SOE & Money (PS Costs)

[Strygun]

SOE just released the price figures for Planetside and some other games. It is official that Planetside will cost $12.99 a month, as opposed to EverQuest's $12.95/month. This comes from a news statement from SOE today.

Also, something of note is SOE's new billing option, called "All Access." This will allow players to pay $21.99 a month to play all of SOE's premium games, such as Planetside and EverQuest. You can also buy an All Access pass to the Station Pass games, such as Infantry Online and Tanarus.

Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE), a worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online gaming, introduced plans for SOE All Access�, an all-in-one subscription service that will allow gamers access to all of SOE�s premium entertainment content - from EverQuest� to PlanetSide� to EverQuest� II - for one low price of $21.99 a month. The SOE All Access subscription offer will begin on May 19, 2003, just in time for the launch of PlanetSide, SOE�s latest premium online game.

�We have grown our business to the point where our fans have several different types of gaming options available to them and we want players to be able to experience everything we have to offer,� said John Smedley, president, Sony Online Entertainment. �The SOE All Access subscription provides an easy, cost-effective way for an SOE fan to play all of our games. Once again, Sony Online is setting a precedent that will affect the online gaming entertainment industry on a global scale.�

Note to the European Planetside/EverQuest players:

The SOE All Access subscription offer is only good for recurring SOE subscribers playing SOE published games. The SOE All Access offer will not be available for non-SOE published titles, such as LucasArts' Star Wars Galaxies�: An Empire Divided� or versions of EverQuest or PlanetSide published by SOE partners outside of North America. In addition, the SOE All Access subscription cannot be used in connection with SOE�s wireless and handheld games or Game Card subscriptions.

[Unregistered]

Too bad the game isn't worth that much a month.

Looks like I won't be playing after all.

[Hamma]

That's just if you want all the subscriptions

edit: nm

[Kaltagesta]

does it actually say how much a month for Uk?

[Hamma]

How exactly is anyone surprised its 12.95

Its pretty much the norm.

[Navaron]

I think people were hoping for 5.95 or so. 13 bucks is just a little much. It'll be interesting to see what will happen now, because I can't see alot of people shelling out this kinda cash. I know the arguments, but I still don't see it happening.

[Prowler]

Ya, I love PS great game, But $13 a month

[Navaron]

I'm sorry, but with Doom3, Halflife 2, Deus X 2, like 500 new WW2 games all right around the corner - this is going to be very rough.

[Miir]

That's a real dissappointment, there is not enough content to warrant a cost of $12.99/month.

[Prowler]

I agree with the god like movie maker! ^

[Big Bro]

Yes, people might have been hoping for ~$6/month, but they were being unrealistic. They've always said "nothing official, but $10-$15 is expected". This is pretty much the high end of the middle range.

$12.99 a lot of money? Sure is. Is this bad news? Not really. Pretty much as expected. Will I play PS? Of course. If they are going to charge me premium prices, then I will expect premium service.

I expect that SOE/Verant and the PS team is under a lot of pressure. If they would have come out and said $6/month, I would have expected that there would be routine downtime, that gameplay might need some additional post-release tweaking, etc, etc. For $12.99, I expect it to run 99.9% of the time flawlessly. They are under a lot of pressure to maintain everyone's interest.

I'm not upset in the least. This just drives my expectations of post-release PlanetSide higher than it was a few days ago is all. I have full faith that the PS team can earn that money and continue making the best game ever.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Hamma
How exactly is anyone surprised its 12.95

Its pretty much the norm.

I'm not surprised, just dissapointed.

12.95 is the norm for games that have considerably more content then PlanetSide does. I hate to say it after being such a huge supporter of the game for so long, but it simplely is not worth that much. There is nothing revolutionary about this game, with the exception of possible the maps themselves.

I can name 10 diffrent games, that not only offer the exact style of game play as PlanetSide does, but also offer you other "game modes" as well.

Take SoF2 for instance. You get Death Match, Team Death Match, CTF, Infiltration, and whatever the one with the bomb is called. All that for a one time investment.

So if I can buy a game that offers me the same gameing experience for a one time investment why on earth would I want to pay $12.99 a month for it?

Games like EQ, and SWG can better justify the costs because you have things like Money, Housing, Items, and Quests that are all saved serverside. What exactly in PlanetSide am I getting that I can't get with another game?

The only justification for this high a cost is a guarenteed cheat free enviornment, and frankly since this is the first FPS that's offered that to players I would have liked to see them offer it at a much lower cost.

[Navaron]

I knew that was how much it was going to be.

I agree, but-

I have a tough time buying something that I know nothing about (all the amazing premium content we're supposed to see released). As a stadalone game, it is a blast, but not 150 bucks a year blast. Now, if I had a clue what was coming post release - I might be more willing, but I'm skeptical when the guy telling me I'll love it is also the guy who's ass is on the line. I'm not saying they *won't* deliver, but I've got no way of knowing. They should give us a preview of what is to come. From the E3 leaks on here and about - I haven't heard anything intense enough for me to drop the game price and a subscription for. If it wasn't for my clan, I'd be thinking twice (not real hard - but thinking).

Anyway, I've already prebought, and I'll be there on the first day like most of you. I'm just *very* nervous. Don't give me that trust the devs bs either. I'm just sayin...

[Saethan]

It's pretty simple...

To make as much of a profit at $6 a month, they'd need *well over* twice the subscribers as they'd get at $13 a month. If they only had 2x the amount at $6 than at $13, those at $6 would be costing a heck of a lot more bandwidth than the number they'd have paying $13.

Is charging $13 enstead of $6 really going to cause them to lose over *half* their player base? I doubt it.

[Unregistered]

I'm just saying were proably all better off to wait at least 3 months after release to buy this game. By then you'll have full reports of any of the new content, and they will have had time to fix all the remaining balence issues.

The game I have been playing in Beta is not worth this much money.