TERA MMO Reaps the Benefits of F2P and Hits 1.4M Players

By Catherine Cai
published

F2P was a good move for En Masse Entertainment.

Recently, quite a few MMOs have made the leap from traditional subscription models to the free-to-play model that's been so popular and successful in Asian markets. Even Blizzard's MMO giant World of Warcraft adopted the new model to an extent by making the game free-to-play up to level 20.

It appears that the mass exodus to F2P was a good move, at least for most developers. For Paragon Studios, the transition wasn't enough for City of Heroes, which shut down late last year.

Thankfully, En Masse Entertainment is having a little more luck with TERA. Since the developer made the switch to free-to-play back in February this year, the MMO's seen quite a jump in its player base. TERA's crossed the 1.4 million player mark and there's apparently been a tenfold increase in the amount of concurrent players.

"We've been blown away by the waves of players logging into TERA, and we're seeing amazing growth in both registrations and daily users. It's always great to eclipse the one-million-player mark, and at our current rate, it won't be long before we hit two million," said En Masse CEO Chris Lee.

To celebrate TERA's increasing numbers, En Masse is hosting a five-day Dracoloths Rising Event, allowing players to fight new large monsters and gain special item drops.

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Catherine Cai
Topics
PC gaming
13 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ET3D
    The question is, how does this translated to revenue? If there are a lot more players but not a lot more money going in, that's a problem. While I think that F2P tends to help the bottom line too, it's more interesting to read these figures than about player count.
    Reply
  • hunshiki
    Meanwhile, the Europe version is still struggling. There was no content back in the old days, and the new patches are no different either. They basically just modify some values, call it a huge version number patch, and push it out.

    In the game there are rarely any new players (the ones I met never bought any shop items).
    All you see is alt-characters running around, RPing and doing stuff. Like hide n' seek. Kinda sums up the end game possibilities of TERA.
    Reply
  • jalek
    That's the norm in any MMO, but most have raids and things. Tera seems to be about battlegrounds, and grinding to get stuff for better gear... for battlegrounds.
    Reply
  • fuzzion
    I will stick with my gw2
    Reply
  • tomfreak
    ET3DThe question is, how does this translated to revenue? If there are a lot more players but not a lot more money going in, that's a problem. While I think that F2P tends to help the bottom line too, it's more interesting to read these figures than about player count.put in the in game ads banner on the F2P accs. Pretty sure many F2P player wont mind having a banner at the bottom of the screen all the time while playing the games that doesnt come with pay to win/pay to access new area.

    Why do u think google/youtube and facebook even this site can provide full service without charging? THINK.
    Reply
  • icemunk
    It would be neat if World of Warcraft did their FTP a bit different... maybe instead of FTP up to level 20, make it FTP when you reach max level. Then you get rewarded for making it to level 85 or whatever the max level is these days, and when an expansion comes out, you have to start paying again to make it to max level again and back to FTP. Just a thought :P
    Reply
  • The_Trutherizer
    From what I can see in the reviews its more about satisfying gameplay than anything else. But F2P is much more attractive than monthly subscriptions.
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    Between TERA and GW2, I'd say that GW2 is more fun in PVE until you reach 80 and have 100% map... Then TERA all the way for PVP and WPVP, even for PVE, they have Raids WoW like and world events GW2 style. It's a good mix.

    And also, TERA's gameplay/combat is the best out there. Could be better, but it's way more user dependent than all other MMORPGs and that's in a good way.

    Cheers!
    Reply
  • fritters
    River City Ransom has a better combat system than any mmo.
    Reply
  • maestintaolius
    I enjoyed TERA until I got to the endgame. The random number generator just resulted in to much frustration, particularly with enchanting. It was also frustrating to kill the HM bosses and get no rares in the drops.
    Reply