John Smedley on the Expectations You Can Have With a Monthly Subscription Fee

The monthly subscription fee means players can expect a lot of new content from us. And I say a lot — I really mean that. This is something that we feel obligated to the players, because they are paying monthly sub fee…”

From this DCUO post over at Massively.

I’m just going to let that hang there, something of a quote for truth thing.

It will give me something to check back on in a few months.

I’m sure nobody would disagree with that as SOE’s position on the subject.

14 thoughts on “John Smedley on the Expectations You Can Have With a Monthly Subscription Fee

  1. Blunt Force

    Hearing Smed say that is laughable at best. My god, there isn’t a single company that nickles and dimes people to death more than SOE does.

    What is considered regular content that monthly fees cover for every other game are considered paid expansion packs or adventure packs by SOE.

    Within 3 months the client will be $20 and within 6 months it’ll be $5 and they’ll announce plans for F2P. So inside a year is my prediction. It still won’t help on the PC side at all. It’s a console game pure and simple, so it’s too limited to draw in real PC gamers. It’s a shame because it had potential otherwise.

    So it’s left to Marvel to do it right.

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  2. Stabs

    It seems odd to draw attention to an area where SOE lags behind the rest of the industry. WoW’s content patches hand out way more for free than SOE games give away and Eve gives all expansions free.

    Wrong drum to beat.

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  3. Genda

    Woooo! I’m really looking forward to the next Vanguard content update. The one they told us about in the producer’s letter. Oh wait.

    :D

    This amuses me greatly. Thanks for sharing it!

    This is almost good enough to get me actively blogging again. Hard to let a nugget like this rest.

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  4. Bhagpuss

    I have DCUO on Station Access. So long as I can log in at whim and get in a fire-fight with the other side, I’m not bothered about any new “content”. The content is Heroes vs Villains. It really doesn’t need anything else. In fact, the current “content” part only exists as a hook to hang Hero/Villain battles on, in my opinion.

    If I didn’t have SA I certainly wouldn’t pay a monthly fee just to play DCUO, though. I don’t like superhero/villain battles *that* much.

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  5. mbp

    It might sound “fair” that gamers who pay a monthly sub have more right to extra content than customers of a free to play game but I don’t think it is a simple as that in the real world.

    In reality extra content costs lots of money so whichever business model (sub or f2P) brings in most money will actually result in the most extra content.

    All indication at the moment are that except for a very few select titles the f2p way generates more revenue and therefore pays for a lot more content.

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  6. Genda

    @mbp

    That’s fine, and in reality it’s true. Which is what makes Smed’s quote all the more comical.

    Smed is like an onion. He entertains on many layers.

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  7. Wilhelm2451 Post author

    The whole Eurogamer interview is amusing as EG is proving what Massively posted about the other day, that game journalism is hardly journalism. They threw him slow, easy to hit pitches.

    On the other hand, Smedley gets out there and spins a tale. I like the answer to “Will PC and PS3 players be playing together?” Smed says:

    “Technically speaking it is. However, the servers are separated, and largely they’re separated for business reasons.”

    So the answer then is “no.”

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  8. Genda

    Well they are playing together like WoW players and Starcraft players. They have the same login and it’s all on battle.net. So, um, yeah.

    He’s the gift that keeps on giving, honestly.

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