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Unless some individuals or developer studios come up with something original and innovative for the MMORPG industry, the average lifecycle or expectancy of a typical MMORPG will be from 2 to 4 years.
Of course, there will be blockbuster titles like World of Warcraft which can outlive this normal shelf life, but those will be rare.
What are the factors that contribute to a longer or shorter game-life?
This post will attempt to answer that question, and more.
After the jump, of course…
Of course, everything starts with CONTENT. The game must be sound, graphics must be okay and “continuity”, with regards to updates and high-level content, must all mesh as a whole. When it comes to the business aspect of the game, publishers must put their business cap on and really bang their heads on the proverbial wall. It’s important that the product, the item prices, the business model are suited for the local country.
Since most people think (especially in the forums) that they can run their own company and do it better, here are some of the things that you must consider before bringing a game here to the Philippines:
- COSTS – Can your acquisition costs be recouped after two years or less? What are the modes of payment? Some games have a high acquisition cost and even higher monthly royalties (commissions by the game developer). And there are forecasts for both budget and revenue targets. Do your math properly… if you’re in the red even if you’re running for 3 years, it’s probably not worth it.
- UPDATES – In a perfect world, a game must have updates 4x a year (quarterly). One of those has to be a MAJOR PATCH. Maps, new monsters and loot is just plain boring. The designers of the game must give a committment as to where the game will go 2 or 3 years from now. If you don’t know, you gotta talk to them.
- BUSINESS MODEL – If you’re going free to play, better make sure that you have the power to control the prices in the item mall. Some of my the things I learned, I learned the hard way. It’s pretty obvious, this country does not have residual income vs. other developerd countries like Japan or Korea. If they’re priced for those countries, it means that the average pinoy may not afford it. That’s one sure way of NOT doing your business right.
- NOVELTY – Is the game just another sheep in wolves clothing? What’s new about it. The game must have some sort of novelty in order for it to weather the test of time, so to speak. Doing your homework here will save you the headaches in the months to come.
It will all boil down to making the right choices and choosing a good partner (developer), one willing to work for a win-win situation.
When playing or analyzing a game, make sure that the company has the “3 P’s” worked out – Product, Price and Placement (distribution of both the game and the game cards).
I hope that the above give you an insight about the MMORPG industry and of course, how long you’ll expect a game to outperform it’s life expectancy.
Meanwhile, do check out my piece on MMORPG Trends…
Cheers!
GM T
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In that sense, Ragnarok Online is very long lived, even internationally. How old is it? 5-6 years old? I still wonder why some iRO players stay despite the fact that World of Warcraft is available to them.
i think it’s because WOW was never marketed for Philippines. I believe the monthly payment is enough to drive customers away. Another thing is that, i’ve heard stories from friends that say the games lags even if they use asian servers.
about international players.. i have no idea. maybe it’s because their friends are more of RO players than WOW players. same reason why friendster is still a favorite among filipinos even if myspace or facebook is readily available.
It isn’t just WoW’s underlying costs, it’s also hardware requirements. RO can run with Win98 on a Pentium II system. Those specs are so yesterday’s news like Britney’s career. The game is cheap in that aspect and so more accessible to a wider audience.
The newer 3d games give me a migraine.. Yaay for Ragnaroks 2d-ish cutey gfx!
i play WoW atm. regarding the cost factor, WoW can just cost the same as 2 PRO accounts. considering the number of people having multiple accounts for botting (lets face it peeps, aminin!), you can see people can afford it.
+ what Blackwolf said. you have to reach a wider audience ( kasama shempre ung mga de-padyak ung mga computer tulad ko)
and it’s somewhat a mass effect. when subscribers achieve a certain critical mass, it just inevitably snowballs towards fame. when all your friends and their muthas are into it, it becomes a national sensation just like pRO …and shawarma back in the days for that matter.
still nothing beats the shelf life of the longest lived mmorpg game in existence.
everquest
I just remembered what happened to Rose Online.. the lack of game development ended the game.
True… true, Ragnarok IS sticky… thanks to all those who played it and continue playing it. Having first-mover advantage is also a plus.
Cheers
yeah Rose online ended so early… too bad… Speaking of game longivity…
i believe that publishers must also protect thier customers from hackers….look what happend to tantra….everyone called it hacker’s haven where in would be hackers train to hack into the game. Game integrity was lost! people could even hack into thier item mall and dupe it lol!!!
Just sharing my experience ^_^
There are times that I felt that it is RO that Gravity should have discontinued instead of ROSE. Sure, RO has a lot more content but RO had at least 3 years head start. Note: I never played pROSE and am still a pRO player.
@ GM T: Why did Gravity drop ROSE? Was it harder to develop?