Champions Online Pricing

One of the biggest news items that I've come across over the past few days is Cryptic Studios' announcement of the Champions Online pricing model. Players will be able to subscribe to Champions online for $15/month, or, this month only, may purchase a six-month subscription for $59.99, or a lifetime subscription for $129.99.

The value proposition of MMOs is very different than traditional games. MMOGs tend to deliver vast amounts of content to each player for the cost of a game plus a monthly fee.

Lifetime subscriptions are very interesting to me from a value standpoint-after all, this lifetime subscription pays for itself after about 13 months. If this was World of Warcraft, I would definitely have gotten my money's worth already. At the same time, if you've never played the game, or have limited beta experience, its quite a leap of faith to take.

There are many things that can go wrong in even a well-designed MMORPG. The game could have a tough time attracting players, could release expansions that make the game less fun, or could suffer from a lack of entertaining end-game content, among other things.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons that Cryptic has sweetened the deal with guaranteed access to the Star Trek MMO, an extra 8 character slots, additional costume sets, and even an action figure.

Personally, I really like the lifetime subscription model, but I'll need to try the game before I buy it. For every MMO that I've really enjoyed and gotten into, I can name three more that I hated or didn't enjoy. Fortunately, Champions Online looks really well designed, so I'm seriously tempted by the offer.

Hopefully I'll get into the beta before the end of September.

-Jon