Ok, first I know its been a LONG time since I have put anything on the pages of my blog here. Well get ready, lots of game stuff going through my head as well as updates into the pastor side of my life :)
Ok, everyone knows that several new MMO’s are trying to knock the indisputable heavyweight champ, World of Warcraft, off its pedestal. Out of the handful, and I am a BIG fan of Aion right now, I think that only one really has a chance of doing it. Free Realms. Yes, you heard me right, Free Realms, the latest MMO that has been sent down the shoot from Sony Entertainment.
In brief here is why I think they have a shot.
- Its free to play. Ok, so not if you want more than one toon and perks. But you can play it for free. The install is amazingly smooth and accessible to every day computer users.
- The game plays very well and smooth. My youngest daughter likes to play it and can even show up her old man, who has several years of MMO experience under my belt, up.
- They have 3 million subscriptions already! This is an amazing number and will only grow. First it is interesting that Sony has opted to share this data. They are not afraid of what other will think and have no problems flaunting it.
3 Million players after a couple months is HUGE. And just think what will happen when they release the PS3 client of the game. Talk about an explosion of players into a MMO world in a short period of time. I am not afraid to go out on a limb and state that FR has a chance of knocking WoW off the high horse. At least for player base and money made.
Money? Are you kidding? It’s a free to play game, how in the world will they make money?
Glad you asked. The gang over at Massively have reported on the 89/10/1 rule. It simply says that 89% of the games player base will not pay anything, 10% will pay the minimum subscription and 1% of players will pay well beyond that. The speculative math done over at Massively comes up with a grand total using the “89/10/1 Rule” of $2.4M revenue per month. O.o That is a lot of income for a free game.
And when the PS3 client comes out those numbers have a great potential of going up.
It will be an interesting thing to watch. I only wish a few of the other contenders would consider a pricing model like this.