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Sony Announces Flat Rate MMO Subscription
Thorizdin writes "It looks like Sony is making moves that will change gaming, but not just in the handheld market. SOE (Sony Online Entertainment) are bundling their MMO subscription plans so gamers can play all of their premium games for one flat rate ($21.99 US per month), rather than pay for many subscriptions separately. There are some exceptions, though, since the new pricing only applies to SOE-published games, so you won't get Star Wars Galaxies in the bundle." For the record, the specific games included are Everquest, Planetside, Everquest Online Adventures for PS2, the Station Pass (Tanarus, Infantry, Cosmic Rift), and Everquest 2 when it launches.
I think this will help SoE move people from EQ to EQ2 because they'll be more likely to experiment at this price than if they had to have a second subscription. I know I can only justify one $12/month game to myself (and the wife). This is only a slight savings over two $12/mo games, but you're getting access to a lot more than two games.
I think, however, that this will make my trying SW:G less likely since it will be a comparably worse deal.
Access to multiple entertainment streams will make it more likely that someone will be a loyal Sony Online customer, trying out the new Sony games, always keeping that Sony membership active.
Smart move Sony
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Can't remember where I read this... broadly speaking its the idea that consumers don't like the idea of having to pay subscriptions for individual games, they prefer paying for a package, in the same way you would subscribe to a cable or satellite service for a flat fee and then have access to a number of channels. Seems like a good idea then!
I don't know about other people but I usually only play one game at a time. When I get sick of it I move on to the next game.
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They should pay me $21.99 a month to play those. But seriously, why not make something worth paying for?
What luck for rulers, that men do not think. - Adolph Hitler
I know a few people who play Everquest and I wonder if this is relevant? It seems that once you get addicted to the game, you stop playing everything else. Are there a lot of people who have time to play multiple online RPGs?
What would make more sense to me is a sort of mini-site-license that allows everyone in a single household to play for a flat fee. I know of at least two families where both parents and at least one kid all play Everquest. It would make sense to offer a flat fee for them.
Actually, now that I think about it, Sony is probably doing what makes more financial sense for them. A person is more likely to try another game if they don't have to pay another subscription fee.
Of course, based on the people I know, they could charge 50 bucks a hit for EQ and people would pay it. It's worse than heroin.
So far, I've never subscribed to any MMRPG, mainly because of children in the house that take away from time (so hard to play online when you have to hit the "pause" button), and also because at $10 a month, I'd have to really pick one and only play that.
With this, I think I could stomach paying the $20 a month (perhaps less at a "yearly subscription rate" and hook up to whatever I want. So if I want some Planetside shooting action, great. If I want to RPG a bit, I can stop playing Planetside for a week/month and come back to it later, and not worry about my user being deleted or something.
Sony's got a smart idea here. I hope they hook up more systems under the model, perhaps extend the offer to other third party companies, so you can pick and choose from a list. I wouldn't mind paying $20 a month, and clicking 3 or 4 games total from a list I'm going to use if it included 3rd party stuff like Dark Age of Camelot, Star Wars Galaxies, etc.
Of course, this does sound like someone else's Live service once it hits the third party stuff, but the difference would have to be "choice". I don't have to use Sony's all-you-can-eat plan if I don't want to, unlike Microsoft where their games are "Live or Nothing" all too often for online play. (Well, unless I want to tweak Mr. Router a bit.)
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In case you missed it, there's another article on the site (http://www.sonyonline.com/corp/press_releases/EQ2 _incentives_051303.html) that shows Sony is trying to provide additional incentives to those who play both EQ1 and EQ2. The most relevant paragraph follows:
"SAN DIEGO, CA - May 12, 2003 - Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE), a worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online gaming, announced today that it is adding incentives to EverQuest® II, the parallel online universe to the hugely successful gaming phenomenon EverQuest®, to reward current EverQuest players for the time they have invested enjoying the original title. The incentives will include exclusive crossover quest zones in each game that will be accessible only by subscribers of both games, allowing characters in EverQuest and EverQuest II to gain access to hidden treasures, an EverQuest II in-game reward for loyal fans, and additional features to be disclosed over the coming months for ongoing EverQuest and EverQuest II players"
Last game I played that had crossover zones to encourage people to play both was probably Might and Magic IV/V...
What about paying for several games at $21.99/mo in which several members of a household share the bill and each plays a game.
Also, can this be applied to several accounts per game? Would be awesome if so!
This looks like moving to a cable-style subscription model is becoming a trend. For instance, Skotos (www.skotos.net) instituted a 'many games, one price' subscription plan last year, which they now currently have 7 different games for $12.95 a month, and more on the way.
I guess this makes sense as who the online game industry really competes against is the premium cable industry. They want you to watch 80 hours a month of their programming, but instead you play 80 hours a month online games.
It is curious that they are excluding Star Wars Galaxies -- is that only because they can't because of LucasFilm licensing?
I know that in the case of Skotos that they have a fairly elaborate royalty model to allow the royalties to be shared by multiple games including those not produced by Skotos. Sony can do a many games/one price easily because they all own their own games. My guess maybe EA will offer a similar multi game subscription with Sims and UO soon.
-- Herder of Cats
This is what Microsoft has been doing since day 1. ... at a notably higher price that Microsoft.
It's also part of the reason EA decided NOT to go with Microsoft in creating Live-enabled XBOX games. It'll be interesting to see how EA responds now that Sony has decided to follow this unified service model
People that play persistant universe games fall into 3 basic catagories:
Casual gamers that will only play so long as they're having fun. Once they hit the XP treadmill, they'll try something different, like a new character or a completely different game.
Serious gamers that will play even if they're not having fun, because they enjoy the friends that they've made in the game. These poor bastards willl trudge through the XP treadmill and some will even make the top level, but most will simply hang around the upper levels, without much real hope of gaining the top level since they'd rather play with friends than do XP.
Fanatical gamers will play until they hit top level, then once they don't have a goal to shoot for in that game, they'll find another game and race through that one, too.
the first and third group fit perfectly in with the concept of a fee that'll let them play all the SOE games. Casual gamers always want something interesting and fanatical gamers reach end-game too quick. I know more than a few high levels in AO, EQ, AC and DAOC that are running wild in more than one of those games.
too bad about the no Star Wars: Galaxies bit. Lucas could have made a mint with the cross-promotion. Instead he's going to have to compete with his own dev company.
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I haven't gotten into everquest yet, waiting for everquest 2. But I do spend about $20 a month on Magic the Gathering Online (league play), and Sony's deal lets you play more than one game per month for $22 / month. That's not too bad. Don't know if it can take the place of Magic. Although it may be time for a new addiction, we'll have to see.
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there's no way I'm gonna pay $21.99/month just to play planetside
Everquest AND Plantside? Damn, if only I didn't have a social life...
Sony's definitely got the right idea on this one. I could never convince myself to pay a monthly fee for a game, no matter how good, as long as it was more than $5. (though, oddly, I paid $1.99 an hour for Federation waaay back when... man, what a fun game that was ^_^). But now, referring to the above comments about the cable channels, this is like a group package. I've ALREADY convinced myself that I can do this. (By the way, maybe I just misread the post, but did it say that people who aren't already subscribed to a game can't jump on the $21.99 bandwagon? Man, would THAT ever suck.)
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