16 replies to this topic

[Alistair Winter]

I've always liked the argument that PGI should focus more on microtransactions instead of whale hunting. In terms of cockpit items, camo patterns and colours, that's still my stance. But in regards to mechs and mech packages, I'm not so sure anymore.

With the 1 year anniversary rewards, I'm seeing two things: A real reward for the people willing to pay serious money. And second, a lot of people who aren't active on the forums, but are logging on to show their support, often displaying Overlord, Masakari pack and Legendary Founder badges.

It's possible that PGI has been forced to go with a bad compromise earlier, under IGP, which would explain why they've stuck with what looked like a bad business model, and have recently really turned things around and made people enthusiastic again. If you had told me a few months ago that people would be scrambling to buy the next top tier package and even upgrading their already purchased Phoenix and Invasion packages, I wouldn't have believed you. But that's what's happening.

There's even a point in the FAQ concerning people with multiple Gold Khan mechs. Multiple!?

Do you think PGI's current strategy is working? Previously, it looked like they were offering expensive packages with low value rewards. Now we're getting expensive packages with very valuable rewards. This is very much like what Chris Roberts has done for Star Citizen, and there's no doubt they're getting the funding they needed for that game.

TL;DR: Given MWO's demographic, expensive packages may be better than microtransactions if the deal is sweet enough.

[Bilbo]

I think if it weren't working, I would not be able to play tonight.

[Mercules]

Notice the Gold Timberwolves are Sold out. Since there is "Limited Amounts" and "Less than 50" we know there are at least 51 of them available. That is $25,000 just in Timberwolves alone.

[Elizander]

Whale hunting is usually more profitable. Poor folk can't pay more but it's sky's the limit for whales.

[Hospy]

I don't think it's sustainable, but I don't think they have much of a choice.

For microtransactions to work, they'd need a much larger population, or at the very least, a growing one. And this is just a personal observation, but the more I play, I keep seeing the same names, and an ever decreasing number of trial mechs, which isn't exactly a good sign.

[Agent 0 Fortune]

It depends on how many fish are in your pond. If it is full of fish, cast your nets, if not you have to focus on the lunkers.

Edited by Agent 0 Fortune, 18 September 2014 - 12:16 PM.

[Blakkstar]

They really don't have a choice any longer. The game monetization model is built around pay-2b-first and exclusivity. It is somewhat pay-to-win.

This game also doesn't have the player base to survive on microtransactions, and players are ponying up the cash for these big packages.

Is it ideal? No. Is it working? The game is still around. The encouraging part is that the game seems to be moving in the right direction lately, so I'm somewhat optimistic.

Edited by Blakkstar, 18 September 2014 - 12:25 PM.

[Elizander]

We're doing what we can to help it work out for now. Maybe they can add more microtransactions later when the game is 'complete' in terms of major features and they fix up UI2.0 a little.

[jozkhan]

Well the business model on Transverse is a horrifying failure...

For MWO PGI seems to be solely targeting the whales. MWO is considered simply too expensive by many friends of mine who are regular gamers and regular spenders.

I think they are definitely missing a trick and leaving money on the table by not catering to the micro transaction end of the market. Colors are priced too high, and decals will probably be too high as well. I think theres a lot of potential customers who dont mind throwing down $1 to $5 on items but simply refuse to throw down $20 or $30 plus when they can get so much more bang for their buck at GoG, Steam, Humble and other sellers. Plus their purchases are not limited to length of the game surviving. If PGI goes down in flames or if suddenly the matchmaker fails due to player count being too low... then everything people have bought in MWO is gone forever.

I think if pricing were adjusted down and economy were adjusted up then PGI would reap the benefit of a huge increase in income from existing players and more importantly from alot of new players who would find the business model more acceptable whereas now among alot of steam players, LOL players etc it is just not deemed acceptable at all.

example

(20 million+ Cbills for Clan Assault mechs and you need 3 for mastery? I have never had 20 million CBills in my account and I have over 60 mechs mostly bought with CBills apart from some hero mechs)

Coming back to Transverse a moment, I think the total disconnect here with what was hoped for and what has actually happened (still under $9K at time of writing) shows PGI have a long way to go towards getting their pricing modelling right and understanding their target demographics.

Edited by jozkhan, 18 September 2014 - 12:37 PM.

[Solomon Ward]

Alistair Winter, on 18 September 2014 - 11:55 AM, said:

There's even a point in the FAQ concerning people with multiple Gold Khan mechs. Multiple!?

I heard of someone who got them all.
For some people it is not much money.

Without Whales there would be no game.
Without the others there would be no one to play with for the whales.

It is a thin line to please both sides.

[Bront]

They've basically run the kickstarter model of paying for stuff early to be first. It apparently is working well enough.

Given the bundles are often pretty good values for your money (at least the Phoenix one was, and this new clan one looks OK in that regard), it seems to continue to work, and unlike another popular game with a similar model, MWO has been playable with a free to play crowd for a while, even if it's missing Community Warfare.

In order to breach micro-transactions, they need to reduce the cost of paint and cammo. Currently that's a fairly major transaction still. The only real micro item is Mechbays.

[Xtrekker]

Microtransactions allow substantial revenue to be collected from the community over a broader range of products, especially if those products are of the type that everyone wants to purchase. By doing this, development does not need to focus so intently on shiny things to attract the idiot's sucker's whale's attention. By implementing a system that revolves mostly around income from large purchases, the developer is chained to producing more fluff and has less incentive to produce real content.

The whale is like smack to the developer. They delight when the whale event is raining money, then realize oh crap, we have no revenue between purchase events. Quick, let's make something shiny again! There's only so much shiny in the BT universe though, and we've already run through the big injection events. It's only a matter of time before they realize there are no more large events to exploit for cash and the limited consistent micro-income as implemented can't sustain their operation.

[Onmyoudo]

It's absolutely successful and always has been. I hold no grudges, but I'm not the target market here. I wish things were cheaper than they are for my sake, but not sure if that's in PGI's best interests as their current model makes them a lot of cash.

[Xtrekker]

Onmyoudo, on 18 September 2014 - 12:56 PM, said:

It's absolutely successful and always has been. I hold no grudges, but I'm not the target market here. I wish things were cheaper than they are for my sake, but not sure if that's in PGI's best interests as their current model makes them a lot of cash...currently.

Corrected.

[Sybreed]

It's way easier to spend 20 times 5 bucks than 5 times 20 bucks.

Just sayin'

[Chemie]

I just don't see how they can keep releasing clan packs; their model seems to be all about high priced mechs but after everyone owns 100, then what? Diminishing returns means they need to find another model

[Griggio]

I had to log into the only other F2P with a cash shop that I play, which is Warframe so I could have a comparison. The pricing really comes out pretty close, except in the colors and and frames being slightly cheaper (which may be caused by all frames being available in game if you have the time to farm and the 4 days to craft it and RL currency being tradeable)

Where MWO F2P model is flawed is less in pricing and more about content. If CW had been pushed to the front of the line even with it being IS vs IS (heck call it the last years of the Succession Wars) that core game brings in more opportunity to monetize. There's more meat, and more selling points. That would have freed up so much over the last three years for more maps, more mechs, more customization (do not ever underestimate the players desire to make his mech look like the bad war machine of death that it is especially if there's a solid core game behind it.).

It doesn't surprise me there was such a big push to get CW out on time and to get it right and also the re-bridging of the gap that was created with the community. With the way things were going there was no way it would have been sustainable no matter how many free mechs they gave out.

On side note I hope that once decals get released successful event completions will toss us some nice fat looking decals that I can plaster on my mech like a big badge of nerdy honor.