The second-most exciting upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game announced plans today to require users pay an ongoing monthly fee to access its contents. Thankfully, there’s still a way to play WildStar for free.
In an age where all but the most successful MMO games have succumbed to the allure of the free-to-play, microtransaction-based business model, Ncsoft and Carbine Studios are sticking to the monthly plan. The game, which must be purchase, comes with 30 days free game time. After that, it’s subscription city online.
A bold move, especially for a completely new IP. When even Star Wars: The Old Republic has to switch models to stay afloat, what chance does an unknown universe filled with girls with bunny ears and tails have?
Aside from the whole girls with bunny ears and tails bit? There’s the C.R.E.D.D. system, which gives players a chance to play their way to free-to-play. Yes, that was a very confusing sentence.
C.R.E.D.D. stands for Certification of Research, Exploration, Destruction and Development, the game’s four main means of getting by. Gather enough gold via getting by, and you can exchange it with other players for C.R.E.D.D., which can be used to pay your monthly fees.
You can also buy C.R.E.D.D. with real money, which seems silly until you take into account market fluctuations in the in-game economy. If a C.R.E.D.D. broker plays their cards right, they could stand to make a killing, virtually.
If the model sounds familiar, you might have played EVE Online, which offers a similar in-game item called PLEX. It’s almost exactly the same thing, really.
So, pay-to-play, or spend a substantial portion of each month ensuring you have enough to pay your virtual rent. Intriguing. It feels like a big gamble, going subs in an age where one of the biggest names in the market, EverQuest(the first-most exciting), is busting out with a pair of free-to-play games. At the very least, WildStar is too damn pretty to wind up the next Auto Assault or Tabula Rasa.
You can read more about the WildStar business model here. The game will be out eventually.
Comments
6 responses to “WildStar Is A Subscription-Based MMO? How Brave”
Was looking forward to dipping into this MMO but will pass now.
Yeah same. I just don’t think $60 plus subscription looks that appealing, when i can get Final Fantasy XIV for only $38 plus subscription, or ever quest next for free. and IMO, the CRED system basically would mean you would give up in game luxuries, juts to pay for the next month.
Now you’ve upset me…. why mention tabula rasa…. that game was such a great idea, and very well built… man i miss TR 🙁
In the grand scheme of things, it is but a paltry $15 a month, I spend more than that per pack of smokes 2-3 times a week. Subscription based models give devs a predictable income to plan updates around and if the game is even half as good as it looks then most who have a lazy $15 each month probably wont even notice it is gone.
Even if you don’t stick with it, the up front cost of purchase is still no different than any other game on the market and when I look at my pile of games, I am hard pressed to find more than maybe 4 that I had played longer than a month so you get your moneys worth out of the free 30 days bundled with the package.
It will be interesting to see the whole buy your subscription with in game currency and how it plays out though.
agreed – I would rather have a polished and fully supported product for 15 a month than a gimped F2P or P2Win model. I Personally prefer SWTOR’s model of giving people the option of subscribing or just paying for what they want however some aspects of it feel a bit warped to me.
I dont care how much it costs to play; if I’m having fun, then I’ll gladly fork over 50c a day.
Yes, 50c. So stop complaining.