In-Depth: What First-Person Shooter Creators Think About Subscriptions

Increased monetization of online shooters is coming, and gamers adamantly opposed to emerging business models should probably get used to the idea. Recent speculation about charging subscription fees for online shooters came about when Activision CEO Bobby Kotick -- who has before mentioned a Call of Duty MMO -- openly mused this summer how he "would have Call of Duty be an online subscription service tomorrow" if he could. Oft-quoted analyst Michael Pachter with Wedbush suggested that the times are over when game publishers can sit back and watch gamers play titles like Call of Duty for hundreds of hours for free online. "We expect the publishers, led by Activision, to devise a way to extract value from consumers who are playing online," he said recently. Such talk taken out of context leads to speculation among gamers that Activision and other publishers may simply tack monthly fees onto existing online gaming services provided today. That's likely not the case -- smart companies will think of new ways to add value to an online experience to justify a recurring fee. First-person shooter developers have varying opinions on the monetization of their specialty genre. Justify My Subs "Giving players the opportunity to buy extra stuff is just fine, so long as they aren’t 'forced' to do it," said Alan Wilson, VP of Roswell, GA-based Red Orchestra and Killing Floor developer Tripwire Interactive. He's generally against charging for a boxed FPS in conjunction with a monthly fee. "I don’t think there is any decent justification for subscription models for online multiplayer [shooters], except to rake in more cash. If some companies go that way, I’d expect to see them offer something new and different for that money -- persistent worlds, ever-expanding gameplay, giant servers -- something that justifies me laying out money every month." "It would make me feel like I have paid the money to buy a new car and then I have to pay Ford to be allowed to drive it every day too. I know they need the money -- but they won’t be getting it that way from me." Wilson said Tripwire, a small independent studio founded in 2005, has been able to sell a total of 1 million PC software units by offering free downloadable content, making the title more attractive to gamers as time went on. That brought in more sales, and built up goodwill between the studio and its customers, he said. While he said his studio doesn't foresee taking on a subscription business model in the near- to medium-term, he still conceded such a model could be justified, at least for games that are free-to-play. "While I really wouldn’t like a subscription model for online games, someone like Activision could certainly try it out. But make the player buy the game and pay subscriptions? No, just seems greedy." But not all shooter developers that we spoke with are as averse to the subscription model. Bobby's Got The Right Idea? Mark Long, CEO at Seattle, WA-based Blacklight: Tango Down developer Zombie Studios said, "I know I’ll get flamed for this, but I’m going defend Bobby Kotick here. ... Merging [business models of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft] makes a ton of sense when the vast majority of Call of Duty players are playing online. How is the fanbase going to respond? If there was an MMOFPS version of Call of Duty with World of Warcraft-quality RPG elements under the hood, I’d bet it would be the biggest game in history. I’d play it. I’d play the fuck out it." Long, whose multiplatform $15 downloadable FPS Blacklight: Tango Down showed almost 100,000 players on Xbox Live leaderboards at the end of July, said his studio is "definitely open to the free-to-play model," which relies on microtransactions and advertising for revenue. "[Zombie would try free-to-play in] Asia to start, but eventually in Europe and North America as [the model] expands on the PC. How that works out on consoles will be up to Sony and Microsoft, but I would guess that by the next hardware cycle, free-to-play, subscription and microtransaction games will represent a significant share of overall sales." Gamers may have less of a problem accepting a free-to-play model, as long as it's structured around a good game. In Asia, there are free-to-play shooters, some tremendously successful, such as the SmileGate-developed CrossFire. In the West last year, Electronic Arts launched the free-to-play microtransaction-based Battlefield Heroes, and Nexon's Combat Arms has also been notably successful in the space in the U.S. Just The Beginning Another Western-derived free-to-play FPS is Mesquite, TX-based id Software's Quake Live, whose open beta began in January last year. Just this week, id announced "premium" and "pro" subscriptions for $1.99 and $3.99 a month (billed annually), respectively, depending on desired features and game modes. The game, which also derives revenues from advertising, still offers a large amount of maps and online multiplayer for free. id is currently working on the large-scale shooters Rage and Doom 4. Steve Nix, id's director of business development, said that any one business model isn't going to completely replace another. That goes for online-centric genres beyond shooters. "We live in a world full of smart game developers serving fractured markets with disparate preferences," he said. "Therefore, new revenue models will continue to emerge and spread across borders." He added, "Subscription models will make sense for some of the most popular shooters with large, ongoing development and maintenance costs, but we will see these new models get tested out on all games, including shooters." "I’m sure we will also see interesting hybrids of old and new models. Advertising, micro-transactions, rewards models and subscription-based options are only the beginning and ultimately these innovations should add options for gamers that wouldn’t have otherwise existed, which is a win-win for both developers and gamers." Industry speculation indicates that Activision could implement a Call of Duty premium subscription service that would allow subscribers to have automatic access to features and maps as they are introduced. Activision has yet to confirm details of any such models -- only hinting at subscriptions and MMOs related to the franchise. The Only Way Ahead "I would myself think about it in terms of service and value provided to our users," said Marek Spanel, CEO of Czech-based ArmA 2 developer Bohemia Interactive Studio. "If the value offered to them is adequate to the admission required through some form of ongoing payments, I would be very open to implementing it." he made clear that his studio has no plans to initiate such a business model. He explained, "For example, if we would decide to create a persistent online battlefield in one form or another, some form of 'pay as you play' payments based upon the actual usage of the service would be the only way ahead." "...I think this trend will continue and it's the future of some online FPS games, as it is clear that traditional sales of PC games are declining, and this is probably the only remaining way to establish and support any online service."