New Issue's Cost How Much??

[William_Q]

Are the new issues going to cost us all? I'd hate to buy this game and find out that member's of WOW have started working for Cryptic Studios. I think that free issues would be better. In fact, i'd pay 49.99 for the first game box set and 15.99 a month. From time to time i'd even throw in 9.99 for extra weapon's,upgrade's to my ship's and so on.Let's not go crazy with cost people.These are issues that every person need's to know about before, "Boldly Reaching in Your Wallet".

[Ballping]

I would imagine, given the amount of continuing development a game like this will take (Lets remember that you're not just getting a space sim out of this game, you're also getting a FPS built into it as well.) that the pricing structure will be about the same as most other major MMO's. WoW, EQ2, etc. etc. Any major expansions will probably be handled in a separate box set that you would need to purchase. I mean the development times for a game like this are truly staggering, the company has to make money some how, and this game in particular is going to have a higher overhead cost than most MMO's out there. Of course this is all my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt, but don't be too surprised if this isn't the way it goes down.

[dh8d1]

Are the new issues going to cost us all? I'd hate to buy this game and find out that member's of WOW have started working for Cryptic Studios. I think that free issues would be better. In fact, i'd pay 49.99 for the first game box set and 15.99 a month. From time to time i'd even throw in 9.99 for extra weapon's,upgrade's to my ship's and so on.Let's not go crazy with cost people.These are issues that every person need's to know about before, "Boldly Reaching in Your Wallet".

I can see both sides of this debate and my opinion is different.
I think that if the game is truly spectacular it'll be worth paying a tad extra for. After all, it's supposedly 2 steps above WoW in it's versatility (fps, mmo, and somewhat space flight sim) and it has to be more advanced in technology. Higher Technology and more versatility comes at a price.

[k.mpok]

I agree with the previous posters. I have no problem paying for quality work/service and gameplay. It is also the industry standard that large expansions are sold items, can't think of many that aren't. I mean even LoTR: O known for free book expansion updates will be charging for the Mines of Moria expansion.

[knightofhyrule730]

49.99/59.99 for the box, 15/13/12 for monthly payments, 300-500 for lifetime sub.

you know the normal MMO pricing. im surprised people keep asking this.

[boydyma]

who cares about the pricing, just get in on the shelves already, the rest will work itself out..

cryptic wont charge a bucket of cash if it isnt worth it, cus no one then would buy it.... bust game, deader than if it was left in P2s hands....

and from what ive seen, i dont care about pricing, i just WANT! :p

[Stormnet]

They have to be careful on pricing. Today's economy ect. They'll price themselves out of a market. Not everyone can afford to pay a lot of money. I would rather have 100 people at $12 a month then 10 people at $20 a month. The mechanics are there either way, thier costs are the same either way except by pricing it reasonably they get more subscribers. Isn't that what you want?

[marscentral]

They are still working on pricing and Razor will probably decloak later to say as much. If they follow what they did on CoX all updates will be free as they consider that part of your monthly sub. I think they were intending to produce a third box, but decided to split it over the free issues instead.

[KidBang]

But even CoX has been doing some "Costume packs" and things of that nature at 10 bucks a pop lately. Though the Cyborg pack was totally worth it :)

I suspect it will depend on the success of the game and what people are willing to pay for. I don't mind paying for expansions as long as they are brilliant :)

[Volomon]

People like these are the ones who are killing the open nature of software and the freedom of information. Idiots willing to pay for what has always been free, and clueless that that's the way it has and SHOULD always be, however if people like these exist why wouldn't they attempt to charge everyone that why these dang Free to Play games are becoming so poular, every companies getting into with their lame Collectors Edition, their headstart programs, stupid CD of music. Idiots one and all.

Let me be clear as soon as MMO's start charging for FREE content, their will be a **** storm bigger than anything seen before. These companies are making millions to billions of dollars a year. They can more than afford to give content away for free. Nonsubscription based game can, it boggles my mind that you think a subscription based game can't.

We can let slide MAJOR content that is bundled as an expansion, that is IT.

BTW Issues are free, just like in COX.

[Allardyn]

I think that this issue really comes down to the size of the 'update' in question.

What you refer to as issues as in from CoX, those updates have been really small in comparison. 'Issues' just added a bunch of bugfixes/ powerset updates much like a normal patch would and then some small piece new of new content, usually not a whole lot but enough to keep us interested which is nice.

In comparison something like BC or WOTLK from WoW is much more expansive. Often expansions like this can double the size of a game world which requires a lot more work. Hence the increased expense.

I cannot fault these companies for the charge as often they have invested quite a bit and probably make far less profit on box sales of an expansion then you might think, the value comes from the subscriptions all continuing and perhaps a few new ones.

[Volomon]

What you refer to as issues as in from CoX, those updates have been really small in comparison. 'Issues' just I cannot fault these companies for the charge as often they have invested quite a bit and probably make far less profit on box sales of an expansion then you might think, the value comes from the subscriptions all continuing and perhaps a few new ones.

I have to totally and utterly disagree free content has been a practice since demo for the first few levels of pac man came out on Prodigy. Free content keeps consumers using. Such as Valve updating and maintaining a level playing field in Team Fortress. How about Blizzard updating Starcraft YEARS after it has come out. What this is, is like free advertising. It says we will take care of you now and until you stop playing. Once you start charging for what has been free, you say we want to nickle and dime you because a million dollar salary just isn't enough for us.

A studio with steady stream of income would be foolish to start charging for little things and the mention of PROFIT is RIDICULOUS. Their are freaking FREE mmos who don't charge anything not even STORE items updated for FREE, maintained for FREE all out of the expensive of the developer and the publisher? Why for reputation.

Do you seriously thing anyone in the MMO busy is hurting for money look at SOE they can put out flop after flop after flop, do they charge massive amounts of money for every little thing, no.

Maybe you guys are millionaires I don't know maybe you guys think making 100s of thousands of dollars in salary is to little.

You guys probably worry about artists losing all their profits from piracy as well. Those poor guys don't have enough cars and houses the world isn't right!

Hell at this point World of Warcraft charge for expansions is a just for fun kind of thing. It costs them maybe around 100 mil if not alot less to put out content when they make billions a year.

[marscentral]

But even CoX has been doing some "Costume packs" and things of that nature at 10 bucks a pop lately. Though the Cyborg pack was totally worth it :)


That started shortly after I left (which is why I had forgotten) and the game had been running for over 3 years.

[KidBang]

People like these are the ones who are killing the open nature of software and the freedom of information. Idiots willing to pay for what has always been free, and clueless that that's the way it has and SHOULD always be, however if people like these exist why wouldn't they attempt to charge everyone that why these dang Free to Play games are becoming so poular, every companies getting into with their lame Collectors Edition, their headstart programs, stupid CD of music. Idiots one and all.

Let me be clear as soon as MMO's start charging for FREE content, their will be a **** storm bigger than anything seen before. These companies are making millions to billions of dollars a year. They can more than afford to give content away for free. Nonsubscription based game can, it boggles my mind that you think a subscription based game can't.

We can let slide MAJOR content that is bundled as an expansion, that is IT.

BTW Issues are free, just like in COX.

Billions of dollars a year? News to me. WoW maybe, but that's a ridiculous anamoly. Most MMORPG's are lucky to have a few= 100K subscribers.

[KidBang]

That started shortly after I left (which is why I had forgotten) and the game had been running for over 3 years.

Oh, I agree, I was just saying that even they had been doing it on a small scale lately.

[KidBang]

Volomon, your views seem pretty delusional if you really think most of the people involved in these games are making those kind of salaries.

[Volomon]

Volomon, your views seem pretty delusional if you really think most of the people involved in these games are making those kind of salaries.

Ok 60-70k whatever the point being is they do not suddenly dip every time they forget to charge you for whats free.

Oh crap we forgot to charge 10 bucks for that new alien race, their goes my house.

Billions of dollars a year? News to me. WoW maybe, but that's a ridiculous anamoly. Most MMORPG's are lucky to have a few= 100K subscribers.

I said Millions to Billions a year don't try to twist my words around. 100k at 12 is over a million. The little skin packs that you guys are talking about can be done for almost nothing it only takes one person and a few hours.

You guys are the ones who are pushing forth this stupid fad and allow crap like this to exist.

[KidBang]

But the thing is, that's my choice. My financial situation allows me to make that kind of choice. My wife and I both work full time, are fortunate enough to make good salaries and keep our expenses low. We own a house and have put away quite a bit in savings. No one's holding a gun to your head and saying "BUY IT!"

[angrydurf]

I have to totally and utterly disagree free content has been a practice since demo for the first few levels of pac man came out on Prodigy. Free content keeps consumers using. Such as Valve updating and maintaining a level playing field in Team Fortress. How about Blizzard updating Starcraft YEARS after it has come out. What this is, is like free advertising. It says we will take care of you now and until you stop playing. Once you start charging for what has been free, you say we want to nickle and dime you because a million dollar salary just isn't enough for us.

A studio with steady stream of income would be foolish to start charging for little things and the mention of PROFIT is RIDICULOUS. Their are freaking FREE mmos who don't charge anything not even STORE items updated for FREE, maintained for FREE all out of the expensive of the developer and the publisher? Why for reputation.

Do you seriously thing anyone in the MMO busy is hurting for money look at SOE they can put out flop after flop after flop, do they charge massive amounts of money for every little thing, no.

Maybe you guys are millionaires I don't know maybe you guys think making 100s of thousands of dollars in salary is to little.

You guys probably worry about artists losing all their profits from piracy as well. Those poor guys don't have enough cars and houses the world isn't right!

Hell at this point World of Warcraft charge for expansions is a just for fun kind of thing. It costs them maybe around 100 mil if not alot less to put out content when they make billions a year.

Every 'free' MMO uses micro transactions for extra gear/server preferance/removal of level caps. There is no free lunch.

As for cryptic I imagine that most updates will be free with any major update IE Villians being charged for. WoW has added lots of free content over the years they have charged for expansions twice (counting WotLK) and both of those expansions have not only vast new areas on par in size with the original game world but extra races/classes/mechanics and an expanded leveling system for all of the classes these are massive undertakings along the lines of a new game content wise just useing the same engine. Even then the expansion is around half the price a new game goes for.

[Captain_Intrepid]

Star Wars Galaxies had free updates. Their first paid expansion had great content, including a non-combat ship for everyone (and every character). After that, expansions got less and less worthwhile....

Hopefully Cryptic would offer free updates. I'm all for paid expansions if they are worth it (i.e. a big update with several features that need to be released separately), and they don't stop players who didn't buy the expansions to play the game.

[Stormnet]

Volomon,

I don't know what you do for a living but suppose I tell you that you now have to work for free. Also you have to keep my life exciting for free as well. The fact that rich people make tons of money is irrelevent. They made the right choices and as such deserve what they got. I am not in that class of people just so you know. I'm a working stiff, blue collar. I do a job and I expect to be paid. I wouldn't expect any company no matter how profitable to give me a free ride nor should I. I work, I get paid. Very simple concept.

Cryptic is putting out a lot of thier own money to develop this title. Let's not even talk what it prolly cost them for the licensing. I'm sure it wasn't cheap. The fact that they put out a game that I've been wanting for years rocks. I will gladly pay for the privledge of playing it. When they make an expansion that changes the game dramatically (Say adding player bridge crews for one) and adding a ton of content, I have no problem paying for it. Someone coded that. Someone drew that. Maybe Cryptic is making billions of dollars. That's fine by me, they're the ones sticking thier necks out on every MMO they put out. There are no guarentees in life of making your money back. They risk thier money, they deserve the rewards...

[AaronH]

The issue for me, and I think a lot of other people I think, is not the initial price of the game at launch (IE: Box price, and subscription price) but whether or not Cryptic plans to do free semi regular game updates similar to what they did with CoH. Clearly CoH pointed to the fact that it is a financial possibility, and may actually be condusive to a high continuous subscription rate (not I say in the average MMO sense, not the rediculous WoW sense). It is more a matter of whether Cryptic plans to go that route or not that is in question, as it is clearly possible for a game to operate under such a business model.

[Trekkie]

Obviously players will have to buy the game itself, but I hope that the plan is to release issues and other somewhat significant content updates for free and then save the major upgrades for expansions which players must pay for separately.

[Shar_Torin]

What I really hate to see is a charge for non-cosmetic items. I'm relatively certain Cryptic will have plenty of free content upgrades and most likely charge for larger content packages, ie expansion packs. But please please please don't use micro-transactions for that special phaser that will let me pwn at pvp.

[Stronin]

You guys probably worry about artists losing all their profits from piracy as well. Those poor guys don't have enough cars and houses the world isn't right!

Hell at this point World of Warcraft charge for expansions is a just for fun kind of thing. It costs them maybe around 100 mil if not alot less to put out content when they make billions a year.

I don't know if you've seen housing prices in the San Francisco Bay Area recently. But I can assure you, Artists don't make that much. :rolleyes:

What your also forgetting is all the servers they constantly have to maintain. It's isn't cheap, and while, duh, yes they're in it to make a profit, they're not grabbing at your wallet and stealing your childen. Geez. Tone down the teenage angst.

[Kriss]

I'm here from Eve and I can say that they don't charge for expansionsor any upgrades. Period. This helps keep theingood graces with their player base and shows that they just aren't out trying to screw everyonethey can for a buck.

And if you really think about it...Eve costs $15 a monrth. 15x 250,000 subscriptions,,,PER MONTH! Thats a lot of cash. There really is no MUST reason to charge for every expansion.

I really hope Cryptic thinks about this as a viable way to do business. It will put them into one of two catagories. The on with blizzard and Sony where they are just trying to rake you over the coals or the other where it shows you respect your player-base. And as we all know, respect is a two-way street.

Could explain why Sony and Blizz and all the other giant COs don't have much respect.