Standing on the bones of many, many failed massively multiplayer role-playing games, the age of the subscription-based game seems to be well and truly over. In 2012, four major MMOs opened for business in the US and of them, only Guild Wars 2 is holding onto its original business model. Star Wars: The Old Republic, TERA Online: The Exiled Realm of Arborea, and The Secret World, meanwhile, all had to transition from subscriptions to free-to-play. The writing for subscriptions is on the wall, but some publishers are pushing forward. Square-Enix is keeping subscriptions for its MMOs, including the upcoming Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.
“With the free-to-play model, you’ll get huge income one month, but the next month it depletes,” Naoki Yoshida, A Realm Reborn’s director, told The Penny Arcade Report on Friday, “Most MMOs have investors in the background, and the company uses the profit and splits the profit with the investors. But, if the game’s not successful, and it doesn’t reach the target, then they have to switch to free-to-play to try and get just a little profit from it. Among the MMOs in the market, only Blizzard and Square-Enix are making money without investors in the background.”
Yoshida goes on to say that he doesn’t think it was subscriptions that hurt The Old Republic and The Secret World but the quality of the games themselves. Final Fantasy XI is an argument in Square-Enix’s favor. In the decade since the game came out, Square-Enix has earned on average around $48 million per year from the game, a tidy profit for a game whose expansions have been less frequent and less costly than those for Blizzard’s World of Warcraft.
Even as Final Fantasy XI continues to serve a devoted audience though, the future of Square’s subscription model is not guaranteed. First, the failure of Final Fantasy XIV’s initial release in 2010 may have shattered any mass appeal for the game. The MMO flopped so spectacularly that it was cited as the main reason for Square’s $150 million loss for fiscal 2011.
Meanwhile, Square’s other recently released MMO is struggling to find players. The subscription-based Dragon Quest X for Nintendo Wii has sold around just 634,000 copies since its August release. The game costs around $13 per month to play. Compared to past Dragon Quest releases, this is a poor showing. Dragon Quest IX for Nintendo DS, another online role-playing game, sold 4.3 million copies in its first six months on shelves.
Also, you said “Among the MMOs in the market, only Blizzard and Square-Enix are making money without investors in the background.” Does this include CCP’s EveOnline as having investors in the background?
Aaaand Square continues to die. From a high of $36 in 2008 to $12 a share today… The low sales numbers of square’s games. Why doesn’t square see what they are doing wrong? I am not talking about not being f2p. I am talking about their direction altogether.
they lost all the final fantasy visionaries and brilliant minds that paved the road to where they are today. If you wanna play final fantasy, go play The Last Story for Wii – the guys at Mistwalker studios are some of the original final fantasy visionaries. etc, etc.
Now, Square Enix is just riding on the popularity and success of their golden days. Gaming in general is just heading in a shitty direction, where it’s all about making stakeholders happy as opposed to making a quality game.
“Yoshida goes on to say that he doesn’t think it was subscriptions that hurt The Old Republic and The Secret World but the quality of the games themselves.”
Says the company who had to totally crash the first version of this game because of how bad it was.
Pot..Kettle…I think your getting a call.
Give Yoshida a chance, he is pretty zeroed in on fixing the god awful crap storm that was ffxiv. I think the game itself looks stunningly beautiful and you’ll get your money’s worth, assuming Yoshida spits out a brand spanking new mmo with no bs.