The core games boss says content ”can dictate what’s worth subscription, or not.” The game’s development is ”extremely premium,” but nothing is set.
”We have a lot of different models about how it can be monetized,” Danny Bilson told Shacknews. Recently Sony Online Entertainment boss John Smedley said that BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic was likely to be the last big MMO charging traditionally.
”I believe that the content can dictate what’s worth subscription, or not. I think a lot of them that go ‘free-to-play’ go secondarily ‘free-to-play,’” continued Bilson.
”What I’m seeing from Dark Millennium Online’s development is that it’s extremely premium. But, really, the whole online culture may shift and he may be right. He may be wrong,” he said, referring to Smedley. ”It is set up for all kinds of monetization. We’re going to move it into whatever makes the most sense for its launch.”
For subscriptions to work you need a bare minimum to provide the necessary cash flow to keep the doors open, and to have made it worthwhile for the company.
”Game costs this to launch. Game costs this to support live, ongoing. How many subscribers does it take to be profitable? How does that work?” asks Bilson.
”That’s just a model that is being tuned right now… or re-tuned.”
”Making MMOs is an epic endeavor,” he added. ”It has to be phenomenal. The stuff that we’ve built is.” Warhammer 40k: Dark Millennium Online is being developed by Vigil games, creator of Darksiders: Wrath of War. The MMO is due sometime in 2013.
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