What is the business model for when SotA is "released"?

there will be 4 more continents in the next 4 releases. So yes there will be a land rush.

 

If they can keep up the successful quarterly "telethons", they shouldn't have to rely as heavily on Kickstarter for continued funding. I would prefer to see funding campaigns with more modest rewards that aren't so focused around selling virtual housing. I don't think it is a sustainable model to ask people to pay for housing again every couple years, so I would hope they can find other ways to make money without continually going back to the housing well (which will almost surely bring diminishing returns over time).

 

What I would really like to see is Player Vendors tied in directly to PayPal, and in order to get a vendor? You pay a monthly fee to Portalarium.

That would be epic. I'm sure it would draw new players in to SotA also.

Edit: I made this into it's own thread

 

@Berek @DarkStarr

Could we please have some clarity from you guys?

 

Ya... My impression was that a Kickstarter pledge guaranteed *access* to all 5 episodes, but not that the KS was meant to fund all of them. But I can see how confusion could occur around that.

I guess at the end of the day many people just don't realize what is costs to hire and retain good employees.

While it's self-evident to me that Portalarium employees need to feed and clothe themselves, pay rent/lease/mortgage, every day/week/month/year that time goes on, I guess it isn't as obvious to some.

I mean- even if Ep. 1 had delivered "on time" there are clearly multiple years of nonstop development in order to produce four more episodes.

I'm just floored that anybody thought $1M would somehow fund an entire dev team for several years. I mean... Just do the math.

 

If they do $600k a year in telethons as the current trend, that is not enough to keep the lights on, that is only 10 devs salary....

 

The MMO market is oversaturated, even a brand like ESO wasn't able to establish a monthly fee. Many MMOs started with a monthly fee and turned their business model into micro paying via add-on store. I don't see a realistic opportunity for a monthly fee for SotA.

But an add-on store is useless without people who are willing to pay. You cannot warm a skeleton with a coat. This game needs finally flesh on the bones, good reviews and many new customers.

 

Unfortunately, none of us have developed games as succesful as Lord British. In fact, I would postulate that few, if any, of us have developed a game more successful than the worst game developed by 80% of the port staff. Additionally, our livelihoods and that of our closest comrades do not depend upon the success of this game.

It is therefore pointless and insulting for us to presume that what we think we know about a private organization's financial intricacies, let alone presume that they have not given thought to business models.

Of course there will be changes to monetization policy in the future. However, those strategies will depend upon present unknowns, largely the success of the game and the success of the current models at scale. It will depend upon rent buy-in, coto appreciation, etc. It will depend upon how quickly the subsequent chapters are released and how much buy-in the community gives them.

TLDR: it's unreasonable to assume the worst of people more capable than you, and you're asking for a concrete resolution to an unfinished novel.

 

I really like monthly fees as well, because I really don't like all these micro transactions that increasingly should really be called macro transactions, because the games that use them have realized that the bulk of micro-transaction money ultimately comes from whales who will spend 50+ bucks on something easily, not from people who buy a potion for 99 cents here or there.

I understand why monthly fees don't really work though. Monthly fees can't leverage the willingness of whales to drop hundreds of dollars a month into the game, but expect the casuals and pass-through players to pay for the privilege of playing when they aren't really using it all that much.

What I think would be interesting to explore would be a continuous crowdfunding scheme, where players can pay into various expansion projects for the game, so players get direct financial control over what's being developed next. For example, the devs could say "Sailable ships, $_____" or "Gunpowder skill tree, $______", then players can decide to chip a little into that, maybe get some rewards, like a captain's hat or a powder horn belt or whatever. That way the devs can throw a lot of different projects onto the continuous crowdfunding page and see if they get funded. Maybe this could be expanded to allow players to put bounties on certain bugs and all sorts of things like that. If we're going to have a game that directly caters to the people who are willing to put in the big bucks anyways we might as well have it set up in such a way that money can directly be spent to pay for the workhours required to create specific content expansions.

 

People are going to find it the most hollow reward ever offered if that's the case... "Hey, look! My reward is Episode 2 & 3... but those episodes won't happen unless people -- like myself -- actually spend MORE money...!"

I mean, if true, what a "safe" offer! Kind of like saying someone can have a free set of wheels... but only if they buy the car they come on, LOL. People have backed higher levels because they really think there's no more to spend.

 

Well, Diablo 3 is still running strong years down the line with its one-time purchase model / with occasional xpack.

 

I personally like the B2P with addon store way.

We will probably see things like XP boosters etc, but nothing really giving you more power - just time savers.

If they manage to get the sandbox going here, and guilds and players become more involved in it - I guess more people would like to settle in Novia.

 

I really hope they don't put in XP boosters. Too much like P2W for me, IMO.

 

Actually there were some people who said that a monthly subscription would be a good additional solution. In one of these discussions I said we might take a look at star citizen and their monthly subscription. E.g. handing out some add on stuff “for free” or a special category in the add on store just for subscribers, additional information (e.g. dev+ access), benefits like coupons for add on purchases if you continuously subscribed for a year, “privileged” support or “privileged” access to SotA events (RL and ingame e.g. seat reservation during an ingame event of LB) might be also interesting for some potential SotA-subscribers and there are maybe some more not game relevant perks thinkable. E.g. a special title in game, the name/titles in a special color, ... just available as long as your subscription is active.
But maybe the add on store is already more than enough to keep the lights on and that they are in no need to create something "new".

I do not think this really matters. Just a small number of accounts are eligible for free future episodes as the majority will not have payed enough during KS. We just have 22k KS accounts and I would be surprised if more than the half had paid $80 or more.

Well actually this has been possible some years ago. There were packages e.g. a pack animal package or the elven avatar package and below each package was a counter with the goal (money needed to implement this feature) and currently pledged money (e.g. $3,500 of $500,000).
There were mostly four options and one complete package including all option for a small discount. I think there was e.g. a foal you got as home decoration right after purchasing but if the goal would be reached this foal would have become a ridable horse.
But I think the response wasn’t that huge as none of the counters got even close to the goal and I think that was one of the reasons why they stopped that.
Another point might be because they will advertise future episodes with new features e.g. episode 2 with sailable ships and I do not think that core features of new episodes could be financed without some loud and angry people complaining about "paying double".

 

Monthly subscription is not even an option for AAA games.
So, I don't believe it would be a good idea for this game .
And needless to say, if they keep the $$$ shop, the way is it right now. They're going to be flame, big time.
4 more Episode to go.. better find a way right now.

Plus, Internet is not so please about this game and LB needs those people to sell the game.

No money, no candy.

 

I don't think I have the energy to go through this again, so I will just do it like this instead:

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...tions-on-monetization-thinking-on-sota.52340/

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...s/over-saturation-concerns.81175/#post-764953

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...tion-option-for-sota.21617/page-2#post-322033

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...ame-vs-community-vs-profit.61766/#post-646733

I think that should do it for starters.

 

I think it will be free to pay.

 

you are right now sitting how they are going to make money (identical to freemium games)

The game has been released for over 6 months now - the excuse of still in development and not "yet" released is not valid. They have stopped any data wipe so anything you of is permanent so game has started.

They already hinted at another "kickstarter" for ep 2.

but if you cannot see that they are going to just generate more and more pixel crack, and eventually have to do it for items that actually affect the game then . . . .

 

Isn't that a bit cheating as quite a few of the Port staff only have the one commercial game under their belt?

 

Like how Tabula Rasa went.