Hasbro makes money, everyone wins

[Scribble]

Part of the process of delighting your customers would be to offer something that people taking the data for free don't get; value in the box, as it were. Tokens, cards, colorful bits, etc, that make the product fun to open. Reduce the cost of the product so that stealing it becomes less attractive as an option.

And this is something I'm actually happy about... If anything I guess pirates are a catalyst for change, and sometimes I benefit. So from the standpoint of someone who just wants cool stuff? SCORE!

 

[darkwing]

To move this back on topic, does the hiring of Jerome Lalin (the guy responsible for bringing DDO back from the dead by making it "free to play") by WotC foreshadow a "free to play" micro transaction model for DDi?

I believe it does and I also believe this is a good thing.

 

[Sunseeker]

To move this back on topic, does the hiring of Jerome Lalin by WotC foreshadow a "free to play" micro transaction model for DDi?

I believe it does and I also believe this is a good thing.

Anything related to Turbine makes me shudder with dread.

 

[Solvarn]

To move this back on topic, does the hiring of Jerome Lalin (the guy responsible for bringing DDO back from the dead by making it "free to play") by WotC foreshadow a "free to play" micro transaction model for DDi?

I believe it does and I also believe this is a good thing.

He has experience with virtual goods, subscription and micro-transaction based business models, and strategic planning. Also worked at Houghton Mifflin (publishing). Very good pick up for WotC. I am thinking he is onboard to help market and plan DDI, which is definitely a good sign. Whatever you think about Turbine's games, their subscription model is where most games need to be in my humble opinion.

I would totally love to work on the business analysis for DDI. Dream job.

 

[Dungeoneer]

Heh, yeah. It is really irrelevant to an economic calculation if people who will NEVER be customers download a copy of your stuff. In fact it can't really be seen as anything but positive from a business perspective, at least you got eyeballs on your product, which is a pretty significant goal in marketing.

I agree with this and it actually goes back to my main point in those posts a couple of pages back. This is what I propose:

1) Content piracy (ie rules, books) is very difficult to stop because it is so easy.
2) There are people pirating your content who would never pay for it, even if there wasn't any other way to get it.
3) Making your content free (or very very close to free) maximizes the number of eyeballs on it.
4) Ergo, you should make your content free (or very very close to it) and then find ways to generate revenue from people who WILL pay through value adds and supporting products. Failing that, sell ads.

On Point 2, I hope that no one seriously contends that these people do not exist. The only question is how many of them are there.

Implicit in Point 3 is that the set of people in Point 2 is only going to increase, because those people who are playing for free will expose new people to the game. Free-to-play makes the barrier to entry for these people very low.

The swelling number of players/eyeballs/pirates means that if you do Point 4 you may well make more money off 'auxiliary revenue sources' then you ever did charging people for content.

Here is a thought experiment for everyone: imagine that Wizards releases the VTT and it is awesome. It has every feature you could ever wish for and a couple you never would have thought of. It's fast, very easy to use, it looks great, and allows you to play D&D with like-minded people all over the world. Furthermore, imagine that Wizards charges $10 a month for it.

Assuming that the VTT is very successful, its revenues could rapidly outstrip those made from traditional splat books. At that point, the content becomes purely a hook to get people to use the VTT. In such a scenario, why would you not make the content free?

 

[Dungeoneer]

My partner owns Hasbro stock, this is great news. I doubt that with the amount of $$ DnD generates they would scuttle this little skiff.

Personally, I pray that they do. Whether Hasbro ever sells it off or not, D&D is not going away.

 

[darkwing]

Assuming that the VTT is very successful, its revenues could rapidly outstrip those made from traditional splat books. At that point, the content becomes purely a hook to get people to use the VTT. In such a scenario, why would you not make the content free?

Most likely, going by DDO, there will be 2 choices for customers... a subscription option where you get all the content for a monthly fee or a pay as you go option where the VT is free but you pay for content to add to it.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I agree with this and it actually goes back to my main point in those posts a couple of pages back. This is what I propose:

1) Content piracy (ie rules, books) is very difficult to stop because it is so easy.
2) There are people pirating your content who would never pay for it, even if there wasn't any other way to get it.
3) Making your content free (or very very close to free) maximizes the number of eyeballs on it.
4) Ergo, you should make your content free (or very very close to it) and then find ways to generate revenue from people who WILL pay through value adds and supporting products. Failing that, sell ads.

On Point 2, I hope that no one seriously contends that these people do not exist. The only question is how many of them are there.

Implicit in Point 3 is that the set of people in Point 2 is only going to increase, because those people who are playing for free will expose new people to the game. Free-to-play makes the barrier to entry for these people very low.

The swelling number of players/eyeballs/pirates means that if you do Point 4 you may well make more money off 'auxiliary revenue sources' then you ever did charging people for content.

Here is a thought experiment for everyone: imagine that Wizards releases the VTT and it is awesome. It has every feature you could ever wish for and a couple you never would have thought of. It's fast, very easy to use, it looks great, and allows you to play D&D with like-minded people all over the world. Furthermore, imagine that Wizards charges $10 a month for it.

Assuming that the VTT is very successful, its revenues could rapidly outstrip those made from traditional splat books. At that point, the content becomes purely a hook to get people to use the VTT. In such a scenario, why would you not make the content free?

Right. And honestly if we think about it what if piracy is murdering WotC right now? I mean nobody can say one way or the other, but if it is they aren't going to stop it, so they really need to do something like a pay-as-you-go plus subscription type model in that case. If it is NOT killing them they still have no real incentive to NOT try it, it could make them extra money or more money in that case. It could lose money in EITHER case. Really if they're doing OK now they have a choice of standing pat or taking a risk. Since they seem to be doing SOMETHING they must be at least considering the riskier course of going forward with some form of digital future. Honestly my guess would be piracy isn't hurting them that much and they're slowly moving into the 21st century. Note the "we don't have a pricing model" statement on the VTT. They're throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks.