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All MMOGs Will Be Free To Play !

by admin posted Jul 10,2010

No, this is not an official statement from MMOG publishers around the world. It’s a statement that I can conclude from reading a book entitled: “FREE: The Future of Radical Price” by Chris Anderson.

Free – Chris Anderson

Complete Review Can Be Found Here

When I finished reading this book, I saw an article from MMOSite saying that Lord of The Ring Online is going to be F2P. And if you’ve read this book, you will agree that at some points, Chris is right and what he predict is going to happen, sooner or later. In his first conclusion about digital techonology, he said that “If it’s digital, sooner or later it will be FREE!”

So when LoTRO goes F2P, and someone is asking whether it’s a success or failure, I would say that it can not be judged as success or failure. Turbine claim it to be a successful subscription game. But they like what has happened to DDO. So they decide that LoTRO should go with F2P model too. Success or failure, all will depend on the result of that move now. Once again, if you read Chris Anderson’s Free, you will agree with me that Turbine’s move is the right one.

Granado Espada also has gone through the same process. They went as a P2P game, and later they switch to F2P. And the game still alive until today, and even license it to one of the top game publisher in my country!

I think Chris is right. Digital product tend to be free. And MMOGs are digital. So it tends to be free. Now to the main event: if you ask me is it possible that WoW goes F2P? Possible, yes. There is always possibility for everything. But unlikely. Why?

Here’s the reason:

Everything has settled in WoW. When everything has settled, you have a very competitive advatage compare to other MMO title. Existing community, existing systems, reputations, network, and many more. That’s scarcity. And to convert something as settled as WoW is not an easy task. Besides, why should you do it? You are the leader, and you don’t need to do that as long as you make money. The main reason you go F2P is because you believe that this model will give you more money than the existing one. Will F2P WoW give you more money than today’s model? I don’t think so. Even with subscription fee “entry barrier”, Blizzard has to work very hard to eliminate negative effect such as bot and money farming. Can you imagine if they open this barrier with F2P?

Take a look at Microsoft. Is Microsoft Windows a digital product? Yes. Is it free? No! Why would Microsoft give it for free? They are the leader. In fact, last month, they have reported that Windows 7 is selling 150 million copies! That’s 6 licenses per second since their launch.

Maybe, when WoW has been overthrowned by other game, it is possible to go with F2P model. But I don’t think it’s gonna be today.

However, if Blizzard is going to launch a new MMOG, the possibility of F2P is bigger. Why?

Take a look at today’s MMOG market. Most of them are F2P. If you own a new MMOG title, will you be confident enough to throw your product with subscription fee? I think it’s suicide if you do. Today’s F2P MMOGs are amazing! They may be free, but certainly that doesn’t mean that they are developed in low quality. I just played Atlantica Online, and I played it with my old computer. It’s running smoothly. And the graphic? It’s very beautiful. What more beatiful is, it’s FREE! Another one is Dragonica Online. I have played many 2D MMORPGs and I have to say that the graphic quality, the gameplay quality, the quest quality are much much better than the old day of subscription based RO. Even casual MMORPG like Grand Chase are improving in terms of gameplay. Yes, many of them are still repetitive, but take a look back at several years ago. When the composition of market is still devided evenly between the F2P and P2P.

With that kind of competition, it is now almost impossible to create a product with P2P based model, and success, UNLESS you really define a COMPLETELY NEW AND REVOLUTIONARY MMOG.

So I will quote Jeffery Liu about F2P:

“So, I think the F2P games will outdo P2P games and occupy the whole market in the future.”

Yes Jeff, I agree with you.

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