500yen(≒6$): Inventory extension per 30 days

[DoubleJG]

$6 is only for expanded inventory.

The premium package that Mike mentioned is similar to what you'd get if you purchased a monthly membership for a game. Many F2P MMOs are doing this nowadays, so this doesn't come as a shock. This business model is fairly popular in the East, and it is undoubtedly the future of MMOs for the West. DCUO wasn't doing very well when it launched at $15/month, but switching to the same business model that Nexon and SEGA of Japan will be using, their profits inflated quite drastically. You can expect that premium price to be around $15/30 days.

My question still stands - How do all of you plan on paying for this content? Does SEGA of Japan accept Western credit cards?

[White]

Its definitely for just the expanded storage, clearly none of you have seen a legitimate cash shop before and they are living nightmares and the enemy of all online games. Their mindset is that they are offering you a "premium gaming experience" at a higher price. A much higher price. They will do whatever it takes to get you to fork over the money, the gachas are only the beginning, and you will easily be paying $20+ per month for the things you want. The "premium package" will offer everything you want at a $2 discount, if any. Prepare to get shafted.

[AnnabellaRenee87]

Sega, Why wont you just take my $10-20 a month?

Oh thats right you can charge people more each month for the same thing. OK I remember how businesses work now.

[RocSage]

Well, yeah, but this is one, single item we are talking about. Conservatively, I think they will price the inventory expansion, room rates, etc all at around $5 each. So if we are paying monthly, this means that we are each going to cough up $15-$20 in necessary items. I would really like to opt for a permanent option at a higher cost. If I'm paying I might as well bite the bullet and fork over the dough once instead of prolonging my suffering. Im going to guess an additional character will be like $7-$10 plus you will need to get all the expansions and stuff for them too, so you're going to be paying big money.

I don't want to sound mean, but that sounds like a ridiculously stupid assumption.

Character slots are always permanent, save for in 1 game currently and they are $1/month. Character slots are also extremely cheap on the back end because Hard Drives are cheap.

Styles are 1 time purchases that apply across the account. This is always the case with every game I have ever played. They usually cost $2-5. They sometimes come in bundles which get up to $10, but it depends on the dev how they do that.

The easiest way to think about how these thing generally turn out is...

Account Upgrade = 1 time payment applies across the account (there are some evil things they can do with this though like character slot lets you create a character but if you delete it that slot is deleted as well. Most games don't do that but some do) New power type unlocks, character slot unlocks, style unlocks, area unlocks, story unlocks

Consumable = 1 time payment that allows you to take an action once. Server Transfers, Name change, Race Change, gender change, etc

Service = Reoccurring OR 1 time payment. Basically you are paying for space to be allocated on their server for you. So when you buy "My Room" or "Storage" you are renting the space on the hard drive for that item to exist. Or you are paying for something like a security check, where the payment to the system verifying that you aren't just there to spam, RMT, or troll. Both concepts are combined with chat features in that you are paying to have band width allocated to allow you to chat as well as locking those who want to spam out unless they willing to pay which means they have to put more in than they take out of the system.

There are some things that can go back and forth depending on how they do them, but you're not going to pay monthly for unlocks. At worst you are going to pay 1 time for unlocks, but that is highly unlikely. More likely is you will pay for unlocks that will give you access to getting things so that if you buy a style it will appear in a shop for all your characters if they follow closer to the PSU model of styles. If they follow closer to the PSO model then it will just appear in the styles select screen from then on.

Please note that while I am speaking in a factual tone. This is assumption based upon experience in a number of games and reason based on no company would ever do something stupid like have a cumulative reoccurring charge in a game that is marketed as F2P, because that breaks those psychological tricks and then they don't make as much money.

Though, if I remember correctly the last time I said "No Company would be stupid enough to do something stupid like..." Sega did it so either Sega does something stupid again and doesn't deserve the money or you're worrying over nothing.

In the end expect to pay $10-20 of reoccurring and then depending on how creative they are and other various factors $10-50 of stuff added to the shop every month that is 1 time purchase.

$6 is only for expanded inventory.

The premium package that Mike mentioned is similar to what you'd get if you purchased a monthly membership for a game. Many F2P MMOs are doing this nowadays, so this doesn't come as a shock. This business model is fairly popular in the East, and it is undoubtedly the future of MMOs for the West. DCUO wasn't doing very well when it launched at $15/month, but switching to the same business model that Nexon and SEGA of Japan will be using, their profits inflated quite drastically. You can expect that premium price to be around $15/30 days.

My question still stands - How do all of you plan on paying for this content? Does SEGA of Japan accept Western credit cards?

You should not bring up DCUO, STO, CO, or many of the names that have gone Freemium because they are really just barely hanging on. They switched because they had to. You can't justify paying $15 a month for those games because there is really nothing to do in them and the few things that there they are so frustratingly annoying and require several factors of luck that that people stop caring. The Beauty of PSO was that even though the rares were extremely rare and the drops were random you could cognitively keep playing and trying because you knew that if you kept trying you would eventually get it. That knowledge of "ok not this time maybe next time" is a great motivator where as those other games as well as PSU applied so many random variables that even if you did everything perfectly and got the rare thing you were still not guaranteed the prize.

That was one of the biggest mistakes of PSU in my opinion was the whole rare acquisition process. You have to get an object that says you can attempt to get it. You have to get the materials which are in themselves rare. So at that point you are up to 4 factors of randomness. Then you had to craft it and that could work or not and if it did you could get a high element % or not. Then after that you had to grind it and with each grind it could work it could break. At the end of all that it's something like 20 random factors to get something that is "worth" having, but you were excited at the first one when it dropped. And we're not even including the random factors of party members and things like that. And by the end of this entire process all you are left with is an ok item that could be better, but it's too risky, really annoyed, or happy but exhausted. So the system left you in a worse place than the previous system. end tangent.

If you want to look at a game that is Freemium that is successful you want to look at CoH or one of the number of Nexon titles. The other titles people mention the Freemium change was made to keep the game alive as their subs are/were bleeding out. Freemium games are always supported by those who are fan-boys of the game and there is almost always enough of them to keep a game running indefinitely. That's why it's such a good change after failing s hard. Because only the fan-boys are left when all the people looking for a good game have left and they are often ravenous at wanting more stuff and willing to pay for it.

[Sidney]

Thanks for the informative post, RocSage! I'm not someone who plays a lot of MMOs - or even online games, for that matter - so it was a relief to hear that Sega will likely not have a recurring charge for extra characters if they follow the model of other MMOs. You do have a point though - this is SEGA that we are dealing with, so fingers crossed that they don't break the mold with something heinously stupid.

[Jonth]

Its definitely for just the expanded storage, clearly none of you have seen a legitimate cash shop before and they are living nightmares and the enemy of all online games. Their mindset is that they are offering you a "premium gaming experience" at a higher price. A much higher price. They will do whatever it takes to get you to fork over the money, the gachas are only the beginning, and you will easily be paying $20+ per month for the things you want. The "premium package" will offer everything you want at a $2 discount, if any. Prepare to get shafted.

If by living nightmare and enemy, you mean allowing said game to thrive whereas otherwise it would have closed down, then yes, I most emphatically agree. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the biggest fan of them, but I look at them as a very necessary evil in some cases.

As far as playing a game that has a cash shop, I have a level 120 (Wind Archer) and a level 100 (White Knight) character on Maple Story, and Maple Story is notorious for the way it handles its cash shop. I don't think I have even spent a dime on that particular account, I just did without all the game breaking items and perks. I will say I hope SEGA won't operate their cash shop in the same way as Maple Story's.

[White]

I don't want to sound mean, but that sounds like a ridiculously stupid assumption.

Character slots are always permanent, save for in 1 game currently and they are $1/month. Character slots are also extremely cheap on the back end because Hard Drives are cheap.

Styles are 1 time purchases that apply across the account. This is always the case with every game I have ever played. They usually cost $2-5. They sometimes come in bundles which get up to $10, but it depends on the dev how they do that.

The easiest way to think about how these thing generally turn out is...

Account Upgrade = 1 time payment applies across the account (there are some evil things they can do with this though like character slot lets you create a character but if you delete it that slot is deleted as well. Most games do that but some do) New power type unlocks, character slot unlocks, style unlocks, area unlocks, story unlocks

Consumable = 1 time payment that allows you to take an action once. Server Transfers, Name change, Race Change, gender change, etc

Service = Reoccurring OR 1 time payment. Basically you are paying for space to be allocated on their server for you. So when you buy "My Room" or "Storage" you are renting the space on the hard drive for that item to exist. Or you are paying for something like a security check, where the payment to the system verifying that you aren't just there to spam, RMT, or troll. Both concepts are combined with chat features in that you are paying to have band width allocated to allow you to chat as well as locking those who want to spam out unless they willing to pay which means they have to put more in than they take out of the system.

There are some things that can go back and forth depending on how they do them, but you're not going to pay monthly for unlocks. At worst you are going to pay 1 time for unlocks, but that is highly unlikely. More likely is you will pay for unlocks that will give you access to getting things so that if you buy a style it will appear in a shop for all your characters if they follow closer to the PSU model of styles. If they follow closer to the PSO model then it will just appear in the styles select screen from then on.

Please note that while I am speaking in a factual tone. This is assumption based upon experience in a number of games and reason based on no company would ever do something stupid like have a cumulative reoccurring charge in a game that is marketed as F2P, because that breaks those psychological tricks and then they don't make as much money.

Though, if I remember correctly the last time I said "No Company would be stupid enough to do something stupid like..." Sega did it so either Sega does something stupid again and doesn't deserve the money or you're worrying over nothing.

In the end expect to pay $10-20 of reoccurring and then depending on how creative they are and other various factors $10-50 of stuff added to the shop every month that is 1 time purchase.

I honestly dont see the reason you had to post this wall of text telling me things I already know.

I dont know how PSO/PSU worked with clothing and style payments, so I dont know if those will be account bound of character bound, but they will obviously be one-time purchases. Characters are pretty much always one-time purchases and I dont recall saying they werent. They will be offering additional skill trees though, so those will be character bound.

Right now we are talking about shops, rooms, the ability to trade, etc. That are all revealed to be 30 day tickets. Based on the current price of the inventory expansion, the other expansions will be about the same price, so if there are 3 or 4 expansions then its coming out to somewhere $15-$20 recurring. If these are account wide then its $15-$20, if not it will be paid per character, so if you have lets say 2 characters, that is a few dollars right there, and then an additional $15-$20 so you're looking at $30-$40 recurring with just two characters.

I've played games that nickel and dime the crap out of you and call themselves "free to play" so its not unusual to assume the worst-case scenario.

[Misto]

You should not bring up DCUO, STO, CO, or many of the names that have gone Freemium because they are really just barely hanging on.

How are you able to make this assessment without actually being in-tune with those companies' financial reports. This statement sounds pretty bias and with very little merit behind it. Would you care to expand on the factual information of this without resorting to just conjecture and personal feelings about a game's mechanics?

[White]

If by living nightmare and enemy, you mean allowing said game to thrive whereas otherwise it would have closed down, then yes, I most emphatically agree. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the biggest fan of them, but I look at them as a very necessary evil in some cases.

As far as playing a game that has a cash shop, I have a level 120 (Wind Archer) and a level 100 (White Knight) character on Maple Story, and Maple Story is notorious for the way it handles its cash shop. I don't think I have even spent a dime on that particular account, I just did without all the game breaking items and perks. I will say I hope SEGA won't operate their cash shop in the same way as Maple Story's.

I see it as a necessary evil as well, I know they had trouble with the western PC servers with a $10 monthly rate, then I played a game with a cash shop and realized the ridiculous amount of money I pay them in nickels and dimes, so its not like I cant sympathize with their decision.

[Sidney]

Is it more of a necessity thing to stay afloat, or does a cash-shop have more to do with greed? That's a big curiosity on my part! Does anyone have any insight?