When I hear someone say Elite would be better off with a monthly subscription model rather than the current season model (paid expansions) my first gut reaction is “frack that”. However, upon considering it for a period of time and really pondering how that might affect the game, I have to say that I now feel like Frontier should make the transition to monthly subscription.
Let’s start with pricing. Originally Frontier wanted one season per year, that was the plan. At $60 per season ($45 for us with the discount) that would equate to $5 “per month” (or $3.75/mo with discount). That is what Frontier was planning to “charge” for playing Elite. This price pays for continual development and to maintain the servers.
With that in mind, a logical monthly subscription fee for Elite would be $5/mo, or possibly $3.75/mo if you buy the whole year up front, if they maybe discounted like that for players (same discount that existing owners now get for seasons). There are quite a few benefits to this method:
I’m sure a lot of people are strongly against the idea, but the more I think on it the more I like it, as long as it would free up Frontier to better support and develop the game. I feel like the season model, with it’s necessary huge new flashy marketable features every point update, simply isn’t serving the franchise as well as a monthly fee style of development coupled with more substantial but less glamorous updates would.
Okay, unleash the hounds, let me have all of the flak and vitrol which is coming my way now!
Let’s start with pricing. Originally Frontier wanted one season per year, that was the plan. At $60 per season ($45 for us with the discount) that would equate to $5 “per month” (or $3.75/mo with discount). That is what Frontier was planning to “charge” for playing Elite. This price pays for continual development and to maintain the servers.
With that in mind, a logical monthly subscription fee for Elite would be $5/mo, or possibly $3.75/mo if you buy the whole year up front, if they maybe discounted like that for players (same discount that existing owners now get for seasons). There are quite a few benefits to this method:
- The Marketable Feature Syndrome: One of the largest pros to a subscription model is that Frontier would no longer have to include a huge new shiny feature with every point update in order to “sell it”. They could instead regularly focus on core updates to the game and continual improvement upgrades, fleshing out existing mechanics and improving core tenants of the game with major development work on things like trading, exploration, mining, piracy, bounty hunting, Power Play, CQC, etc. They wouldn’t be forced to trot out gimmick updates to attract attention as a way to justify selling the season. Of course major new features and mechanics would still happen, they just wouldn’t have to be such a priority, especially while other areas of the game need developing too.
I see so many people say that Elite needs core development but then they follow it up with statements like “it will never happen because Frontier can’t sell that”, or “they can’t lock core updates behind a season paywall”. So if the paywall is holding back the game’s development, then maybe the paywall just needs to go away. - Player Cost Flexibility: In essence players would not be paying more than they were originally supposed to, however with the subscription model they can stop paying anytime they want to, say if life or finances get in the way, or even if they just get bored with the game. Then if an update adds a feature they want to play with they can simply re-subscribe. It actually gives players more flexibility and control over how much and when they want to pay.
- Frontier’s Budget: With a much more steady income the devs could cover costs better, even plan better, and then maybe they wouldn’t be so focused on Frontier Store content and developing new features to monetize. Maybe they’d even be more willing to include some cosmetic items which were actually earnable in game rather than in store. I’ve got nothing against the store and I’ve bought my fair share of paints from it, but there does seem to be a glaring lack of base level cosmetics in the game, some appetizers which might wet the appetite for the more fancy in store items. For example, no free default nameplate for ship names in 2.3.
- Online Server Costs: with a monthly income for the game, maybe Frontier could actually afford to transfer away from the P2P networking and support a more robust server architecture which is more apt to an online MMO style game? We’ve all felt the network and instance issues with Elite, and now it seems to be holding multicrew back from it’s greater potential too. A regular income stream might allow that to improve.
I’m sure a lot of people are strongly against the idea, but the more I think on it the more I like it, as long as it would free up Frontier to better support and develop the game. I feel like the season model, with it’s necessary huge new flashy marketable features every point update, simply isn’t serving the franchise as well as a monthly fee style of development coupled with more substantial but less glamorous updates would.
Okay, unleash the hounds, let me have all of the flak and vitrol which is coming my way now!
