DC Universe Online

[Omega 354]

What's the difference between millions of people playing for free on the Call of Duty servers and people paying to play on this?

 

Consider how many poeple are playing in one environment at a time. Since I don;t play COD I'll assume the general fps route of having something like maybe 16 player on at one time? So each server can probably host many many individual games in very small predefined areas. Each server of your average MMO can have thousands of players playing at any one time all expecting exactly the same response time from a world with no load zones where it;s entirely possible to have hundreds of players all in one city.

 

An FPS V a proper MMO is not a relative or comparable match.

 

Its funny that Icon mentions the optional content choice. That to me is a bigger rip off. At least when you pay a monthly sub you know you get everything in the game and should you decide to leave the game once you've got to top level you know you aren't missing out on anything. With optional content it's a feeder for buying more and more stuff be it expansion stuff like Spore or like LOTRO when there is a level cap that forms part of the vanilla experience.

 

At least when you pay your £40 for a brand new game with a sub fee you get all of that game!

[Guest John Hancock]

I don't have a problem with subscription based games on any sort of moral level, I just don't really have the inclination to throw away that much more for a game I doubt I'll play for more than 30 minutes a week.

[etz 78]

Total bollocks to be honest. Even if the server cost in itself is simply £1 a month a big MMO such as WOW that's £13M a month just on the servers!

 

Yeah, with a total subscription income of £130M per month. And if you think it costs £13M per month to maintain the WoW servers, data center and routing systems, well you're just plain nuts.

 

You add on top of that the cost of the server techs, developers, marketing, forum admins and all the other costs with just keeping a MMO GOING let alone actually actively working on expansions and sequels and I'd doubt that your £10 per month is 90% profit as you suggest.

 

That £1 is the entire technical cost per player for a game like WoW, including the live dev team (the babysitters, not the new content devs) and the server techs and all the hardware, including any and all upgrades for the entire life of the game.

 

Expansions and sequels are paid for by people buying them, just like any other game. Ditto with marketing.

 

If you're including community support, forums etc to the level Blizzard does, then you can add another £1 a month per player if you like. It doesn't really cost that much, but add it anyway. That's still 8 out of 10 pounds directly into the black.

 

Or are you suggesting the MMO's should be run as not for profit? I do believe that a company tends to run to make a profit for the owners.

 

No, I'm not. I'm suggesting people who are willing to pay £40 to buy a game, and then £10/month to play that game either have too much money, too much free time, too little sense, or all of them. Subscription MMO's are a con that sell you 2 apples for the price of 20.

 

That said, I don't have a problem with companies operating that system, despite the fact it is extortionate, I just choose not to partake in it, primarily because I'm not someone who will spend 80 hours a week playing games. The players aren't being duped into it, they're volunteering their money.

 

Me, I'd rather spend my money on a new game every 4 months.

 

Regarding optional content, it depends on what it is. I like Guild Wars method of costumes etc. Basically, they just look cool, they don't provide any benefit. I've also got no problem with games selling in game items for real cash either, as long as the items are not ONLY available for real cash, they need to be available through game play too.

Edited January 14, 2011 by etz

[Paul 584]

Etz, do you have sources for this £1 a month dealio you're saying is fact? Not being funny, but I'd like to see it is all. :)

[etz 78]

Nope, I got it from a cousin who's in the industry (in accounts, for shame...), though logic and some basic math go a long way to confirming it. It's also not a fact, it's an estimate based on a playerbase of one million subscribers. Bigger games, like WoW, cost less per person and smaller games cost more.

 

To run WoW from 2004 to 2008 cost Blizzard roughly $200 million (and that's well documented, just google it)... which was roughly £120 million, or thereabouts, at the time. And that includes everything, all the hardware, personnel, every last thing.

 

So, in four years they spent $200 million. Or roughly $4 million per month. Against, what, an average of, at least, 4 million subscribers. So that's a dollar per month per subscriber, or there abouts.

 

So, in a way Omega was right. A pound a month is bollocks. They're screwing you worse than I predicted, Megs. Well done on that, it really proved your point....or not.

 

Let's change that cost of $200M directly into pounds, and then double the cost from £200M to £400M, even though the $200M figure is only 2 years old.

 

 

Assume an average over it's entire life to date of the cheapest monthly fee, and 7 million users as average, despite the fact it's actually 12 million.

 

7M users x 12 months x 6 years x £7.69 = £3875.76 Million.

 

So that's 3475 Million pounds in profit from subscription fees ALONE.

 

That's not counting sales of expansions and it's assuming only half the player base is actually active.

 

Still not a license to print money?

 

Just face it, if you're paying a subscription fee, you may as well drop your trousers and lube up good, because you're being buggered whether you can admit it or not. And, to be absolutely clear, I have no problem of any kind with any company doing that, so long as I'm not paying them.

Edited January 14, 2011 by etz

[Paul 584]

Just to update on this, seems this game is turning free to play as of the end of october. There will still be a way to pay to get premium content though. From the DCU facebook page

 

As of today, you may notice on the PlayStation3™ Store a new naming convention for the DCUO monthly subscription packs: “Legendary”. Legendary level access is the name of our premium membership for when we transition to the Free-To-Play model. As part of preparing for that transition, we have updated the names of the membership packs today on the PSN. As of today, if you are purchasing a membership or renewing one, there is no change at all to what the service provides – access to the game for the period specified. Once we transition the service to Free-To-Play, new features will be applied to Legendary level access (as well as premium and free). For more details about the access level breakdown, visit: dcuniverseonline.com/free

 

 

 

We are very excited to be taking this important first step in our transition! We can't wait until DCUO Free-To-Play is live and from what we are reading online, sounds like a lot of you feel the same way. So hang in there and stay tuned.

 

 

 

I may buy it now.

[etz 78]

I don't think you even have to buy it, from this faq, (point 2) it sounds like you can download the client and play FTP for free.

 

 

I may even pay for the pay to play bits if they're worth it, since it's no longer a requirement to pay monthly and it looks like you don't even have to purchase the game.

[DC 536]

Since this'll be free-to-play, I think I'll give it a go once I'm done with Batman. I'm also thinking of getting the X-Men: Destiny game; has anyone played it yet?

[Guest John Hancock]

I'm also thinking of getting the X-Men: Destiny game; has anyone played it yet?

 

I haven't played it, but every review I've seen of it has been baaaaaaaaaaad.

[Guest Dave7g]

When does this become free? I was interested in it, but the price was a complete disgrace.

[Paul 584]

Im told its free as of today mate.

[Guest Dave7g]

I'll see you there so :)