Comments: 157 +- Games: How Much Money Do Free-To-Play MMOs Make? on Tuesday June 09, @05:17PM
Posted
by
Soulskill
on Tuesday June 09, @05:17PM
from the insert-coin-for-funny-hat dept.
from the insert-coin-for-funny-hat dept.
simoniker writes "Over at Gamasutra, a new feature article discusses how much money free-to-play MMO games make, with specific real-world stats from game developers willing to discuss how they make money with microtransaction-based PC games. In particular, Puzzle Pirates co-creator Daniel James reveals that 'the average revenue per user (ARPU) is between one and two dollars a month, but only about 10% of his player base has ever paid him anything. As a result, he says, approximately 5,000 gamers are generating the $230,000 in revenue he sees each month.' It's obviously quite a different model from the regular $15/month for World Of Warcraft, but it evidently works for some companies."
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Dear free MMO companies (Score:2, Insightful)
Stop making your games for Windows only and maybe you'll see more money.
Hint: on campuses there's at least 50% Mac users.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Dear free MMO companies (Score:5, Insightful)
None.
We sit in Starbucks all over the nation, sipping our latte all day long, waiting for the master to return.
Parent
Re:Dear free MMO companies (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, dunno about studying or socializing, but if you can afford a mac, you're probably not ransacking couches for Ramen money.
Parent
Re:Dear free MMO companies (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Dear free MMO companies (Score:5, Funny)
Is that what you kids are calling it these days? In my day was just called it sex, I guess I am just old.
Get off my lawn.
Parent
Re:Dear free MMO companies (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:Dear free MMO companies (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You ARE new here!
Re:Dear free MMO companies (Score:5, Informative)
With just under 30k accounts, maybe 2,000 of them active in a given month, I'm not really quite "massive" yet but my own experience is that I pull in on average less than $0.50 per account per month, with some fair bit of fluctuation. I'd be jumping for joy at an average of $2/player.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Server costs are about half of my income for two dedicated servers (one file server, one database server). Doesn't leave a lot of profit (especially if I want to do any advertising or hire out any services), so at this point it's still more of a minimum-wage hobby. On the other hand, that beats the hell out of hobbies that *cost* money and it's still fantastically fun, educational, and rewarding.
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Re:Dear free MMO companies (Score:5, Insightful)
Odd, I got a Mac in college when my PC crapped out thanks to some defective parts after $300 of upgrades. I decided I had enough of futzing with my computer, and fixing things, so I bought an iBook. With student discounts it was cheaper than most comparable Wintel laptops, and did pretty much the same stuff, and I got a free iPod with it. Sure, I couldn't game, but I had more important things to do.
It actually served my purposes fine, and it was damn cheap. Hardly a status symbol. Hell, even if it was a status symbol it might have left my dorm room 4 times 3 years.
Stop generalizing to justify your own selection of OS as being far superior to everyone elses. And stop deluding yourself into thinking you OS choice has anything to do with anything that actually matters. Its shallow, and obnoxious.
And just so you don't call me a fan-boy (which is also vapid, I might add) I'm typing this on my Windows gaming rig, sitting next to my Ubuntu laptop, which is sitting next to a Mac Mini I'm fitting into a mini media center.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
When I bought my first Mac, an iBook G3 in 2003, it was the best value notebook for my needs. It was actually cheap in comparison to most PC notebooks, which really surprised me. The Mac notebook line has always been good value.
Sadly this doesn't hold true on the higher end. MacBooks and iBooks were a decent value, and at least comparable to Windows laptops with the same specs, but PowerBooks and MacBook Pro's are generally way too expensive for what you get.
My HP Pavilion Vista Laptop (now running Linux)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Dear free MMO companies (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I use a thinkpad t61 for work, and used a t43 before that, and I have never, ever, ever had any problems with the suspend/resume functions with closing/opening the laptop lid. And I virtually ONLY use suspend/resume because otherwise I have to sit through the ridiculously long log-in script.
I'd say I've reasonably done this at least twice over the last four years, or about 2,500 times, without ever (remembering) any problem like you discuss.
Re:Dear free MMO companies (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, as an openly gay mac user, I have to say I've gotten far more dick when I leave my computer at home.
If you think your hardware choice will get you laid, I'm guessing you don't get much from either sex.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Actually, as an openly gay mac user, I have to say...
There's a special version of Mac based on your sexual orientation? Damn! I knew Apple's DRM was getting restrictive but this is ridiculous!
Re:Dear free MMO companies (Score:5, Funny)
You heard it here on Slashdot first, gentlemen. Gay men aren't attracted to your operating system.
We already knew they weren't aroused by the size of your external hard drive, but the jury's still out on whether or not you should wear an anti-virus shield when having unprotected file-sharing with another anonymous gay man. Some call this controversial practice "bare-backuping," and it remains highly controversial in online gay communities.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Actually, as an openly gay mac user, I have to say I've gotten far more dick when I leave my computer at home.
What about your iPhone?
Shazam!
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
You mean like Game! [wittyrpg.com]? I don't really see many Mac users, substantially more Linux users actually.
Re: (Score:2)
What? WoW works on the Mac, and the XBOX 360 is for everything else...
If you advertise it as free (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Have not read the article, but it seems fro mthe summary that they know that most people are going ot play for free. But the free draws them in and then some pay for things and they make enough to stay in business.
A good business model does not require making millions of profit. If a company makes enough to pay it's employees well with a little leftover capitol to grow then it is do
Re: (Score:2)
I have.
Granted, that's partly because you're trapped in one area until level 50 (at which point you have to start paying), and that area is hard to get to after level 50. Generally, people who would just shout out advertisements aren't willing to spend $10 for the very short opportunity until they get jailed.
But I would guess that is a problem -- if it's a pay game, there's a hurdle for griefers and spambots. If it's free, you have to play with CAPTCHAS and the like, just like any other free service.
Wait What? How Bad is My Math... (Score:4, Informative)
"(ARPU) is between one and two dollars a month, but only about 10% of his player base has ever paid him anything. As a result, he says, approximately 5,000 gamers are generating the $230,000 in revenue"
So 10% of the player base is paying him and that player base equals 5,000 people. So there are 50,000 people a month playing - nice.
But wait a sec...ARPU is only $2 on the top end and 5,000 people pay this, so that's $10,000 a month - where is the other $220,000 coming from!!!!! Even if all 50k people were spending $2 a month that's be $100k - Where did I miss something?
OH I GET IT NOW - From the actual article....
"Indeed, James reveals that Three Rings' MMO Puzzle Pirates takes in approximately $50 each month from each paying user (ARPPU) for a total of $230,000 a month, all resulting from microtransactions."
This is different than what the blurb mentioned - I guess it did get me to read, but only this time - you're tactics won't always work on me!
Re:Wait What? How Bad is My Math... (Score:5, Informative)
And if I add apples and oranges, I can eliminate the national debt as long as I remember to divide by zero!
10% of the player base is paying him
No, 10% of the player base has ever paid him. Some other % (presumably smaller) is the 5000 players paying monthly.
ARPU is only $2 on the top end and 5,000 people pay this, so that's $10,000 a month
No, the average is over all of the players, so thats (total players)*$2 a month.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I love summaries like this one. It's a great tool for figuring out who has poor reading comprehension and/or logic ability.
I think 6 (Score:5, Funny)
is it 6? I'm guessing 6, 6 right?
"approximately 5,000 gamers are generating the $230,000 in revenue he sees each month."
If you knew, why the hell did you ask me?
DDO - free to play (Score:2, Offtopic)
Interesting that this was posted today without announcing that today was also the day that DDO (Dungeons and Dragons Online, Turbine Entertainment) announced it was going free to play. Just a thought.
Re: (Score:2)
Predictions (Score:2)
I haven't read the article, but, to me it seems the takeaway here is pretty obvious: Your users are content and they are providing themselves. The question becomes "Are the users that never pay anything valuable enough to the users that may pay something to convince them to continue paying and participating at that paying level, or would those same paying users pay as much without the addition free users as human content?" And I think that's a tough question to ask which can only be answered through actua
No thanks (Score:2)
I've not played a lot of the free/micro-payment MMOs but the ones I have fooled around with act the same way. That being if you want to have any real power in the game your forced to pay. And it's not that I'm saying that paying for an MMO service itself is bad. Rather that paying a flat rate subscription MMO is a better deal.
As such I either want to a) play for free when online; such as when playing a FPS, RTS, or even back in the day with a RPG like NWN. (A philosophy I supported by writing/hosting St
Especially since micropayments seem to be more (Score:2)
If you read the article, it says the money is coming from people making micropayments adding up to $50/month each. Ummm, ouch, that's a shitload of money. For that you could buy a new, retail game each month. It is also way more than subscription MMOs. Pricing for those varies, but seems to cap out at $15/month for the big ones like WoW. Means for each month those people pay for this game, they could have a little over 3 months of WoW.
I think that is precisely why some publishers are so in to the micropayme
And now a word from our sponsor. (Score:2)
I am curious about the investment Disney and others are prepared to make in games like Pirates of Caribbean.
Free to play.
Period.
I think the small-time developer should be asking this question.
Disney has a lot of assets it can bring to the table.
IP. Creative talent. Tech.
It won't be generating headlines on Fox News when the addict passes $100/mo in "micropayments."
This I think is a model for disaster.
Does Guild Wars count as free-to-play? (Score:3, Informative)
Guild Wars is pay to purchase, but from then on it's free to play. Its graphics are astounding (better than WoW IMO - much less cartoony) and it supports huge numbers of players. It's got a huge amount of content - after 2 years of solid playing there's still lots that I haven't done yet.
I've got 3 accounts (mine, brother, mule - used to be 4, but I gave one to my nephew). The interesting thing with GW is that there is no significant advantage to buying additional stuff beyond the 3 campaigns (each standalone) and one expansion (which can be used with any of the campaigns). There are lots of things you can buy (extra character slots, extra account-wide storage, skill unlock packs, etc) but nothing that gives a significant advantage in the game - e.g. everything in the skill unlock packs can be unlocked by playing the PvE game, or doing well in PvP and using the points you get to unlock things.
Over the past 2 years we've gradually bought all the campaigns and expansions (most at sales, some full price) - all up, we've spent approx US$500 on the 4 accounts. ArenaNet has continually added new content and updates - enough that last night I finally bought the other 2 campaigns for my mule account.
GW has been more than worth the money I've paid - and maybe some day I'll buy some more character slots, etc.
Business is about to get better (Score:4, Interesting)
I was looking at Warcraftrealms.com overnight; WoW's population is about to drop like a rock. It's already begun, in fact.
Character classes have been nerfed into the ground, with the Paladin or DK now being the only two worth playing. Any originality is gone. WotLK had the worst instances the game has ever had, and the only thing the developers now focus on is the Arena.
I can see it in my own behaviour; I'd be lucky to log into WoW once a week, now, and even just this last night, while I got up planning on playing WoW, it never happened, even though I spent practically the entire night idling on IRC, bored.
When I'd rather spend a night vegetating on Freenode than playing World of Warcraft, (which I used to genuinely love, incidentally) I know that the game has truly died in the ass...and it has.
I'm starting to think Guild Wars might be worth a look. WoW sure isn't getting much of my time these days, that's for sure.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
This is claimed at least once a week, but has yet to be true. Fact is, there's nothing on the market that can compete with WoW.
I fairly regularly see trolls making this statement as well, but then never offering anything more specific to back it up. Allow me to offer you a clue.
a) The levelling game is dead. D-E-A-D. Blizzard reduced the xp requirement between 20-60 by 20%. Then you've got Recruit-A-Friend, and the +10% xp heirloom bonus on top of that. They're killing the ability of new users to real
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Wow. This pile of sour grapes gets modded informative?
>>Fact is, there's nothing on the market that can compete with WoW.
>I fairly regularly see trolls making this statement as well, but then never offering anything more specific to back it up.
You mean, other than the tens of millions of World of Warcraft customers. Because it would be a shame if, while proclaiming yet another time that WoW is dying (Netcraft apparently confirms), you would miss the blatantly obvious fact that WoW continues to th
sounds about right (Score:3, Informative)
Interestingly, I can confirm those percentages. I run a free online game (see footer) where you can donate, if you want to. Whenever I checked, it was around 10% (+/- 2% maybe) of the long-term player base that had donated anything, ever. "long-term" here means that I don't count the accounts that go inactive within a few weeks, those people obviously just took a look and decided the game's not for them.
At the same time, those people who do give anything are often very generous. Again, confirmation there.
Does this work as a business model? Not for me (too few players) but then again I've never tried to make a living off what I consider a hobby. Very nice to know, however, that it can work. The problem is, of course, long-term viability. If your income depends crucially on a fairly small number of customers, you're always at risk of them moving elsewhere. Online gamers have a bit of a herd mentality, they often take their friends with them when they move somewhere else.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:bad math (Score:5, Informative)
if the average user gives an average of 1-2 dollars per month, how can 5000 users generate 230,000 dollars?
I believe that the average per user is $1-2 per month.
However, the average per paying user was something along the lines of $50. So the math would go something like:
($50/paying user)(5000 users) = $250,000
or
($1.50/user)(160,000 users) = $240,000
Parent
d-oh, stupid units (Score:3, Insightful)
($50/paying user)(5000 users) = $250,000
Clearly it should read:
($50/paying user)(5000 paying users) = $250,000
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Well, however your spell it, I love buying Squishies from that guy.
Re:5,000 equal $230,000 a month (Score:4, Informative)
Wow, when did $46 become a micro payment?
From when you RTFA:
Three Rings' MMO Puzzle Pirates takes in approximately $50 each month from each paying user (ARPPU) for a total of $230,000 a month, all resulting from microtransactions.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe he used to work for Verizon [slashdot.org]?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I suspect that the median monthly payment is much smaller, and that there's a "long tail" of people-who-would-be-called-irrational-by-economists, who see the game as a social venue and thus are chipping in a lot. I used to play Kingdom of Loathing, and some of the hard core users seemed to be spending upward of $100 a month on the game partly because they spent a lot of their social time in the game and meta-game (forums; auctions; clan dungeons; &c.). They seemed to be getting a whole lot more out of i
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes... the ongoing decline is partially caused due to rampant USD farming.
Once upon a time, the $$$ you earned were based on real work, and/or legitimate investment using your own cold hard cash.
And then the $$farmers (botters) came... and didn't follow the rules... they exploited bugs, that allowed them to leverage obscene amounts of phoney $$$ they weren't supposed to have access to.
They created an inherently deceptive market. Distorting the value of things such that it would be valued increasi