Gamigo posted the pre-order information for the Garden of the Gods update which will be in the form of a paid DLC for ArcheAge Unchained. This is specific to ArcheAge Unchained (the free to play version of ArcheAge will have free access to the content).
One of the main selling points of ArcheAge Unchained was a single upfront cost. I had written early on (shortly after launch) before about the challenge they would end up encountering with the game when it came to generating recurring revenues. Back in January, they ran one of their first discounts (30% off packs plus a double credit promotion). On the player facing side, I wrote in my 1, 2, and 3.5 month updates regarding the reduction in players.
When Gamigo decided to do another free trial weekend just a little over a month since the first one (which was an indication that Gamigo was running into challenges with metrics related to revenue), it wasn’t surprising. The following rationale for charging for this major content update also was not surprising.
The “it has become increasingly challenging to continue delivering the Unchained version of the game” is what is telling. As I’ve written before, the business model for this buy-to-play version was damaged beyond repair since the free-to-play version had a very lucrative symbiotic relationship with the design of the games monetization (Patron subscription required to own property, APEX, and credits) along with a bunch of cash shop mechanics. Trying to replace all of that with cosmetics and ArchePass premium upgrade was an obvious (at least for me) non-starter.
And Gamigo may end up losing a good portion of their Unchained player base by moving the game into paid DLC’s with newer major content updates (the entry point is $15.99 with the other tiers being mostly digital goodies like cosmetics and titles). Splintering access to content rarely works out well when your overall player population isn’t that large. What is going to do real damage is that “Fresh Start Server Access” for the Gold and Archeum DLC packs. Seriously, FRESH START. That whole scheme worked well with the free-to-play business model (since fresh start players needed to start a new account, purchase new packs, purchase Patron for that account along with APEX and/or credits). And most of those players kept Patron going for their non-fresh start accounts (building their alt-army in the process once fresh start servers ended up becoming a part of the legacy pool during the next fresh start cycle).
The Unchained version of fresh starts (based around major content updates) means that unless Gamigo can get existing players to always purchase that DLC (and packages that provide access to those fresh start servers), you start fracturing more of the player population going forward. I can see what they are trying to accomplish but it isn’t going to work out the way they think it will (just as their buy-to-play model didn’t generate the sort of recurring revenues they had expected).
I haven’t bothered to check yet on what the player reaction has been on the forums, Reddit, the official Discord, or in-game (I’m expecting it to be mostly negative). I will say it right now; the writing is on the wall with the Unchained version (I am not going to be surprised when if it gets shut down well before its 2nd birthday in 2021). Myself, I am not buying into the DLC mainly because Gamigo handled the launch of ArcheAge Unchained and subsequent issues with the ArchePass, extremely poorly (no pride in quality). This expansion also isn’t the same level of quality of content as say Guild Wars 2, Final Fantasy, or World of Warcraft expansions because this Garden of the Gods is nowhere close to that (it’s a new instance where there is access to higher tier gear and higher levels of enchantments from the new materials that are part of the content in this instance). Gamigo has has ongoing technical issues with existing instanced content running properly/lag free. It’s not even worth $15.99. I’ll be fine since I haven’t even been upgrading my gear anyway so I can continue tending to my properties and playing this way until they pull the plugs on the Unchained servers.
UPDATE: Okay, the reaction on Discord hasn’t been pretty and various threads on Reddit are heading down that same negative path. Unlike free-to-play ArcheAge where many sunk thousands of dollars into Patron subscriptions, credits, and APEX (which led many of those same players into the sunk cost fallacy), many Unchained players don’t feel that same financial attachment where they feel they need to keep playing and putting money into the game due to all of that prior “investment” (looking it erroneously as an investment versus entertainment expense). So it’s not going to surprise me when this decision also has the unintended effect of squeezing the revenue stream even further when more decide to just quit and move on.
A lot of my earlier postings regarding ArcheAge Unchained reflected skepticism (given that the same Trion Worlds staff was retained). In the end, I gave them the benefit of the doubt despite my own “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” philosophy. And I made it clear after their continued incompetence and their ongoing lack of proper QA testing, that I blame myself for giving them that second chance. So with this and ongoing DLC, it’s big fat NOPE. The trust is forever broken with Kwai and his team.
