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In the MMORPG world, even handing out free trials, let alone going free to play, is often a sign that a game that's dying. It's a last-ditch effort to keep thi
by juan_juarez 14y ago
In the MMORPG world, even handing out free trials, let alone going free to play, is often a sign that a game that's dying. It's a last-ditch effort to keep things going for a few more months.
- Shank 14y agoI think that's the wrong way of going about what they're offering. Either they're lying in that blog post (which would be very disingenuous to the people who pay them to operate, the users), or they legitimately had an idea of a free model with benefits added on and wanted to get some buffer cash before going that way. Everyone saw the writing on the wall about growth when it launched, and the best solution to drive new users (and encourage them to upgrade) is to offer a service at a model that allows them to "get their feet wet" without signing up with a credit card.
- eridius 14y agoIs World of Warcraft dying? They've been handing out free trials for many years now.
- dubcanada 14y agoSlowly yes... But they still have a massive money cow.
- juan_juarez 14y agoIt's not always a bad sign, as both WoW & EVE Online have trials and are both running quite strong. In most cases, however, unless the game was launched with free trials/F2P in their business model, it's a sign that they're struggling to get/retain users.
- eridius 14y agoWell, App.Net was launched with two Freemium services (GitHub and Dropbox) as their model for a successful service. I have no reason to disbelieve Dalton when he says Freemium was always the plan, especially since ADN users have been clamoring for a free tier pretty much since day 1.
- orangethirty 14y agoWell I don't think it's dying. This is the sign of a bigger pivot (the free tier being a smaller one) coming up. Given their track record I think this might turn into something more along the lines of google plus.