Posts Tagged ‘micro transactions’

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Gamers hang on one man’s words: microtransactions in WoW?

Monday, July 6th, 2009

Proving that the world’s insatiable desire for more and more WoW is still alive and thriving, Blizzard’s WoW Game Director Tom Chilton’s words regarding the possible inclusion in the world’s most popular MMO certainly lit up the blogosphere in less time than it takes to reach level 2.

blizzard-logoThe microtransactions comment aside, VideoGamer.com’s interview with Chilton provides a treasure chest of asides and tid-bits about the possibility of new races and classes that could make their way into future expansion, those areas of the map that you just can’t seem to find access to, and even alien visitors to Azeroth. Pretty much your standard fair when interviewing someone of Chilton’s caliber and position within the Blizzard world.

However, there’s one question asked towards the end of the interview that’s got just about everyone AND their grandmother a-buzzin’: Will WoW always be subscription based? Could it ever have a microtransaction/free-to-play model?

I certainly think it’s possible that we could do some kind of micro-transaction stuff. Whether or not World of Warcraft ever goes the direction of, I guess like Anarchy Online has gone the direction of going free-to-play with micro-transactions. Whether we ever shift to a free-to-play model is really too hard to say at this point. Anything I say now could easily five years from now end up seeming like, oh my gosh, that was an incredibly dumb thing to say, how naive!

Ok, now before the OMGWTF? comments start spewing forth, let’s take a look at that again. Chilton is merely saying that Blizzard COULD do SOME KIND of microtransaction stuff. He’s clearly not committing to anything here, but also not crossing the theory off completely. Personally, I don’t see Blizzard ever abandoning the subscription model with WoW, as it’s become a mega-industry in it’s own right. Every time you purchase a time card, there’s someone that’s contracted to make those cards. There’s a data and security department dedicated solely to making sure that those ‘one time use only’ chains of numbers are/were actually paid for, and are used for legitimate purposes. I also don’t believe that WoW will be headed towards a free-to-play business model any time before the long awaited, and highly sought after ‘WoW Killer’ finally comes to market. And my guess is that said WoW Killer will be brought to you by none other than Blizzard themselves.

Having said that, there are also a number of things happening inside WoW right now that are clear movements towards a microtransaction based frame of mind. The customize your character haircut could easily be converted to a microtransaction purchase. If you want to move your character to another server, Blizzard charges you a fee for this convenience; a microtransaction of sorts. Likewise, if you want to change your name for whatever the reason may be, again, a small fee is required by Blizzard. Not what you’d normally file under the term ‘microtransaction’ but if viewed in the right light, can be seen as one.

So is the world’s most popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft going free-to-play, microtransaction supported? No. Does this mean that Blizzard is ruling out the possibility of microtransaction-esque purchases? According to Tom Chilton, No.

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This week at Electronic Arts – more action than Medal of Honor

Friday, June 19th, 2009

To say that there were just a few things happening at EA this week would be just shy of an understatement.  Not only did now former COO John Pleasants more or less lay out EA’s plan to get back to the top of the gaming heap, but they’ve also stepped things up a bit by publicly posting a job ad for a “User Experience Designer”.  Oh, and shortly after Pleasants’ interview (literally his last day), he left EA to become the new CEO of Playdom.  Right.  Let’s get started.

john_pleasantsOn Wednesday, paidContent.org ran a very informative and interesting interview between reporter Tameka Kee and at the time EA COO John Pleasants.  Kee’s interview focuses mainly on what EA’s up to in regards to the strong push to an online component to their latest games, citing The Sims 3 as a prime example.  Pleasants admits that EA is, “…creating a live service across a portfolio of titles, with some social aspects and a variety of business models, including micro-transactions and subscriptions.”

Speaking to the social aspect of gaming Pleasants gives a strong nod to free-to-play/microtransaction supported gaming studios such as Playfish and Zynga, and states, “we’re in investment mode, and we’ll be announcing deals with companies that will be of note sometime in the near future.”  To this end, it’s also come to the light of day (although nearly half a month old now), that EA recently posted a job listing for a “User Experience Designer” that can “lead the design and prototyping of applications for online games, community features and e-commerce transactions” for a “new social gaming platform.”  Read: we need someone with experience in building social networks, communities AND has microtransaction experience.  To be honest, that sounds more like three jobs in one, but then again, I’m no staffing director.  This new developer would be ‘the man’ to drive the reigns at EA’s Ontario, Canada based Waterloo studio.  Looks like Margaret Wallace’s predictions on some of the old school giants investing in social gaming is right on the money.

Ok, fine and dandy, the world at EA is looking bright and shiny.

But hold the phone – what what?  John Pleasants has been named the CEO of Playdom.  Say wha now?

They say hindsight is 20/20, but if you read the interview that Pleasants did with Dean Takahashi from VentureBeat with this knowledge now in hand, you might be able to detect just a splash of animosity tossed in there.  Such statements such as, “Yeah, he tells me what to do and I do it.” In regards to his working relationship with CEO John Riccitiello, and “I don’t want to sound like I’m countering my boss. But I think quality is an overused word for a dynamic equation.  Trends are changing. You have to have quality, following the right trends. You have to make quality stuff, but it can’t be in a category that is disappearing or becoming a niche. John has been vocal about saying that our marketing didn’t work well. We didn’t manufacture hits. To make a hit, you have to both make the right thing through high product quality and also hit the market in the right way.”  Sir, it not only sounds like, but in fact, is, a direct counter to your bosses’ statements.

Perhaps there is in fact no bad blood going on here, but you’ve got to admit, the timing and the nuanced phrases are remarkably suspect.  With Playdom reporting numbers close to $10 million per quarter via microtransaction sales, it looks like Pleasants just made quite a wise move.  His departure only hails a continued mass exodus of top EA execs, but then again, former EA exec, John Schappert who left to go work with microsoft, is now heading back to NoCal to replace Pleasants.  Need a road map by now?  Me too.

While EA’s clearly trying to head in the right direction with casual gaming, social networking, and microtransactions, the question remains,can the behemoth get it together in time and can they really deliver what we want, before we know we want it?

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Can the iPhone OS 3.0 do for games what iTunes did for music?

Monday, May 11th, 2009

Late last week MacLife ran an article that brought to light a whole lotta interesting insights and future plans from some of the top developers for iPhone apps, specifically regarding the upcoming OS 3.0 release. While a lot of these developers discussed a number of their plans relating to the new features peer-to-peer, wifi and Bluetooth multiplayer gaming, push notifications, etc., there were a number of standout quotes regarding the ability to utilize microtransactions, or rather, I should say, in-app purchases.

Bruce Morrison, senior producer at freeverse (Days of Thunder!) wasn’t able to reveal much information about the company’s upcoming products, but they’re clearly up to some big things.

“I can’t talk about our upcoming titles in full yet, but we are very excited about the iPod access, micro transactions, push notifications and a huge slew of other things,” he said. “That, in combination with the new Facebook APIs (which, while not part of 3.0, feel like they almost are), are giving us some very exciting possibilities.”

Likewise, Brandon Barber, VP of Marketing with runaway success story Zynga says, “Obviously, we’re also excited about the micropayment platform. For games like Live Poker, the ability to make smaller purchases of chips and gifts will allow us to normalize pricing, and give gamers more options to play and customize their experience.”

Bolt Creative (Pocket God) president Dave Caselnuovo has this to say about the OS 3.0 update, “In-app purchases and push notification are definitely the most interesting of the new 3.0 features, but I think that the design of our app would have to change somewhat to take advantage of them. When we first started, we released a limited feature set, so our job was to justify the $0.99 price of our app. If we took the time to start big, then I would be more comfortable selling upgrades.”

Looking down the road to users’ reactions and how best to approach in-app sales, Simon Edis, head coder and president at ezone (Crazy Snowboard) comments, “In-app purchases and push notification are definitely the most interesting of the new 3.0 features, but I think that the design of our app would have to change somewhat to take advantage of them. When we first started, we released a limited feature set, so our job was to justify the $0.99 price of our app. If we took the time to start big, then I would be more comfortable selling upgrades.”

So it sounds to me that developers are a bit more than excited about being able to offer users additional content, gear, levels, etc., and naturally, being financially rewarded for these additional developments. And why not? Now, with that said, this flood of information and sneak peaks at what a lot of developers have brewing under the hood got me to thinking about microtransactions in general.

Last week I had to pleasure of having someone else sum up the microtransaction concept better than I could, one Mr. Beau Turkey. In this article he makes a strong, valid, and very logical case comparing music listeners that purchase CD’s vs. those that pick and choose titles via iTunes. At it’s core, iTunes is one of the biggest example of how microtransactions work, what they’ve done for an entire industry, and what potential they hold.

So the question begs to be asked; can the iPhone OS 3.0 update do for gaming what iTunes has done for the music industry? And in saying that, what I’m getting at here is introducing the concept in a plain and easy to understand format that doesn’t chafe the end user. For years and years the vocal core gamers have been screaming about microtransactions, the nickel-and-dime me to death, and pay-to-pwn concept, but something tells me all the while they were very happy not to have to buy the entire CD, and just picked and chose the songs they wanted to load up on their iPod, or generic mp3 player for that matter.

Does this mean that the entire world is purchasing their music via iTunes or Amazon? Of course not, there are still the CD buyers, and naturally the pirates. However, while iTunes hasn’t necessarily saved the music industry, they have made leaps and bounds in getting people off the Napsters of the world, and actually owning up and paying for the music they enjoy. When purchasing music via iTunes, the end user knows exactly what they’re getting, an officially licensed, full (and consistent) quality audio file with all the tags and cover art included. Not to mention in an easily searchable, organized collection that is easily transferred to a portable device. The point here is that through creating an easy to access, navigate, safe and secure point of purchase, iTunes has revolutionized the way we look at purchasing music.

By introducing microtransactions, or in-app purchases as the current buzzword dictates, is Apple setting the casual, and core to a point, gaming community up for the same revolution? Granted, not all developers are going to come in with the same standards of pricing, (perceived) usefulness, and bang for the buck, but they all still have to pass Apple’s stringent standards of quality and functionality. If in-app purchases deliver on their promises; providing new, exciting content with a bona fide entertainment value to the end the user, and the new OS provides a frictionless platform to do it, how long will it take before the gaming community at large starts to truly rethink these ‘microtransactions are bad…mmmmkay?’ preconceptions?

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Facebook’s 2008 virtual goods sales between $30M-$40M

Monday, January 12th, 2009

Back in September, Insidefacebook.com revealed that Facebook has brought home somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-40 million pounds of bacon.  If this wasn’t a good enough sign for the virtual goods world, it looks like Facebook is now on target to get even more cupcakes and wrapped presents trading on the platform.

Facebook is starting to eyeball all those birthdays happening across the site as potential virtual gift sales, and is gearing up to make sure those options appear before friends eyes.  It breaks down like so; when facebook friends visit your page on your birthday, the facebook gifts application does an auto launch and presents you with a wide variety of virtual gifts to send to the birthday boy/girl.  Each of these virtual gifts costs around 100 credits, or approximately $1.

Not a bad plan, and hey, who can fault fb for offering a service, and turning a decent profit at the same time?  Certainly not me…until they flub the interface.  The Industry Standard reports that users have been a bit confused as to the new feature.  Upon visiting a friend’s page on their birthday, instead of being able to leave a ‘Happy Birthday’ message straight to the friends’ wall, facebook automatically defaults to the gifts tab.  Trying to post birthday greets results in a pop-up stating that the user must select a gift (see below).  D’oh.  Naturally, users can click away from this tab to close the gift app and then click back to the wall to leave their birthday greetings, but it does seem a bit dubious to the unschooled user of facebook.

No doubt, if this birthday pilot program goes well for facebook, we’ll surely be seeing a heckuva lot more virtual gifting options during holiday and special events (send Pete a handful of bottle rockets?).

Now here’s where things get really interesting.  You might remember that we reported on facebook’s apparent shelving of a platform-wide microtransaction system.  With $30M-$40M of real world cash circulating through the platform, facebook is obviously a very valid mechanism for hundreds of developers to monetize their applications – what gives fb?  Is this a blatant snub to 3rd party developers, as they’ll certainly have a harder uphill climb selling their wares if each app requires a different form of currency?  Granted, Facebook has not officially said that the microtransactions platform is done and dusted, so perhaps they’re just brewing up something mind blowing in a sub terrainian bunker?  Guess we’ll have to wait and see…

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SOE’s The Agency now looking at microtransactions and IGA

Friday, November 28th, 2008

Sony’s upcoming title ‘The Agency’ will not be looking at a subscription based model, but rather in-game advertising and microtransactions as steady revenue streams.

The Agency presents a unique quandary for SOE – how do you build on-going revenue streams into a title that spans the gap between MMO’s and FPS’s?  The first group is used to monthly subscriptions and a rich virtual world.  The second group has no experience with subscriptions, and expects plenty of shoot ‘em up, and is less concerned with playing with others, or simply just shooting them.

While SOE is carefully studying the market reaction to it’s free-to-play title Free Realms, which earlier this week released a line a Topps collectible cards as an additional income stream, and noting what does and what does not work for the community as a whole, all the while making a title enjoyable by all.
Edwin Evans-Thirlwell from Kikizo.com gets the ‘Scoop of the Week’ award, with his outstanding interview with SOE’s Senior World Designer Kevin O’Hara.  Some highlighted quotes include:

“The Agency is our online persistent shooter,” he says. “We’re not generally using the term MMO, although we do put a lot of MMO abilities that we’ve learned from our other projects into it. We really want to first and foremost be an action shooter as a game, which means first person or third person view, which really brings in the crowd who like that type of visual experience where when you aim and shoot your skill is important.”

“We’re acutely aware that shooter players are not used to playing monthly fees, so I doubt we’ll go for an outright $15 a month, which works on some of our other projects. So we’re checking out Free Realms to see how they’re going to do with their micro-transactions, and we might incorporate some of that. We’ll definitely have some ad revenue models.”

Having a look at various screenshots and trailer for The Agency, all I can say is, I can haz now plz?  I personally I’m not a big player of FPS’s, but this one might just drive me over to the dark side.  It looks like this super slick spy shooter would be a perfect place to drop the occasional $20, to pick up a silencer, a sniper scope, and oh, just for kicks, let’s toss a bazooka in there.  The rich textures and landscapes, including urban environments lend themselves well to un-obtrusive IGA’s.

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Micro-Transactions

Friday, November 7th, 2008

Micro-transactions, sometimes referred to as Micropayments where originally meant to indicate 1/1000th of a US Dollar, meaning a financial system that could handle transactions down to the mill.  Today, micro-transactions refer to a system of small payments often within a Game Economy.

While micro-transactions can be seen in a wide variety of real world examples, for the purposes of this definition we’ll focus only on internet based micro-transactions.  A leading of example of a micro-transaction system would be Apple Computer’s successful iTunes music store.  Users often make small purchases of $1.00 or less.  These re-occurring micro-transactions add up to quite a large number over a period of time and increased user numbers.

Initially originating in Asia, the free-to-play game business model takes full advantage of micro-transactions.  In these free-to-play games, users have the option to make small purchases via micro-transactions.  These options differ from game to game, but may include everything from custom avatar clothing, bigger and better weapons, and new levels and maps.

Micro-transactions offer a wide range of possibilities for game developers, publishers, and operators.  By offering a micro-transaction system within Game Economies, developers not only offer consistently new content, but also foster the creation of user generated content.

Initially greeted with skepticism and mistrust in the North American markets, micro-transactions are beginning to find acceptance in these gaming markets through various high profile mechanisms including Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Sony’s Playstation 3, and Nintendo’s Wii, along with a wide variety of PC based games including MapleStory, Chronicles of Spellborn, and Combat Arms.

fatfoogoo is THE leading producer of micro-transaction software for game developers and studios.  With real world testing and experience, our one stop software solution can help developers go from no economy to a complete micro-transaction ecosystem with just a few clicks.

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KinsIsle Entertainment brings microtransactions AND subscriptions to Wizard101

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

Want to plunk down your monthly fee and play as much as you want?  That’s fine.  Want to use microtransactions to buy individual pieces and areas of the game?  That’s also fine.  Texas based KingsIsle Entertainment has set out on an interesting experiment whereby they’re now offering players of Wizard 101 the option to play via a subscription payment OR utilize microtransactions to purchase additional areas of the game.

The game’s main features will remain free-to-play but players may now either pay a monthly fee of $6.95 – $9.95 per month to access additional gameplay, or pay as little as $1/ transaction to open smaller, bit sized portions of the game.  Here’s a perfect example of players with plenty of time to play (subscription players) AND casual players that don’t want to commit to a subscription, but still want to enjoy the same level of gameplay (microtransaction players).

“We looked at our feedback and found that half the people liked subscriptions and another group wanted micro-transactions,” said Elie Akilian, chief executive of KingsIsle

Wizard101 is a spell-casting adventure and card-style game.  The game has family focused play style (lining up perfectly between parents and teens), a chat system with a number of options and a character name selector.  The game contains no blood, and characters do not die if defeated in a duel of spells – they are simply returned to a safe area to regain health.

In a recent interview with Dean Takahashi at VentureBeat, Akilian said that the teen niche hasn’t been well served by the game industry.  He points out that games such as World of Warcraft feature plenty of blood and gore, where players can run rampant, while on the opposite side of the spectrum, there are other games with much tighter controls, Disney’s Club Penguin for example.  Wizard101 is rated for everyone 10 and old, and KindsIsle has seen a number of families playing together.  The switch to a flexible pricing model shout increase not only the number of teens playing, but also the number of overall players.

Wizard101 currently features approximately 300 hours of playtime in four worlds.  KingsIsle plans on expanding this content over time.  The game currently features 170 different spell combinations, but has limited pvp combat; presumably do to the kid/family friendly rating.

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Sony says yes to console MMO’s: Microtransactions and all

Saturday, October 4th, 2008

SOE exec John Smedley gives a thumbs up to future Sony MMO developments to be available on PlayStation consoles.

The giant elephant in the room, other wise know as Blizzard, which has been dominating the MMORPG scene since World of Warcraft’s launch 4 years ago, could begin to feel some heat from the Sony side of life.  Sony is looking to successfully position full blown MMO’s on the PlayStation console.  Smedley and company are looking to see which profile of gamer would be willing to pay for subscriptions, or better yet, micro-transactions for Sony’s upcoming free-to-play games including Sony’s much anticipated upcoming Free Realms.

“We’re actually one of two companies in the world that’s ever done a console MMO. We had EverQuest Online Adventures for the PS2 – still operating. It and Final Fantasy XI are the only actual MMOs,” says Smedley.

“We introduced a trading card game to our EverQuest and EQ2 players and they got the idea of microtransactions very quickly,” explained Smedley. “We put it in there in a way that wasn’t harmful to gameplay and it actually gave them a benefit, so that’s how we’re going to convert existing players. Getting a console player to pay for a subscription, I think that’s an interesting question.”

Smedley also predicts that the underlying technology that is now in place to allow for simultaneous console and PC launches of new games will introduce an entirely new group of gamers to console play.

“We have advantages that others simply don’t being in the Sony family. For us, the opportunity that we see on the PS3, and potentially the PSP, is something that we can’t pass up on…. I would say that we would be one of the early adopters on [bringing MMOs to consoles], and we plan on becoming one of the dominant players in the MMO space on consoles. We see that marketing coming; we think it’s there now, so we want to get a good market share there.”

Maybe Smedely is correct.  Personally, I’m more of a PC player, but have often been intrigued by the merging of PC play with console convenience.  I’ve played a few of my favorite PC games with an Xbox 360 control mod, and have to say, the living room comfort sure does beat endless hours at the desk.  If Sony is successfully able to port an MMO to a console (targeting and casting controls aside), AND get console players used to the idea of microtransactions, this could have the potential to unlock a number of possibilities not only for Sony, but for the industry as a whole.

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THQ to bring ‘Dragonica’ to North American market

Sunday, September 21st, 2008

It looks like THQ is wasting no time in getting the new Shanghai office into the game.  They’ve recently announced a joint venture in cooperation with ICE Entertainment to bring Dragonica to the North American market in 2009.

Dragonica will be a cartoony, sticky sweet, side scrolling game that is free-to-play and supported by pay-for-content micro-transactions.  The game was developed by Korean design house Barunson Interactive Co.  Dragonica has spent sever years in the development shop, and is finally ready for it’s coming out party.  With 3D rendering, new cartoon characters and scenery modeling, Dragonica promised to raise the bar on traditional side scrolling games.  The game mixes elements of action and arcade, and creates various skills to enhance play.  ICE realized the potential of Dragonica, and has the exclusive rights to operate Dragonica in China.

ICE’s CEO Sun Tai is the former CTO of Chinese major player, The9, a leading operator of Chinese online games including World of Warcraft.  This joint venture will combine ICE’s online operating expertise and THQ’s product development and retail experience to create a new platform for the North American market.

“We are extremely excited to be working with ICE Entertainment to bring this free-to-play, micro-transaction-based online game to the robust yet largely untapped market for online casual gaming in North America,” said Doug Clemmer, president of THQ’s casual gaming subsidiary. “We are even more pleased to be building a strong and mutually beneficial relationship, which we hope will lead to additional opportunities to deliver online gaming content globally.”

“We are looking forward to combining THQ’s extensive marketing and retail expertise with our advanced technology and proven online game operating know-how to deliver a great new casual gaming experience for North American consumers,” said Sun Tao, chief executive officer, ICE Entertainment. “We also look forward to working with THQ more closely to develop new games and explore future publishing opportunities in both markets.”

Current estimates of the North American casual game market peg it at approximately $2.2 billion by 2013 (DFC Intelligence).  In 2007, China’s online games market clocked in at a whopping $1.7 billion, and reached 42 million gamers.  According to Niko Partners, this market is expected to balloon to $4.2 billion by 2010.

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NextGenBooks titles relaunch as free-to-play – console gamers flock in record numbers

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Since the relaunch of Warrior Quest two weeks ago, publisher NextGenBooks.com has seen a massive influx of console gamers to the already popular RPG.  Not just a random blip on the radar, NextGenBooks reports that the console audience has now outgrown the number of players accessing the title via PS and Mac.  Lead by Playstation 3 gamers, console plays have far surpassed the number of players accessing the game via home gaming consoles in any previous month(s).  Not to be outdone, Wii owners are in a strong 2nd place.  Both platform gamers may access the game via their in console internet browser.

Warrior Quest is a traditional RPG the provides a healthy mixture of card based battles, monster collections, and turn based combat to provide a rich and accessible RG experience.  The game is playable on a variety of platforms including PC, Mac, Wii and PS3 via their respective browsers.  In addition to the traditional RPG gaming experience, Warrior Quest also features online leader boards and scoring that allow players to compete in weekly, monthly, and all time charts, regardless of which platform they choose to play on.  Again, the title is free-to-play, with premium content due out in the coming months.  No official word yet, but we’re banking on premium content, features, and in-game items to come via micro-transactions.

Providing a perhaps needed boost, the sudden upswing in players comes just days after the publisher, NextGenBooks.com announced that it will be changing it’s name and rebranding as mikomi.info.  Mikomi.info is now live, but NextGenBooks.com URL’s will continue to redirect for a some time.

NextGenBooks/Mikomi’s other now free-to-play title, The Half Broken Crown: The Broken Kingdoms has also seen a massive upswing in plays since it’s recent relaunch.  Like it’s sibling, it too has seen a dramatic increase in use via gaming consoles, outnumbering plays on both PC and Mac.

The Half Broken Crown: Broken Kingdoms is a point and click adveture title with cross platform live chat abilities.  This title also has available versions for PSP and Nintendo DS via the browser interface.  Keep your eyes peeled for a special re-release of The Half Broken Crown: The Broken Kingdoms due out later this year.  Another major influx of console gamers?

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