Briefly: After nearly a year of fooling itself, The Elder Scrolls Online is now subscription free. Lapsed players can now log into their account, download 17GB worth of MMORPG and pick up where they left off, while new players can purchase a copy for $US59.99 with no need to hand over payment details for a monthly sub. The Xbox One and PS4 version will be out in June.
The Elder Scrolls Online Is Now Subscription Free
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6 responses to “The Elder Scrolls Online Is Now Subscription Free”
ESO? What ESO? Hawhawhawhawh! (installing mods on skyrim)
Going F2P without dropping the initial purchase barrier, thereby losing the vast swarm of users required to make F2P profitable? Bold strategy Cotton.
So … you want a completely free game? I don’t know where people get off thinking ESO is F2P. It’s B2P like GW2. You get the COMPLETE game when you buy it. You don’t get nickel and dimed like you do with SWTOR.
I’m not talking about what I want, I’m talking about how F2P works. GW2 made $19 million in 2014. SWTOR made more than $100 million. SWTOR will also see strong revenue in the years to come, whereas GW2s revenue will peter out to nothing in a few years.
The hype for this game is long over, so they’ve already missed the potential for them to make big money on initial sales. So all they have left is a trickle of fence-sitters and a few cut price sales spikes down the road. Expect the game to go fully F2P eventually, when they’re forced to swallow their pride a second time.
I don’t have an interest in the game either way to be honest, and I’m not taking any pleasure in seeing it fail in the paid subscription space, it’s just a very different landscape for MMOs than it was when WoW launched.
SWTOR makes it’s money from gimping gameplay and trickling it back to users with microtransactions. I find the practice quite despicable …. but what do you expect from the company that brought you the Dungeon Keeper mobile game. Sure SWTOR makes money … it;s Star Wars!
Personally, I’d rather buy the game and then play it.
SWTOR makes money because it’s F2P. There are many F2P games where less well known IPs than Star Wars that make more money because they have a better microtransaction design.
http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/23/league-of-legends-tops-mmo-revenue-list-hearthstone-no-10/
Heaps of mobile games are making much more money than SWTOR. Some of which I’ve never even heard of!
“Personally, I’d rather buy the game and then play it.” – Yeah me too. I don’t like microtransactions at all (unless they’re 100% cosmetic), but there’s no denying it’s where the money is. I think ZeniMax Online Studios will share that opinion soon enough if they want to keep the servers running.
GW2 is not F2P, its B2P.