Introduction 

If you had to put together a list of the top ten game franchises it would contain a bunch of names we all know very well, including Tetris, Mario, Sonic, and Grand Theft Auto. To name but a few.

Most of the well known franchises can be played in some way under a subscription, either in the Cloud, on mobile/console, or through a rental service. Take the example of Just Dance 2020, which can be played on Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and elsewhere.

But what we’re talking about here is those games that have a subscription service which runs in-game. These games are all blockbusters. They’re cleverly designed and wildly popular where the base game-play is free but you can pay to be a VIP. By subscribing you’ll get added benefits which will either unlock levels or other aspects of the game, or help your performance in some way.  

There are some big name games in the list that use this model, including  WOW,  Lord Of The Rings Online, Star Wars : The Old Republic, and Final Fantasy 14. The subscription service for Fortnite is at this point a rumour, all be it seemingly a real possibility.

Benefits  

For the operators of the games, the subscription model gets them guaranteed repeat transactions which might eventually result in increased revenues. With the right game and structure, these revenues can be astronomical. Take the example of  World of Warcraft, with over 12 million subscribers it’s easy to see that at approximately $15 a month we are talking big numbers. With that sort of fan-base, the opportunity to make additional profits from purchases is obvious.

The benefits to us the layers are clear – access to great gaming experiences which are carefully designed to have longevity.  

How Free Franchised Games Make Money

To understand how the subscription model works for these games it’s worth appreciating how they developed and grew, and the different ways they drive profits for the creators/publishers.

Take the example of Fortnite, which began as a free game and impressively made billions of dollars in a year.

So how did it do this? The answer is in-game purchases. 

Instead of following the model where a game is developed and sold for a one off fee – then either followed up with further iterations or left to die out – Fortnite took the ‘Game as a Service’ model that had been growing since the 2000s and built a product that encouraged players to spend their money in the game itself rather than on buying it outright.  

So these in game purchases can be for extra powers, equipment, clothing, or characters all of which either improve performance in the game or enhance the enjoyment in some way. Subscriptions are just a natural extension of this model, another way of building a long term player base, and of course of making extra money.  

Where these might be smaller amounts individually than buying outright, there are more of them,  they continue over a longer period, and for the players it’s often easier to get pulled into paying a series of smaller amounts. Either because that’s just easier on the wallet in general, or because of the (very) clever way the games have been crafted to develop a need in us the players to be able to compete, to keep up with or friends, to be part of a community etc etc. 

The ‘free to start’ aspect also removes barriers from new players getting involved, each of which is a new prospective buyer of in game elements or subscriptions.  

There’s a big name example which illustrates how this model is deployed in practice: 

World of Warcraft is a prime example of the ‘free to premium/VIP’ solution. It’s an MMORPG game that gives you the option to play free, then subscribe (or not) on a monthly basis to get the full unlocked game.

Summary

With carefully crafted game stories pulling players ever further into the game-play, these games that start out free to play and then offer extras on subscription are not going anywhere soon. The vast user base seem content with the model, and with the sorts of commonplace profits flowing we can be sure the publishers and developers will want to maintain the model. It’s a fair bet we’ll see further enhancements in the options to subscribe, and probably more titles will follow the same route in future.