Lifetime Subscription

[syntaxlies]

here comes the "don't try anything new please!" brigade.



You'd be *extremely* surprised.



It's offered in games that don't really have any less quality (and we don't really know the "quality" of this game until launch anyway, please, let's keep the blind faith out of this discussion, shall we?).

And no. No matter the quality. No game would be worth over 1000 bucks for a lifetime.



That's the same a year costs on other games, yet they offer the option. There's a lot of difference between getting $150 from a customer and getting double or almost all in a nice initial bundle of cash, that can then be reinvested in expansion/evolution and other games.

There's nothing new about lifetime subs, most games offer them then go f2p within a year lol

[Kallivis]

There's nothing new about lifetime subs, most games offer them then go f2p within a year lol

Yeah obviously the lifetime subs thing caused that to happen (and not because the game itself sucks).

That pretty much enforces the importance of such an option, because they made more money from the subs before it went F2P.

[moriandrio]

Um... why?

Cause it would be a massive loss for blizzard. Lifetime subs are a good idea at release if company needs money fast like they did when STO came out. But if you check FFXIV's history and how almost every AAA MMO is going to F2P after a certain time i don't think there would be that much ppl paying for a lifetime at release anymore.

I doubt we gonna see alot of lifetime subs in the future anyway.

[Kallivis]

It's like everyone assumes that because MMO is x years old every single player has been around since the very beginning.

It is not that common that people stick around with games since their inception. Yes it happens, yes they're there, but the vast majority of players you come across in these games are people that have joined within the last couple of years. Many of the veteran players quit long ago.

[Maaya_Sicarioi]

simply because of maths if this mmo success just as wow/ffxi did and prevails as many years as wow/ffxi, the amount of money earnt will be higher. 250€ lifetime = +/- 2 years of subscription vs 9/10 years of ffxi/wow.... I have high hopes on FFXIV to sucess as its predecesors. It implies much more money in long terms

[Starlord]

The question becomes will they do it?

Standard option - $15/m

Month 1) $30 2) $60 3) $90 4) $120 5) $150 6) $180 7) $210 8) $240 9) $270 10) $300 ... ... ... 20) $600

Lifetime= $300 bucks period
1 Year= Say.. 100 ( save 20 bucks a Year)

100*10/mo= $1000 per person life time

$300 per person Lifetime

300 *500,000 Players ( just saying if everyone does it) $150,000,000 10/yr

1000* 500,000 players ( same as above in Parenthesis and that's if all 500,000 were legacy lolz, so this number will be higher) $ 500,000,000 10/yr

I don;t care if they do a Lifetime Option, because it be cheaper for everyone, but in a business perspective 500 mil> 150 mil.

That of course there's a " Terms and Conditions to the Lifetime Sub" to where you have to play x amount of days to continue this sub, then the numbers could vary with the Lifetime sub.

I highly doubt there will be 500k like in FFXI did in it's peak times, but you never know, besides 150,000,000 lifetime is still good ( if they retain 500k subs for that long or even hit 500k :P)

It's not really a gamble. The customer will only see savings if they stick around... if they don't they may have just paid MORE.

It's as close to a win-win as there ever will be when it comes to P2P MMOs

I do agree with this, If they do they do, if they don't they don't. It really doesn't matter to me as long as the game is awesome 10 bucks a month is still worth the awesomeness!

[HiirNoivl]

Cause it would be a massive loss for blizzard..

Again why?

I think the real reason its not offered is because there's simply no market for it. :P

I seriously doubt that offering lifetime subs contributes to a game going F2P. It sounds like a "snowball" argument. That anything that SE does that's outside conventional wisdom will go on to lead to the game's ultimate failure.

[Kallivis]

The question becomes will they do it?



Lifetime= $300 bucks period
1 Year= Say.. 100 ( save 20 bucks a Year)

100*10/mo= $1000 per person life time

$300 per person Lifetime

300 *500,000 Players ( just saying if everyone does it) $150,000,000 10/yr

1000* 500,000 players ( same as above in Parenthesis and that's if all 500,000 were legacy lolz, so this number will be higher) $ 500,000,000 10/yr

I don;t care if they do a Lifetime Option, because it be cheaper for everyone, but in a business perspective 500 mil> 150 mil.

That of course there's a " Terms and Conditions to the Lifetime Sub" to where you have to play x amount of days to continue this sub, then the numbers could vary with the Lifetime sub.

I highly doubt there will be 500k like in FFXI did in it's peak times, but you never know, besides 150,000,000 lifetime is still good ( if they retain 500k subs for that long or even hit 500k :P)

If you're going to use math in retaliation to my math, at least use realistic figures. No not every single person is going to do it. If you work in accounting or marketing or any executive branch for this sort of thing, you don't expect "everyone does it" and that's the problem with what you guys are saying. You are making poor assumptions. You have to take in data from what is happening and what has happened in the past. There are many variables to take into consideration and you guys are taking in one or two of them from the most unlikely of scenarios.

If every single player purchased a lifetime sub and every single player played for 10 years. Yeah, that would be bad.

This is not ever going to happen.

So you take into consideration all figures such as how long does the average player play for, how long will they stick around, how will players who do not purchase the lifetime sub option balance out, how much data will be expended in this amount of time, etc.

You forget some other basic things as well, such as players indecisive about whether or not they like the game yet and spending around $45 in monthly subs before actually making up their mind and purchasing a lifetime sub.

[Starlord]

If you're going to use math in retaliation to my math, at least use realistic figures. No not every single person is going to do it. If you work in accounting or marketing or any executive branch for this sort of thing, you don't expect "everyone does it" and that's the problem with what you guys are saying. You are making poor assumptions. You have to take in data from what is happening and what has happened in the past. There are many variables to take into consideration and you guys are taking in one or two of them from the most unlikely of scenarios.

If every single player purchased a lifetime sub and every single player played for 10 years. Yeah, that would be bad.

This is not ever going to happen.

So you take into consideration all figures such as how long does the average player play for, how long will they stick around, how will players who do not purchase the lifetime sub option balance out, how much data will be expended in this amount of time, etc.

You forget some other basic things as well, such as players indecisive about whether or not they like the game yet and spending around $45 in monthly subs before actually making up their mind and purchasing a lifetime sub.

Lol, I know not everyone isn't going to do it. that's why I applied Legacy to all, I could do the same with everyone not being Legacy and it would change both figures of Lifetime and 10 yr but the distance apart would be the same.

I know everyone won't do the same thing :P. and alot of things will vary the numbers 1/4 of the Population could go lifetime, 1/4th 1 year, 1/4th 6 months, 1/4th monthly. Numbers would be hard to crunch without know what everyone is doing, and the only people that can determine that is SE.

What I posted was just merely an example, but everything can change when it comes down to Official figures. Really the math isn't my concern as to what they do, as long as the game is good, it's worth my 10 bucks a month =).

[Abriael]

Cause it would be a massive loss for blizzard. Lifetime subs are a good idea at release if company needs money fast like they did when STO came out. But if you check FFXIV's history and how almost every AAA MMO is going to F2P after a certain time i don't think there would be that much ppl paying for a lifetime at release anymore.

I doubt we gonna see alot of lifetime subs in the future anyway.

Lifetime subs continue to be offered and will continue to be offered even when MMORPGs go "free to play", simply because they don't go "free to play".

They go Hybrid, that implies a large difference with the free to play model. All MMORPGs that go hybrid still involve a complimentary subscription that is normally quite desirable, and lifetime subs include that.