How does this game make money?

[Dex Ultima]

I love this game, but I always had this question.
If you can (in theory) experience all the content in this game without paying a single penny and DE doesn't put paywalls or P2W mechanics, how the hell do they support this game and make a profit out of it?
It's kinda the same question I had with EVE online, where you can "pay" omega time with in game currency and therefore not paying a single dollar (in theory.

Just wondering. Thank you in advance for any answer

[Shard of Manus]

Prime Access, Platinum Sales, Tennogen.

[Mystra4]

There are a few reasons.

First, Platinum is tradeable between players. This means there will always be a demand for it in the trade market. The supply has to come from somewhere, and that's DE.

Second, and what I think is most important - They don't put paywalls or P2W mechanics. This causes people to WANT to pay money, to support the devs' decision not to make it paywalled or P2W.

[Totally Innocent Chatbot]

Well, as far as EVE goes, you'd basically have to be playing full-time just to be able to earn the amounts of ISK necessary to continually PLEX your account (unless you got rather lucky rather often with something like wormhole exploration). It's technically possible to play EVE without paying for Omega, but it's not always very feasible to do so.

[vid23]

people buy platinum, prime acces, stuff like this, mainly when they get a 75% discount on plat

[jonnin]

in the last month there were over 70k people playing via steam alone. If 10% of those bought plat, its a pretty good chunk of money every month, and not all players go thru steam.

[Arukai]

By not being greedy d*cks about monetization. People are much more willing to spend money when it happens on their own accord, not because they are feeling like they are forced to do so.

You spend money in this game BECAUSE you enjoy it, and not to BE ABLE to enjoy it like it is normally the case in many f2p games.

[Teal'c]

I played the game for about 30 hours before i bought rhino prime and trinity pack. The devs deserved my money and support for that. Not everyone is a tight git.

[Whiplash]

This games F2P model is so much better than Eve. If you aren't an Omega clone in Eve, you are massively restricted. It's very grindy to buy Omega access as an Alpha. Someone above said play full time, and they aren't exaggerating. I used to be a Eve subscriber, stopped, and came back to try it when it went F2P. I was grinding level 3 (and some level 4) missions about 8 hours a day for over a week and barely had half of what I needed to buy one month of Plex. That was enough for me.

Some people have success as an Alpha doing market trading, but I didn't have the patience for that either. You have to log in all the time to keep updating your orders and people are constantly undercutting you.

Oh I'm sure that once you can go Omega, it's easier. You can fly better ships, do better missions, and make money more easily. If I returned to Eve I'd buy a month or three and use better ships and then grind at that level to store up a stock pile of plex. Would definitely be more feasible.

But for an Alpha clone to make enough money to buy one month of plex is probably 30+ hours of mission grinding. I'm sure there are ways to make more.. taking bigger risks, but that wasn't for me. My character was already nerfed to hell as an Alpha clone and flying such crappy ships, I don't stand a chance if I get jumped.

As for how the games do well on these F2P models, it's simple. There are people who gladly buy platinum and plex. There is a common theme amongst games with microtransactions. Some people are whales who spend inordinate amounts of money on those transactions. And game companies realize that those few big spenders provide most of their income.

[Archie]

Because it entices people to buy. You know there's no paywall, you know there is no pay to win. You know you can trade platinum and not have to spend a dime. You know that platinum will give you convenience and deco/fashionframe more than anything. Some people simply don't have the time for example to wait around 3 days for a frame, or simply don't want to, or are fashion/deco nuts that love decorating their ship more than farming to acquire enough platinum. Others don't want to grind for a certain warframe or prime warframe and simply want to fork cash for it.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by D3USX:

If you can (in theory) experience all the content in this game without paying a single penny and DE doesn't put paywalls or P2W mechanics, how the hell do they support this game and make a profit out of it?

Off of people like me, probably. Got talked into playing the game by friends over the last few days, so the first thing I did is buy 1000 Platiunum (cost me ~10 Euro on discount). I REALLY don't like grinding in games, so I figured that might get me a few starting items I actually liked (which it did), plus it's handy for customisation stuff. Unlocking the Basic and Bright colours has been an absolute STEAL! :)

Long story short, just because you CAN get everything for free doesn't mean everyone's going to do it. F2P design is pretty clever about playing people's impatience and tolerance for effort, with the hope being that many will spend a few dollars here or there. Some games style themselves after P2W cansino slots and rely on whales ruining their lives on that. Warframe - at least what I've seen of it so far - relies more on many people making small purchases either to support the developer or to get a couple of things they kind of want right now.

[[F8L] Mycrus]

Originally posted by D3USX:

I love this game, but I always had this question.
If you can (in theory) experience all the content in this game without paying a single penny and DE doesn't put paywalls or P2W mechanics, how the hell do they support this game and make a profit out of it?
It's kinda the same question I had with EVE online, where you can "pay" omega time with in game currency and therefore not paying a single dollar (in theory.

Just wondering. Thank you in advance for any answer

because some of us like giving money to the dev... prime access, plat sales, etc

[Kexin]

This game make money from whales and fanboys who pay for access packs and $50 cosmetic cat armor.

[Hawk]

That's easy, look at the cost of everything, at least 5 times more then your standard "AAA" game WITH a "season pass" it's a racket and DE, along with every other F2P maker, have figured out a way to milk and manipulate the player base. Gambling is the key, DE knows it, EA knows it, Activision knows it.

[sal]

Originally posted by Hawk:

That's easy, look at the cost of everything, at least 5 times more then your standard "AAA" game WITH a "season pass" it's a racket and DE, along with every other F2P maker, have figured out a way to milk and manipulate the player base. Gambling is the key, DE knows it, EA knows it, Activision knows it.

i mean realistically you can get to end game without spending a single dollar though

[Tigerlight]

Originally posted by Hawk:

That's easy, look at the cost of everything, at least 5 times more then your standard "AAA" game WITH a "season pass" it's a racket and DE, along with every other F2P maker, have figured out a way to milk and manipulate the player base. Gambling is the key, DE knows it, EA knows it, Activision knows it.

Great comparisons. :-/

Originally posted by D3USX:

I love this game, but I always had this question.
If you can (in theory) experience all the content in this game without paying a single penny and DE doesn't put paywalls or P2W mechanics, how the hell do they support this game and make a profit out of it?
It's kinda the same question I had with EVE online, where you can "pay" omega time with in game currency and therefore not paying a single dollar (in theory.

Just wondering. Thank you in advance for any answer

I give DE money precisely because they don't try to extort it. I don't HAVE to...ever. And I, along with many, appreciate that fact.
That's how they make money.