Posts Tagged ‘Battlefield Heroes’

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Facebook games come of age – first FPS arriving soon

Monday, February 8th, 2010

Farming and Fish Tanks have been a massive success for a number of casual games developers on social networking platforms, primarily Facebook. Mafia type games have also seen their fair share of success, and while they do contain an element of violence, they’re still grounded to a static, turn based, game style. If these games may be viewed as ‘all encompassing – all inclusive’ styles, it looks like social games on Facebook might be taking a step towards segmentation, as 3G Studios plans to bring a browser based first person shooter directly to your Facebook gaming addiction enjoyment.

Menubar_BA_MidTitled “Brave Arms”, 3G Studios says that they plan on bringing, “a real video game experience,” to Facebook. While full details are currently scarce, those available indicate that the casual game will feature solo as well as team play style, and will include a microtransactions based monetization component.

A quick visit to the Brave Arms official site reveals that the game will feature 3D characters set in a variety of environments. Neither one of these images, however are very descript, one featuring a (what looks like stock digital imagery) warehouse, while the other shows a snowboard mountain setting. Additionally, screenshots show a few different weapon options; dual wielding handguns, assault/sniper rifles with scopes, as well as a futuristic looking weapon which may shoot (frickin’) laser beams!

Brave Arms has a great linage behind it. Developed by 3G Studios which is responsible for the original Rock Band, and handful of PSP games, and most recently Jillian Michael’s Fitness Ultimatum 2009 for Wii. Given these past projects, it should be interesting to see how 3G will make the transition from console and portable titles to the social gaming world.

bfh_logoAnd now for the biggest question – why is 3G Studios the first on the scene with a FPS for Facebook? With EA’s massive investment in social gaming, did 3G simply beat them to the punch? To be honest, even the Brave Arms logo is not only similar to, but I’d venture close enough to tug at consumers’ vague recollection of another free-to-play, first person shooter title they might already be familiar with: EA’s Battlefield Arms. If Battlefield Heroes, or id Software/Bethesda’s Quake Live are or aren’t in development for a Facebook port, well then….fair enough, hats off to 3G Studios for getting to the market first. For now, neither company has indicated that they’re planning on making this move. Perhaps this new offering from 3G might light a few fires at a few corporate offices quite soon. As CEO James Kosta puts it, “Our new title, Brave Arms, will bring first-person shooter games to the masses.” My alternate suggestion might be, “You snooze, you lose big boys.”

Brave Arms is slated for a March release, but enthusiastic players can reserve their nickname in advance at Facebook.

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Battlefield Heroes raises prices – receives player backlash

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

The EA/DICE title Battlefield Heroes has had a bit of a long and winding road. From being ready to go, then only to be put on hold, and finally the release with a rather gradual, we’ll let anyone in beta. Back in September EA reported that the free-to-play title had passed the 2 million registered players mark, and all seemed well. Likewise, only a month prior, EA’s own senior analytics manager Rommy Ghaly revealed that on average, users spend around $20 in-game. Sounds fair, and all is fine and dandy in this free-to-play shooter n’est pas? Well….apparently not, as EA dropped the virtual bomb yesterday by announcing that the cost of in-game earned currency was going up, while at the same time, RMT (real money transaction) cost were to be lowered. In other words – earning currency by playing has fallen out of favor at EA, and cold hard cash income is coming to the forefront.

Announced on the forum, Battlefield Heroes price restructuring took effect on the 30th, and offers players incentives to purchase items using real money transactions to purchase the virtual currency BattleFunds, as opposed to the currency earned through play, Valor Points. In effect, EA has jacked up the cost of items purchased with Valor Points, while cut the cost of items purchased with BattleFunds by upwards of 50 percent.

But why? To find the answer to this, one might want to have a read through the 70+ page forum thread of players’ reactions. To say that they’re not pleased might be a bit of an understatement. However, if seen from EA’s position, they’ve got an interesting quandary on their hands now – one that can effect virtual economies if not properly planned. It seems as though EA has an imbalanced economy, in so much as players with plenty of time on their hands, ones that have acquired massive amounts of Valor Points through play, often have accounts with upwards of 20,000 points just sitting in the economy. Through not spending this currency, the in-game economy becomes unbalanced. To add to the headache, items purchased with said Valor Point are impermanent items which expire after a certain amount of time. Conversely, items purchased with BattleFunds are permanent items. In other words – those that spend real money for items have them forever, while earned currency buyers have advanced items for a pre-determined time period. The question is – will this change now upset game balance?

What’s also important to keep in mind here is that when Battlefield Heroes first arrived on the scene, they were the only free-to-play first person shooter on the market. Since then, competitors such as Nexon’s Combat Arms or Subagames’ Cross Fire have joined the free-to-play fps ranks. As expected, with the pricing change, a number of vocal players are irate, and have suggested that they’d rather move on to something else, rather than grind away for days on end to acquire items that previously only took a few hours to get. And while these vocal players often serve up empty threats, given the number of them (not counting those that have NOT voiced their opinions), a mass exodus is something that EA should be considering carefully before we see the once promising Battlefield Heroes dead in the water.

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EA’s Need for Speed franchise tops 100 million, date set for online free-to-play version

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

EA has officially sold more than 100 million copies of it’s popular racing/driving series Need for Speed. Since the first release in 1994, the NFS titles have generated over $2.7 billion in revenue for the Redwood, California based Electronic Arts. The games’ newest iteration, Need for Speed: Shift sales have topped the franchise over this milestone, placing it in the number four all time best selling games. Also included in the over 100 million units sold club are the best selling game of all time, The Sims, as well as the Mario Brother franchise, Pokemon, and Grand Theft Auto.

need-for-speed_shift_03“Few videogame franchises ever reach the 100M units mark, so this is a huge honor. We have millions of fans to thank for driving us to this milestone,” said Frank Gibeau, president, EA Games Label. “With the launch of Need for Speed SHIFT and the upcoming release of Need for Speed NITRO, we hope to continue to deliver the most entertaining, action-packed racing experiences.”

While the game has been through 15 different versions, and produced for 14 different platforms, it wasn’t until the 2003 version, Need for Speed: Underground version was released that the franchise really started to take off. Previous versions focused on supercar racing off in a mythical European countryside. The underground version made a dramatic shift to more “accessible” cars, those that we actually obtainable by racing/gaming fans around the world. And while the good times were on a roll for EA for the following two years, in 2007 with Need for Speed Pro Street, the title had sunk back to levels of mediocrity. Recognizing the potential within the franchise, but perhaps more importantly, that there were three distinct groups that played the game, EA wisely broke up the then current studio developing the titles, and brought in a fresh set of hands and eyes, and has now developed three unique product offerings. What once was one, is now in fact three: one group focuses on an action based game for mass market fans, another on pure simulation for die hard fans, and still another, arcade style play for casual racers.

Need for Speed Shift, released this past September falls into the simulation category, while the upcoming release of Need for Speed Nitro, specifically developed for the Nintendo Wii and DS, will fill the arcade pillar, falling perfectly in line with Nintendo’s top racing game of the year 2008, Mario Kart.

The third, and perhaps most interesting continuation of the Need for Speed franchise should arrive on North American shores around this time one year from now. Titled Need for Speed World Online, this version will be an online only, free-to-play title, yet again signaling EA’s firm commitment to the free-to-play, microtransactions supported gaming business model. No word yet on where the microtransactions will come into play, but based on the game play style, it’s safe to assume that car cosmetic upgrades will be available for purchase, as well as temporary performance enhancements, alla Battlefield Heroes. Closed beta testing is expected to commence in Taiwan this winter, with an official global release in Fall 2010.

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EA’s foray into free-to-play, Battlefield Heroes now counts over 2 million registered players

Monday, September 28th, 2009

Late last week EA announced that their free-to-play, or Play4Free as EA likes to dub the genre, shooter Battlefield Heroes has officially topped the 2 million registered users milestone.

bf_heroes_fall_mapOfficially launched only three months ago, the third person shooter initially attracted over 1 million players in July, suggesting that overall game growth is slowing. A member of the successful Battlefield series, Battlefield Heroes comes out of Sweden based DICE studios. BFH is a sibling of another Battlefield title currently offered in a digital distribution only format, a more traditional rendering of the genre’s World War II action themes, Battlefield 1943.

Looking to not only hold on to these 2 million registered users, as well as draw in a completely new crowd, EA/DICE will be releasing a host of new content, as well as offering users the possibility to name the new content pack. Titled ‘Heroes of the Fall’ and set against the yellow, orange, and red shades of autumn, the new map will be focused on infantry fighting in close quarters of a village with intersecting canals. This new geography will funnel players to clashes at bridges and crossways, while also allowing stealthy players to use backstreets to launch flanking and rear attack maneuvers.

A new map isn’t the only thing being introduced to the popular free-to-play, as this content update will introduce an entirely new class to the game: the Gunner, as well as improvements and upgrades to the friends system. “Along with this new map, ‘Heroes of the Fall’ includes a slew of changes including upgrades of the Gunner class and improvements to the friends system,” said Ben Cousins, General Manager, Battlefield Heroes team. “We’ve also added a brand new ranking system for the game – players can earn cool new titles for their heroes as they play – showing everyone on the battlefield how dedicated they are.”

And sticking true to their already community heavy involvement and interaction, the folks at EA/DICE are offering users the chance to name the new map. While the development team will be selecting the name, this promotion seems like a great way to get the already engaged community even more involved.

There’s been no official word on updates to the in-game item shop, but given that Battlefield Heroes is primarily advertising and microtransaction purchases supported, I’d not be surprised to see updates to this aspect of the game as well. The new Gunner class will most certainly offer players a new way to play a game that they may or may not have already played a number of times, thereby giving the user a whole new class to customize.

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Big Numbers from Big Players at Austin ‘09

Monday, September 21st, 2009

Last week’s GDC conference in Austin spilled out a ton of information not only about what’s up and coming in the gaming industry, but also the current state of affairs. One of the most interesting sessions saw EA, Turbine, K2, Linden Labs, and IMVU pony up and lay down some eye opening, if not eye popping, facts about their microtransaction and virtual goods monetization business models.

EA, perhaps the biggest and oldest games makers now involved in the freemium market reported that after initially only selling character customization options, sales were simply OK. Specifically speaking to Battlefield Heroes, once EA instituted Boost packs, these items/options quickly shot to the top of the list. Learning from this lesson, and perhaps overcoming the initial public balk, EA is now trending towards introducing these options into all of their freemium products. The focus here is on in-game advantages that drive higher conversion rates over that of purely cosmetic items. Using this formula, EA expects a 7-8 percent conversion rate in it’s freemium games, but realizes that rates may be driven down to the 5 percent range, do to the influx from social network traffic.

Turbine is looking good with what at the time raised a few eyebrows when they announced that their long time subscription title Dungeons and Dragons switched to the free-to-play model. Turning more than a few heads, Turbine execs announced that the free switch has significantly increased subscription rates, as well as concurrency rates. To be fair, Turbine is offering a subscription/freemium hybrid model, which the company believes to be the optimal solution, capturing both hard core, play all the time fans, while also hooking the players that only want to pay for what they want, and not for what they don’t. Subscription players are given a dedicated monthly allowance of virtual currency, and free players are given the option to purchase virtual currency with RMTs. Both allow players to unlock a variety of in game content.

K2, publishers of Knight Online, Red Stone, War Rock, Global MU Online, and Sword of the New World, report that every single cent of their revenues are derived from in-game item sales. Citing their key focus on community management, K2 claims an extremely high ARPU. “ARPU is high, relationships is long and persistence is everything.” Given that their revenues are items sales driven, K2 is aggressively pushing for expansion in Turkey, Brazil, and Eastern Bloc countries, areas were the freemium model has thus far been tremendously successful.

Linden Lab, publishers of perhaps one of the most well-know Virtual Worlds, Second Life stated that their annual revenue was over $80 million, and that they’re closing in on the $100 million mark. The company monetizes in one of three ways: Currency sales, premium subscriptions, and a hosting package that allows users’ 3D items to persist throughout the games. Given Second Life’s rocky, sometimes controversy filled, track record, the folks at Linden are now focusing on plugging the holes, and retaining active users as opposed to seeking out new Second Life residents. Linden Lab execs say that the largest stumbling block they’ve encountered is in-game fraud. Remember, Second Life allows users to create their own items for sale within the game, sometimes leading to a removal of currency from the virtual economy. The company considers this fraud/loss risk a basic price of doing business.

Rounding out the top 5 on parade at the GDC Virtual Worlds Monetization talk was IMVU. The firm says that 80 percent of their revenues come from sales of virtual items, and 20 percent from advertising. While 20 percent is a sizeable contribution, IMVU says that this revenue is only possible due to it’s expansive virtual world. They stressed importance on non-paying users, as they add to a large community, and encourage others to be drawn in. Comparing themselves to eBay, IMVU execs cited it’s catalogue of over 2.5 million virtual items made by 20,000 users. The top designers of virtual items within IMVU properties annually earn over $100,000 annually, however, the IMVU market functions on the long tail model, whereby the top 10 catalogue items only account for .2 percent of all sales.

Thanks to Ada Chen for outstanding notetaking.

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On average, Battlefield Heroes users spend $20 in game

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

EA/DICE’s great experiment with free-to-play/microtransactions supported gaming seems to be paying off. In a recent interview with IGN, senior analytics manager Rommy Ghaly dished out some outstanding numbers and stats surrounding the browser based f2p title.

battlefieldheroes20094While Battlefield Heroes has suffered some production and launch setbacks, it seems as though holding fire has paid off well for EA. Since the launch of the closed beta back in February, the bright and shiny “Play Now” button has been clicked over 40 million times. Battlefield Heroes officially counts over 1.5 million registered users playing from over 133 countries across the globe. However, the majority of these users come from just ten countries – the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Sweden, Russia, Canada, Poland and Brazil.

Battlefield Heroes has two unique forms of in-game currency. Battlefunds are used to upgrade characters’ clothing options, as well as provide temporary advancement points, such as added experience and/or valor points boosts. Battlefunds are those that can be purchased via RMT’s. Conversely, Valor points may not be purchased outside the game, and are the currency used for functional in-game items such as new weapons and special consumable attributes. According to Ghaly, 76 percent of all Battlefunds are spent on character customizations, clearly indicating users are willing to spend to make their character unique. The hot ticket Battlefield Heroes items? The Kommendant’s Coat, the Special Forces Officer Cap, Maverik’s Sunglasses, the Elite Camo Trousers and the Marksman’s Honor. The remaining 24 percent of Battlefunds cash spent are primarily aimed at the 30 day xp boost, the 1 day xp boost, and the 30 day Valor points boost. While these items do not provide any pay-to-pwn advantage, they do help players earn hero abilities and purchase better weapons.

And now for the math. Given that Ghaly confirmed that Battlefield Heroes has over 1.5 million registered users, and that these registered users spend, on average, $20 on in-game microtransactions, that would line EA’s coffers with a whopping $30 million in microtransactions revenue.

Perhaps I’m missing something here, but I’ve yet to find any other data supporting one single title bringing home this much bacon solely from microtransactions. Oh, and let’s not forget that Battlefield Heroes offers users a server rental feature that allows them to play private games with their friends, i.e. additional revenue streams.

EA has clearly indicated that they are very much indeed interested in microtransactions, having implemented them in both the Tiger Woods franchise, as well as Madden 10. If Battlefield Heroes continues to be a success for the software giant, could we see even more of the free-to-play type action coming out of Redwood City?

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EA reports (almost) positive cash earnings – sees dramatic rise in digital distribution and virtual goods sales

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Electronic Arts seems to have outwitted their critics and come very close to a break even, and almost, dare I say it, a positive cash flow. Posted yesterday, EA’s Q1 financial results demonstrate a dramatic improvement in the coffers, reporting a net loss of only $6 million. Granted, 6 million clams is nothing to jump for joy over, especially when it’s $6 million in the red, but when compared to year-over-year results, it’s more than enough to get excited about. Last years Q1 results showed EA with a $135 million loss. Keeping $129 million in the bank account is a tremendous success for the Redwood, California firm.

ea_logoEA’s first fiscal quarter revenues peaked at $816 million, a dramatic 34 percent increase of 2008’s $609 million. Industry analysts had projected a meager take of only $729.5 million. EA’s digital distribution and virtual goods sales are a major contributor to the over projected earnings take, bringing in approximately $124 million, a noteable 38 percent increase year-over-year.

Putting some wind in EA’s sales (literally) are a string of successful titles and their surrounding executions. Compared to the quarter ending in June 2008, in 2009 EA was the number one publisher in both North America and Europe, with four out of the top ten games. Four of EA’s titles won Best of E3 awards: Mass Effect 2 won best RPG, Fight Night Round 4 took the Best Sports Game award, Star Wars: The Old Republic snagged Best PC Game, and Left 4 Dead won Best Online Mulitplayer. Additionally, while a perennial favorite, and old standby, the Sims franchise was a major factor in EA’s revenue streams this year. Holding the top selling retail sales title in Europe and North America for this past quarter, the Sims 3 moved 3.7 million copies out the door. And last but certainly not least, EA Sports Active helped the company garner a 21 percent market share of the wii market in North America and 13 percent in Europe. Having sold over 1.8 million copies, EA Sports Active is now the company’s best selling wii title to date.

“Good execution delivered better-than-expected financial results in the first quarter,” said John Riccitiello, Chief Executive Officer. “We are very pleased with the success of both The Sims 3 and EA SPORTS Active.”

Looking ahead, briefly discussed the upcoming Tiger Woods PGA Tour title which seeks to drive revenues from the sale of game subscriptions and virtual goods sales, as opposed to the one-time-only-buy-it-in-a-box method. With that said, and keeping EA’s open experimentations with the free-to-play/microtransactions supported model (think Battlefield Heroes) in mind, company president John Riccitiello commented in an earnings call yesterday that EA’s not 100 percent onboard. “A lot of people believe that microtransactions is going to be the lead business model in the US. I’m not so sure about that. We are seeing good microtransaction results on Pogo, but I do think there is a difference between the way that consumers buy and consume content in Asia.”

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Stand and be counted Soldier – Battlefield Heroes goes open beta

Friday, June 26th, 2009

It’s been a long, and I do mean long, time coming, but it’s now official: No more beta keys needed to get in on the cartoonish Battlefield Heroes fun.  While EA chose to ignore the traditional press release route, the announcement was confirmed on the Battlefield Heroes forum, stating that the Security Layer is gone, no need for a beta key, and the NDA has been lifted.  W00t!

Battlefield Heroes Play NowEA’s quietly been letting more and more players in on the browser based, free-to-play fun for over a year now, and the lack of press release may suggest that EA learned a lesson or two from the Quake Live mad dash, people locked out, potential customer lost fiasco that occurred when the other popular free-to-play online title went live.

While we’ve covered the ongoing trials and tribulations of actually making it to public launch day, a quick refresher.  Battlefield Heroes is one of the growing number of free-to-play titles that NoCal gaming giant Electronic Arts has been slowly adding to their offerings.  Loosely based on DICE’s highly successful Battlefield series, this cartoonish fighter pits two opposing sides against each other, with a wide variety of fighting options.  Tanks, planes, heck, riding on plane wings, it’s all available.

The game is supported through in-game advertising and character customization microtransactions.  The ads appear only in pre-roll format, and the microtransactions are both reasonably priced and feature enough customizations to make even the staunchest of ‘I’m not paying for it’ microtransaction haters have a smile, and perhaps a click through to purchase.  Initially, EA and DICE reported that microtransaction items would only take the form of cosmetic upgrades, but it appears as though “convenience” items have now been added to the list of available goodies.  While I didn’t see anything that would provide an overwhelming boost in performance, it’s entirely possible that these items are there to help speed those along that either do not or can not play as long as other Battlefield Heroes players.

By opening the game slowly and fine-tuning this, that and the other firmly signals EA’s commitment to this project.  All too often in today’s free-to-play market, we see a title brought to market that may be fraught with bugs and serious design flaws, with developers intentions to address them and fix them as soon as possible.  EA/DICE have done this to some extent, by delaying the public opening by over a year, but at the same time, more or less letting anyone who wanted to play in the door with a wink, a nod, and a not-so-hard-to-obtain beta key.

Now that the doors are wide open, it’s time for the rest of us to sit back and see just how much appeal Battlefield Heroes has to the general populace.  That, and head shot a few n00bs in the process.  See ya on the Battlefield!

http://www.battlefieldheroes.com/

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Battlefield Heroes coming to Xbox and PS3?

Monday, May 18th, 2009

The eagle eyed folks over at GOONL!NE caught what might just be a typo over the weekend, but…it begs the question: OMGZ rlly?  The ‘probably just a typo’ in question concerns a listing in the press release section of EA’s site, listing Battlefield Heroes as having a June 2009 release date for both the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360.

Driving suspicion even further, the ‘official’ release date slated for the PC version of BFH is September 2009.  If that is in fact the case, then a June release of both PS3 and Xbox 360 version seems highly unlikely.  Throw a bit of Battlefield Heroes track record of ‘Hold your fire’ in there, and the rumor becoming even more less likely.  But then again…we’ve seen stranger things happen.

bfh

Adding to the mystique, DICE has said in the past that they’re not interested in porting a PC game to a console version, “We could port the engine and do it I just don’t know what we would gain from it. Everyone’s who’s got a 360 or PS3 also will have a PC that can run this game.”  If I can just think out loud for a second, ’ummm, how about millions of gamers around the world that would rather have a seat on the couch instead of behind a desk, something we do all day long?’  The comfort and convenience of a console factor aside, both Xbox and PS3 have been delving further and further into the realm of microtransactions, and is it just me, or would a premier DICE/EA shooter featuring microtransactions not make both the Sony and Microsoft folks’ mouths water with anticipation?

Again, perhaps this is just one big ol’ typographical error on the part of EA, but with E3 just 12 days away now, the timing does seem slightly suspect.  DICE’s comments about no interest in porting the game to a console version were made over a year ago, and as evidenced by this years GDC and the growing interest by developers and publishers worldwide in microtransactions, perhaps the Swedes have changed their minds, and are now interested in opening the floodgates wide open and letting the sofa surfers have a whack at BFH?  No doubt we’ll hear more about this in the coming few weeks, stay tuned….

Update: The head honcho, Ben Cousins of DICE made a statement on the Heroes Dev. Blog:

Contrary to rumours spreading around the internet in the weekend we have no plans to release Battlefield Heroes on either PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.

Battlefield Heroes’ mixture of free download (funded by micro-transactions and advertising) and our extensive use of the web for social features means that Heroes is tailor-made for PC.

Ok, fair statement, but are microtransactions and advertising something we’ve not seen on Xbox 360 or PS3?  As far as using the web for social features, I can’t really see how bringing this to a console would kill said features.  With that said, if DICE has no interest, so be it, but wouldn’t it be truly freakin’ awesome to see this one come to consoles?  Rumors (and associated interest) have made the impossible possible in the past.

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Free-to-play Maple Story ranks among top moneymaking MMO’s of 2008.

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

DFC Intelligence is gearing up to publish a comprehensive study of MMO worlds next month, according to GigaOm.  Wagner James Au got a special preview of the report and shares some initial estimates.

DFC’s David Cole says that the 2008 numbers are on the “very conservative” side, indicating that the 2008 numbers are still being crunched, and more exact numbers will be reflected in the February 16th reports.  “We indicate ranges because these numbers are estimates for 2008 based on where we think these products will end up,” said Cole.  And while the numbers are still being tallied, Cole estimates that the rankings should stay more or less the same, with “maybe a slot here or there” changing.

And while it shouldn’t come as a shock that the Blizzard powerhouse World of Warcraft takes the number one spot, Cole believes that if viewed from a pure profit margin, WoW wouldn’t be taking home the gold.  Asian MMO’s, which are traditionally developed at far lower budgets, have a much higher profit margin.  “Profit margin on Asian games is incredibly high,” says Cole, noting that Asian MMOs charge on or around 5-6 cents per hour with prepaid usage cards, a business model that has yet to proliferate the western gaming market.

What’s interesting to note in this projected report is the high ranking of Nexon’s free-to-play Maple Story (supported by microtransactions, prepaid cards, and international licensing), and the catalogue of Shanda’s games (Virtual item sales, prepaid cards, and freemium subscriptions).

1. World of Warcraft, launched 2004
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG; client install with 3D graphics
Revenue sources: Monthly subscription, retails sales, prepaid cards (in Asia)
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $500 million-plus

2. Fantasy Westward Journey, launched 2004
Genre/Platform: Asian MMORPG, client install with 2.5D graphics
Revenue sources: Prepaid cards
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $150-$500 million

3. Maple Story, launched 2003
Genre/Platform: Asian MMORPG for kids, client install with 2D graphics
Revenue sources: Microtransactions, prepaid cards, international licensing
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $150-$500 million

4. Shanda (company, includes Legend of Mir and World of Legend series), launched 2003
Genre/Platform: Asian MMORPG, client install with 2.5 graphics
Revenue sources: Prepaid cards, virtual item sales, freemium subscriptions
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $150-$500 million

5. Lineage I and Lineage II , launched 1998 and 2003
Genre/Platform: Asian MMORPG, client install with 2.5 graphics (Lineage) and 3D graphics (Lineage II)
Revenue sources: Subscription, prepaid cards
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $150-$500 million

6. Runescape
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG for kids, web-based with 2.5D graphics
Revenue sources: Premium subscription, prepaid cards, real-world advertising
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million

7. Club Penguin, launched 2006
Genre/Platform: Virtual world for kids, web-based 2.5D graphics
Revenue sources: Premium subscriptions, prepaid game cards
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million

8. Lord of the Ring Online
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG, client install with 3D graphics
Revenue sources: Subscription, retail sales
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million

9. Warhammer Online
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG, client install with 3D graphics
Revenue sources: Subscription, retail sales
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million

10. Age of Conan
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG, client install with 3D graphics
Revenue sources: Subscription, retail sales
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million

Wagner continues his conversation with Cole around the most popular, in terms of active players, MMO of 2008.  To answer this question, we’ve got to go even a bit further out on the speculation branch, but Cole points out that Fantasy Westward Journey registered 2-3 million concurrent players back in August.  And although Warcraft likes to beat it’s own drum regarding their estimated 11 million+ players, “You’re lucky to get 5-10 percent [of them] playing at the same time,” says Cole.  Minho Kim, developer of Maple Story said in December that the title has 87+ million registrations, but wouldn’t comment on how many of these registered users were/are active monthly users.  Joost van Dreunen from DFC’ estimates the number to be more in the 13 – 17.4 million regular Maple Story players, roughly 15-20 percent of Kim’s estimation.

Cole admits that this year’s list looks remarkably similar to the 2007 list with Conan and Warhammer being released in 2008.  And while only 2 of the top 10 contain some type of microtransaction support, I’d estimate that this list might look very different one year from now with a number of highly anticipated (think Free Realms and Battlefield Heroes) free-to-plays coming online in ’09.

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