Woohoooooooooo!!

[Xest]

Lifetime subs has to work for the company as well as the customer and hence any company offering lifetime subs is one to be weary of.

A company wont offer lifetime subs at the cost of a single years subs if they expect you to be playing for 5 years, they'll more likely offer you lifetime subs if they expect you to be playing 9months so they still make a hefty profit.

There is the odd case where they may offer it to a core set of subscribers to try and bolster a core user base that will hang around for years but it's unlikely to help build a core any more than a normal subscription model.

Lifetime subs may sound like a bargain but there's got to be good business sense behind offering such a thing. What happens if the only users that remain after 2 years, 3 years, 4 years or even 5 years are lifetime subs users who only paid the equivalent of a years subs for their lifetime subscription? No one's paying for the upkeep of the game any more so the company isn't going to keep it running out the kindness of it's heart making a massive loss!

[Lairiodd]

Lifetime subs may sound like a bargain but there's got to be good business sense behind offering such a thing. What happens if the only users that remain after 2 years, 3 years, 4 years or even 5 years are lifetime subs users who only paid the equivalent of a years subs for their lifetime subscription? No one's paying for the upkeep of the game any more so the company isn't going to keep it running out the kindness of it's heart making a massive loss!

Second Life allows people to buy in game assets for real money. Apparently, they have taken out bonds so that they can compensate people if the game closes down.

Another option would be to have a minimum time that they game will be online for. For example, they could be valid for the lifetime of the game and the servers will remain online for at least 5 years.

In principle, they could help allow games be made that wouldn't otherwise be made due to the way the costs of games work. They have to pay alot for development of the game and get the money back slowly while the game is operating. Life subs could mean that they could get a large once off payment when they game is released to offset development costs.

[Xest]

Second Life allows people to buy in game assets for real money. Apparently, they have taken out bonds so that they can compensate people if the game closes down.

Another option would be to have a minimum time that they game will be online for. For example, they could be valid for the lifetime of the game and the servers will remain online for at least 5 years.

In principle, they could help allow games be made that wouldn't otherwise be made due to the way the costs of games work. They have to pay alot for development of the game and get the money back slowly while the game is operating. Life subs could mean that they could get a large once off payment when they game is released to offset development costs.

A boxed release should generally cover the cost of development though. When you look at something like WoW, EQ, DAoC, UO the amount of boxes they shifted at initial retail price of £29.99 or £34.99 is the price of a standard game, if they can shift a million copies they're already beating sales figures for 90% of games out there.

There is more content to be developed for an MMO but it's not such a massive burden more that traditional development methods can't be applied to MMOs. The subscription costs just allow for continued development but also a continued revenue stream.

If an MMO was given away free then I could see lifetime subs justifying the original cost with some contractual terms to keep the service running as you mention but under the traditional model of a boxed game initially, followed by subscriber content it really doesn't fit into the business model well.

[Reza]

omg reza u still alive ? ;-)

Heya Ejo,

You still playing wow? Ive basically taken a break from all gaming, but will prolly try WHO.