14 DAY TRIAL // With publisher Activision deeply interested in expanding the audience for its launches, Blizzard seems to be following suit. It appears that Call of Duty would be soon coming to China and Korea under a new business model and Blizzard has just announced it will offer StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty featuring a new pricing model for markets like Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Mexico, where gaming is on the rise but purchasing power is still low.
The suggested retail price for the mentioned Latin markets is between 25 and 30 United States dollars. The catch is that those who pick up StarCraft II at this price will only be able to enjoy single player and multiplayer matches for a period of six months, using the new Battle.net service from Blizzard.
After the 180 days pass, players that are still interested in the experience can pay subscription fees for 30 or 60 days in order to get more of the game. Of course, those in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico still have the option to buy the standard version of StarCraft II for 59.99 dollars. The game also has a Collector's Edition available for 99.99 dollars.
Mike Morhaime, the Chief Executive Officer of Blizzard, said, “One of our design goals for StarCraft II was to make it accessible to a wide range of players, from beginners to veterans. The same is true with regard to our pricing options - we want to make sure players have the flexibility to experience the game according to their own preferences and play style.”
It will be interesting to see how many players take advantage of this new payment model. The basic human idea about ownership might tell emerging market gamers that they are better off paying full price rather than putting more money in the coffers of Blizzard as time passes. The company might be better off actually offering subscriptions from the get go, with a month of StarCraft II play costing somewhere about 5 dollars.