Game Makers to Try Pay-as-You-Go Model
Computer game designer Jeff Strain describes his latest creation as a fantastical online world of castles, monsters, swords and magic spells that players explore and experience bit by bit.
That's also how Strain wants players to pay for "Guild Wars," one of a new breed of pay-as-you-go video games that publishers hope will keep revenue rolling in long after a title's initial sale.
After "Guild Wars" debuts later this year, Strain's ArenaNet Inc. will offer new levels that players can pay to download.
"Once you purchase a chapter, you can play it online as long as you want," said Strain, who declined to say how much chapters would cost. "Then every six months, we'll offer a new chapter that's a whole new experience."
The $11-billion video game industry has long puzzled over how to squeeze more money out of players over a longer period. Much like how movie producers relied primarily on box-office receipts before videotapes and DVDs, video game publishers make virtually all their money from initial retail sales.
Online games such as Sony Corp.'s "EverQuest" and Microsoft Corp.'s "Asheron's Call" charge players by the month, but the audience for such titles is limited to several hundred thousand die-hard fans.
At this week's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, publishers big and small buzzed about how the proliferation of game consoles and PCs with high-speed Internet connections opened up new opportunities for selling extras such as additional levels and exotic digital weaponry.
A video game can cost $4 million to $8 million and take two to three years to develop. Titles sell for an average of $50.
Once a game is designed, add-ons are relatively cheap.
"A new level of the game might cost only $200,000," said P.J. McNealy, who tracks the video game industry for American Technology Research in San Francisco. So if 1 million people buy a game when it's released and a publisher can sell a "new level for $10 to only 10% of those who own the game, that's an extra $1 million revenue."
Kazuo Hirai, president of Sony's U.S. video game division, said the company planned to sell digital add-ons to games played on its PlayStation consoles.
"We view a future where mini-transactions are the norm," Hirai said.
Sony will start selling add-ons -- such as weapons for an adventure character or a souped-up car for a racing game -- next year, said Andrew House, executive vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment America.
