Despite the he said/she said spat that took place with Atari surrounding Turbine’s relaunch (in a free to play fashion) of Dungeons and Dragons online, it looks like the Westwood, Massachusetts firm might have a true winner on their hands.
Turbine’s Director of Communications Adam Meresky recently stated that the microtransactions business inside the relaunched Dungeons and Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited is thriving. What’s important to keep in mind about this statement, is that the public version, slated to go live today, September 9th, hasn’t even welcomed the outside world yet. Currently, VIP subscribers and open beta participants have been playing what the rest of the world will see today for only about a week. Again, some of these folks are paying subscribers. Many of the available in-game customizations are achievable via in-game actions. The microtransactions are only there to provide the option of spending a buck or two to bypass the X amount of hours that it would take to unlock these items.
Speaking to Kotaku, Meresky states, “They all got a ton of points for being loyal subscribers, for being in the beta. We weren’t really expecting a ton of sales…they had no incentive to. They already had access to all of the content as VIP subscribers, and we just gave them a buttload of points. They’ve gone through their points, and we’ve already sold millions more Turbine points, and we’ve not even opened up the world to the public yet.”
Can you say cha-ching?
And what pray-tell are these users dropping the coinage on? According to Mereksy one of the most popular purchases is the Favored Soul Class. Again, an unlockable class, but apparently subscriptions players don’t want to and/or can’t be bothered to unlock it, and are spending points like madmen.
So while there’s been lots of speculation stemming all the way back to January of this year, it looks like Turbine is poised to have a free-to-play hit amongst their midst. With Turbine raising an additional $6.6 million in series D funding, one has to wonder if a large majority of this funding will be put to use in promoting/upgrading/updating the DDO product. And as Mike Fahey from Kotaku puts it, “It sounds as if DDO, a game that had all but dropped off of our radar, could be coming back in a big way.”
Dungeons and Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited opens the doors to the public today at ddo.com.
Tags: Adam Meresky, atari, dungeons and dragons online, free to play, microtransaction, Turbine
