DC Universe Gains 300K+ Users Days After Going Free
SOE's DC Universe Online saw a 1000-percent player surge once it opened the doors to the new Free-To-Play model.
Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) originally launched the subscription-based DC Universe Online MMORPG on Windows PC and the PlayStation 3 console back on January 11, 2011. However as of November 2, the company introduced a free-to-play model (F2P) in addition to Premium and Legendary memberships, allowing casual gamers to enter DC's comic book universe with an option to upgrade to the other memberships.
Three days later on November 5, SOE president John Smedley said via Twitter that the MMORPG saw a 900-percent concurrent increase since the launch of the F2P model. The next day, Smedley claimed that the number was well over 1000-percent of DC Universe Online's pre-F2P concurrent numbers. "We're very aware of the long queues and other issues," he added, addressing lag issues stemming from the new model. "We're on it."
As indicated, the sudden influx of new users has bogged down the game's network. SOE reports that servers are currently being added to the DCUO infrastructure, and that actual paying subscribers -- those enrolled in the $14.99/m Legendary memberships, will be pushed to the front of log-in queues.
As for the actual increase in DCUO active members, Develop reports that 330,000 new players have joined since the switch to the free model, suggesting that perhaps as little as 30,000 active subscribers were running around in their virtual tights before the doors were thrown open to non-paying gamers. SOE previously stated that the decision to go F2P had nothing to do with falling subscriber numbers despite the seemingly low count.
"We are confident that going free-to-play will expand the action combat experience of DC Universe Online by making the game more accessible to every type of player so they can choose to play the game their way," said John Smedley, President, Sony Online Entertainment. "With a portfolio that includes three successful free-to-play games – EverQuest II: Extended, Free Realms and Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures – we have extensive knowledge and experience to apply to DCUO and are thrilled to be taking the game free-to-play today."
According to SOE, free access allows gamers to play the base game including Gotham City, Metropolis, and all current raids and alerts outside of DLC packs. Making an in-game purchase of $5 or more automatically upgrades the player's account to Premium status which provides additional benefits like additional character slots, additional inventory slots and higher cash limits. Naturally the full-blown Legendary monthly subscription offers everything the game can dish out. However Free level players can purchase DLC packs, additional character slots, and more in-game.
To learn more about what all three plans have to offer, head here. SOE also provides instructions on how to download the game on the PlayStation 3 right here although console owners will need at least 25 GB free to install the game.
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Guild wars 2
Did the increase in user base actually translate to the increase in revenue?
And no article on the Activision Blizzard conference call yet?
Not sure about F2P models. Many of them you actually sink more money into then a subscription game. Guild Wars seems to be the only company who got the F2P completely right. None of their microtransactions are manadtory to play the game. They are purely cosmetic, or in the case of skills and pets, they can be obtained freely through normal game play. The only important thing you can buy is extra storage tabs, and at the most that's $60, if you have only one campaign, $40 is you have all four releases. Hopefully they don't leave this model for GW2 and other MMO's will follow it as it has been successful for ArenaNet.
I prefer to play half-life2 with cinematic mod 11..
This is good news, it shows a good trend.
i have pondered a lot about the F2P model, overpriced games (Cost Of Duty, Bulletstorm etc), piracy........and how to make the game developers an income.
Heres my 5 cents as a pc gamer ...
1) 60$ for a game!!! (that sometimes lasts only 5-8 hrs) . Thats absurd. A game should actually be long enough so that you can actually start liking it. (Think of the amount of time you spent playing STALKER and GTA 4) I got those PC games for 9.99$ in my country one month of launch in my malls retail store. I live in India.
2) Single Player is always going to be pirated more and Steam has grown to be solid alternative/control system that i like.
3) about Multiplayer........casual and competitive gameplay have merge together. Thats the thing steam does with CS. theres a great rift, the core players only mostly play cs 1.6,CSS, Dota and Starcratf 1,2. Also i'd love to see more games like All Points Bulletin. Think GTA IV, but add in NFS Most Wanted style Multiplayer racing in the streets. Its possible with mods, why not just add it to retail. You can charge them Monthly for a cheaper fee like 5-10 $(make it cheaper than their mobile/internet cost)......and go for a debit card transaction.....A lot of college students have the money but not a credit card. U'll get a Huge playerbase. My other multiplayer game wouldbe would be something like STALKER, but completely MMOFPS. To make it more competitive u can have custom 5v5 rounds with diff game mechanics. u fight for money,assassinations, bomb sites,rescue hostiges etc...
4) Free 2 Play......here's my idea. Take the aforementioned APB type multiplayer game, make it f2p. The only catch is, u can play only 5-6 hrs a week, then it cost you something.
5) Piracy is not that bad any more, the pirating kids are getting jobs now and startlng to pay for the games now. I pirate games and keep on playing it......modding it if possible,without anyy drm and stuff.if i like a game, If i like like a game i just buy it retail and keep the box on the shelf. I've started to buy on steam recently.
/ran out of beer...
edit: 3) casual and competitive gameplay have 'to' merge together.
ps: how to edit posts???
In other news: GM reports that all their cars got sold out in 20 minutes after they started giving them for free.
"4) Free 2 Play......here's my idea. Take the aforementioned APB type multiplayer game, make it f2p. The only catch is, u can play only 5-6 hrs a week, then it cost you something. "
-if you're gonna restrict players this tightly might as well stick to p2p model. casual mmo gamer are like very little in numbers compared to hardcore mmo players.
wrong kira1912. We have full access to everything. We're just limited to how much ingame $ we can have and Character slots and item slots. nothing more.
Free 2 play could turn out to be the best business model. Why? Well take a look at APB; mentioned by Sayakbiswas, Combat Arms, League of Legend, Heroes of Newearth or Global Agenda on steam. The games are free to play. In some cases you can purchase the game to receive benefits; this is the case with Global Agenda an fps type mmo and HoN; HoN had to be purchased at one point but later became free to play. All of these are from little companies that are making big splashes in the casual gamer market. They make there money on micro transactions, where people purchase points to buy items, Character/weapon Skins, or game Boosts (xp gain as an example).
Some times these purchase are permanent some have expiration dates, but they don't cost a whole lot. What this does is set the players mind frame as "OH look "X" is only $.99 for 10 days I'll try it out!". Once the 10 days are up, a player is more likely to purchase the more expensive version. The model ensures that the Enthusiasts will still spend around $15 a month on skins and boosts while still allowing the casual player the game experience, and in most cases the casual player will buy boosts, but not on the same scale as the enthusiasts.
Something else to note, some of the biggest games in history were games that you paid a base amount of about $50 bucks for and had free to play multiplayer. Starting with the old: Doom, Quake, Halflife, Diablo, Starcraft, Unreal and CS. I include CS last because it was originally a mod for the Halflife engine that was free until valve got a hold of it around beta 1.6 and turned it into its own game.
@gsxrme: did i mentioned anything about gamers not having access to most of the services in-games? i was pointing out the amount of hours you can spend playing the game! restriction like that would cripple the way the potential f2p players into becoming premium/f2p players.
Did the increase in user base actually translate to the increase in revenue?
Definitely, it always does increase revenue. A certain percent of those 330K will purchase memberships, and add-ons etc. Smart move.
In other news: GM reports that all their cars got sold out in 20 minutes after they started giving them for free.
and now oil changes on GM cars are $900 every 1000 miles because the car was free.
I love how they were generous enough to give "front of the queue" to the actual paying members.
F2P model doesnt work. its the equiv of capitalism. If you got the money to buy all the good shit, your a winner! If not, your at the bottom of the competition, or it takes you forever to get there.
I just wish people would stop being thieves.
This was just what DCUO needed. The heroes and Villains are out in force and the action is non-stop!
I love how they were generous enough to give "front of the queue" to the actual paying members.F2P model doesnt work. its the equiv of capitalism. If you got the money to buy all the good shit, your a winner! If not, your at the bottom of the competition, or it takes you forever to get there.I just wish people would stop being thieves.
as someone already mentioned, F2P works quite good. ArenaNet (Guild Wars) has no issues with being F2P. it's all about the time put into the game (and to some extent people figuring out bugs or loop holes - but ArenaNet is pretty good about putting the kibosh on such flaws). any purchases with Guild Wars do nothing to give an advantage to anyone other than a possible time advantage as in not having to obtain something through game play - if you are NOT lazy and like to play the game you are "playing" then this point is negated
pretty simple actually and works very good. I played Guild Wars for a long, long time and still do occasionally. I can't wait for Guild Wars 2 myself like the first commentor. And ArenaNet has already said Guild Wars 2 will also be F2P (you have to buy the game of course like the original). I don't see there being any issues if they follow suit in how they did this before. Of course none of us will know for sure until they get off their butts and release GW2!
Back to the game at hand, I was actually meaning to look into DCUO when I read here it was going to be F2P. Has anyone actually tried it? I might have to install it this weekend just to finally try it out myself. If so I will post my thoughts though this thread will probably be done with by then.
exactly right, the era of the games that required skills are over, now you just need a fat wallet and everyone can be a winner. fortunately there is a few games that still require skill but it is way under represented in these comparisons
@wcarthurii:
-stop being a hippie dood! in this industry it's all bout money. i feel bad for some gamedevs that they get actually burn by most newer generation of the gaming community for just making the game. if yoer gonna blame someone blame most of the publishers (EA, M$, Sony, Activision, Ubisoft etc.) for actually taking advantage of the consumers or better yet blame the people who actually bites whatever horse-crap they're being sold on and for not being sensible nuff.
Age of Conan is my favorite F2P MMO but its combat system is too hard for most candy arse MMO players...lol.
So now they have 301,000 players! Great move i can see a great future ahead!
free to play = pay to win
it's never fun to play on servers where the subscribers and free players are mixed.
free to play = pay to win it's never fun to play on servers where the subscribers and free players are mixed.
This.
While it brings in more players...the game play suffers dramatically.
Free to play is good many companies pull it off. Hopefully free won't translate into bad support and updating.
Free 2 play could turn out to be the best business model. Why? Well take a look at APB; mentioned by Sayakbiswas, Combat Arms, League of Legend, Heroes of Newearth or Global Agenda on steam. The games are free to play. In some cases you can purchase the game to receive benefits; this is the case with Global Agenda an fps type mmo and HoN; HoN had to be purchased at one point but later became free to play. All of these are from little companies that are making big splashes in the casual gamer market. They make there money on micro transactions, where people purchase points to buy items, Character/weapon Skins, or game Boosts (xp gain as an example). Some times these purchase are permanent some have expiration dates, but they don't cost a whole lot. What this does is set the players mind frame as "OH look "X" is only $.99 for 10 days I'll try it out!". Once the 10 days are up, a player is more likely to purchase the more expensive version. The model ensures that the Enthusiasts will still spend around $15 a month on skins and boosts while still allowing the casual player the game experience, and in most cases the casual player will buy boosts, but not on the same scale as the enthusiasts.Something else to note, some of the biggest games in history were games that you paid a base amount of about $50 bucks for and had free to play multiplayer. Starting with the old: Doom, Quake, Halflife, Diablo, Starcraft, Unreal and CS. I include CS last because it was originally a mod for the Halflife engine that was free until valve got a hold of it around beta 1.6 and turned it into its own game.
League of Legends champion skins are hot!
League of Legends champion skins are hot!
I agree Guild Wars is free to pay but they pull you in with costumes, skills packs, extra missions, and extra storage that you have to pay for.