How FFXIV & DCUO might be influencing ESO

Gidorick

DCUO seems to be doing great on consoles… and it has been free to play for quite a while now. If ESO is wanting to compete in THIS landscape, instead of the FFXIV landscape, they have to go FTP. Square recently said:

"Three major MMO titles - 'FINAL FANTASY XIV: A REALM REBORN,' which began operation last August, 'DRAGON QUEST X,' which was launched in August 2012, and 'FINAL FANTASY XI,' which has entered its thirteenth year of operation-maintain nearly 1,000,000 paying subscribers all together, and have established a solid revenue base."

That's 1 million subs between three MMOs.... THREE

http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/pdf/ar_2014_01en.pdf

Maybe ESO subscription fits for PC players but the console market IS different and apparently the FTP model works pretty well. A recent article about DCUO shines some light on it's continued and INCREASING success.

“the PS4 version of free-to-play MMO DC Universe Online “has been monetising amazingly well” and is making between 3-3.5 times as much as the PC game. PS3 is monetising at twice the rate of PC.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/ps4-players-spend-more-on-dc-universe-online-than-pc-counterparts/0143611

As much as we all hate the possibility of ESO going free to play it might just be the reality of the business that this is how money is made now. I really don’t think there’s a point in arguing or complaining about it. ZOS KNOWS we don’t want it to go FTP, but the games that are out there show that the market is different... unfortunately.

Wing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwI0u9L4R8U

Blud

Great vid. But the narrator needs to lay off the helium.

Thanks for introducing this video series!

manny254

I haven't played dcuo in a long time, but from what I recall even though its f2p you really had to have a sub to play it end game. New players had all the content that was in the game at release, and you could buy dlc individually or just have a sub that gave you all the dlc while you where still subbed. Some of the other stuff they do and make money from really doesn't apply to eso though.

Wing

Blud wrote: »

Great vid. But the narrator needs to lay off the helium.

Thanks for introducing this video series!

I think its distorted on purpose, but im not sure.

and np, I find a lot of there stuff very insightful and wish more developers would watch it.

Bloodystab

Free 2 Play is not equal Fun 2 Play

Gidorick

Extra Credits is a great series but there is a lot of high level "this is how it should be done" concepts.

@wing, I actually don't think that video apples to this conversation. From what I read about DCUO I got the impression that they aren't seeing the whale type revenue, it's that there are more people playing more on consoles.

The article below was from last August and it says 76% of DCUO players are on a Playstation platform. 76%!

http://www.gamezone.com/news/76-of-dc-universe-online-players-play-on-a-playstation-console

ESO is coming to consoles where they can go subscription (FFXIV) or FTP (DCUO). While subscription is a viable market, the ftp appears to be more robust and it's more enticing for the average player to try if it's FTP. Expecting ESO to stay subscription is like asking them to NOT make more money.

I don't like it either but I think it's time we just accept that there is a good chance ESO is going FTP and stop complaining about it.

MissBizz

manny254 wrote: »

I haven't played dcuo in a long time, but from what I recall even though its f2p you really had to have a sub to play it end game. New players had all the content that was in the game at release, and you could buy dlc individually or just have a sub that gave you all the dlc while you where still subbed. Some of the other stuff they do and make money from really doesn't apply to eso though.

Wow. Crazy. This was said before the announcement and exactly what is happening... Original content is base and everything else is DLC. ESO will also be adding a cash shop.. So the last part applies too.

@manny254 will I win the lottery this month?

Brittany_Joy

@Wing, thanks for sharing the video, it is very insightful and I enjoy the guy's channel already!

Iago

there are plenty of scheduled ones that could be influencing eso.

trimsic_ESO

The question is not which business model is the best for ESO. The question is why ESO did not manage to be as attractive as it should or could have been.

Changing the business model will not solve the problems at the origin of its lack of popularity. What's wrong with ESO will remain wrong. It's just that now ZOS is not committed anymore to releasing contents every 4 or 6 weeks.

Let's face the reality : the new business model will draw less money than the subscription model. Buying a DLC every 4 months generates 20$ per sold copy while a 4 months subscription generates 50-60$. The cash shop can be a profitable source of revenues provided that the items we can buy are attractive. And we all know what does this mean. By the way they could have added a cash shop in the game, with convenience and cosmetic only items, while keeping in place the sub model.

No, the reality is that they gave up. The game was not profitable enough to maintain the quality of services and contents they promised to us before launch. And, instead of investing more money to fix what's wrong with the game so it can be attractive again, they preferred to stop and take no risk.

That's a pity because this game has a huge potential, and honestly if I had the money, I would invest it to fix the problems and give ESO a new start. 1.6 was an interesting opportunity for such a new start.