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Free Realms Approaches the Five-Million-Player Mark

Posted by Soulskill on from the price-is-right dept.

A few days ago at Comic-Con, Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley spoke about the success of Free Realms, their free-to-play MMORPG that relies on microtransactions for a business model. The game was released at the end of April, and by mid-June there were upwards of three million registered users. Now that total is approaching five million, with no sign of slowing down. Min Kim, another panelist at the discussion, said, "When people started talking about it back in 2003 or 2004, people said Western games would never want to do this, to play a game for free and then buy items. And now everybody is saying, 'We're going to have microtransactions as part of our business model.'"

21 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. So if I were to jump off the cliff... by thatkid_2002 · · Score: 2, Funny

    So if I were to jump off the cliff the idiotic CEOs and Game Designers would follow me?

    It's OK. I'll take one for the team, guys.

    1. Re:So if I were to jump off the cliff... by Jurily · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It seems a wiser idea would be to give the users a chance to love your game THEN introduce microtransactions, perhaps to allow users gain an edge during endgame.

      Fuck no. Nobody wants to play with someone who constantly tries to bribe the DM. And nobody wants to play with a DM who can be bribed.

      You already have a working business model out there, follow that: in WoW everyone is equal.

    2. Re:So if I were to jump off the cliff... by Antidamage · · Score: 2, Informative

      I didn't play very long, but it seemed everything beyond basic questing is locked off until you buy stuff. There's a lot of cosmetic, pet and other things that all cost. It sounds like frills but it felt like 75% of the game.

  2. 5m players or registered users? by Lazy+Jones · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I find such claims dubious, then again I don't know whether the pay-to-play games producers include people who take the free 14-day trials in their claimed player numbers...

    --
    "I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you" (Freddie Mercury)
    1. Re:5m players or registered users? by fractoid · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's easy to get registrations for a free game, most of those require you to register to even download the client. Average concurrent users is a much better measure of a game's popularity. Then again I guess you could consider WoW China's business model to be microtransaction based (they pay a very small fee per hour instead of paying a larger fee per month), and that's responsible for a large part of WoW's playerbase. Numbers like that are always inflated as much as they can to make the game look better anyway.

      --
      Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
  3. Well, if it works... by Sumbius · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have to admit that this is one of the free MMPORPGs that I haven't played, but I know many games that use this business model and it works. The so said "free" part attracts player to the game and most start paying for items soon after. Still, I'm really amazed by how they managed to get an estimate of 5 million players in such a short while. Lets just hope that they don't get greedy and start compensating the lack of monthly fee income by making the item prices too high, like Perfect World International has done (in my opinion atleast), where a simple mount can cost up to 60 euros, while on other servers, such as the Malaysian server they cost only a few bucks. Well we will see...

  4. I'm willing to buy stuff in those games. by anomnomnomymous · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well done to them.
    If the game(s) are executed well, and you still can play the same game when -not- paying for it (or not get a severe advantage), I'll be playing it... and I might even buy some virtual stuff.

    I've recently started playing Battlefield Heroes, and whereas I thought I wouldn't be fooled into buying silly virtual clothes, I've recently -did- do that, if not only because I think giving back five pounds of my money is a reasonable amount for the enjoyable content they delivered.
    So yeah, let more free games come along, and I might try to compensate a company for their work (my main motivation for buying those items).

    --
    When you shoot a mime, do you use a silencer?
    1. Re:I'm willing to buy stuff in those games. by julesh · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Agreed. I'm normally a cheap-assed bastard who will go so far out of his way to avoid paying for stuff you wouldn't believe it, but I've shelled out cash for items in utransaction mmos before. The model does work.

  5. Winders Only, of course.... by JasonDT · · Score: 2, Informative

    I was bored and wanted to see what the hype was about, so I went to check out Free Realms and what do you know, its windows only...Its a browser game for christs sake... Invest the time and make it multi-platform...I guess I'm out...thanks again sony...

    --
    "It's not that I don't understand what your going through. Its that I just don't care"
    1. Re:Winders Only, of course.... by Kratisto · · Score: 3, Funny

      Now Slashdot that's a browser game. The entire website is in the browser and can be read as long as you have the most up to date javascript. Even on linux.

      --
      Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
    2. Re:Winders Only, of course.... by JasonDT · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I wouldn't know whether it was a browser game or not... as soon as it detected that I was not running windows the whole process stopped...

      --
      "It's not that I don't understand what your going through. Its that I just don't care"
  6. "Massively" Multiplayer by minsk · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Whenever one of these articles comes up, I'm always curious about maximums for:

    - active accounts
    - concurrent users
    - concurrent users per server
    - interacting users

    It seems to me that we should differentiate between multiplayer and massively multiplayer based on the last one. And on the degree of interaction. After all, a bunch of single-player games and a chat box isn't an MMOG... I hope.

    1. Re:"Massively" Multiplayer by binkzz · · Score: 2

      Come on, it's Sony! And marketing!

      They'll blow it up any way they can.

      In fact, I bet if you check the "Do you suffer from schizophrenia or any multiple personality disorder" box, they count you as several people.

      Not to mention pregnant women!

      --
      'For we walk by faith, not by sight.' II Corinthians 5:7
  7. Great name! by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What a break from the usual parade of poorly-named free software products. "Free Realms" says it all. Free has that double meaning, and Realms tags it immediately as a swords-and-sorcery type thing. Makers of "the GIMP" and other unfortunate backronyms take note.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    1. Re:Great name! by MistrBlank · · Score: 4, Funny

      No silly, Photo Image Manipulation Program... or:

      P.I.M.P.

      They should also make a "lite edition" to make it much easier for the simple edits people would like to do without all the crazy effects.

      P.I.M.P.L.E.

  8. Depends on the game by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 3, Informative

    In the case of WoW the way the count a subscriber is a person who paid too play the game in the last 30 days. In the case of most of the world, that means someone who has an active monthly subscription. In the case of some Asian countries, it means someone who paid for some play time last month.

  9. Sony Hit A Homerun With Free Realms by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Every time Free Realms crosses another million player milestone the same thing always gets implied.

    The totals are always stated to be the unique number of players who have signed up for the game and actually played the game.

    Anyone who has tried the game can easily see why Free Realms is such a massive hit. It appeals to three different demographics very well:

    1. Burnt out hardcore MMORPG players who love being part of an online world but need a break from the hours of hardcore raiding or grinding they are use to

    2. Kids and parents

    3. Casual first time players who don't want to invent the insane time required for a standard MMORGP

    Beyond that Sony's years of experience making MMORPGs really shows. The game is the most bug free and polished MMORPG I've ever seen. Everything is streamed from the very start. You can be playing live withing a few minutes of signing up. A tiny loader program is downloaded and you are good to go. No 10 gig all day downloading and patching just to try out the game like most MMORPGs require you to go through.

    You can jump in and out at any time without worrying about dying or losing your stuff.

    And the free versus pay is pretty much evenly divided so that you can easily play a half of the game without every paying a single penny.

    The artwork is beautiful but it runs on just about any computer that someone would have at home today.

    And it is just plain fun and relaxing. Sony absolutely nailed it with Free Realms. I wouldn't be surprised if the number of people playing gets into the 10-20 million range once the game hits the millions of PS3s already on the market.

    1. Re:Sony Hit A Homerun With Free Realms by Tridus · · Score: 4, Informative

      "Every time Free Realms crosses another million player milestone the same thing always gets implied.

      The totals are always stated to be the unique number of players who have signed up for the game and actually played the game."

      Yeah, because these numbers are meaningless. Sign up and play once, then quit? You still count as a "player" until the end of time. Comparing the numbers to anything other then another game with the same model is meaningless.

      How many people spent money on it in the last month? That's the number that REALLY matters. You'll notice they don't release that one.

      --
      -- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
  10. This is the (sad) future by physburn · · Score: 3, Funny
    In the future a major proportion of the world economy will be lived in MMO style worlds. People with spend much of there time there, because in a polluted, expensive, miserable rule world, just doesn't have anything for them. Some people, like chinese gold farmers now, will slave in artificial game jobs, finding magic swords and a like for the spoiled teenagers of the richer classes. Gambling on gameplay might all spring up as a mini industry for the denizens of the MMO environments. It will be so much fun, that many people will neglect there real lives, usually spent alone in VR environment in dirty bed sits and ever smaller flats.

    ---

    MUD Games Feed @ Feed Distiller

  11. iTunes users rescue Sony by foniksonik · · Score: 3, Interesting

    iTunes really got people used to micro-transactions... unafraid really. Yes people got a few shocks when they went on a binge and grabbed whatever they felt like for a week or two but then they sobered up and realized that they could easily just get a few new songs a week and they'd be really happy.

    Now with the iPhone even more people are used to paying $0.99 for a wide selection of content while getting a lot of value for "free" (they did pay for the phone and mobile account).

    All this adds up to a growing population of people who feel very comfortable paying on demand via micro-transactions for bonus entertainment. It's like going to Disneyland or [your local amusement park] - it's not the entrance fee that get you. It's the snacks, toys, shows, lunch, dinner, clothes, etc. The entrance fee is just to weed out those who have money from those who would clog the lines for paying customers.

    --
    A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
  12. How Many Buyers? by Bieeanda · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Five million users, whether they just be one-time registrants or not, is pretty impressive. The thing is, Smed is implying a connection between those users and the cash shop, which just isn't necessarily there. The game is free-to-play. You don't need to subscribe, or to buy gear in the cash shop. I doubt many really have, beyond using the free 100 Store Cash they got from the first or second million milestone celebration.

    Cash store games work, but claiming 'five million people spend money at ours!' is disingenuous.