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Alternative Distribution Schemes For The MMO?

Posted by simoniker on from the less-means-more dept.

Thanks to The Adrenaline Vault for its editorial discussing ways the MMO and online gaming industry can evolve beyond its current saturation levels. The author argues: "The structure of MMOGs all but requires consumers to choose one title to the exclusion of all others... so, how can game makers continue to use this business model without collectively suffocating?" Therefore, a solution is suggested: "Scale projects back and use episodic content instead. Under the drip feed model, users pay for gameplay in small chunks rather than a periodic access fee. For example, Resident Evil: Outbreak would have translated perfectly into this type of game because its scenarios are encapsulated and self-sufficient... This approach... requires much less in the way of maintenance costs and initial investment [and] provides entertainment in digestible bursts... which means more room in the marketplace for everyone to sell their wares."

3 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Here's my idea by truffle · · Score: 4, Interesting


    As a gamer you pay a monthly subscription fee for a gaming service, the fee is something like $19.99 a month.

    Any online game can choose to be covered under this service. If it is, you can play that game.

    My $19.99 fee is then distributed proportionally to each of the game providers based on how much time I spent playing their game.

    For example, in one month I might:
    - Spend 10 hours playing MMO #1 ($10)
    - Spend 5 hours playing MMO #2 ($5)
    - Spend 5 hours playing team FPS game ($5)

    My total allowed gameplay is unlimited, it's only the proportion of play that matters.

    Unfortunately I don't think the publishers will ever agree to that, and unless the majority of fun online games was covered, it just wouldn't work.

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  2. Most Annoying Part by _Neurotic · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is having to shell out $40-$50 for a retail box for most of the online games. If I'm paying $15-$20 month for a subscription, why should I have to walk down to my local CompUSA and pay $50 for a CD? They should be downloadable, period.

    I can say that I probably would be a susbscriber to one or more games if it were not for the barrier of initial investment.

  3. Slowly but surely getting there... by Soukyan · · Score: 5, Informative

    SOE currently offers their All Access Pass :

    "If you play more than one SOE game, or you want to try the other great SOE games available, SOE All Access opens the SOE game catalog to you.

    SOE All Access grants access to all current games published by SOE*, which includes: EverQuest® EverQuest® Macintosh Edition PlanetSide EverQuest® Online Adventures Station Pass access, which includes the popular games Infantry Online, Cosmic Rift and Tanarus

    Full access to these games for the low monthly subscription price of $21.99 is a potential savings of more than $18.00 every month over the total cost of the individual subscriptions!    "


    PlayNC (NCSoft) does not offer such a deal but is a central site for managing your online game subscriptions and I imagine once Guild Wars, Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault and others are released, we may start to see some special offers from them as well.


    Skotos has been offering this type of service for a long time. For one monthly fee you can access and play all 11 of the games that they offer. Only 2 are graphical MMOGs (Meridian 59 and Underlight), but the other games are very good as well.


    The largest factor in offering multiple "A list" titles for one monthly fee is offsetting development (and in the case of MMOGs, maintenance) costs and bringing in enough revenue to show a good profit. The bottom line is always a driving factor in any business. However, there is hope. As technology moves forward, we will start to see more and more rapid development of MMOGs of higher quality and consequently we should start to see a wider array of offerings and price points.


    I also agree that some sports games should start to appear on the scene. XBox Live will probably be a driving factor to this more than anything. Playing football online against other players is quite fun and should prove to be very popular considering the amount of sports console games sold. Now, as to whether that genre will move to PC is yet to be seen, but as I mentioned before, in SOE's All Access Pass, they combine online console and PC subscriptions into one package. A diverse product line benefits them in this case. More comapnies need to grow in the genre and diversify at the same time, but that takes time and money. Soon though... very soon.