The problem is actually your Group A. They’ve tried the paid DLC model out and found that it’s a tiny fraction of their customers that aren’t going to be willing to pay no matter what. Otherwise, pretty much every company in this business wouldn’t have decided this is a viable business model. I’m going to repost something I put in another thread as it seems relevant to your “business analysis.”
Also, your broken down groups of 1, 2, and 3 are missing tons of potential people. For example, what about people that only buy DLC because they want to play with friends? This motivation is similar to your populated servers group, but somewhat different. Realistically we could actually have way more than 3 groups there, but that would then make any analysis much more complicated. Lastly, in a game that came with only 8 maps…well I’m pretty sure most people are going to jump on having more as long as they enjoy the base product. Anyways…
Repost:
The patches and updates are still free. Maps, increased levels, new abilities, new costumes, etc. are not. As an earlier poster stated once upon a time this was not the case. We got all patches, updates, and DLC for free. However the developers doing that at that time had a lot less business people involved and a lot more gamers/computer people. They’re 2 different mindsets. When it comes to running a successful business which one do you think wins out? The best is probably some combination of the two, but giving your stuff away for free is just plain dumb.
Also at that time selling these products in this fashion was an untested model so developers and the business people involved at the time were concerned that they would lose players by charging. Guess what they found out? Generally speaking, they won’t. Most people are going to buy the content even if it’s only because they feel obligated to play with that friend who already bought it. That’s why almost every company is doing this now.
Even TF2 is jumping on the bandwagon. F2P? Uh yeah they are going to make a million times as much money as they were before. By itemizing almost every item in the game and putting them up for sale they are putting themselves in such a sweet spot. Sure, players can still earn stuff in game, but Valve didn’t go F2P for the players or because they thought no one was going to pay for items. In recent interviews they even stated one of their goals is to figure out how to make free players pay money/buy items (that was in the article on Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Think it’s linked earlier in this thread). They saw a great product that deserved ongoing support that wasn’t bringing in enough money. They just hit the mother load.
On the other end you have the MW3 Elite subscription thing. I personally think that’s going too far. The problem with subbing is that we’re talking a long term monthly investment or in other words another bill. That’s way different than a one time purchase and people are probably going to limit the number of subscriptions they have.
Sorry for perhaps going way out in left field there, but I thought all that was relevant to the discussion. I’m not saying I don’t wish all this stuff was free. That would be awesome. It’s just not realistic. Nothing in life is free especially since the world economy went down the tubes.
Also, it’s not a lot of money. I don’t think a lot of people can’t afford or won’t shell out $5-$10 to expand on the game experience of a game they enjoy. I’m 28, I have a full time job, it’s not a lot of money for me or really anyone that I know.
On another note remember when they didn’t release patches, updates, or DLC at all and you just had to suck it up and deal with the product as is?
