More Pricing Innovations

Champions Online is following The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢ in offering a lifetime subscription, along with a discounted long-term subscription. As with Wizard 101, I favor trying more pricing options. The monthly subscriptions appeal to me as someone who binges madly on everything, but the long-term plans help me play more casually, without “must get my money’s worth” building atop “must consume new pleasure.” But that is not the innovation.

Champions Online is offering this option for one month, while the NDA is still up. And planning to have a microtransactions shop. Seriously? $200, sight unseen, and you already know it is going to change after release, and there will be other plans to generate revenue from lifetime subscribers (see again: The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢). That is some chutzpah.

: Zubon

15 thoughts on “More Pricing Innovations”

  1. Yeah, $200 for a game you can’t even try out is a bit insane. That you have to commit before the game even goes into open beta is extremely suspicious. Leads me to believe that their product isn’t strong enough to sell a $200 commitment.

  2. Has Turbine officially announced some kind of RMT for LOTRO? I know that lifers have to pay for subscription boxes, but that’s no different from any other subscription game, and Turbine doesn’t seem to be pumping out expansions any faster than anyone else.

  3. The beta starts the 17th. I’m told the offer ends at the end of the month. That gives you a bit of time to play around with the game before deciding.

  4. Any company willing to offer a lifetime subscription should be willing to let the subscribers play out the 30 days included with the box purchase in order to make that decision. Anything other than that, to me, show a lack of confidence in the launch of the game.

  5. No, no LOTRO RMT, just expansion boxes. They’re pumping out expansions faster than WoW but slower than EQ, and they have cut back on the free content additions since starting the expansion boxes.

  6. I was excited to try the Champions beta but it’s exclusive to FilePlanet subscribers now isn’t it?

    I’d rather just give them five bucks for the key and have it over with as I’ve no use at all for FilePlanet.

    I wouldn’t do a lifetime sub either way but I refuse to pay the box price for an MMO without getting at least a weekend to try it out first.

  7. /laugh @ Cryptic for still using the sub model.

    “yes I’d like to give you $200 for a game that I haven’t played purely out of devotion for company that still uses the sub model”

    What a joke.

  8. I believe preorders receive open beta codes. It’s not a fileplanet exclusive AFAIK.

  9. Being a lifetime subscriber -and- having to pay for expansions always felt to me a bit like having cable TV -and- having to watch commercials.

    Doesn’t make 100% sense, but the money has to come from somewhere I guess.

  10. Pingback: A leap of faith « A ding world

  11. Yeah i definitely wouldn’t commit on such a short window. It smells like a cash run to me, and champions is already getting flak over the subs + rmt aspect. I think companies have to be careful about being too aggressive with pricing and service plans in general, even if the cost is low.

  12. I just got the email from Cryptic:

    “Beyond the deep discount on the subscription rates, we wanted to come up with added incentives and exclusives that, as gamers, we could get excited about,” said Jack Emmert, Cryptic Studios’ Chief Operating Officer. “With an early commitment to Champions Online, granting guaranteed early access to our next big game, Star Trek Online, seemed like a great way to engage Cryptic’s biggest fans in other projects at the studio.”

    Here are the great features our loyal customers will receive.

    Discounted Lifetime Subscription
    * Guaranteed Star Trek Online Closed Beta Access
    * Eight Additional Character Slots
    * Foxbat Vanity Pet
    * Art Deco Costume Set
    * Retro Future Costume Set
    * STO Mirror Universe Costume Set

    Discounted Six-month Subscription
    * Guaranteed Star Trek Online closed beta access
    * Retro Future Costume Set

  14. Under normal circumstances asking for $200 before dropping the NDA would be odd, but when most sources in the beta report that Champions is… a bit rough, asking for that $200 now looks very shady.

  15. I’ll second Crimson Starfire’s comment, with a rider that I still prefer the Guild Wars “lifetime sub” model.

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