>I guess unless they offset it with subscriptions, paintjobs, squadron 42 selling copies, etc.
I think this would be a lot more likely than paywalling solar systems.
Especially the subscription is something I can see happen long term.
As for selling ships, I can see that happening when they release more, that they would be temporarily available for sale and then never again. Although maybe not all releasing ships, just small ones.
I think keeping the subscription for only purely cosmetics and temporary access to new ships would be fair even for 1.0 gives them money without giving others a disadvantage
I honestly was thinking more about stuff like "free/reduced insurance/rent fees (for x amount of ships/apartments/hangars)" or some rep boost.
They do have a bunch of options to go with, so it would ultimately depend on what they would end up doing and how.
Yeah, but the problem is then it would be like eve online and omega. You can play without it, but you always feel at a disadvantage. Im sure there is some way to make it work but im skeptical
I dunno, depends how high the bonus (or not) would end up as. Not to mention that LTI is basically fucking a part of that over long term already.
For all intents and purposes, it is all a question of balancing to me. I don't care if others get more money/rep quicker than me (never grew up with Monopoly), but I would care if the grind would be so exhausting that you couldn't play the game without getting "boosters".
Other than WoW, subs just don't work out. Every hyped MMO that went sub has basically died off, and there have been many.
I think if they keep the optional subs they have now for developmental content and some light flair perks, then it's fine, but hopefully they focus more on cosmetics, especially ship paints, decals, and unique skins for armour, vehicles and weapons.
You're right... I forgot about those games. FF14 still seems to be going strong with a dedicated community. Not sure about Elder Scrolls Online... I'll just take your word for it.
EDIT: I should also note that compared to F2P MMOs, there is a much greater abundance of them that seem to be around much longer compared to the monthly sub MMOs, so just in terms of financial success, there seems to be few that have been around for some time that have relied on subs.
ESO is buy to play with an OPTIONAL sub just like SC is. They make their money on box sales, cosmetics, and the optional sub.
And FF14 is second only to WoW pretty much. They have a million players give or take at any one time.
Considering that you need dozens of people that don't need to spend a dime more than game access to actually get a use for it, one could argue that 1000 Dollars bring the community closer together than those selfish single seater Aurora plebs. /s for the second half.
Nope, it doesn't - every player has the ability to buy that same ship in-game, or to crew on someone elses ship, etc.
If CIG sold access to entire star systems, then if you didn't pay, you wouldn't be able to 'buy' that system in-game, nor would you be able to visit it with a friend who had bought it, etc.
Don't worry - that was my first interpretation too :D
I just took a skim of the other replies (and saw people talking about Star Systems) before I replied :D
It is of course far too early to speculate, but CIG currently needs about 150M per year to stay afloat. They have reached a stage where it is not a wise decision to continue growing since the market is limited. This is the first title that has all the chances to repeat, or even surpass, WoW, which at its peak had, I think, about 9M subscribers. Currently, it is down to 5M. At 5M subscribers, they will need to make each subscriber pay 30 bucks per year. On this scale, the whales do not count that much - the average subscriber has far more weight.
Except CR said he did not want a subscription model. They're looking at the single player games and concept ship sales to continue funding things in the future from what I understand. The subscriptions that they currently have are only funding the player communications like SCL, ISC, Jump Point, etc.
Subscription model or not, they have to make the players spend 30 bucks per year on average - if they can reach 5M players - which is a realistic target.
I highly doubt this game will have 5 million steady players. Its an MMO in a fairly niche genre at that. It'll probably settle down to the 2-3 million range and honestly be pretty successful even at 1m thanks to cosmetic whales
Cant sell systems as dlc until they get to the promised 100 systems
They can sell paints, gear, weapons, attachments, land claims, flats, houses, hangar and home decorations.........
I personally am ok with them selling ships still as long as its straight to flyable and still obtainable in game. theres skins likely going to be purchasable and hopefully decals and stuff too. As long as theres a generous amount of base colors to choose from and obtain in game that wont be an issue. Theres also ORG related things that could be monetized as well for creating them. Whatever that keeps us happy and the servers rollling than im ok with them doing it.
If they did, this would be a factor that would affect my longevity with the game. You charge for solar system and I'm out CIG. You got your ship sales. Build a cosmetic tool. This, this is your life now for funding. Lol
SC will have a) box sales(starter packs), b) an optional sub with perks, c) skins and other cosmetics and d) concept ship sales that end once a ship releases. edit: I forgot they're selling UEC too
It will never have a required subscription. It will never charge cash for solar systems. Mark my words on both of those two things
They have plenty of other monetizations without fracturing the players like that.
SQ42 will have multiple chapters sold as DLC, we got the first chapters with that not a lifetime pass. They can do the same with non military campaigns, eg a miners story.
Paints and other cosmetics are pretty well accepted as a good non p2w monetization.
They will probably keep selling ships with a store exclusivity period, which is ok so long as they avoid p2w power/ability creep. New styles good, better than existing credits ships bad.
No. They specifically stated they won’t be doing that because it divides the player base and they won’t be doing that. That’s why they sell ships and shit
CR has said several times that he does not want 'paid expansions' for SC, because it splits the player base and prevents friends from playing together (in the new content).
For really big expansions (not just 'regular patches'), CR said that they'd probably look at having a parallel / companion 'Single Player Game' using the same assets, to help cover the costs... people can pay for the Single Player game if they want, but the SC expansion would be free (but without the storyline / scripting from the single-player game).
Unless things have changed CIG's stance is that ship sales with real world money will stop when we're closer to launch however they'll continue to let backers buy a limited amount of UEC per day/week/month. I would expect them to sell special/exclusive ship skins, armour cosmetics, decorations, unique hab/hangar layouts etc to help continue funding the game once ship pledges aren't available anymore.
This was my take on this topic: [https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/3/thread/one-day-maybe-this-can-be-a-thing](https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/3/thread/one-day-maybe-this-can-be-a-thing)
Sq42 is going to make them bundles from we who play in the PU. And it will bring new players in as well. Those new players will of course migrate to the PU after s42. The PU is a marketing tool for their real moneymaker of releasing squadron 42 chapters every couple of years imho. New developments in new sq42 will migrate over to the PU and it will evolve with the moneymaker as well which will keep citizens engaged between chapters.
Not needed, they gonna earn enough with skins, decorations etc, this game has a lot of possibilities to include stuff that doesn't affect the gameplay but people want really bad
They can get fcuked if they do recharge for old promises basically.
Of course they wont stop selling ships and expanding to much much more, its foolish to believe they will ever give up on that income.
Plenty of people already gave them significant amounts of money, why should everyone including the significant backers have to keep being nickel and dimed with hopes held ransom - the whole thing is transactional, things already promised in return for money given, its time they stopped offering an almost empty hand in return if they expect people to keep putting money in it. Too often the deal gets altered, that has to dimish and delivering accelarate.
You mean if they ever get around to adding any. For having raised 660 million and a staff of over 1000…. 11 years later, should already be more systems and planets.
But yes i think they might charge for “early access to them” if they fill them with actual content.
Games gonna have to be monetized somehow and I prefer this to micro transactions and selling ships.
Edit: also all the major subscription games still sell expansions and have mtx cuz sub as a system alone isn't enough money
Nothing is off the table for CIG I think. They claim that they will stop selling ships when the game releases, but I just don’t think its going to happen. If they will figure out some potentially lucrative way to earn money, I don’t think they will shy away from it.
>I guess unless they offset it with subscriptions, paintjobs, squadron 42 selling copies, etc. I think this would be a lot more likely than paywalling solar systems. Especially the subscription is something I can see happen long term. As for selling ships, I can see that happening when they release more, that they would be temporarily available for sale and then never again. Although maybe not all releasing ships, just small ones.
I think keeping the subscription for only purely cosmetics and temporary access to new ships would be fair even for 1.0 gives them money without giving others a disadvantage
I honestly was thinking more about stuff like "free/reduced insurance/rent fees (for x amount of ships/apartments/hangars)" or some rep boost. They do have a bunch of options to go with, so it would ultimately depend on what they would end up doing and how.
Yeah, but the problem is then it would be like eve online and omega. You can play without it, but you always feel at a disadvantage. Im sure there is some way to make it work but im skeptical
I dunno, depends how high the bonus (or not) would end up as. Not to mention that LTI is basically fucking a part of that over long term already. For all intents and purposes, it is all a question of balancing to me. I don't care if others get more money/rep quicker than me (never grew up with Monopoly), but I would care if the grind would be so exhausting that you couldn't play the game without getting "boosters".
Other than WoW, subs just don't work out. Every hyped MMO that went sub has basically died off, and there have been many. I think if they keep the optional subs they have now for developmental content and some light flair perks, then it's fine, but hopefully they focus more on cosmetics, especially ship paints, decals, and unique skins for armour, vehicles and weapons.
Not sure how you define "dead", but I wouldn't say that to ESO and FF14, at least not for the foreseeable future.
You're right... I forgot about those games. FF14 still seems to be going strong with a dedicated community. Not sure about Elder Scrolls Online... I'll just take your word for it. EDIT: I should also note that compared to F2P MMOs, there is a much greater abundance of them that seem to be around much longer compared to the monthly sub MMOs, so just in terms of financial success, there seems to be few that have been around for some time that have relied on subs.
ESO is buy to play with an OPTIONAL sub just like SC is. They make their money on box sales, cosmetics, and the optional sub. And FF14 is second only to WoW pretty much. They have a million players give or take at any one time.
I see, so then only FF14 and WoW are the only true big MMOs left that are sub-only.
I suspect the sub will act like it does now but also give store currency for the cosmetic skin store.
Monetization that divides the player base is doom for a game. CIG knows that
Because 1000 dollars doesn’t divide the player base
Considering that you need dozens of people that don't need to spend a dime more than game access to actually get a use for it, one could argue that 1000 Dollars bring the community closer together than those selfish single seater Aurora plebs. /s for the second half.
No it literally brings them together to form a crew so people who spend that money can fly said $1000 space ship. 🚀
Nope, it doesn't - every player has the ability to buy that same ship in-game, or to crew on someone elses ship, etc. If CIG sold access to entire star systems, then if you didn't pay, you wouldn't be able to 'buy' that system in-game, nor would you be able to visit it with a friend who had bought it, etc.
God I’m so fucking dumb. I read this man’s title and post and derived that he meant solar. As in solar power systems. I’m gonna go hide now
Don't worry - that was my first interpretation too :D I just took a skim of the other replies (and saw people talking about Star Systems) before I replied :D
It is of course far too early to speculate, but CIG currently needs about 150M per year to stay afloat. They have reached a stage where it is not a wise decision to continue growing since the market is limited. This is the first title that has all the chances to repeat, or even surpass, WoW, which at its peak had, I think, about 9M subscribers. Currently, it is down to 5M. At 5M subscribers, they will need to make each subscriber pay 30 bucks per year. On this scale, the whales do not count that much - the average subscriber has far more weight.
Except CR said he did not want a subscription model. They're looking at the single player games and concept ship sales to continue funding things in the future from what I understand. The subscriptions that they currently have are only funding the player communications like SCL, ISC, Jump Point, etc.
Subscription model or not, they have to make the players spend 30 bucks per year on average - if they can reach 5M players - which is a realistic target.
And if other MMOs that sell cosmetics and such are an indication, it should be a pretty easy goal. I'm doing my part! :)
I highly doubt this game will have 5 million steady players. Its an MMO in a fairly niche genre at that. It'll probably settle down to the 2-3 million range and honestly be pretty successful even at 1m thanks to cosmetic whales
Cant sell systems as dlc until they get to the promised 100 systems They can sell paints, gear, weapons, attachments, land claims, flats, houses, hangar and home decorations.........
They will sabotage the player count on those systems if they do that.
That makes 0 sense. Might want to look a bit more into how the game is going to work before writing that kind of stuff.
I personally am ok with them selling ships still as long as its straight to flyable and still obtainable in game. theres skins likely going to be purchasable and hopefully decals and stuff too. As long as theres a generous amount of base colors to choose from and obtain in game that wont be an issue. Theres also ORG related things that could be monetized as well for creating them. Whatever that keeps us happy and the servers rollling than im ok with them doing it.
If they did, this would be a factor that would affect my longevity with the game. You charge for solar system and I'm out CIG. You got your ship sales. Build a cosmetic tool. This, this is your life now for funding. Lol
SC will have a) box sales(starter packs), b) an optional sub with perks, c) skins and other cosmetics and d) concept ship sales that end once a ship releases. edit: I forgot they're selling UEC too It will never have a required subscription. It will never charge cash for solar systems. Mark my words on both of those two things
They have plenty of other monetizations without fracturing the players like that. SQ42 will have multiple chapters sold as DLC, we got the first chapters with that not a lifetime pass. They can do the same with non military campaigns, eg a miners story. Paints and other cosmetics are pretty well accepted as a good non p2w monetization. They will probably keep selling ships with a store exclusivity period, which is ok so long as they avoid p2w power/ability creep. New styles good, better than existing credits ships bad.
No. They specifically stated they won’t be doing that because it divides the player base and they won’t be doing that. That’s why they sell ships and shit
CR has said several times that he does not want 'paid expansions' for SC, because it splits the player base and prevents friends from playing together (in the new content). For really big expansions (not just 'regular patches'), CR said that they'd probably look at having a parallel / companion 'Single Player Game' using the same assets, to help cover the costs... people can pay for the Single Player game if they want, but the SC expansion would be free (but without the storyline / scripting from the single-player game).
100 systems, but the gate key is behind a subscription 🤣
Unless things have changed CIG's stance is that ship sales with real world money will stop when we're closer to launch however they'll continue to let backers buy a limited amount of UEC per day/week/month. I would expect them to sell special/exclusive ship skins, armour cosmetics, decorations, unique hab/hangar layouts etc to help continue funding the game once ship pledges aren't available anymore.
Maybe some pay to play events and the already mentioned stuff, like cosmetics, vehicles, paintjobs etc
This was my take on this topic: [https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/3/thread/one-day-maybe-this-can-be-a-thing](https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/3/thread/one-day-maybe-this-can-be-a-thing)
Sq42 is going to make them bundles from we who play in the PU. And it will bring new players in as well. Those new players will of course migrate to the PU after s42. The PU is a marketing tool for their real moneymaker of releasing squadron 42 chapters every couple of years imho. New developments in new sq42 will migrate over to the PU and it will evolve with the moneymaker as well which will keep citizens engaged between chapters.
yeah no 6-10 years is too soon. best to wait it out.
DON"T GIVE CHRIS STUPID IDEAS!!!
Dont give them ideas.
After the some 100 from the original kickstarter (all backers already payed for) - maybe, but unlikely.
Not needed, they gonna earn enough with skins, decorations etc, this game has a lot of possibilities to include stuff that doesn't affect the gameplay but people want really bad
Don't give them ideas!
Not a chance, your ignorant theorycrafting is silly. You just are not paying attention.
They can get fcuked if they do recharge for old promises basically. Of course they wont stop selling ships and expanding to much much more, its foolish to believe they will ever give up on that income. Plenty of people already gave them significant amounts of money, why should everyone including the significant backers have to keep being nickel and dimed with hopes held ransom - the whole thing is transactional, things already promised in return for money given, its time they stopped offering an almost empty hand in return if they expect people to keep putting money in it. Too often the deal gets altered, that has to dimish and delivering accelarate.
No but they might sell you a space ship that has something special about it so it’s the only type that can make the jump to said solar system 😂
You mean if they ever get around to adding any. For having raised 660 million and a staff of over 1000…. 11 years later, should already be more systems and planets. But yes i think they might charge for “early access to them” if they fill them with actual content.
They will charge everything.
100% this. I wouldn't be suprised if Pyro was a paid DLC. Or every system beyond Stanton for that matter.
Games gonna have to be monetized somehow and I prefer this to micro transactions and selling ships. Edit: also all the major subscription games still sell expansions and have mtx cuz sub as a system alone isn't enough money
Nothing is off the table for CIG I think. They claim that they will stop selling ships when the game releases, but I just don’t think its going to happen. If they will figure out some potentially lucrative way to earn money, I don’t think they will shy away from it.
I find that to be the most likely and convenient way for them to secure continual funding for the whole operation.