14 DAY TRIAL // Developer Turbine, who is best known for creating The Lord of the Rings Online, has said that the only valid option for future MMO titles is to go free-to-play and entice as many players as possible to spend money on microtransaction items.
A representative from Turbine has told games.on.net that, “The great thing about F2P is that it makes it a lot easier for players to check out the game or even come and go from another game.”
He added, “We continue to have hundreds of thousands of players in DDO every month and I doubt that could be the case if we were in a classic subscription model.
“It also allows different players to spend more or less in the game and everyone can contribute to the community in different ways and we can focus on improving the service for everyone. Overall it was and continues to be a great change for our game.”
Turbine has initially made The Lord of the Rings Online free-to-play and quickly reported that the game had both more players and was generating more revenue than before, when it was based on subscriptions.
The MMO based on the work of Tolkien has thrived since then and is set to get a massive expansion based on Rohan during the fall, which will be offered under the same business model.
Turbine is also running Dungeons & Dragons Online and the game is said to have benefitted from the free-to-play move even more, as more lovers of the mechanics of the real-world tabletop game try it out and see what it has to offer.
The game will soon get a new expansion, called Menace of the Underdark, that will allow gamers to explore the vast underworld of Faerun and engage with the fascinating and violent Dark Elf societies and their cruel deities.