— the “digital upgrade” for Dungeons & Dragons Online that kills monthly subscriptions — will go public tomorrow. The full experience — DDO with upgrade — has been in closed beta for a while and despite the public not being able to get in on the action, developer Turbine has profited from the new structure.
To back up a second: Eberron Unlimited gives the MMO a free-to-play hybrid structure. Players can purchase loot and items (with funny money) that give them advantages. In addition to this, they can even opt into a VIP monthly structure that automatically gives them points and access to stuff. The closed beta peeps have been exposed to this system and, apparently, have been laying down mad real dough (which is then converted into Turbine Points) for items and such.
Turbine’s director of communications Adam Mersky recently told Kotaku all about the successful beta: “They all got a ton of points for being loyal subscribers, for being in the beta,” he said. “We weren’t really expecting a ton of sales … they had no incentive to. They already had access to all of the content as VIP subscribers, and we just gave them a buttload of points.”
“They’ve gone through their points, and we’ve already sold millions more Turbine points, and we’ve not even opened up the world to the public yet.”
Nice. It seems like the dramatic model switch might have been a good move. We’ll know soon enough, for sure. And if all keeps going well, we wonder, exactly, what may happen to the rest of the MMOs hanging on the periphery because of World of Warcraft. Is this hybrid model where it’s at?
