14 DAY TRIAL // Square Enix decided to use the monthly subscription fee model for the upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn on the PlayStation 4, introducing the concept to next-gen users.
Naoki Yoshida, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn’s producer, revealed that although the free-to-play model is very popular right now, it’s not always the best fit for an MMO. He opted instead to make the game free for 30 days, hoping that the initial month of play will get players involved into the game enough to warrant paying a subscription fee afterwards.
“You could actually get through the game to its ending within that trial period. If you like the game, you’ll continue to subscribe. Of course, there’s a lot of endgame content and constant patch updates. This is a question that I get quite a lot, about free-to-play versus subscription, but it’s not about which is better. There are pros and cons to each business model,” Yoshida revealed.
The cons with a sub-based model is that players have to constantly put money into the game on a regular basis in order to be able to play. There are, of course, cons for the free-to-play model too, as players can very easily quit playing.
With free-to-play games, the devs have to figure out how to earn income, as their mission is to provide the best possible experience to players, but there is also a need to earn revenue from item microtransactions.
As such, the devs have not only to think about making new content, but also about what kind of items to offer players in order to provide a steady stream of revenue to support their efforts, and it brings up the question of how to please all types of gamers.
Yoshida explained that although the free-to-play model has the advantage of convincing more people to join, it’s not necessarily the best fit for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, as microtransactions have to be taken into consideration for sustainability, and the subscription-based route provides more long-term stability and better overall balance and maintenance.
In just a few days, on April 4, The Elder Scrolls Online will launch on PC and Mac, and the launch will be followed by an Xbox One and PlayStation 4 one sometime in June. The game also uses the monthly subscription fee business model, and it will be very interesting to see how well the two massive franchises will fare on next-gen consoles.