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Increases in online players.

Jul 28, 2014 incarnate link
I thought this was interesting, and that I would share. We've been quietly, tentatively experimenting with some hybrid free-to-play model stuff on Android, for the last couple of weeks. It hasn't solidified, and I think we still have some major work to do yet, but we have not announced or publicized any of this work at all (and I'm hopefully not doing that with this post, please don't cross-post to MMORPG.com or anything.. it's not ready yet).

As far as I know, there have been no recent Android-related promotions, no partners highlighting the game, etc (Google, Amazon, or others). So, purely on the "ambient" Android activity, with these changes, we have seen a 3-fold increase in the number of Android players online over the last three weeks:



Android has now expanded to equal that of all other platforms combined. We expect this to go up a lot more once we actually announce anything, or try to promote it. Plus, when this hits iOS, we think the response there may be.. large. Potentially "very large" if we're featured by Apple again.

So, at the very least, be aware that there are quite a few new people playing of late, which is not visibly reflected in the Active Players graph, because it's only a week of data. But, you can see from Active Players that the factional distribution is a lot better than it used to be.

FYI.
Jul 28, 2014 Sieger link
That's great news incarnate. So the rumors were true, there is a free to play Version on Android... and now that you say it, I've been wondering about the high amount of newbies that suddenly play VO on Android - Must come from this.

Keep up the good work. Finish this free to play opportunity. I'm curious how it will fully work out once officially released. (I'll rather stay subbed, not only because I think you guys deserve the money, but also because there probably are some limitations that come with f2p :P)
Jul 28, 2014 incarnate link
Yeah, there are a lot of limitations on F2P, although their specific nature is kind of in-flux at the moment. But among other things, it requires playing on Android right now. Using a F2P-only account on PC gives you a 5-minute window to "try" the game on a PC, and then politely logs you out.

We're still working out a lot of the.. plan for this. Many moving parts in bringing a non-F2P game to a F2P audience. I wish I didn't have to spend time on stuff like this, but it appears to be a necessity for us (yes, there's Wildstar and other recent P2P's, but we don't have their clout).

We do still strongly need the support of our subscribers. The scary part in any transition like this is if your subs are all going to vanish and go F2P. Other MMOs that have transitioned (D&D) managed to not have that happen, I hope we do as well.

Plus, subs will always be the gold standard of game experience, and I expect the bigger "endgame" content (owning capships, stations, etc), and upper levels, to be sub-only for a long time to come.
Jul 28, 2014 zak.wilson link
That's really cool to see. I've noticed the increase in new names in chat, as well as lots of people who are obviously typing on a touchscreen.

I suspect you'd get more conversions by making that PC trial window a little longer - say, an hour. That would be long enough to get used to the controls, try out PVP with them or even attend an event like Nation War.
Jul 28, 2014 incarnate link
I'm thinking we'll eventually make it an hour per-account, and then five minutes per login thereafter. But, right now it's just at the five minute limit.
Jul 29, 2014 CrazySpence link
Cool, without even saying anything it increased mobile retention.

That's going to be big when you announce it. You should probably steal droid buttons and integrate it into the proper client before you announce it just to seal the deal.

At the very least integrate it into iOS since plugins aren't straight forward on that platform.
Jul 29, 2014 UncleDave link
Do the Android users generate decent revenue?
Jul 29, 2014 Phaserlight link
please don't cross-post to MMORPG.com

I wasn't planning it, but thanks for posting this :-). I kind of read "we have not announced or publicized any of this work at all" as an unofficial NDA request.
Jul 29, 2014 Pizzasgood link
"But, you can see from Active Players that the factional distribution is a lot better than it used to be."

Oh wow. Yeah, I've never seen it that balanced.
Jul 29, 2014 incarnate link
That's going to be big when you announce it. You should probably steal droid buttons and integrate it into the proper client before you announce it just to seal the deal.

I'd like to do everything we possibly can, we're looking at a lot of options anyway.

Do the Android users generate decent revenue?

I don't really have enough meaningful data to know that yet. We're still integrating new analytics to help us track things in the client, to see how far people are getting in the game and so on. We're also going to re-work the In-App-Purchase model yet again, because I'm.. not yet satisfied.

I wasn't planning it, but thanks for posting this :-). I kind of read "we have not announced or publicized any of this work at all" as an unofficial NDA request.

Yeah, I didn't really mean you specifically, the MMORPG.com example was kinda chosen at random :).
Aug 03, 2014 2504 link
If you have a android laptop, can you use the mouse ingame with it?
Aug 04, 2014 abortretryfail link
No, Android doesn't let the game grab the mouse for relative movements. Joysticks and gamepads work though.
Aug 05, 2014 Snake7561 link
Will you be making a free to play version for PC also?
Aug 05, 2014 incarnate link
Will you be making a free to play version for PC also?

Yes, but not in the immediate future. We're financially dependent on PC subscriptions, so we would need a big buildup of capital (something we've never really had) before we can risk the stability of the company on a fundamental business model change. If too many subscribers dropped off before the "F2P" money increased to offset the losses, it could put us in a pretty difficult position.

That's party of why this mobile-only F2P experiment is of benefit.. it's really a separate market that can potentially give us a boost of income, and let us experiment with how the model might work, without risking our existing revenue.

Even if we add a F2P tier, it'll still have limitations, much as on mobile. Subscribers will always have the best game experience.
Aug 07, 2014 Snax_28 link
Would it be possible for you guys to post some real numbers in regards to actual players online/time?
Aug 07, 2014 incarnate link
I'd rather hold off on that until we've hit a few of these launch points and have something big to report. For the moment, I'm just happy that it's trending up quite a bit (without having announced anything).
Aug 23, 2014 Galaxyhunter link
One way a game company can bridge the gap for F2P and paid subscriptions was done by another game I used to play called Outer Empires. It was F2P for a certain amount of levels. After that if u stayed unsubed you got only half the xp and I think you weren't able to level anymore. But the 1/2 xp encouraged players that had rl issues to still revisit the game to chat, and keep they're interest/input until things changed, as opposed to just leaving the game.