Earlier today Arstechica released the following quote from The Entertainment Software Association report entitled Video Games in the 21st Century for 2010:
“The real annual growth rate of the US computer and video game software industry was 10.6 percent for the period 2005-2009 and 16.7 percent for the period 2005-2008,” the report states. “During the same periods, real growth for the U.S. economy as a whole was 1.4 percent for 2005-09 and 2.8 percent for 2005-08.” – The Entertainment Software Association, via Arstechica.com
If the industry is doing so well why do we see announcements like this one announcing the closure of Earth Eternal, and the ever more common announcements such as Icarus’ Studios (developer/publisher of Fallen Earth) staff reductions by 70 percent? Perhaps as we discussed here and on Show 66 Senator Al Franken is right – perhaps it is a matter of mega conglomerate mergers such as Comcast/NBC that crushes independent development.
Just five days ago, we read an article by Ben Kuchera entitled Starcraft 2: Help us mourn the death of content freedom, over at Arstechnica that contained the following:
By shutting down dedicated servers and not releasing any modding tools, Infinity Ward stopped modding dead in its tracks with Modern Warfare 2. Even if someone was able to create a map or a modification, there would be no way to play it online. That’s the way publishers like it; Activision Blizzard recently announced that it has sold 20 million map packs for the various Call of Duty releases. Why allow users to create something just to give it away when there’s so much money to be made? – Arstechnica
This is, of course, something that had been rattling around the internet for some time now. The point of the article was to discuss (or perhaps bemoan, and rightfully so) the lack of local storage for Starcraft 2 mods, necessitating an upload to battle.net and thus control by Blizzard. As it stands now there is no monthly fee, for those players who bought the full retail version of Starcraft 2, to use Battlenet (We understand players in Russia are not that lucky).
Charging for expansion packs on single player games isn’t new of course – in fact we think it is a great idea. Does a publisher place itself in a penny wise but pound foolish position when it publishes a game without access to modding tools? Activision is obviously making some serious cash by selling maps for its games. Still, consider the path that Bethesda has taken with its games. Not only have they published modding tools but they have included video tutorials on YouTube explaining their use. There is even a database that explains things in even greater detail. Doing all this has extended the shelf life of their game beyond what it would have been, even with the release of “Game of the Year” editions.
Electronic Arts (EA) has followed suit to a degree with world and pattern creator tools for the latest edition of the 800 pound gorilla of single player gamers, Sims 3. They also have expansions in the form of World Adventures which expands the game to great extents. But you will also find the single player game version of a cash shop, charging Sims points, purchased for cold hard cash, for virtual items, piece by piece – this is in addition to their “stuff packs” (collections of virtual items).
Where they also follow the trend set by Blizzard (or does Blizzard follow them?) is by incorporating the ideas already in place by the modding community. Blizzard simply incorporates them into World of Warcraft and we are fine with that. Where we draw the line, however, is with EA’s release of “stuff packs” that charge for work that has already been released for free by web sites such as Mod the Sims . If you want fast cars Electronic Arts will point you in the direction of their upcoming “Fast Lane Stuff” expansion. We will point you to the amazing work of Fresh Prince over at Mod the Sims that can be had for free.
But perhaps you have avoided all that by steering clear of single player games?
If that is the case then you, dear reader, are in luck. Now that Disney has spent a total of three quarters of a billion dollars on Playdom, advertisements screaming the wonders of “Minnie’s Happy Aquarium” and “Mickey’s Sheep” can’t be far behind for those who still log on to Facebook and fire up those “social games”. But if single player games and social games aren’t your style there is still plenty of competition for your “macro dollars” in the form of micro transactions by publishers hoping to ride the ever growing wave games that redefine the word “free” by stuffing it in front of “…to play.”
There are, of course, markets where free to play is the word of the day, and what is expected by players; this is why players in South Korea get Age of Conan that is “free to play” while the game is still supported by a subscription fee in North America. Now what started with the likes of Habbo Hotel, and Lineage II eventually saw Runescape and Wizard 101. Soon the ripple became a wave with Dungeons and Dragon Online, Lord of the Rings Online and Everquest II.
Companies like Zynga have made their fortune by nickels and dimes, and Disney hopes to follow suit. The Sims series is easily the single player equivalent of the Blizzard Gorilla, and there is little doubt that nickel and time transactions or no, even a stake driven through its heart wouldn’t kill it any time soon. Where the jury is still out, at least in the long run, is whether the mmo community is as willing to accept a subscription game converted to free to play as publishers believe we are. The difference, of course, is that games like Runescape were designed as free 2 play where converting a subscription based game and turning it into Everquest II: Extended seems a bit like taking a Ford 150 and trying to make it run on batteries.
Still, if you can manage to keep your nickels and dimes in your pockets, at least for the time being, there promises to be some new roads to trod for free while you are waiting for your next greatest world changing mmo – something that has always seemed to be a bit like chasing after the gaming equivalent of the Holy Grail.
See you online,
Julie Whitefeather
[posted for Julie Whitefeather by The Webmaster]
For what it’s worth, I wrote an article on “Nickle and Timing” a while ago that is relevant.
Also, W101 works like a bite-sized Guild Wars where you’re buying content in chunks… a very different thing from the prototypical “item shop” monetization that is closer to nickle and diming via annoyance/impulse purchases. Then there’s something like Puzzle Pirates with a microtransaction currency that winds up a lot more flexible than a mere item shop. The “free to play” tent has a fair bit of variety, some good, some bad.