MMORPG Developers Discuss Market Share

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Next Generation has published a three-page editorial in which Turbine's Jeffery Anderson, Sony Online's John Needham, and NCsoft's Robert Garriott debate about retail space, digital distribution, and subscription fees in relation to massively multiplayer games. Here's a bit to get you started:

Anderson says, "The American MMO is suffering under what I call an Ultima Online hangover. When we first launched the game at EA, and EA was trying to figure out how to price it, there weren't a lot of good examples of how to do it. So they said, '˜hey, people understand retail.' And they went with this model, which is all you can eat. Fifty dollars, up front, free for thirty days. So if I asked anybody in this audience today '˜how much is the first month subscription of any of our products?' and people will say '˜It's free,' Right? Wrong! What is the first months subscription? It's fifty dollars!)

MMORPG Developers Discuss Market Share

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