CKNORTH Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 I have kept an active sub since launch, other than a total of letting it laps I think three times pre 3.0 but every time I resubscribed after a few short weeks. The main reason I would like a Lifetime Subscription is purely a budget, and time investment thing. STO, and LOTRO charge $399.00 USD for a lifetime subscription. I have two Lifetime subscriptions on LOTRO and one on STO. I would pay more than those prices for a chance at a lifetime subscription for SWTOR. Their are so many reasons this would be a boon for a lot of people. Anyhow I am sure there will be a lot who disagree, but for me it would help knowing that I could pay a one time fee to stay subscribed. Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWagner Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 Here's the problem with lifetime. It is great upfront cash, but after xx time passes, they lose money overall. Assume you do 6-month intervals. That's $150 a year they get. So the math then comes down to... how long do they plan to expand on the game/story? And how long do they plan to keep the game up? Devotees would want to continue to support the game, in my opinion. At this point, it might not be a bad idea, since the content updates are basically one story a year. But the question is, how many more stories are left to be told? Is it worth losing the future investments? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andhros Posted August 24, 2016 Share Posted August 24, 2016 It could in theory work, but would have to be tweaked considerably. The biggest problem is that new content is directly linked to a subscription which creates a dilemma. They could sell the perks of subbing for a massive markup on the CM. So, for $90 you could purchase the adventure unlock that lifted the credit cap, space missions and xp gain limit. For $125 you would purchase the Ops and HMFP for life, and for $85 you could unlock the PvP and GSF. Then of course you could purchase KotET with or without bonus releases for another large amount. Lifetime sub could also work if they returned to selling expansions rather than monthly releases and ceased to unlock the content on a monthly basis. Or if they developed a pricing mechanism so that Lifers could purchase the new content at a reduced rate. @JGWarner The Cartel Market should help abate the loss of revenue as a minimal grant and fast updating content helps encourage players to spend that extra cash rather than what to accrue the total over time. But I agree, Lifetime subs are setup to recoup an initial investment and unless they find a way to add revenue streams or add a separate but lessened cost for new content it would just hurt them in the long run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merovejec Posted August 24, 2016 Share Posted August 24, 2016 They could sell the perks of subbing for a massive markup on the CM. So, for $90 you could purchase the adventure unlock that lifted the credit cap, space missions and xp gain limit. For $125 you would purchase the Ops and HMFP for life, and for $85 you could unlock the PvP and GSF. Then of course you could purchase KotET with or without bonus releases for another large amount. First of all im surprised that games sell Lifetime subs, since as stated it can be a problem in the longrun, also its strange since you might get the impression that the game already has an shutdown date, since if they sell a sub which is worth of 3 years current sub and the game lasts 10 years, its a great loss. Anyway I liked the idea of the purchasable perks for Ops, PVP etc, but that could also be a problem for them since the f2p ppl might make use of this and wont waste money otherways on the game. Well overall this would have to be really thought through. But i dont think it would be good for swtor make a LIfetime sub now, after 6 years of the game and i dont think anyone would buy it now with the current state of the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mdgshorty Posted August 24, 2016 Share Posted August 24, 2016 Lifetime subs are a good deal from a consumer standpoint, but this is something that should have been offered when the game came out. If they were to implement it now, they would have to ask every subscriber who has spent the equivalent in subscription fees if they would be willing to switch over to a lifetime sub for free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andhros Posted August 26, 2016 Share Posted August 26, 2016 First of all im surprised that games sell Lifetime subs, since as stated it can be a problem in the longrun, also its strange since you might get the impression that the game already has an shutdown date, since if they sell a sub which is worth of 3 years current sub and the game lasts 10 years, its a great loss. Anyway I liked the idea of the purchasable perks for Ops, PVP etc, but that could also be a problem for them since the f2p ppl might make use of this and wont waste money otherways on the game. Well overall this would have to be really thought through. But i dont think it would be good for swtor make a LIfetime sub now, after 6 years of the game and i dont think anyone would buy it now with the current state of the game. The games that offer lifetime are mostly games built around existing IP. They go after the users with hype and pomp and most people get them since it does seem to be a good deal. They gain more profit by offering expansion packs, usually at a premium price since they don't necessarily get as much sub money to help lower its cost. They also utilize a similar setup to the cartel market to increase cash flow. The counter to your argument is that they get 2 years worth of sub money upfront to pare down the investment cost. They are also betting/realizing that the huge base of casuals won't normally spend 2 years worth of subscription fees normally so they weigh that against the amount of "whales" who would have still paid sub fees after 2 years. Of course, whales are also more likely to purchase cartel coins so the amount of projected loss is further mitigated. The time to release a lifetime subscription would have been at launch or at release of the KotFE/KotET/etc. arc. Releasing one now could be seen as a quick cash grab and insinuate trouble for SWTOR. They could still release one in the future, but it would have to be at a time when they were doing something that would get a lot of new eyes on the product. Such as at the launch of the console version, or at the conclusion of the Zakuul arc and beginning of whatever comes next say the "Yuuzhan Vong precursor" wars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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