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PC Games (Games) Software Entertainment Games Linux

Linux Users More Likely To Pay For Games? 106

Posted by simoniker from the freedom-to-spend-freely dept.
Teppy writes "I noticed something unexpected the other day when reviewing the subscriber counts for our MMORPG, A Tale In The Desert. Of everyone who tries our game, Linux users are definitely more inclined to pay money to subscribe. In fact, overall, about 15.6% of Windows users who do the free trial will subscribe, while among Linux users the number is 19.3%. Furthermore, Linux users tend to remain subscribers for a longer time. Are we the only game company noticing this?" Is this down to loyalty, choice, or other mysterious factors?
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Linux Users More Likely To Pay For Games? More

Linux Users More Likely To Pay For Games?

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  • Fewer Games to Choose From... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Katyrnyn ( 90568 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2003 @02:41PM (#7455940)
    Perhaps the higher subscription rate among the Linux crowd is because we're game starved. There are far more game choices when it comes to the Windows game market, thus more to draw away customers.

    • Re: (Score:2, Redundant)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • because we're game starved

      I often wonder what share of the desktop market Linux would have, if only Linux had the same choice and quality of games seen on Windows. Windows is my primary OS, games are the only thing preventing me from switching.
  • You have to consider the fact that Linux users are usually far more technically minded, and probably have more money and be more willing to give their support, regardless of their wealth. That user base is still far less than the Windows user base, so while your numbers are probably correct, they fail to consider the number of users for each OS.

  • My Guess... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Ka0s23 ( 688443 )
    Is that its due to the fact that there are a lot more available games for windows users to subscribe to, while not as much content, as far as games go, is put out for linux platforms.

    Or could it be b/c windows sucks, and blue screens whenever users try to subscribe? We may never know.

  • A good number of reasons (Score:5, Informative)

    by Youssef Adnan ( 669546 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2003 @02:43PM (#7455966) Homepage
    Actually, this is related to the following reasons:
    - A number of people would do so in order to encourage game companies to make games for linux.
    - A number of Linux users do not have a large variety of games available. This makes them stick with what they got.
    - The Linux community in general is supportive to companies that care enough to care about the community.

    So it's loyalty, fewer varities, and paying back.

  • Market Saturation, DUh (Score:4, Funny)

    by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2003 @02:44PM (#7455968) Homepage Journal
    "Linux Users More Likely To Pay For Games?"

    That's like asking if Mac users like music more than Windows users because they buy more iPods.

    It's not a mysterious factor. It's a benefit of making a game in an under-supplied market.

    • Re:Market Saturation, DUh (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Kethinov ( 636034 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2003 @03:02PM (#7456163) Homepage Journal
      That was my first thought too. But I thought about it a second and realized that ever since I started using Linux, the number of items of software I've pirated has declined. Granted, I still buy nothing. But I'd rather look for the GNU free and legal solution than the illegal pirated solution.

      When I ran Windows predominantly, it was always a pirated copy. If my entire OS is pirated what's a few more small programs?
      • "But I thought about it a second and realized that ever since I started using Linux, the number of items of software I've pirated has declined. Granted, I still buy nothing. But I'd rather look for the GNU free and legal solution than the illegal pirated solution."

        Exactly how much opportunity do you have to actually pirate with Linux?
      • >ever since I started using Linux, the number of items of software I've pirated has declined.

        That has nothing to do with this particular case.

        You cannot pirate an account on an external server like you can pirate a cd-rom.
    • That doesn't make sense, really. Mac users legally download more music per capita, and though I couldn't find a source, I'd bet anything that Mac users are more likely to own an iPod than Win users are to own any MP3 music player.
      • That doesn't make sense, really. Mac users legally download more music per capita, and though I couldn't find a source, I'd bet anything that Mac users are more likely to own an iPod than Win users are to own any MP3 music player.

        But could this be due to the fact that music lovers are more likely to buy Macs?
      • That might be because Mac users have had a kickass store for their music for quite a while, and Windows users just recently got access to the same store? Just maybe?

  • Who knows? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Otter ( 3800 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2003 @02:44PM (#7455972) Journal
    Well, good job getting a plug on Slashdot! ;-) It would help your Linux numbers (totals, anyway) except that most of the readership is running Windows. Anyway...

    Is this down to loyalty, choice, or other mysterious factors?

    Without any idea of the sample size, and where your hits are coming from, who knows? My guesses are that 1) anyone looking for Linux games is really into games and 2) the much smaller pool of Linux games means an identical game looks more attractive on Linux than on Windows.

    I've never seen a game distributed as a 100 meg shell script before!

    • Re:Who knows? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by aridhol ( 112307 )
      I've never seen a game distributed as a 100 meg shell script before!
      A little off topic:

      Software is (was?) often distributed in this fashion. It is known as a shar file (SHell ARchive). I believe that Sun's version of Java is delivered in this way; it allows them to feed you a license agreement before creating the tarball that contains the file. The tarball itself is Base64 encoded (just as if it went through an email system) and tacked onto the end of the script.

    • That's how all of the tribes2 patches work, and I believe (75% certin?) that's how loki's demos used to work, I may be wrong there.
    • You're right. This one's 163 MB.

      http://www.3dgamers.com/dl/games/savage/savagede mo installer-linux.sh.html

  • Is it...? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Hell O'World ( 88678 )
    Nah, it's just that Linux users are geeks, which is a subculture closly related to hardcore gamers. Windows users are a much broader array of type. Someone who is just interesting in learning more about games and will try a free version here and there, is probably going to be running Windows.

  • I would guess choice (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Snowmit ( 704081 )
    As a person with a Windows machine, I have lots of choice for games. Hell, there are so many games released for Windows PC that I could take care of all of my entertainment needs entirely through free trials and demo downloads. This means that a game has to be really special for me to stick around and pay money for it. Linux users don't get as much choice.

    I bet there is also an activist dollars aspect to it. I mean if you spend a lot of time championing Linux and complaining that there aren't enough cross-
    • I disagree rather strongly. As both a hardcore gamer and a hardcore linux user, I am speaking from experience when I say there is not that much difference in the number of games available between M$ Windows and Linux. The biggest difference is that there are more free/open source games for linux, which is a good thing, but somewhat less commercial games, which would be a bad thing, but what with winex & other emulators, even with commercial games I can choose from basically the same games for both Win

  • 15 vs 19 (Score:4, Insightful)

    by schwartzon ( 552831 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2003 @02:46PM (#7456005) Homepage
    Your numbers are so close that i dont think you can easily pick a winner. Without having margin of error, or a total sample size how can we realisticly calculate whom is more likely to pay for your software.

    Their are other factors to take into consideration as well. What is the target audience for your game? If you are advertising mostly on linux blogs or sites, then your going to have an audience that is more steeped in linux.

    I think that the numbers show that on average 20% of your audience will pay for the game. This says only one thing to me, that your game is not very good. Instead of looking as to why linux users are approximatly 4% more willing to purchase the sofware; instead look at why 80% of your users wont. Solve that, and you have accomplished something.

    • Re:15 vs 19 (Score:3, Insightful)

      by btk667 ( 722104 )
      I do not think that because "only" 20% of the people were willing to pay mean the product is not good. Look at how much people download music "for free".. Or what are the statistic on such trial software like WinZip, or ZonAlarm. How many people actualy pay for thoses software? On computer around the office i can found around 5 to 20 downloaded software that people don't pay for.. And many of thoses are very good. People are just cheap, or people are not "yet" ready to pay for product only available on th
    • Your post got me thinking, does anyone know the average retention rate (after the free trial) of MMORPGs (of which this game could be considered one)? What about how long users stay subscribed?

      I agree that 4% is probably statistical noise, but I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that 20% retention is bad unless I had numbers from other titles.

    • Re:15 vs 19 (Score:3, Interesting)

      by rubinson ( 207525 )
      Your numbers are so close that i dont think you can easily pick a winner. Without having margin of error, or a total sample size how can we realisticly calculate whom is more likely to pay for your software.

      It sounds like the 15.6% and 19.3% reflect *all* Linux and Windows users who do the free trial. That is, it's the entire population. Therefore, there's no sample and no margin of error. (A margin of error is a characteristic of a sample used when trying to generalize the results of the sample to th
      • The reported percentages are close. But since the numbers come from the total population, they are accurate: of those individuals who download the trial version, Linux users are more likely to subscribe than Windows users.

        But how many Linux users were there compared to Windows users? If there were 1560 purchases out of a total 10000 Windows downloads compared to 10 out of 52 Linux downloads, then can the percentages really be compared directly?

        Anyway, it could come down to the amount of choice available

    • I think that the numbers show that on average 20% of your audience will pay for the game. This says only one thing to me, that your game is not very good. Instead of looking as to why linux users are approximatly 4% more willing to purchase the sofware; instead look at why 80% of your users wont. Solve that, and you have accomplished something.

      I think the entire MMOG market is trying to solve that problem. Currently, the market for MMOGs is tiny compared to that of, say, offline PS2 games, and the singl

    • Re:15 vs 19 (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Teppy ( 105859 ) * on Wednesday November 12, 2003 @06:07PM (#7458636) Homepage
      Actually, there's plenty of sample size to do meaningful statistics. Here's the total:

      Trial Accounts, Total: 34317
      Trial Accounts, Linux: 1309
      Paid Accounts, Total: 5407
      Paid Accounts, Linus: 253

      These are all since release. An account is considered a paid account if they have paid for at least one month of ATITD. Note that these are not current subscriber counts - we're arouond 1500 on that. The average length of time a player stays is a bit closer, but I'll try put those numbers together if there's interest.

      So, the 15 vs 19 certainly seems meaningful - maybe there's a stats guy out there who can figure out the actual margin or error.

      Also, yes - these are percentages of people who do the trial that go on to pay. We don't require any credit card info upfront, so there's no "aha, you forgot to say you DIDN'T want to continue!" factor. Also there's plenty of kids that don't have a way to pay in the first place, mixed in with those numbers. No idea what the numbers would look like if we did use a traditional GOTCHA! business model.
      • So, the 15 vs 19 certainly seems meaningful - maybe there's a stats guy out there who can figure out the actual margin or error.

        Read my above post. You've got a full population there and not a sample. So there is no margin of error. A margin of error is used to tell you what the chances are that the statistics that you've calculated from a sample of a population actually exist in the overall population. You've already got the entire population, so there's no margin of error. (For clarification, your

  • larger hardcore segment? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by *weasel ( 174362 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2003 @02:50PM (#7456054)
    i'd think it'd be due to the fact that linux geeks are more likely to be part of the hard-core segment.

    no offense to the poster, but their fairly good massmog is still fairly obscure. that's mostly due to independents having a hell of a time with marketing - and combines with no retail box on the shelf.

    no box in best buy limits your exposure to the mass MS PC market, and all that's left is hardcore gamers who find most of their games through word of mouth or surfing.

    then there's the gameplay. Atitd is really skewed toward the player-created-content segment (which is great) which one would expect is a natural fit for the linux/hacker mentality.

    of course, given all that, i'm surprised the linux adoption rate isn't higher - though i'd bet that has more to do with the monthly price.

    which imo, still intending no offense to the poster, is still a bit steep for anyone with only casual-gamer levels of free-time. linux fans being hardcore hackers - they could generally be expected to code just as much in their free time as play games. and then its all a matter of personal economics.

    (naturally i know nothing of the actual economics of massmog production, so the price may be absolutely necessary. i do recognize that the price is on par with other massmogs, and combined with the no up-front box cost the game comes out dramatically cheaper - so its certainly reasonable.
    but i do however know my personal economics. and $13/mo for ~20-30 hours of play isn't in the budget. of course, that's why no massmog is in my budget, but i digress)

  • Paying monthly is horrible (Score:4, Interesting)

    by RancidLM ( 723035 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2003 @02:53PM (#7456081)
    Having some one pay monthly is the most horrible thing a company can do ...

    i mean why Go out and spend 80$ on a game and pay an aditional cost on top of that.. i understand its to maintain servers but its stuppid..

    Personaly i am waiting for the next version of Planeshift
    www.planeshift.it
    its totaly free Massive multiplay Online RPG.. 100% free
    In another note i would rather pay +60$ more of the game price just for a unlimited subscirption for a massive multiplayer RPG game.. then have to pay monthly
    But, As a linux user .. i relly have respect for almost any company that offers a linux version of thier software.. its really about time.. i think Nvidia and ID software are setting a good examples off releasing linux related version of their games/drivers

    -"i come from a planet ruled by carots"
    • Having some one pay monthly is the most horrible thing a company can do ...

      In another note i would rather pay +60$ more of the game price just for a unlimited subscirption for a massive multiplayer RPG game.. then have to pay monthly

      That's not a viable business model for an MMOG. With a conventional game, the company has a large up-front cost to develop the game, which is recovered by sales of the game. Since making additional copies of the game is very cheap, costs after initial development are very
    • Having some one pay monthly is the most horrible thing a company can do ...

      i mean why Go out and spend 80$ on a game and pay an aditional cost on top of that.. i understand its to maintain servers but its stuppid..

      Horrible? No, quite the opposite in fact. Genius. Going out and spending money on a game plus a monthly fee isn't a bad thing for the company. It may be bad for the consumer, but it's only bad for the company if the prices prevent people from spending, and that's obviously not the case. I
      • No.. im not looking for some one to blame but on the consumers it is horrible.. if any thing thier Game should be Free.. then they charge monthly fees.. that would be the best way to go in that case..
        • This was not my idea - someone else here posted it a while back and I'm copying it.

          When people go to the game store, they are more likely to consider a game with a $40-50 price tag than a game with a $10 price tag. $10 games are typically games that never sold at the higher price, or are barely above the standards of shareware, etc.

          To get free games into stores, you'd have to pay the store for the shelf space - you'd have to pay them a lot.

          Some people are willing to look up games online, and then downloa

    • Where the money goes (Score:5, Informative)

      by Teppy ( 105859 ) * on Wednesday November 12, 2003 @08:01PM (#7459901) Homepage
      Here's a breakdown of overhead costs [slashdot.org]. But that's not most of the $14.

      We have a small company - 3 artists, 2 coders. We spend pretty much all of our time saying "ah, here's a cool new challenge to add to the game." My partner and I code it, the artists do their part, and we release a new skill, or new research, or a new event or Test. This happens at least a couple times each week.

      I can't imagine being able to keep the game fresh and interesting working less than full time. There is *no way* we could pay the bills based only on an initial (box) fee.

  • Couple of points (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ccarter ( 15555 )
    I think part of it has to be attributed to lack of choice. There's not a whole lot of other games for linux users to spend thier money on. Suppose you could play EQ, DAoC or FFXI on linux, would you see the same subscription and retentions rates then? Hard to speculate but I suspect not.

    The other thing is the player themselves. It's no stretch to say that linux users are of a different mindset than windows users right? It may also be a case of this particular game just being more to thier tastes. Af
  • It is not that the Linux users are game-starved, it is more like they are sex-starved and food-starved. Half of the subscribers think it is "A Piece of Tail in the Desert", and the rest think it is a "A Tale of Dessert".

  • Another theory? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by image ( 13487 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2003 @03:04PM (#7456188) Homepage
    Just to toss this one out there --

    Linux users, on average, are probably more educated than Windows users. (To avoid a flame war, note that I said "on average". Everybody and their grandmother uses Windows, thus driving the average level of education down. Whereas Linux users tend to pick it up either in high-tech jobs, implying advanced education, or in the secondary schools themselves. Although the delta may be smaller for the MMORPG market.)

    More educated people tend to make more money than less educated people.

    People that make more money have more money to spend on things like game subscriptions.

    Hence the slightly higher subscription rate among Linux users.

    Just one theory... Though my personal bet is that the driving factor is the limited competition for online games that support Linux.
    • "Linux users, on average, are probably more educated than Windows users. (To avoid a flame war, note that I said "on average"."

      You're right about this, and I'm more often a Windows user than not. This is because Windows has been mass marketted: you'll get Granny typing in cookie recipes, diehard computer gamers who have really only ever played Solitaire, and AOLamers by the millions on Windows, while the Linux world requires some technical know-how.

      You've got the "Great unwashed" being drawn into the Win
    • I call bullshit on this theory. Linux users posess both patience and endurance (from tweaking and tinkering with their OS) that is key to being a successful in the MMORPG. The same person that spends hours dicking around with .conf files or compiling Gentoo isn't going to complain about having to kill hordes of rats to gain XP. That's my theory anyway.
    • "Linux users, on average, are probably more educated than Windows users."

      Educated in what? Computer Science(my degree), Engineering, other tech fields, etc. Ya, sure. But what about other areas of education? I'm sure most doctors out there have never used linux and could care less, but on average make more money than techies. What about every other degree that you can get from University? Are people with those degrees less educated those those with tech degree? I think not.

    • > Linux users, on average, are
      > probably more educated than
      > Windows users.

      This is one of the stupidist things I've read on Slashdot lately.
  • Perhaps because its the Windows users don't feel like putting up with your game, having a broader selection?

    Hate to sound like a troll though. I think I saw another poster with the same sentiment while the comment form was loading. "Maybe because linux gamers are starved for games?"

  • They can pay (Score:2, Funny)

    by neosiv ( 320921 )
    Yeah they have extra money from not paying for an overpriced OS

  • duh (Score:3, Funny)

    by Lord_Dweomer ( 648696 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2003 @03:19PM (#7456363) Homepage
    They have lots of free money from not having to pay for WinXP.

  • Why I Subscribed (Score:3, Informative)

    by skreuzer ( 613775 ) <skreuzer @ m e t a w ire.org> on Wednesday November 12, 2003 @03:40PM (#7456668) Homepage
    I am a very casual gamer, and there are a few reasons why I subscribed to the game. When MMORPG started to get popular, I wanted to give them a go, but when I got to the store, I found out you had to pay 50 bucks, and then a monthly fee. In the past I have bought games, and then never ended up playing them, and every time I see the box sitting on my shelf, I think, man I wasted 50 bucks. So if I was to pay 50 bucks for the game, and then 10 bucks a month, only to play it for a week, I would have blew 60 bucks.

    The fact that the game is made available without a fee, and that you could even play online for a demo period pretty much sealed the deal. I played it, thought it was cool, and then when the demo expired, I registered so I could continue to play.
  • it could just be because there is no version of Kazaa (K-lite, K++, etc.) for linux, or maybe it just isn't widely known about?
  • Remember Loki Games? They ported a number of games to Linux, and they shuttered their doors close to two years ago. Obviously there weren't enough Linux gamers paying for products from Loki Games to stay in business.
  • Okay, I will just throw this out there...
    Perhaps the number of Linux users registering is a side-effect due to the fact this game was linked to in a recent Slashdot article? [slashdot.org]
    • That might explain more Linux users subscribing, but how would you tie that to they staying loyal to the game? The original article states "Linux users tend to remain subscribers for a longer time."

      I don't see how that could be a function of the /. effect.
  • So 15.6% of Windows users subscribe while 19.3% of Linux users subscribe. What does that tell us? Nothing really. How many windows users are there versus Linux users? I suspect many more. This sounds like the dev noticed some unrelated figures and decided to use them as a reason to get posted on /..

  • Summary Explanation (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MBraynard ( 653724 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2003 @05:52PM (#7458506) Journal
    1) There isn't much of a statistical difference.

    2) The nature of ATITD appeals to Linux users more than Windows users. It's a very high-brow academic game with very little violence (none, really).

    What it's not? Has nothing to do with a lack of Linux games. Linux users probably all have access to PCs - maybe on a duel boot, and if there was a PC game they wanted to play they would play it.

  • the reason for me (Score:2, Interesting)

    by jester42 ( 623276 )
    I'm more into FPS than MMORPG so this is more about pirating or buying than signing up for a service. But since I completeley switched to linux a few years ago, i bought all the games i play rather than just copied them. One of the main reasons for me is that i think it is sexy not to have *ANY* pirated software on your system.

    And let's be honest: It's really hard to pay for all the windows software you use, starting with little tools like winzip or stuff like that. So buying a single piece of software d
  • Windows users are unsubscribing because FFXI was released for the PC in the U.S. Its got the FF name behind it and its a tried and tested game (Japan had it for a while now).

    Would you rather play a small time game with fairly low-medium budget work or join the FF bandwagon while staying on the MMO scene?

  • Free Software is about not stealing commercial code. A significant proportion of linux users use it because it is legal to copy for free, and the legal part is important to them. There is a significant proportion of windows users who have cracked OS or application licenses. It isn't as if cracked software is not easily available. For those people, there is no advantage to the freedom of Linux.

    So people who use linux value the copyright which gives them free software and so are more likely to respect

  • An argument that has not been conjured up in the Linux overall picture is the gaming industry. And I think this is one very important aspect of the present situation.

    I'm going to give you my own exemple, but I have several friends in the same situation as I was some years ago and that didn't change their OS.

    Basically I'm a hardcore-gamer since the age of 15. It means playing games 6 hours in the night, and sleeping 4 hours a night to still be efficient at school. At some point, at I was interested in comp
  • That's like coming on here and looking for a lawyer.

    Go ask your subscribers.
  • DO you guys have any plans to make future games? I like ATITD, but having missed so much of the start of the gameplay, I just can't get into it. Too much of an I'm behind feeling.

    • Re:Future games? (Score:2, Informative)

      by Grech ( 106925 )
      I don't know if the eGenesis folks are planning any side projects once the Second Telling starts, but you shouldn't feel like you are behind. Here's the biggest thing you missed: Building the first pottery wheel. The amount of effort that went into building said pottery wheel was massive, and took several people several days to manage. Serious chicken/egg issues.

      Modern Egypt:
      1>Get someone to give you a medium stone (they are cheap, often free)
      2>Get some leather from a UWorship, or buy some (no

      • Its the psychological feel. I like starting MMOs, figuring things out at the forefront with everyone else. It just isn't the same joining in later.
        • Atitd is all about figuring things out at the forefront, if you join later you will still be figuring out things at the forefront, just a slightly different one.(especially if you join a guild like some parent poster up the tree suggested)

          Disclaimer:
          I haven't played atitd since the beta(don't have time to do both that an everquest, barely have time for everquest).
    • I believe Teppy has stated that the current telling of the game will end early next year some time, so look to join the game then. They'll basically restart everything, change the code to make everyone have to figure things out again, and then add in new technologies and tests as time goes on. Puts everyone on mostly equal footing, and for those just joining then, it's extremely easy to catch up.

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