[Video] Will Star Citizen push hard for a subscription model?

Beerjerker

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Sep 8, 2015
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Eggs and a little yogurt. Not very exciting, but I've been getting away with murder at breakfast time for years.

I wouldn't be too bothered by subscriptoins. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: (1:13)

Subscriptions, on the other hand, I would maybe sacrifice 1 egg at breakfast. If I have to give up the yogurt too, I will pull my hair out.
 

FZD

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Nov 22, 2016
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Well, subscribe to play is not going to happen. That whole model is in its death throes. Yes, there are still few titles that have had moderate success with it in recent years. But there are also a number of titles that saw a revenue boost when they dropped it.

However, yes, subscribe for perks is here already, and I can see that continuing in the game. I don't think that would cause an outrage tho. Unlike my breakfast. I ate... uhm... seriously, you don't have an English word for it? My dictionary just has "a dessert made from whipped semolina pudding and lingonberries". Serious? That's just a few words short of the whole recipe. I AM OUTRAGED ALREADY!
 

Thalstan

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Jun 5, 2016
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My thought is there will be FTP and subscription based mode. Subscription will have a few benefits to it, such as a separate currency that can be used to buy things from an online or in-game store. This store will also allow you to buy that currency with cash as well.

There might be other perks, such as 5-10 additional character slots that can be used as alts, or NPC crew. Slots can be purchased with cash for the non-subscriber.

There might also be a reduction in insurance deductibles. Maybe 10-20%. This is the big reason to subscribe, but many will see this as PTW.

Additionally, you might be able to buy subscription time with UEC. Time cards could be bought with cash, then sold online like PLEX, krono, or whatever Blizzard uses. This allows the market to set the UEC value of a subscription.

Honestly, CIGs thought of selling UEC for cash just won’t cut it. Sooner or later, gold farmers will become much more efficient and be able to undercut CIGs prices by a significant amount...probably by stealing and fencing ships.
 

Thalstan

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I also think the subscriptions should be fairly low...10-15 a month with longer subscriptions giving a bigger discount. Pay for a year at a time, it’s 10/month. Month to month or a time card would be 15/month. 6 month subscriptions would be around 12-13/month. 3 month might be 14/month.

If they could get a 30 percent subscriber base on the 2 mil they have, that would give them a minimum of 6 mil a month. Add in micro transactions from people buying game time to sell (say another 10 percent) and that would give another 3 million a month. Then add in the micro transactions. unique weapon and armor transmogs, unique ship paint schemes, Unique looks for hangars, hangar and ship flair. A hula dancer and fire dancer pair for your ship’s dashboard, workbenches for your hangar instead of needing to work on a public workbench, etc. a way to tile your hangar and make it unique to you requiring tile building sets. Even if people, don’t subscribe, many will pay cash to get these flair items...that adds another 5/ person/month for about 20 percent of the population (some more, some less) Another 2 million bucks/month.

11 million/month is a lot more than they make now. Even if you halved that, you would still make more than they get per year right now. So yeah, a subscription for perks will come...not a matter of if, just a matter of when.
 

DirectorGunner

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Bring on the subscriptions and the riots!

I would be upset though if no discounts to the subscriptions were given to concierge.
Every backer counts ofc, but... on average 1 concierge backer is about a 15+ backer equivalent or more ($65 to $1000 min).
The spaceship junkies and fanatics fund the game.. so long as they reward that dedication somehow... I guess I'd be okay with it...
then again... I'm very biased on this lol. sorry.
 
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Ganji

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May 7, 2017
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If it is mandatory 15$ even to log in to play, that would suck.
If it's 15$ and you just get some extra perks, it's quite reasonable.
There are some games that do it really well, Warframe and Elder Scrolls Online come to mind.
Both of those games, you can play without paying just fine, but you are just tempted to take a shortcut and get some perks, save some time. Help support the game at same time.
 
D

Deleted member 6105

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Some perks for subscribing would be one thing, but I think they are better off going the smart way and selling very nice cosmetic stuff. Many games roll in the cash for that sort of thing, look at LoL. It's a proven fact people will pay for a bitching hat, make one you can strap draft balls to, and there's a testie rocket drive for ya.
 

MegaMonkey

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Sep 12, 2017
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Subscription doesn't sound to me like a bad thing, it will not only fund the game, but it will also keep the uh... "under-aged-gamer-that-ruins-the-fun-for-more-mature-people-who-try-to-play-in-an-adult-manner" kind of people off the game.. hopefully... I mean, usually you find those in much larger numbers in FTP games because they can just create an account and proceed to ruin someone's day because they're misanthropes... or something like that.
 

Thalstan

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Subscriptions are how most games get payback on the development of AAA MMOs. Remember, CIG has already sold a lot of copies of the game. Money that won't be coming to them afterwards. They can't rely on game sales to make profits. They need something else. The easiest is a pay for perks subscription, or a pay for a fab hat model
 

Han Burgundy

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Jan 15, 2016
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Subscription should be the equivilent of having Triple A. (Gas discount, preferential parking, special deals, VIP entrance to special nightclubs, ect) $5 a month would be enough to keep the doors open. Trust me, I'm an economist*


*Caution: Not actual Economist*
 

WaterShield

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Oct 16, 2015
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For me it depends very much on what you get from the Sub and how much they want for it. So long as they don't go to EA levels of greed in their design of MicroTransactions/ Subscription... then I will be ok with it.
 
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