ArcheAge Unchained Paid Updates (Additional Thoughts)

Gamigo has posted an official update regarding paid expansions for Unchained.

The immediate takeaway is the decisions made at n-point in time, could change at n-point in the future. Thus a key dependency of monetizing the ArchePass (which was via the premium track) is going to be depreciated in favor of paid content. And there is a lot of vagueness in how that will be handled (like what constitutes a major update, will certain future paid content be intrinsically tied to a prior paid DLC). And because we’re at the point where they could make a different decision in the future (depending on how things pan out with this), you’re going to have to place a high degree of trust in Gamigo (something I myself no longer have given the way they handled things early on).

So the choice is really simple here. Buy this (and future DLC’s) and continue supporting/rewarding a company (or more specifically, the same incompetent ex-Trion staff that has published ArcheAge in the west since 2014) for their continual poor management or to not buy it, enjoy what is available, and move on when this version of the game eventually dies. The sunk cost fallacy is just that, a FALLACY. Games and the money put into them, are meant to provide a source of entertainment. Anyone who spends money on any game and views it as some sort of investment, is doing it wrong.

Boycotting Unchained isn’t going to amount to anything nor will trying to change the decision makers minds (both are wasted efforts). If this scheme doesn’t work to increase not just the front loaded revenues (which will not have the same impact like Unchained preorders), but also the recurring revenue portion which is where the challenge is, then they will have the very difficult decision of backtracking on their “fair play” objective (and reintroduce certain questionable cash shop items as well as an APEX style mechanic which will make the game more like the free to play version sans the Patron subscription component) or shutting down the service.

Neither option will win them fans but the one that will save them the most money is shutting the service down should it fail to meet revenue and profit objectives. I’ve personally been realistic about the future fate of this version of the game (that it did not have long term longevity); the fact they are having to backtrack only 7 months in, shows how follow through on handling the game post-launch, is very important to maintaining (and building on) the ongoing goodwill loyalty of those customers. You can’t just turn it off like a water faucet spigot and think those customers will continue to spend money in the future.