To answer the question, "Are we moving past that?" I think that the answer is a resounding "no". Publishers use Cash Shops as a crutch to prop up failing games and developers use them if they do not think will be successful without the cash shop.
Some publishers like GPotato (Rappelz, Flyff, and many more) are actually sought out by developers who are interested in developing MMOs, but who do not expect the fanbase to support a subscription alone. GPotato can slap their cash shop onto any game and incorporate it into their network, thus allowing the developer to focus on making games.
Other developers like Turbine (LotR) and Atari (DDO) use the cash shop to prop up a failing game. They dropped the subscription as a service to their customers then added a cash shop in an attempt to generate enough income. Fortunately for Turbine, this worked out to be a hugely unexpected success.
Of course, there are still other developers like Blizzard and Square-Enix that keep the subscription but use the cash shop to fatten their wallets (though they say they are "providing additional services to their customers").
The bottom line is that cash shops are just another source of income and their existence is in no way indicative of the quality of the game. Some companies don't think a subscription will ever work for them, some companies don't think a subscription will work anymore, and some companies think a subscription will work forever. The real determining factor is the popularity of the game, and which model they chose when they started, because who's ever heard of a game that added a subscription after previously being free?
MMO Subscription Fees: Are we moving past that?
With several triple-A MMORPGs finding new ways for gamers to pay for their MMOs, we could be seeing a revolution in MMO business models!
With so many new MMORPGs on the way, it's rather obvious that the next year or two will most likely mark the beginning of a high season for MMO gamers. From a graphical and game play point of view, players will certainly have a plethora of different "styles" to choose from, whether it's Final Fantasy XIV's stunning next-gen graphics and unique combat system, or All Points Bulletin with its Grand Theft Auto (GTA) inspired graphics and… well… GTA-inspired system. I can think of almost half a dozen MMO's that I'm really excited to play in the next year, and almost a half dozen more that I'm interested in checking out. Either way, looking at all of these new MMO challengers, it's certainly clear that some companies are poised to take on the current MMORPG behemoth, World of Warcraft, and they're going to be fighting with some fresh ideas.
But how else can an MMORPG development team challenge those age-old "assumptions" that seem to plague every industry? Well, these days it seems that one of the latest things to come under the microscope (and with a startling amount of success) has very little to do with how one plays an MMO, but, rather, how one pays for an MMORPG. That's right, I'm talking about subscription fees and how a few forward thinking companies in the industry have managed to give this archaic system the push toward change that it really needed.
Paying subscription fees has, since the very beginning, been one of the defining features of an MMO, and many MMO gamers can probably remember a time at least once in their lives when they've been mocked for having to pay $15 a month "just" to continue playing a game they like. For anybody who remembers, many MMORPGs that came from Asia for the first time (Ragnarok Online, Sword of the New World, MapleStory, etc) were all subscription based at one point or another. I remember when I was in High School and Ragnarok Online went subscription based in 2001; since I was still a minor, I was too afraid to ask my mom to use her credit card, so I ended up paying for the game subscription via money orders sent through the mail (that's right: using stamps and envelopes!).
As more and more subscription-based MMOs came into the market, however, more companies were discovering that the industry was rapidly becoming super-saturated, and so they made the shift back to the popular Asian revenue model - free-to-play, but with micro-transactions available to purchase luxury items. It was here that the industry cleaved itself in half, with "lesser quality" MMORPGs all going free-to-play, while most triple-A MMOs, like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XI, decided to collectively share the subscription-based MMO industry.
Flash forward to today, and you'll see that many industry leaders are realizing that the subscription-based MMO market is becoming super-saturated once again. This time, however, since there is a perceived "stigma" surrounding free-to-play MMORPGs, companies have been, finally, figuring out ways to create newer revenue models to keep up with today's consumers.
Tags: Editorial