Developer Chat: Monthly Fees

Hello again :) Everyone who has played online games knows about monthly fees. Every MMOG to date has required them, but many people seem to wonder why they are needed and how much they will be in the future. So this week we asked the developers this. To our surprise everyone had completely different ideas of how much they would like to charge a month.. Our developers for this week are:
  • Mark "MBJ" Jacobs from Mythic Entertainment, makers of Dark Age of Camelot.
  • Ken "Troop" Troop from Turbine Entertainment, makers of Asherons Call.
  • Daniel "Savant" Manachi from Themis Group, consultants for Jumpgate.
  • Chris "Vosx" Mancil from UbiSoft, Publishers of Shadowbane. Quote:
    {MBJ} Let's start with a simple statement then. A good monthly fee is that which provides a number of things to both the player and to the company involved with the MMOG. First, the fee must be enough to pay for all the operating costs of the game on a monthly basis. Second, the monthly fee must then be enough to pay for the ongoing content development that the creators are hopefully putting in the game. Third, the monthly fee should then be enough to pay for all additional marketing expenses. Finally, the monthly fee should then also include enough to justify the investment of the developer/publisher/etc. that created the MMOG. By balancing all the that (and probably things that I am forgetting), a monthly fee should be set. If then the developer wants to do more (such as truly special events), then a premium should be attached to it. In terms of what I feel is fair, it could be anywhere from at least 12.95 to much higher depending on the factors. /Quote
    You can find the chat log here: http://www.unknownplayer.com/archive/02/02/18/354.php Make sure you check out the random quotes at the end of the log. :) Enjoy. Scott "Unknown Player" Miller Unknown Player mailto:up@unknownplayer.com http://www.unknownplayer.com The only thing more painful than writing this stuff... is reading it.
  • Tags: General, News

    Comments

    Free account required to post

    You must log in or create an account to post messages.