This BusinessWeek article says that game publisher Electronic Arts plans to try something new in the American video game market: they plan to give away the core software for a game called “Battlefield Heroes”, the generate revenue through a combination of in-game advertising and selling in-game items to players using a micropayment system. This model has been used successfully in the Japanese and Korean marketplaces (Korea, in particular, is a HUGE market for videogames), and not only generated more revenue out of the games, but EA says it also helped to discourage piracy of the game itself. (via)
EA does not see this as a replacement for retail sales, the BW article explains, but as a supplement. Some people are still more likely to prefer buying a fully-loaded retail version because buying game items piece-by-piece online might end up costing them more. Meanwhile, the sting of ponying up $40-70 just to try out a game you may or may not like is definitely eased, which might convince players who got the game for free to either buy the full version or use the micropayment system.
It’s also a good departure from the expensive subscription model of games like World Of Warcraft and EverQuest, yet clearly owes a debt of conception to the extra-game economy that both of them have engendered. People pay quite large sums of cash for in-game items in WoW and EQ, including buying “pre-leveled” characters that can play at upper levels in the game. “Micropayment” tends to imply that the cost for buying in-game items in “Battlefield Heroes” will be inexpensive (although if you have to buy a lot of “consumable” items like bullets, it could get expensive quickly), and EA will have to keep sales strictly in-game to prevent there from being a black market. It’s too bad they’re only getting to this now, because I think the system would have been a natural for their big franchise “The Sims” and might have defused a lot of the problems that arose in the “Sims Online” MMORPG.
I have no doubt that gamers will gladly go with the micropayment system. They’re far more likely to be bent out of shape by the presence of advertisements, depending on how they’re presented in-game. I know I would be much more likely to try games for free and thus more likely to buy them after getting sucked in. Personally, I’m more likely to try-then-buy full retail versions, but I could see myself liking a game well enough to buy an extra level, or a useful weapon, or some other add-on.
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