Pricing MMO's: What players expect and developers need
by Matt Eberle

Since the beginning of commercial online games players have had to pay to play. In some genres, such as first-person-shooters or strategy games the “price” is included with the game itself. In the role-playing genre this has been a monthly fee. With the addition of virtual billboards and the move by some developers to do away with monthly fees for online RPGs the way gamers pay for their games is changing. For an inside look on how the MMO industry deals with subscription fees and costs we’re getting an insider’s look thanks to Terri Perkins, Online Product Manager with Funcom.

Question: Massively multiplayer online games have historically charged their players modest fees every month. While the fans often gripe about the cost (whatever it is) many of us don’t have a firm understanding of what the costs are for an online game. Could you tell us how the subscription fees are used? 

MMO’s are extremely expensive to maintain.  These fees go into maintaining the game, adding all the new dynamic content and into creating the expansions and content upgrades, advertising and marketing, tech support, artists, coders, quality control, boxes, ratings fees, conventions, hardware..well you get the idea. I think “modest fees” is a very key word here. When you consider the hours that are spent with an MMO and the services received, I really don’t think there’s a better bargain for your entertainment budget and I believe the number of players I’ve met ..ever that felt that was a big concern can be counted on one hand. If you’re a MMO player, and the game is engaging -you’re more than getting your money’s worth and generally realize that .

The Alien Invasion expansion pack for Anarchy Online expands players’ horizons.

Q: How do developers decide on the subscription fees for online games? What kind of thought goes into deciding how to price a game and what players should expect in return?

It’s based a great deal on what is needed to make the game viable and what the market will support. I believe it works just about the same in this regards as for any service.

Q: Some games are using in-game advertising. Do you think this will help reduce monthly subscription costs? How do developers deal with making certain the placement is solid but not intrusive?

Well, Anarchy Online has no monthly fee at all for the current basic version of the game so it can work and work well, but it isn’t for everyone. For the second question, with the service we use through our partnership with Massive Inc, we are able to maintain complete control and retain approval rights for each and every ad. The team at Funcom are players too and we never lost sight of that . At no time to our ads interfere with game play and you’ll never find pop up ads in AO. We test, test and test some more as not being intrusive is extremely important to us. We have been able to find a very good balance and enhance the game rather than detract from it.

Q: Games like Anarchy Online and Guild Wars are making big news in the gaming industry because they are moving away from monthly subscription fees. How do you see this trend changing the industry in the next few years?

I think it will be an exciting few years with many innovations that will bring about changes that will please players and developers. I think the vast majority of game creators want to make games people enjoy and the challenges to enable us to do that are often quite unique. The approach we’re using, the method that Guild Wars is using, modules, bulking games into one subscription fee, increasing the price of the base game -all of these things are interesting to watch. Remember, we’re still only in the infancy of the business models for the genre and the models that evolve in the next few years may be quite different than anything we’ve seen so far.

Guild Wars allows players full access to a MMO without recurring subscription fees.

Q: Expansion packs typically have large content additions or upgrades. How do developers decide when the time is right to create that much new content for the players?

Good question. For us, there is always new content in the works both for free upgrades and expansion packs. The release time is dependent on when the content is ready and tests have shown we’re at a point we can introduce the content. You need to have a set cycle of expansions (preferably no more than a year apart) to keep it all thriving.

Q: Players in online games are becoming more and more focused on content. Several graphically stunning games have fallen by the wayside because they did not have enough content to keep the players happy. How do you feel this is affecting the Industry?

I think content may not be an accurate word for what players seek. A game can be full of content, and yet not engaging or fun. I think players want immersion and fun and in today’s world where we’re competing for a very valuable asset—‘free time’ in people’s lives, you’re simply not going to succeed if your game isn’t fun and immersive. I think players are more demanding that the content they get meets this criteria and that drives the industry forward and the end result is a better product. In the days of MUDS, you could still have a great game with no graphics that was content rich and engaging. For a brief period in the graphical online game era it was possible to succeed without a lot of the things that make games succeed just by having pretty pictures and sound. The maturing of the industry in this regards is quite natural and the competition and refining of players pushes us all forward. It’s a very good thing in my opinion.

Q: If games move away from the standard monthly subscription fee and start to rely on expansion for the continual sort of income, how incumbent is it that developers stagger expansions so that they are making each expansion a worthwhile investment?

If you’re going to rely on expansions for income then you need to be very sure you can sell enough to provide for the day to day needs between expansions. In this model, the first time the expansion doesn’t do well. you’re in a bit of a pickle I think. This is quite risky in my opinion to have no other source of revenue to support your game (in terms of MMO’s). It will be great if Guild Wars succeeds with this endeavor and is able to provide the day to day support in between. We’ll know more as this model progresses and their plans are revealed.

World of Warcraft is a popular MMO that requires a monthly subscription fee to play.

Q: Is such a practice viable enough to make the effort worthwhile?

I think it depends on too many factors to say. It may be viable for some , but it’s too early to speculate I think.

Q: How would quality assurance be covered in that scheme? That’s the big question isn’t it?

If in terms of quality assurance if you refer to in game customer support, ongoing needs to provide for bug hunting and fixing, the constant needs an MMO has, I am skeptical that a game can provide good support using this expansion only business model without another source of revenue for very long. I don’t think that Anarchy’s model and Guild Wars model can be put in the same basket on this as our models are so different though.

Q: How vital is it that players who don't buy or can't afford to buy the expansion upon release don't feel that they have fallen too far behind and lose interest in the game?

If they feel they’ve fallen too far behind or lose interest, they’re ex players. Very vital!

Q: AO has been one of the more popular MMO games for years. What kind of message is Funcom sending to the rest of the industry when they changed the billing structure of AO? And do you think the rest of the industry is listening?

Thank you for the kind words. We didn’t do this to necessarily try to change the industry or to send a message. Placing the ads in AO and removing all fees for our basic game made sense for Anarchy Online but certainly would not work for many games out there or that are forthcoming. We don’t consider ourselves so highly that we feel we’re the ones to emulate constantly. We understand that we’re one of the innovation leaders and are proud to be in that position, but we are still learning each and every day ourselves. We just don’t do things to say “Hey look what we did, everyone else should follow us”. The rest of the industry is listening, but we listen just as much to others for inspiration. Our first and foremost goal is to make games people love and to do what’s best for our players and if we do our best to achieve this, we are a success in our eyes. 

As always, thank you for your time.

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