Do You Pay for Lifetime Subscriptions?
I’ve never actually paid for a lifetime subscription. There are some games I might consider buying a lifetime subscription for, but they look expensive on the surface, and I never know if I’ll get value for my money. Some of the games that actually offer lifetime subscriptions only offer them before (or just as) the game comes out. Suffering from a severe case of potential-future-buyer’s-remorse, I always move my mouse away from the “Buy” button and let the opportunity slip away.
Would a lifetime subscription be cheaper for me in some games? Sure. I used to go back to Ultima Online and EverQuest very frequently. I’ve also gone back to EVE a number of times and World of Waracraft almost as many. I’ve probably spent close to enough to fulfill the cost of a lifetime subscription for all four of those games.
Do lifetime subscriptions benefit the developer? Do players even like them? I do know a few people who have lifetime subscriptions to games, and they tend to play those games even when they normally wouldn’t.
That leads me to believe that they are both good and bad for the developer/publisher. They’re good because it gets bodies in the game, making it more popular overall and making its community healthier. They’re bad because it gets bodies in the game that aren’t paying a monthly subscription, so after they’ve “used up” the cost of their lifetime subscription, they are costing the company money. They’re also good because some players buy a lifetime subscription and only play for a few months, which gives the developer/publisher a good chunk of extra money.
For players, it’s a mixed bag. If you really know for sure that you’re going to be dedicated to an MMO for a long time, it makes a lot of sense to pick up a lifetime subscription. It will save you money and allow you to stay in touch with people even if you aren’t actively playing (because you don’t have to maintain an active subscription). But, if you don’t “use up” your subscription, you’ve wasted money. Plus, since they sometimes (read: often) only allow you get one right when the game comes out, it’s a stressful decision with every new game that offers such a subscription.
I’m curious to see if anyone has any strong feelings for or against lifetime subscriptions, and what your experiences have been if you’ve ever purchased one (Was it worth it? Will you get one again? Would you rather be allowed to buy one at any time, rather than just at the launch of a game?).
I guess I’ll chime in here since I have the LOTRO lifetime sub.
Do they benefit the developer? I think this question depends on a very unfortunate thing. Do you believe your game is going to be as successful as you hoped, or not? If the answer is no, then yes lifetime subscriptions will absolutely be an overall benefit. People will buy them early on when the game is fresh, new, and exciting, and then when things wear off a few months down the line you’ve still managed to get their $200 or however much the lifetime subscription cost. Games like Warhammer and Age of Conan probably should’ve offered lifetime subscriptions because, while not everyone would buy it obviously, enough people would that they would’ve probably made a significant amount more in those first couple of months than they did (just speculation of course).
On the other hand, what if WoW had offered the same deal back in ’05? Imagine how much revenue they’d have lost by now.
The question of whether they benefit the player is probably also situational. They obviously can be beneficial if you end up loving the game and playing it for years, but I think more often than not they are probably a poor purchase. As you said, thus far we’ve only seen them offered very early after release of a game and the customer is asked to make such a decision without much experience – sometimes they haven’t even played the game yet at all.
That being said, there is a certain appeal to knowing that you can freely log in anytime without worrying about setting up a subscription. There are many games I’ve considered trying again, but I just don’t think they’re worth the money to do so. With LOTRO, I can log in and mess around at any time without feeling bad about it. Of course, this is mostly an illusion because in reality I simply paid for the subscription fees (and more) up front. I’ve only clocked in maybe 3 months worth of play since the game launched. Still, even if it doesn’t make sense, I do like that feeling that its there for me anytime I want to play it.
Does that make it worth it and would I get one again? No. Probably not. Especially after my experience with WoW where it became commonplace to clear content, gear up, and then cancel until the next patch. Unless there was a game like EQ where content came at such a blistering pace (and was only occasionally made obsolete, unlike WoW) and there was always something interesting to do then I just don’t see a lifetime sub being necessary.
I do think I’d be more willing to consider it if I could buy one at any time, but there’s a clear reason most companies wouldn’t do that. Like I said in the beginning, if you see a lifetime sub it’s most likely because they don’t believe people will stick around and they want to get them early. Am I being jaded or is that just realistic?
I played EQ2 for about 4 years on a subscription basis.
I played/playing LotRO for almost a year, 8 months on subscription, and just switched over to lifetime when they brought the price back down to 199.99. But am currently taking a break from the game. (I’m not sure if this is because I now feel I’ve paid for the game and don’t need to consume every minute to get my monthly fee back out of it, or if I’m just burnt out.)
Would I do a lifetime subscription again?
If I had to buy it before the game released, No. A demo is not near enough time to see what the community will be like, how quickly they respond to bugs, or if the game is even fun on the end game side.
If it was offered 2-3 months after launch and I had a chance to see if I’m going to enjoy the game and the people playing it, there’s a good chance I’d switch to a life time membership.
Lifetime subscriptions work well for a developer because of the concept of time value of money. Getting $200 now is worth more than getting a similar amount every month over time.
The problem is that this can lead to cash flow problems down the line. A lot of people expect that LotRO’s latest “mini” expansion, “Siege of Mirkwood” required a charge to get money out of the lifetime subscribers; they made it easy to get the expansion if you are a normal subscriber (just had to sign up for a multi-month subscription, again taking advantage of the time value of money).
Personally, I don’t think I’d pony up for the lifetime subscription. I might end up spending more than $200 on LotRO, but the time value of money works in my favor at this point. Plus, like rcw003 above, I don’t feel like throwing money at a game without knowing if I’ll enjoy it beforehand. No sense in throwing down a lot of money only to find out that I really don’t care for the game, or that the developer decided to go in a direction I can’t stand.
My thoughts.
The problem for me is that none of the games that I actually want a lifetime subscription for, offer them. I’d absolutely get one for EQ2, WoW or even EVE Online yet the only ones that I know that do it are LOTRO and Champions Online/Star Trek?
I hate ‘em. I bought one for Hellgate: London because I absolutely loved the concept and gameplay and was psyched to watch the game evolve over time. Then Flagship folded. So much for my $200 investment.
I’ll never let a company burn me like that again.
I could never see myself buying a lifetime membership. I have the option of buying 3 month, 6 month, etc and never do. Sure its a bit of a savings but I would rather pay a bit more every month and be able to cancel my subscription and never be out more then a month max of paid game time.
That’s for an established game, to consider doing that for a game at launch is even far riskier, especially how we have seen so many promising mmorpg’s really not live up to expectations once the new car smell had worn off.
From a business standpoint a nice solid monthly income versus sporatic levels of incoming cash would be more desirable unless I knew my product sucked, in which case I would try milking it for all it was worth before people found out
I have bought one lifetime subscription and that is for Champions Online. The deciding factor was the company rather than something about the game – Cryptic had already created one MMO which I played and paid for quite a long time. In fact, no other MMO had I played long enough for a lifetime subscription to be worthwhile. It was a vote of confidence for Cryptic to make a kind of MMO that I like.
There are no regrets for making that investment in Champions Online, I like the game. But I do not think I would make it a habit of buying lifetime subscriptions – I would rather see more diverse pricing models in general and that allows me to change the way I pay and play over time. Look at mobile phone operators for example, where there can be many many different options in how and what you pay for.
I would pay a lifetime subscription for WoW, but I’d be hesitant to do so for any new MMO.
I’m probably a good example of someone who should buy a few subscriptions. I enjoy going back to games for new content or special events. I know my play habits and they are very whimsical nowadays. I’m lucky if I stay in a game for more than a month because all the companies keep giving out shinnies. Not to mention all the new games that have come out. So having lifetime subs would help with constantly cancelling/re-subbing.
However, when I do the math…lifetime subs still aren’t economical for me. If I resub in a game for two months out of a year, that’s around $30 – $40. I wouldn’t see any real value for six to eight years. That’s, of course, not taking in to consideration how much more I would play a game if I had access to it all the time. For now, I too am not clicking that “buy” button.
I bought a Lifetime for LOTRO but that was because I was in beta and figured I’d enjoy the game enough to get my money’s worth, and I have. I’m sure for people like me who actually played our $200 and kept going, we’re now “moochers” playing for free, which is why we had to pay for Mirkwood. Whatever, if I was willing to drop $200 pre-launch I’m not going to have a problem dropping $20 a couple years later.
They’re gambles, though. I nearly got the Hellgate: London one along with Cameron but decided against it, while he went for it and got burned.
I’d do it again if I felt the game was good enough and that I would get enough enjoyment out of it to rationalize the larger up-front purchase, but I’d never do it pre-launch again. At least Turbine has continued to offer the chance to become a Lifetime member. Does Cryptic have plans to do that with Champions and/or Star Trek?
The main thing I like about Lifetime is that in a sense, it turned LOTRO into Guild Wars for me. I never have to “quit” (ie. go through the cancel-resub-cancel-resub cycle) I can just take breaks whenever I want and there’s no guilt and more importantly, no hassles of the aforementioned cancel-resub cycle. It’s always there when I’m ready to play again.