Well, I was wrong on speculating that Gamigo would end up deciding to run two different business models for ArcheAge. ArcheAge Unchained will be a buy-to-play business model in order to address some of the issues that players have brought up while the existing free-to-play service will co-exist. The company has posted an FAQ on the forums.
In ArcheAge: Unchained there is no longer a subscription model. With a onetime purchase, you can enjoy the content as often as you want. You will be able to purchase vanity items via Credits and we will implement seasonal ArchePasses. We are focusing on fairer gameplay which is why we decided to change a few monetization features for ArcheAge: Unchained.
Yes, I am skeptical because this is just a different take on the recent trend of Korean design studios jumping on the B2P marketing ploy for the western market as a way to eliminate the P2W (convenience, QoL, buy back your RNG, etc). Reminder; Bless Online, Warlords Awakening, Astellia Online (Warlords Awakening shuttered back in July while Bless Online is slated to close next month). The details are lacking whether or not actual game mechanics (which are tied heavily into the games core design which is inherently tied to monetizing the cash shop). Based on the FAQ, the game will be the same (content wise) with the only difference being the monetization (and thus the removal of Apex, Patron, and having a “cosmetics” only cash shop). Basically, it sounds like there is not even going to be an attempt to rebalance that B2P version (or it could be the answers will come with the more granular details which will be released now that this has been announced).
I’m expecting the game cost to run close to $50-60 (and am pretty sure the seasonal ArchePass is where they will attempt to exploit players and make up for the removal of the monthly Patron subscription). I want to see what sort of pre-order packs (and their pricing) they promote before I determine how much of a cash grab attempt this is (reminder: this was concocted again by individuals who massaged the business model while they were at Trion).
UPDATE: someone posted a screen grab where a Gamigo representative (iArches) replied that the game will start at 20€ ($22).
There will likely be some sort of (the usual) tiered pricing (if they do some sort of pre-order) for packages which tacks on extra digital goodies. Based on this unofficial price for the base game, I would say it is reasonable (much better than the extrapolated base cost for Astellia Online).
Despite how some folks on Trion’s ArcheAge team tried to push the blame back to the developer with regards to how much control they had of the games cash shop when it came to what and how things were monetized (which some players bought hook, line, and sinker), the business side operations were more or less dictated by Trion as noted by former CEO Hartsman during various interviews with VentureBeat (former CM Scapes also confirmed earlier this was something they completely controlled; sources for both in that previous posting I linked). Kwai oversaw ArcheAge post-launch and now oversees product development at Gamigo. So I have good reason to feel the way I do regarding this. Again; “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” applies here.
Gamigo will also have a huge marketing/PR challenge (something they aren’t used to given their history) to convince players across a wide spectrum. Longtime players on the existing servers have a ton of cosmetics and vanity items that will simply not be transferrable (you get to purchase them all over again). I do agree that it should be a fresh new server that is treated like a “new game” but there also needs to be some sort of loyalty program (not to be confused with the Loyalty token reward system) for some of those customers. The free game was already infested with whales so the cost for this new business model won’t really have an effect on them (when they’ve already injected thousands-tens of thousands of dollars/euros into the game).
For myself, that isn’t a big issue because the only item I ever purchased was my hopper mount (every other cosmetic item I have was earned in-game or from loyalty that Trion periodically dolled out as compensation). Plus I’m not a subscriber to the sunk-cost fallacy when it comes to games since I view anything that I spend as an entertainment cost and not an investment. What I have issues with is giving Gamigo (a company whose business tactics I don’t agree with) money (thus being a part of perpetuating those business practices).
The (rhetorical) question is how much of this will actually split the player base. Well, one can actually look at what happened with past fresh start servers and how that impacted the legacy servers. The difference with this B2P “fresh start” is that those accounts will never merge with those legacy server accounts; both will need to survive (or die) on their own merits.
XLGAMES themselves aren’t innocent since they’ve burned through a lot of ArcheAge’s revenues (from all regions) into over a dozen failed mobile games (rather than primarily reinvesting it back into improving ArcheAge). Their other PC MMORPG Civilization Online ended up being cancelled. Their corporate site only shows SIX games; only one of those is in service (ArcheAge). I wasn’t far off when I stated that ArcheAge Begins (which was published by GAMEVIL) would have a fate (service closure) similar to Devilian Mobile and sure enough, it closed pretty quickly (as is the case with any mobile title that GAMEVIL publishes). What they haven’t noted is the much longer list of projects that never got a publishing contract finalized.
I guess I’ll need to see more specific details along with the pricing to really decide if this is something I may need to hold my nose with or whether or not I will be “buying” the ArcheAge Hard Pass.
