscriptions should get introduced. Thank you for your time, Heksor. P.S. Sorry for my poor English. It is not my mother-tongue.
Ive said this before and ill say it again here, a subscription based MMO of this type and scale cannot function. Look at Planetside 2, if it could then they surely would have done so for that extra cash. Bottom line, players are the content of these kind of wargames, if you have a greatly fluctuating playerbase (due to a part of the playerbase not being able to pay this months, or the next few months fee) then the players who actually do have money to pay each month will suffer. As they are missing the content, the content being the other players. Their playtime fun is diminished cause people couldnt play that month due to lack of dosh.
Subscription based MMO are a thing of the past; just look at WOW it lost 200,00 subs the last quart . And that's with Activision Blizzard padding their numbers by counting the Asia market as subs when they are not.
I just hope they make smth like DOTA 2 workshop and Planetside 2 player studio. That way players make cosmetics and behaviour can focus on ''bigger projects''. As for payment model i play GW2 since start, I didnt spend money since i bought the box. I am still playing it and and I m not gimped in anyway, i can also get any item from cash shop simply buy converting ingame gold to gems. Also game gets updates more often than any other MMO, including sub ones. And ofc this game as PS2 requires a lot off players, putting monthly sub wont make bored players stay and play it will just encourage them not to touch game again.
Subscription is just a fancy word for rent when use with a game. How often does a PC gamer go "I think I am going to rent a game".
Subs are the best, in my opinion. I'll have alts to circumvent situations, so they'd be wise to make me pay for them.
player studio can't work. Game workshop must decide and approve every single item. when they release a screenshot every single screenshot they show need approval from game workshop. this is the reason they show gameplay from another pc image from a tablet and not directly.
Jcanto subscriptions aren't very good for the health of a game. People shouldn't try to compare WoW to eternal crusade for various reasons. Continuing my earlier train of thought, subscriptions dont help they turn away potential players because they don't have the money to waste on subscriptions and may turn away player who don't have the time to be playing enough to validate their subscription fee. And just because WoW still is surviving doesn't mean subscription is good for a game , WoW is a horse with a limp it's about time blizzard put it down. Any ways subscriptions may be steadier income wise but they just don't work well with games this size and the current state of the world and of gaming.
