SOE Sees 400 Percent Increase in DCUO Registered Users After F2P Change

November 4, 2011

DC Universe Online had about 30,000 paid subscribers prior to switching over to a free-to-play model. Apparently that switch has helped the game gain an additional 90,000 registered users. Sony Online Entertainment, which manages the DC Comics-based superhero MMO, said the surge in interest represents a 400 percent increase on previous figures.

The company said - when it announced that DCUO was going free-to-play - that the switch from a subscription-based monthly model to a free-to-play model was not in response to declining registered user numbers. Whatever the reason, the change is showing modest returns.

SOE executive producer Lorin Jameson said that "this is the right business model," in September, adding that the game "ended up costing a lot more" than they thought it would.

DC Universe online was released in January this year, and charged customers around $15 a month to play. It officially went free-to-play November 1. The game is currently available via PlayStation Network and PC.

It will be interesting to see just how much money DCUO makes with this new subscription model. Naturally SOE hopes that players will buy lots of virtual extras in-game.

Source: Develop

Posted in

MMORPG
SOE

Comments

Re: SOE Sees 400 Percent Increase in DCUO Registered Users ...

Submitted by lordlundar on Sat, 11/05/2011 - 11:52.

Registered users, but how many are paying users?

Honestly, I see this upsurge more as "seeing what the game is like and if it warrants the criticism" than actually attracting more players. You have to consider that their f2p model was largely copied off of Paragon Studio's model for City of Heroes, who was developing their hybrid model before DCUO was even released.

Re: SOE Sees 400 Percent Increase in DCUO Registered Users ...

Submitted by hellfire7885 on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 15:08.

Should have figured giving how many people I saw playing it. People love free.

Re: SOE Sees 400 Percent Increase in DCUO Registered Users ...

Submitted by MechaTama31 on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 14:24.

30K + 90K is a 300% increase. It's how much the value has increased by compared to the original, not how much it has increased to. If they gained 3K users, that would be a 10% increase, right? Not 110%. Or what if they dropped to only having 3K users? Surely we wouldn't call that a 10% increase... ;)

Re: SOE Sees 400 Percent Increase in DCUO Registered Users ...

Submitted by MechaCrash on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 13:22.

I suspect that most of the people who wind up opening their wallets for DCUO will be on PS3, because the PC version of the game is, by all accounts, ass. And they actually have competition on the PC.

Re: SOE Sees 400 Percent Increase in DCUO Registered Users ...

Submitted by ddrfr33k on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 11:54.

I'm not surprised by this at all. The p2p model is slowly but surely going away.

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