MMOG Publishers Conjure Up New Business Models
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Just last month, Shanghai-based Shanda Interactive Entertainment lopped the price tags off two of its once-popular MMOGs -- "Legend Of Mir II" and "The World Of Legend" -- and announced that, from hereon in, play is free. Free, that is, unless one wants "premium services," including online competitions with such prizes as extra-powerful weapons or virtual coins. In effect, Shanda has given up the 35 RMB (approximately $4.50 U.S.) per gamer per month that the company used to charge.
There is a method to Shanda's madness. While, at one time, the four-year-old "Legend Of Mir II" was the most popular MMOG in China, by current standards its graphics are outdated. The number of average concurrent players has slipped to 233,000 in the third quarter of 2005 from 381,000 in the previous quarter, due in part to the introduction of Blizzard Entertainment's hugely successful, world-class MMOG, "World Of Warcraft," into the Chinese market in June. Free play, Shanda hopes, will attract gamers, a percentage of whom will find "premium services" enticing.
