Once upon a time the folks at Blizzard Entertainment thought they could support the entire world of World of Wacraft by ad revenue. This would have created an MMO experience which would cost you nothing but a bit of annoyance by ad providers; what would the total audience be if the game was free?
Had WoW launched free of charge they would probably have significantly more users playing the game, but the ad revenue from the sheer amount of people would be nothing compared to a monthly charge for eight million subscribers.
Although only a small number of those subscribers are US based, they’re still raking in the cash compared to an ad-based model, even if they were to have triple the subscribers.
However, the Blizzard exec noted: “We didn’t want to charge a subscription, but as we researched market conditions, we realized that wouldn’t support us.”
It’s possible, perhaps, that Blizzard would have fallen under its own weight had they created a world where anyone could play for no charge. Imagine the server utilization, the volume of traffic and the support calls they would get for triple or quadrupal the player base with only ads paying the checks.
Granted, a free system would be excellent in theory, but in practice, making us pay is the only way to throttle our addictions. Sad, but true.
(Thanks, gamasutra)
@World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria announced
Well, they keep doing expansions, but something tells me people got tired of it.
As for raising the level cap, it is the only way you can keep the players that don’t want to grind up again.
@Deep Silver: “There is a clear technology gap“
Wow … they discovered that a 4GB system RAM, 1GB video RAM PC is better than a 256 MB system 256 MB video PS3 …
As Jordan said, the main issue is that developing 3 code bases is expensive. The advantage of the XBox is using PC-like components, and using a PC-like software platform.
@Starcraft II DOTA mod will remain free but monetized
What are the terms in the EULA? Does Starcraft II allows this?
If so, then it is the second game that I know of that does this (TF2 being the first), and I like the trend it sets.
@Minecraft dev wins interim injunction over Scrolls name
Good for them. If they kept a record of the offer to give up the trade mark, then this will weigh in quite a lot in the court: it’ll point out that Bethesda is not up to protecting the name.
@QOTW: none, unfortunately.
No Paul again. =(
Anyway,
@Minecraft dev wins interim injunction over Scrolls name:
Finally, I was sick and tired of hearing about this nonsense, and I am grateful that Bethesda hasn’t gained anything from his.
@QOTW: Just to show how much out of my time that is, my parents had an Atari 2600 back when they were still children.
ahhhh i really miss derrick and jennifer i wish they could host ,btw any news on their son???
@ minecraft dev wins interium injunction over scrolls name ,Hooray good for mojang im so sick of bethesda being so freaking sensitive
@qotw dude im 13 years old the atari is a dinosaur
Paul is gone again a mixture of sadness and happiness but mostly happines ,jk