DUST Search - Official release and F2P model

Ner'Zul Nexhawk wrote:

A question for everyone to ponder on.

Recently I came upon an idea that sounded absurd to me at first, to say the least. This idea caused me to raise a question: Is Dust 514 going to be a true free-to-play game, even when it's officially released? Meaning, would you be able to download a game for nothing and play it freely, only buying AUR items if you want to?

Of course, I told myself initially. That's what we've been told all along. But then I recalled how, in order to develop games on PS3, developers must pay a share of their income to Sony. (Please correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe that's true.) We know for a fact that there is no subscription model planned for Dust, and we think we know that there is no initial fee either. Thus, Sony's share is going to come solely from AUR-based purchases.

Now, CCP told us that the player-driven market is coming in the future. Hence, the ability to buy any items with ISK, even those that were firstly accessible only for Aurum. That most likely means a great drop in revenue from these purchases, as people are going to be able to pay nothing in order to get whatever they want. Thus, it leaves even a smaller income for Sony, and the idea that came to my head started making much more sense.

Now that we've come full circle, I'll ask the question in its true form: Will there be any initial price when Dust 514 is officially released? For me, this decision seems to be logical, lest CCP and Sony find another stable source of income from the game. What do you think about all this? And, by all means, if you find a direct quote that confirms what I wrote in the beginning, please post it here, I'll be extremely grateful.

Thanks for reading.

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Ner'Zul Nexhawk Talos Incorporated 153	Posted - 2013.01.21 03:56:00 - [1] - Quote A question for everyone to ponder on. Recently I came upon an idea that sounded absurd to me at first, to say the least. This idea caused me to raise a question: Is Dust 514 going to be a true free-to-play game, even when it's officially released? Meaning, would you be able to download a game for nothing and play it freely, only buying AUR items if you want to? Of course, I told myself initially. That's what we've been told all along. But then I recalled how, in order to develop games on PS3, developers must pay a share of their income to Sony. (Please correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe that's true.) We know for a fact that there is no subscription model planned for Dust, and we think we know that there is no initial fee either. Thus, Sony's share is going to come solely from AUR-based purchases. Now, CCP told us that the player-driven market is coming in the future. Hence, the ability to buy any items with ISK, even those that were firstly accessible only for Aurum. That most likely means a great drop in revenue from these purchases, as people are going to be able to pay nothing in order to get whatever they want. Thus, it leaves even a smaller income for Sony, and the idea that came to my head started making much more sense. Now that we've come full circle, I'll ask the question in its true form: Will there be any initial price when Dust 514 is officially released? For me, this decision seems to be logical, lest CCP and Sony find another stable source of income from the game. What do you think about all this? And, by all means, if you find a direct quote that confirms what I wrote in the beginning, please post it here, I'll be extremely grateful. Thanks for reading.
theschizogenious KILL-EM-QUICK RISE of LEGION 167	Posted - 2013.01.21 04:02:00 - [2] - Quote well if dust becomes what we all are hoping it will become it will be made sony's flagship game (at least thats where the speculations at) and sony has already started bundling beta keys and other dust goodies along with the ps3 so theyre making revenue that way and they will probably be making other bundles such as getting exclusive gear or giving aur with the ps3 and when the time comes the ps4 so that people thinking about buying a playstation because they saw dust would be more inclined to buy one since they would feel that they would be getting an "advantage" so too speak.
Ner'Zul Nexhawk Talos Incorporated 153	Posted - 2013.01.21 04:11:00 - [3] - Quote theschizogenious wrote: well if dust becomes what we all are hoping it will become it will be made sony's flagship game (at least thats where the speculations at) and sony has already started bundling beta keys and other dust goodies along with the ps3 so theyre making revenue that way and they will probably be making other bundles such as getting exclusive gear or giving aur with the ps3 and when the time comes the ps4 so that people thinking about buying a playstation because they saw dust would be more inclined to buy one since they would feel that they would be getting an "advantage" so too speak. I agree, although I'm trying to think of the way CCP is going to pay Sony in order to develop on their platform, and the possibilities seem... limited, maybe. But yes, if Dust becomes what we all hope it will, then both CCP and Sony would reap huge profits. That is very true.
Iron Wolf Saber BetaMax. 2866	Posted - 2013.01.21 04:11:00 - [4] - Quote According to CCP All builds have been official releases. Please rephrase your terminology.
theschizogenious KILL-EM-QUICK RISE of LEGION 167	Posted - 2013.01.21 04:14:00 - [5] - Quote Iron Wolf Saber wrote: According to CCP All builds have been official releases. Please rephrase your terminology. i am sure he is referring to when we are no longer in any type of beta. and yes i know that the game will never truly be "out of beta" because there will never be a finished product.
theschizogenious KILL-EM-QUICK RISE of LEGION 167	Posted - 2013.01.21 04:17:00 - [6] - Quote hmm got double posted? apologies
Fivetimes Infinity Immobile Infantry 1086	Posted - 2013.01.21 04:19:00 - [7] - Quote Whether someone buys an item for AUR or buys it second-hand for ISK, it doesn't change the fact that someone paid AUR for that item. You're also assuming that garbage AUR items are all CCP is going to have for sale. We have boosters, currently, and in time there will undoubtedly be cosmetic customization stuff. Ways to change the appearance of your armor, weapons, vehicles, and so on. Such features would undoubtedly be exclusively accessible via AUR, although I'd hope that things like the dragonfly scout suit or the tribute suits would be converted into free cosmetic colour schemes that could be applied to dropsuits instead. Anyway, yes, it will be free to play. To argue it won't be based off of a speculation about economics is overstepping things. However, I will say that it's certainly possible they could offer a subscription model, and probably the merc bundle will still be sold for people who want to elect to pay for starter stuff in the game.
TiMeSpLiT--TeR Planetary Response Organisation Test Friends Please Ignore 326	Posted - 2013.01.21 04:19:00 - [8] - Quote It seems to me that CCP already paid Sony for the deal. The AUR purchases goes to CCP. I'm just guessing. It's between CCP and Sony's deal agreement. I don't think Sony will agree to AUR share.
Ultra Boomer3 HavoK Core 18	Posted - 2013.01.21 04:21:00 - [9] - Quote You are missing a big part of the player driven market thing. I doubt that the aurum items will be able to be manufactured by eve players. Aurum will always hav a eason to be purchased if you are buying weapons or suits. T get the aurum item for isk, someone will still have to pay for the aurum to buy it in the first place. Same way you get plex for isk in eve. Iam guessing you will even be able to buy aurum for isk the same way. Eve already has aurum tokens. Nobody really buys them and sells them in eve as far as i know, but all aurum does is buy clothes in eve. They could probably make a good deal of money in eve by selling aurum tokens to us. Assuming ccp allows that. Either way, the same amount of money is being made by ccp at least. Most likely enough to cover costs of developing for the ps3. Short version: someone is still paying for the aurum for the item you buy for isk
bolsh lee Ahrendee Mercenaries Legacy Rising 35	Posted - 2013.01.21 04:28:00 - [10] - Quote Ultra Boomer3 wrote: Short version: someone is still paying for the aurum for the item you buy for isk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2le0JNSfNw GO TO 5:05 EDIT They have said multiple times the game is going to be free to play you will never have to pay a dime if you don't want to and like the original post said even if Aurum items are on the market they had to be bought at some time... Also you gotta think when the markets are merged Dusties should be able to buy plexes as well one of CCP's many ways to make revenue outside of the subscription its pretty smart!

theschizogenious KILL-EM-QUICK RISE of LEGION 167	Posted - 2013.01.21 04:32:00 - [11] - Quote TiMeSpLiT--TeR wrote: It seems to me that CCP already paid Sony for the deal. The AUR purchases goes to CCP. I'm just guessing. It's between CCP and Sony's deal agreement. I don't think Sony will agree to AUR share. sony will be making more than enough money off of the psn cards that people who dont trust them after the hack buy so that they can get AUR
Ner'Zul Nexhawk Talos Incorporated 153	Posted - 2013.01.21 04:34:00 - [12] - Quote Ultra Boomer3 wrote: You are missing a big part of the player driven market thing. I doubt that the aurum items will be able to be manufactured by eve players. Aurum will always hav a eason to be purchased if you are buying weapons or suits. T get the aurum item for isk, someone will still have to pay for the aurum to buy it in the first place. Same way you get plex for isk in eve. Iam guessing you will even be able to buy aurum for isk the same way. Eve already has aurum tokens. Nobody really buys them and sells them in eve as far as i know, but all aurum does is buy clothes in eve. They could probably make a good deal of money in eve by selling aurum tokens to us. Assuming ccp allows that. Either way, the same amount of money is being made by ccp at least. Most likely enough to cover costs of developing for the ps3. Short version: someone is still paying for the aurum for the item you buy for isk Ah, I see my mistake now. Sorry about not thinking of that, am kind of tired right now, and missed the detail. But still, I wonder if we ever are going to see the official release marked by some sort of a price or not, even though, everything's telling it's going to be the latter.
Iron Wolf Saber BetaMax. 2866	Posted - 2013.01.21 04:36:00 - [13] - Quote Sony paid CCP acutally.
Ner'Zul Nexhawk Talos Incorporated 153	Posted - 2013.01.21 04:39:00 - [14] - Quote Iron Wolf Saber wrote: Sony paid CCP acutally. Yes, in order to make Dust PS3-exclusive. But Developing Kit is bought by the developers from Sony, and I believe that every developer that creates something for PS3 has to pay a share to Sony, as stated above.
Ner'Zul Nexhawk Talos Incorporated 153	Posted - 2013.01.21 04:41:00 - [15] - Quote bolsh lee wrote: Ultra Boomer3 wrote: Short version: someone is still paying for the aurum for the item you buy for isk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2le0JNSfNw GO TO 5:05 EDIT They have said multiple times the game is going to be free to play you will never have to pay a dime if you don't want to and like the original post said even if Aurum items are on the market they had to be bought at some time... Also you gotta think when the markets are merged Dusties should be able to buy plexes as well one of CCP's many ways to make revenue outside of the subscription its pretty smart! Yes, I remember seeing this now, actually. So yeah, if CCP's plans don't suddenly change, I stand corrected. Thank you!
Aighun Zumari Force Projection Caldari State 666	Posted - 2013.01.21 07:00:00 - [16] - Quote No, there won't be an initial price. Once upon a time hey were going to have players pay some sort of cover charge buy decided not to. Point in the OP about player market leading to less real life money going in to DUST not really a worry. My understanding of the player market and AUR to ISK flow would be that every "AUR" item in the market was originally purchased with AUR bought through Playstation Store. As mentioned by othes, if you see a "Raven" dropsuit on sale for ISK it just means that some player somewhere paid money for it and is re-selling it. Even with players re-selling their gear there should be enough movement in the market where there will always be a reason to buy new stuff. Also, it looks like we will be getting a few things that we are not going to be able to re-sell that players will be interested in buying. The player market is a delicate thing and it will take some effort to get the right balance. Who knows how it will all work out. But the Free to Play model usually always assumes that there will be a significant number of players that will never pay money into the game no matter what. There is no way to get them to pay, so you might as well let the rest of us sell them stuff for ISK.
Marston VC SVER True Blood Unclaimed. 92	Posted - 2013.01.21 07:06:00 - [17] - Quote Ner'Zul Nexhawk wrote: A question for everyone to ponder on. Recently I came upon an idea that sounded absurd to me at first, to say the least. This idea caused me to raise a question: Is Dust 514 going to be a true free-to-play game, even when it's officially released? Meaning, would you be able to download a game for nothing and play it freely, only buying AUR items if you want to? Of course, I told myself initially. That's what we've been told all along. But then I recalled how, in order to develop games on PS3, developers must pay a share of their income to Sony. (Please correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe that's true.) We know for a fact that there is no subscription model planned for Dust, and we think we know that there is no initial fee either. Thus, Sony's share is going to come solely from AUR-based purchases. Now, CCP told us that the player-driven market is coming in the future. Hence, the ability to buy any items with ISK, even those that were firstly accessible only for Aurum. That most likely means a great drop in revenue from these purchases, as people are going to be able to pay nothing in order to get whatever they want. Thus, it leaves even a smaller income for Sony, and the idea that came to my head started making much more sense. Now that we've come full circle, I'll ask the question in its true form: Will there be any initial price when Dust 514 is officially released? For me, this decision seems to be logical, lest CCP and Sony find another stable source of income from the game. What do you think about all this? And, by all means, if you find a direct quote that confirms what I wrote in the beginning, please post it here, I'll be extremely grateful. Thanks for reading. youve got the wrong idea, its not that you'll be able to buy AUR items with ISK, its that you'll be able to buy AUR with ISK, which in turn will allow you to spend that newly purchased AUR on AUR items. This will allow people to buy AUR for the explicit reason of selling it for isk on the open market. This is a simple solution to your question, and is already in use via eve online. The plex system is a great example in that, you can buy plexes for real life money, and then sell them for in game money using the in game market system.
Iron Wolf Saber BetaMax. 2866	Posted - 2013.01.21 07:21:00 - [18] - Quote Also note that it was commented in the other thread that Open Beta = Open Beta
Garrett Blacknova Codex Troopers 1849	Posted - 2013.01.21 08:00:00 - [19] - Quote You know how that AUR gear will be sold on the player marketplace for ISK? Someone spent AUR on that gear. But maybe NOT for the reasons you think. Different AUR gear will be worth different amounts of ISK depending on how many players are willing to sell that particular item and how many players want it but don't have the AUR to pay CCP (and thus, Sony indirectly). Supply and demand. If there's an AUR item that's worth a lot of ISK, some opportunistic players will buy AUR to get that item so they can sell it to others, effectively using AUR to buy ISK.
Ner'Zul Nexhawk Talos Incorporated 153	Posted - 2013.01.21 12:50:00 - [20] - Quote Iron Wolf Saber wrote: Also note that it was commented in the other thread that Open Beta = Open Beta Thank you very much sir, I really had no idea. I didn't comment on this myself at all. @Everyone: Thanks for your input, really appreciate it. You've clarified any doubts I had since the crazy idea crossed my head. For that, I deeply thank you all. Question solved; waiting for devs to close this thread and/or confirm what everyone said here.



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