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How long until STO gets shutdown ?
I really like STO but F2P usually leads to a game being abandoned or shutdown, which will it be for STO, thoughts ?
Comments
LotRO - just had an expansion
DDO - about to get a major update
Champions online - consistently added to
DCUO - early, but still being updated
For something to "usually" happen, it has to be regular. Where are the games that switched and shut down?
Oh yeah, Lego Universe - Dead in a matter of days.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
STO is actully doing pritty well even with paid players, but since perfect world owns it now it was gonna be F2P even if it had 1 billion subs that paid.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/3845509852.png
Sod knows. Even though it's free to play they still need the purchases flooding in constantly for cashflow. PWE can keep it afloat for a while I should imagine since STO is using a business model that obviously hasn't resulted in PWE bankruptcy and has allowed the acquisition of Cryptic. But is STO good enough a game to retain players after the f2p launch and convince them to use the store? I give it six months to a year if it does badly, indefintely if it pulls off a 'Turbine' and makes some cash on par with LOTRO.
Which big budget MMORPG that has gone to a Free 2 Play model has been shut down?
Where do you get this idea that "going free to play usually means its about to be shut down"
The only MMORPG that has recently been shut off was Star Wars Galaxies, and that game wasn't F2P.
Where do you guys come up with this shit?
see this is bs i got in trouble for posting on someones post about stopping the negativity and was flagged for trolling but since then ive seen so much hate posts and as with this troll your allowing it to happen cleearly the original poster has no clue what hes talking about and trying to start crap please be fair and flag more since u flagged me for less
Im not trolling or trying to start crap so , im just asking as i quite like this game and dont want to see it fade away
and no where is there evidence of a game dying out once it goes to ftp it actually increases the value of it and most become quite successful
Now whose making unsubstantiated claims ? Getting back to the op. As long as they can pay server costs and royality fees to CBS , it can hang on as long as the contract stipulates. ( there is likely language that provides finacial punishment for early closure , since it would be a breach of contract ) Much like SWG , the ip exsists as a game as long as the IP holder allows it , and is defined by the contract. Once the contract reaches maturity ( usually 5 years with another 5 years option or extension ) the IP holder (CBS ) or the dev ( Cryptic ) can pull the plug. F2P games are basically on life support hopping to make until contract commpletition and drain the player base of as much cash as they can.
If cryptic wanted to drain the player base of as much Cash as possible they are doing it the wrong way... the RMT shop is in no way necessary to play this game and have fun...
The game has no real PVP ellement so forcing people to pay to win will never happen, unless they can get alot of people playing Klingons and start selling PVP ger for real cash ( I dont see this happening anytime soon) also there are no Payed for Content ( like Lotro and AOC uses)
[Mod Edit]
hmm ... what are you smoking?
DDO turns F2P and makes a lot more money. So they are now releasing an expansion FOR FREE in the summer. Shutting now?
LOTRO also makes more money after turning F2P.
DCU seems to be doing well after turnin F2P.
I believe there are some successs story after EQ2 turns F2P too.
The only one i am not sure is AOC. How is that doing after turning F2P?
Heres the thing..... Perfect World Entertainment would not have bought it if they were gonna close it down.
Yeah, but chances are that they bought Neverwinter nights online and kinda got STO in the same deal. A Forgotten realms MMO have been something talked about since the first MMO released. The setting have millions of fans and as soon as Perfect world bought Cryptic did they change the game from a CORPG into a MMO with twice the development time and budget.
Star trek do have many fans but the problem is that the game really don´t have th feel the IP should have and therefore did most trekkies give up on it fast.
On the other hand is STO a CORPG that never should have had monthly fees and making it F2P might turn it around, it did after all the same for another dying CORPG, DDO. Of course DDO was the first P2P game that converted so it got a lot more media coverage and the game might be better as well.
So I frankly don´t know when the game will close down. I wouldn´t be surprise if PW did close it down, but it is not unlikely that turning it F2P might save it, or that PW decides to revamp the game to not lose the IP.
This is a game that actually could use a NGE.
Contrary to popular belief, the game is actually doing pretty well. I gave it a try for a weekend and have to admit, it's improved hand over fist since I tried it when it first came out. Still not my cup of tea, I only played long enough to see if it was still a mess, but it's got a stable playerbase and the team is working steadily on new content. I doubt it's shutting down any time soon. Actually, both STO and Champions have seen huge surges in players since going F2P, if anything they're less likely to close down now.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
Not any time soon,but it will have a constant revolving door of people coming in and out. This will be due to how fast you level in the F2P STO. I came back at LT 16 where I left it after my first month when it was first release and with in a week of casual play I'm now Capitan 36.
A game with very little content and dull end game people will feel inclined to not log in. I'm already bored of it again already. The Duty offer system is just stale. They have fast levelling and then add this to it to make it faster.
The whole raid for an item that goes into the need for greed is dated and not fun any more, and that's all you have to do end game. With the slow progress that will be done on the game this year, this game will be a year away from anything meaningful happening to it.
It is a possibility. Some have speculated that PWE bought Cryptic for their Cryptic Game Engine alone and have no interest in supporting their existing properties. They may not cancel STO outright, but could cease development on it, which would essentially kill the game.
When it does I expect ot see you all in StarQuest Online. It may not have good graphics, but the gameplay is what Star Trek should have been.
"I am not in a server with Gankers...THEY ARE IN A SERVER WITH ME!!!"
I missed the news here that Both STO and CO are now under the Perfect World Enterprises flag. Also the upcoming Neverwinter MMO will be under the PWE flag. So I doubt that STO will be brought down soon. Instead I think that there will be some major changeds to the game (will we finally see a real Star Trek MMO?), but also fear that the cash shop will rule the game like all other PWE games
Dont worry.
Most of games that went F2P have seen rise in revenues.
STO looks like perfect game for this type of buisness too...
BTW , what did you like in STO ?
I am trying hard to dig it, but just cant see it happening...
My money would be on the Cash shop ruling the game. It is fairly evident that Cryptic does not give a hoot about the IP or the rich history it has.
This.
The paradigm for F2P games has shifted drastically over the past couple years, ever since DDO(Turbine) took the plunge and revenue skyrocketed. It's no longer a desperate "last gasp", and is probably being considered for every game that has gotten everything it can from box sales.
I've long believed that DCUO was MADE to be F2P, but they wanted to get box sales from it, first, since it's a popular IP. I thought it would be longer before they switched, but I think their PvP bugs killed their sub base faster than expected.
Once an MMO is of a certain age, charging for a box, or even charging $15/mo with no alternatives is a revenue killer.
I'm convinced that these companies plan to fail. they hype the game till your bleeding out of your ears from anticipation. They sell a huge amount of boxes. The game turns out to be garbage, and then they switch to F2P. They then move on to the next failed project.
"I am not in a server with Gankers...THEY ARE IN A SERVER WITH ME!!!"
Actually we don't know whether any of the titles are making more money after going F2P. And with something like LotR any results are buried in the bowels of WarnerBros (if you have found some please post). For AoC it is possible to read Funcom's results: more than 600k tested the new hybrid model and revenue went up - in the first two months - and was cash flow positive. Which is good although not the same as profitable.
Typically what is said - right after going F2P - is that they 'had lots more players' and/or 'had seen increased revenue'. Neither of which means they are making more money or even making money at all. And lets face it, if you can't get lots of players right after you go F2P in a blaze of publicity you are truly doomed.
Example: In the last 9 months Zynga attracted 400k users. And an average Zynga user spent $150. Headlines: Zynga attracts 400k new users; Zynga revenue goes up $60M. The missing detail - and what has just been released to analysts is that Zynga spent $120M attracting these new customers. That's $300 per customer. A loss of $150 per customer. Users and revenue sound great but they don't necessarily mean profit. If the customers stick around for over 2 years then maybe.
Nor is it just Lego Universe either. EA have just announced that they are closing Baking Life - one of the titles produced by Popcap (that EA paid mega$$$ for). Users numbers have dropped to the point that it is no longer deemed profitable; from 6.7M to a mere 760k. That's 760,000 and not profitable.
And Roma Victor - sadly - has just closed as well after server failures. This is the type of detail that cash flow positive ignores; it simply means that the money coming in covers the on-going costs but ignores depreciation etc. Better than not covering the cost however!
Yes F2P does work - at least in the short term for some games. Whether it can revitalise failed P2P mmorpgs, especially ones not designed to be F2P from the get-go is another matter. They might be - but don't mistake player numbers and revenue for profit.
Failed P2P MMO's that do not switch to F2P die much faster than ones that convert...
This community hates F2P, but it is not so much a negative when it comes to a sinking ship..
Some MMO's aren't even worth a full on sub, yet attempt it anyway and end up falling on their faces or shutting down early..
Developers are more serious about the deciding which pay scheme to use these days, because the wrong decision could be the difference between financial success or failure..
I have been watching STO since release, while completly under Atari control the game didnt get very far, but I have to give credit to Perfect World for taking it in the right direction, I would call the F2P launch a success
I think that's a bit harsh, really. Do you intentionally do crappy work at your job? I think most gaming companies try to make the best game they can(yes, even Cryptic!) with the resources they have. The resources may not be sufficient, or they may be pressured by influence outside of development, and yes, sometimes they even fail to make the game they wanted. But the idea that they purposefully take a dump in a dvd case and sell it for $60... you can't go far doing business like that.
But I'm sure they plan for obsolescence. An MMO can and should have a longer shelf life than a single player game, but sooner or later, people are gonna stop playing and move on. and yep, seeing that happen is probably what spurred Turbine to give DDO that "one last chance" to bring in revenue. But I don't think that's the only reason, or even the biggest reason so many games do it, today.
I do wonder what will happen as more and more games become F2P. Can't help but wonder if it's gonna be a "race to the bottom", after all.