MMOG Giants Prepare For Battle

Next Generation has a look at the increasingly crowded business of running an MMOG. They talk with Jeffery Anderson, CEO of Turbine, Robert Garriott, CEO of NCSoft, and John Needham, SVP and CFO of Sony Online Entertainment about the business of worldcrafting. From the article: "MMOG companies are in the midst of a bitter fight to carve out market share, each trying new weapons ranging from classical retail, to neo-shareware, to straight-up digital distribution."

Comments

US Consumers are freaking idiots, apparently

[EvilMagnus]

From TFA:

Garriott continues, "In Korea, if you go to a customer and say 'I want to sell you a product, and then charge a monthly fee,' they say, 'You're crazy. Why would I buy a product?' In the US it's actually the opposite. If you go to a customer and say 'Here is a free product, I'd like you to try it and then pay me a monthly fee.' Most Americans say, 'The value of this product is exactly what I pay for it.' So when you give it to them free, they think it's worthless."

"From our market research and studies, if we sell them the product at retail, they like the product more, they have more value to it, they think it's worth what they paid for it, and they try to get that value back on the computer, learning about the game, and then they have a higher chance of paying a subscription fee afterwards.

What I take away from this is that the quality of a product to a US consumer is not linked to things like features and fun, but to how much they paid for it. I could give away World's Best Game, and there'd be consumers out there who'd think it was crap because they didn't pay for it. On the other hand, charge $50 for crap, and suddenly folks like it because it cost them $50.

This explains a great deal about the typical US consumer.