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Linux Users More Likely To Pay For Games?

Posted by simoniker on from the freedom-to-spend-freely dept.

Teppy writes "I noticed something unexpected the other day when reviewing the subscriber counts for our MMORPG, A Tale In The Desert. Of everyone who tries our game, Linux users are definitely more inclined to pay money to subscribe. In fact, overall, about 15.6% of Windows users who do the free trial will subscribe, while among Linux users the number is 19.3%. Furthermore, Linux users tend to remain subscribers for a longer time. Are we the only game company noticing this?" Is this down to loyalty, choice, or other mysterious factors?

3 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Fewer Games to Choose From... by Katyrnyn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Perhaps the higher subscription rate among the Linux crowd is because we're game starved. There are far more game choices when it comes to the Windows game market, thus more to draw away customers.

    --
    I dti'r na ndall is ri' fear na leathshu'ile.
  2. A good number of reasons by Youssef+Adnan · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, this is related to the following reasons:
    - A number of people would do so in order to encourage game companies to make games for linux.
    - A number of Linux users do not have a large variety of games available. This makes them stick with what they got.
    - The Linux community in general is supportive to companies that care enough to care about the community.

    So it's loyalty, fewer varities, and paying back.

  3. Where the money goes by Teppy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's a breakdown of overhead costs. But that's not most of the $14.

    We have a small company - 3 artists, 2 coders. We spend pretty much all of our time saying "ah, here's a cool new challenge to add to the game." My partner and I code it, the artists do their part, and we release a new skill, or new research, or a new event or Test. This happens at least a couple times each week.

    I can't imagine being able to keep the game fresh and interesting working less than full time. There is *no way* we could pay the bills based only on an initial (box) fee.