It's time to make the base ESO game F2P and follow other big titles like LoL and Fortnite

Universe · October 2018

Frawr wrote: »

Twohothardware wrote: »

If Fortnite has proven anything it's that if you want to gain and continue to grow an expansive player base the best way to do it is to give everyone a slice of the pie for free and then work on selling them the rest of the pie for your profits. Bungie recently took Destiny 2 which player base had majorly died off and did the same thing with the Forsaken DLC launch by making the base Destiny 2 game free for download to all Playstation Plus subscribers and now D2 is very active again.

ESO has the perfect structure already with ESO+ monthly subscription and all the separate DLC's to make the base ESO game free to download today. Your profits are coming from ESO+, Crown Store cosmetic items, and the DLC's from both new and existing players, not the $10 of brand new buyers buying the base game at Gamestop. One of those new players that downloads the game for free and likes it only has to subscribe to one month of ESO Plus to of already spent more than the cost of the base game.

An influx of new players also not only increases your potential revenue from them but it generates more interest with your existing player base to come back and become more invested when theres lots more players doing Dungeons, doing Trials, creating new Guilds, populating the Campaigns in Cyrodiil, ect.

The active ESO player base outside of special events has started to dwindle this past year compared to numbers in the past and the main Cyrodiil Campaign is no longer fully populated on PS4 outside of prime time on weekends which leads to very lopsided Alliance battles.

With the release of the upcoming DLC this would be the perfect opportunity right around the holidays to make the base ESO game free to download and bring in a new crowd of players that may of never tried the game had it not been for the opportunity to delve into it and get hooked without paying upfront.

Everyone wants something for free.

I would much rather have this game be gated by a Subscription again if it meant proper development and less time spent creating pointless tat for a micro-transaction shop.

Too bad I cancelled my ESO plus subscription last week

But seriously, if the game remained subscription based, there is a good chance the game was in a better shape today.
Mass Monthly fees(subscriptions) can motivate gaming companies to do a lot more for the customers.

Aebaradath · October 2018

Fortnite is a cesspool.

Nestor · October 2018

Twohothardware wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

Twohothardware wrote: »

Aragorn79 wrote: »

I also don't agree considering the base game costs already next to nothing. The less than 10 bucks are really not much, so why make it completely free? I don't see a good reason for it, but I do see, as many here have posted, good reasons not to make the game a click away for everybody.

Destiny 2 base game was $10 or less as well and noone was playing it. The release of a new DLC coupled with the huge amount of media exposure of the full Destiny 2 game being available to download for free on all the gaming and deal sites gave a large influx of new players that would of otherwise never got on it.

And all those players still left because Dest2 Still sucks no matter how cheap it is. ESO does not suck. Therun lies the difference

Destiny 2's player counts now are considerably higher than ESO's are. PvP in Cyrodiil on PS4 has been stale without full numbers for the last year. Campaigns like Kyne the under Lvl 50 and Sotha Sil the non CP doesn't even have 1 bar per Alliance and much of the time not even 1 bar for any Alliance. The main Campaign Vivec is one Alliance with nearly twice the player count much of the day.

ESO may not suck for the percentage of those that still play every day but ESO does not have a steady stream of new players coming into the game, it is simply old existing players, much who only get on for special events.

Are you privvy to information the rest of us dont have? Because ZOS does not publish subscriber numbers. The numbers for Destiny I see on the web range from 129,000 to 497,000. So not sure you even have an accurate source for destinys numbers.

Malprave · October 2018

Destiny 2 and Fortnite? What total garbage. No F2P! Protect the ESO community!

Twohothardware · October 2018

Nestor wrote: »

Twohothardware wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

Twohothardware wrote: »

Aragorn79 wrote: »

I also don't agree considering the base game costs already next to nothing. The less than 10 bucks are really not much, so why make it completely free? I don't see a good reason for it, but I do see, as many here have posted, good reasons not to make the game a click away for everybody.

Destiny 2 base game was $10 or less as well and noone was playing it. The release of a new DLC coupled with the huge amount of media exposure of the full Destiny 2 game being available to download for free on all the gaming and deal sites gave a large influx of new players that would of otherwise never got on it.

And all those players still left because Dest2 Still sucks no matter how cheap it is. ESO does not suck. Therun lies the difference

Destiny 2's player counts now are considerably higher than ESO's are. PvP in Cyrodiil on PS4 has been stale without full numbers for the last year. Campaigns like Kyne the under Lvl 50 and Sotha Sil the non CP doesn't even have 1 bar per Alliance and much of the time not even 1 bar for any Alliance. The main Campaign Vivec is one Alliance with nearly twice the player count much of the day.

ESO may not suck for the percentage of those that still play every day but ESO does not have a steady stream of new players coming into the game, it is simply old existing players, much who only get on for special events.

Are you privvy to information the rest of us dont have? Because ZOS does not publish subscriber numbers. The numbers for Destiny I see on the web range from 129,000 to 497,000. So not sure you even have an accurate source for destinys numbers.

Even without exact numbers all you have to do is play both games and look at streamers views and rankings to tell which one has far more interest and active players. ESO barely even has streamers now.

Malprave wrote: »

Destiny 2 and Fortnite? What total garbage. No F2P! Protect the ESO community!

It's not just Destiny 2 and Fortnite. Look at where Leauge of Legends was at when it released and what happened when it went to the free to play model. It's popularity exploded.

Danikat · October 2018

Twohothardware wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

Twohothardware wrote: »

Aragorn79 wrote: »

I also don't agree considering the base game costs already next to nothing. The less than 10 bucks are really not much, so why make it completely free? I don't see a good reason for it, but I do see, as many here have posted, good reasons not to make the game a click away for everybody.

Destiny 2 base game was $10 or less as well and noone was playing it. The release of a new DLC coupled with the huge amount of media exposure of the full Destiny 2 game being available to download for free on all the gaming and deal sites gave a large influx of new players that would of otherwise never got on it.

And all those players still left because Dest2 Still sucks no matter how cheap it is. ESO does not suck. Therun lies the difference

Destiny 2's player counts now are considerably higher than ESO's are. PvP in Cyrodiil on PS4 has been stale without full numbers for the last year. Campaigns like Kyne the under Lvl 50 and Sotha Sil the non CP doesn't even have 1 bar per Alliance and much of the time not even 1 bar for any Alliance. The main Campaign Vivec is one Alliance with nearly twice the player count much of the day.

ESO may not suck for the percentage of those that still play every day but ESO does not have a steady stream of new players coming into the game, it is simply old existing players, much who only get on for special events.

I don't think you can use the population in Cyrodiil to gauge the popularity of the game as a whole. A lot of people who play ESO never touch PvP.

Pennylong · October 2018

I have to agree with those that say no. I have seen games go f2p and seen them rapidly go down hill.

To be honest the actual buy in cost for this game really is not a lot, I've bought my friends keys in the past to get them to play and they have loved it.

I think going f2p would see the game become a social nightmare.

Varana · October 2018

The best business decisions have been made by random people from the internet. That's a proven fact (after all, a random guy on the internet - me - said so).
ZOS, do what the random guy says, now!
And if you're not sure which guy to listen to, just throw some dice or something. Whatever they say, they all know what's best!

Twohothardware · October 2018

Danikat wrote: »

Twohothardware wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

Twohothardware wrote: »

Aragorn79 wrote: »

I also don't agree considering the base game costs already next to nothing. The less than 10 bucks are really not much, so why make it completely free? I don't see a good reason for it, but I do see, as many here have posted, good reasons not to make the game a click away for everybody.

Destiny 2 base game was $10 or less as well and noone was playing it. The release of a new DLC coupled with the huge amount of media exposure of the full Destiny 2 game being available to download for free on all the gaming and deal sites gave a large influx of new players that would of otherwise never got on it.

And all those players still left because Dest2 Still sucks no matter how cheap it is. ESO does not suck. Therun lies the difference

Destiny 2's player counts now are considerably higher than ESO's are. PvP in Cyrodiil on PS4 has been stale without full numbers for the last year. Campaigns like Kyne the under Lvl 50 and Sotha Sil the non CP doesn't even have 1 bar per Alliance and much of the time not even 1 bar for any Alliance. The main Campaign Vivec is one Alliance with nearly twice the player count much of the day.

ESO may not suck for the percentage of those that still play every day but ESO does not have a steady stream of new players coming into the game, it is simply old existing players, much who only get on for special events.

I don't think you can use the population in Cyrodiil to gauge the popularity of the game as a whole. A lot of people who play ESO never touch PvP.

I agree with that in part but if you go to any of the starter areas there is no large stream of new players in those areas outside of during the first couple of days of a major DLC release like Summerset. Most of the few new players in those areas are old players creating another character. And when you go into many of the large towns it is typically the same recognizable names. When you go into Cyrodiil it's just the same high CP names with almost no new players.

NoTimeToWait · October 2018

No, just please, no. The amount of players who cannot adequately behave will skyrocket

Callous2208 · October 2018

No. There are no f2p mmos that aren't straight p2w, bot infested, low quality, sparsely updated, trash. What works for babies first shooter and MOBA's doesn't translate to mmos.

RDMyers65b14_ESO · October 2018

No, ESO needs to return to the original model of subscription only. There were a lot less problems with the required subscription.

Wolfpaw · October 2018

From a PS4 player I would rather they work on a agreement with Sony so PS Plus to play ESO is not required, like Tera and other games.

Trinity_Is_My_Name · October 2018

This game should be subscription only. That would end a lot of issues such as BOTs and get rid of a ton of hormone overloaded people.

idk · October 2018

The lower the bar of commitment the lower the quality of player. That is clear from when the game went from Sub to B2P.

Besides, the game can be purchased pretty cheap. Someone not willing to shell out that little is likely not going to spend money elsewhere in the game which proves false what OP is trying to say.

Twohothardware · October 2018

idk wrote: »

The lower the bar of commitment the lower the quality of player. That is clear from when the game went from Sub to B2P.

Besides, the game can be purchased pretty cheap. Someone not willing to shell out that little is likely not going to spend money elsewhere in the game which proves false what OP is trying to say.

That actually doesn't prove anything. From a business standpoint the people that generally spend the most on a game are those that become the most addicted. You want as many people to try it as possible in order to gain the most addicts. When there is an up front cost your pool of new players is considerably smaller because you're limiting it to only those who were already interested in it.

It is MUCH easier to talk your friends into all downloading a free game to play together like Fortnite or Destiny 2 than it is to talk them all into spending $10 to find out if they like ESO.

And you guys talk about how going back to a subscription based plan would increase the amount and quality of content we get. Why would that happen? Because the devs would potentially get more income from the game.

A steady stream of new players constantly joining ESO when the base game is free and a percentage of those players buying into ESO+, Crown Store items, and the DLC does the same thing as the smaller current player base all paying a monthly subscription fee. Fortnite is F2P and is bringing in multi billions.

idk · October 2018

Twohothardware wrote: »

idk wrote: »

The lower the bar of commitment the lower the quality of player. That is clear from when the game went from Sub to B2P.

Besides, the game can be purchased pretty cheap. Someone not willing to shell out that little is likely not going to spend money elsewhere in the game which proves false what OP is trying to say.

That actually doesn't prove anything. From a business standpoint the people that generally spend the most on a game are those that become the most addicted. You want as many people to try it as possible in order to gain the most addicts. When there is an up front cost your pool of new players is considerably smaller because you're limiting it to only those who were already interested in it..

Not really. Addiction to a game does not equate to big spenders.

I am finding the base game as low as 17 USD. A very low bar as it is. It is hard to fathom someone who is so cheap they would not be interested in spending so little in order to play this game with you would spend much in game.

And again, the quality of player drops as the financial commitment to get into the game is lowered.

The % of revenue they would add could very likely not be worth it. Additionally, Fortnite is a very different game with a very different monetization. You have not even bothered addressing the difference and just assumed much.

The business people at Zos know more about this than you and I do.

Lumenn · October 2018

Frawr wrote: »

Twohothardware wrote: »

If Fortnite has proven anything it's that if you want to gain and continue to grow an expansive player base the best way to do it is to give everyone a slice of the pie for free and then work on selling them the rest of the pie for your profits. Bungie recently took Destiny 2 which player base had majorly died off and did the same thing with the Forsaken DLC launch by making the base Destiny 2 game free for download to all Playstation Plus subscribers and now D2 is very active again.

ESO has the perfect structure already with ESO+ monthly subscription and all the separate DLC's to make the base ESO game free to download today. Your profits are coming from ESO+, Crown Store cosmetic items, and the DLC's from both new and existing players, not the $10 of brand new buyers buying the base game at Gamestop. One of those new players that downloads the game for free and likes it only has to subscribe to one month of ESO Plus to of already spent more than the cost of the base game.

An influx of new players also not only increases your potential revenue from them but it generates more interest with your existing player base to come back and become more invested when theres lots more players doing Dungeons, doing Trials, creating new Guilds, populating the Campaigns in Cyrodiil, ect.

The active ESO player base outside of special events has started to dwindle this past year compared to numbers in the past and the main Cyrodiil Campaign is no longer fully populated on PS4 outside of prime time on weekends which leads to very lopsided Alliance battles.

With the release of the upcoming DLC this would be the perfect opportunity right around the holidays to make the base ESO game free to download and bring in a new crowd of players that may of never tried the game had it not been for the opportunity to delve into it and get hooked without paying upfront.

Everyone wants something for free.

I would much rather have this game be gated by a Subscription again if it meant proper development and less time spent creating pointless tat for a micro-transaction shop.

This

Wolfpaw · October 2018

I have never played a mmo that went f2p worth continue playing.

Callous2208 · October 2018

People gotta stop bringing up Fortnite and Mobas. That is not how f2p mmos work. End of story. To even make such a comparison screams that you have zero experience in the cesspool that is the f2p mmo genre. The success of these games has never and will never translate to the mmo market. The evidence is apparent in the entire miserable lifespan of f2p mmos.

SydneyGrey · October 2018

Actually, I don't think it's necessary for them to do that right now. The game is the healthiest it's ever been this year. They don't HAVE to go free-to-play.

ccfeeling · October 2018

They should use the money FIX the freaking server !

Lake · October 2018

It will 100% go F2P as soon as the game starts dwindling in numbers.

Not necessary yet.

With the occasional extreme discounting on platforms like Steam and Humble Bundle giveaways starting with Morrowind, it may be coming sooner than expected.

SirBrandalfTheGreat · October 2018

if you go to any of the starter areas there is no large stream of new players in those areas.[/quote]

This is true, but mainly because those were almost removed from the game, expect for the people who already knew about em, with each new chapter the starting area changes.

edit, i don't go on here enough to know how to quote correctly lol

LadyNalcarya · October 2018

No thanks.
F2P is a trash model for an mmo. I dont get why people are naive enough to think that f2p games are free... For a player, they're often more expensive than regular games (unless you are ready to grind 24/7 and be a punching bag for whales), and those who pay more earn more power. It's true that this model is lucrative for developers: scamming is lucrative, after all.

SHADOW2KK · October 2018

Nope, the game went bad after it went b2p, bring back mandatory subs, and get rid of the reskinned shiny pixel crap Crown Store.

*sits back sword in hand, waiting on the hordes...*

SHADOW2KK · October 2018

Twohothardware wrote: »

Chicharron wrote: »

I'm not even going to read your arguments, reading the title is enough.

NO

If it were my decision i would go back to the monthly payment system.

If it were still the monthly payment system the game would of been completely dead by now. It had barely any popularity even at release on console because of the payment system.

Game maybe would be dead on console, but many PC players including myself do not really care how it is on console, we have had bigger issues for way way longer

ManwithBeard9 · October 2018

You know what, @Twohothardware is right. Since Fortnite Battle Royale is F2P, the devs should make Cyrodil F2P and only Cyrodil. Then they can keep the PVE version of the game B2P just like Fortnite. Everybody wins.

Twohothardware · November 2018

ESO's numbers keep dropping each month with the release of every new title and as it happens core aspects of the game, especially Cyrodiil, becomes less and less playable with the smaller imbalanced Alliance populations.

With Fornite, RDR2, BO4, Destiny 2, Battlefield V, and more big names coming in the Spring this is the time to change the ESO model going forward even into ESO 2 on the next platform.

You make your money off of DLC, Crown Store items, and Monthly ESO+ subscriptions while stabilizing player population and generating continued interest through more advertisement and a F2P model.

The ESO base game is already free for Playstation Now subscribers. Make it free for all on all platforms.

Bhaal5 · November 2018

Why compare eso to forenite? Two different genres.

Atleast compare it to its competition that has a free to play model

Gw2 - free to play (double the amount of content than eso for free) with paid expansions, expanding the amount of classes available. No subscription required just a few one time payments.

Swtor - free to play but need expansions to proceed to proceed anyother 20 lvl to lvl cap.

Eve online - free to play but subscription gives you access to more ship and double the amount of research.

So given those limited examples, i only see 1 out of 3 as a good "f2p" model... Now put zenimax in those shoes and their track record of charging like a wounded bull, do you really wish this to happen?