Freemium?

Found this article regarding ngmoco and its freemium model interesting. You may have seen it elsewhere too.
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/15/gdc-2...change-the-ap/
If I read it correctly I am part of the 98% who do not pay...(!)

Interesting article.
Not personally a fan of the model as a gamer, as I'd much rather pay full price for a quality game, rather than limited time and at the end of the day, you never own the game you constantly pay for.
While this model way work for them, I'm totally happy playing these games for free, and won't be constantly paying to have nothing to show for it. I'm sure there are people have spent $50 (and likely more) on Eliminate or Touchpets and what do they have to show for it? Absolutely nothing....I guess I should change my thinking to be that it's those people that are crazy to dish out so much money for nothing in return.
The model is all about ROI (return on investment) and too bad the gamers don't think about the ROI for themselves. It's the new "crack" for these kids who don't know when to stop, and don't feel like they're using real money as it's all virtual, but that may be another story.

To quote the article:
in a freemium model, the few subsidize the many. Young compared this to old-school arcades, where only a few "very engaged users" (about 2%, he pointed out) were constantly dropping quarters into arcade machines, even though lots of people came and played them. "Free to play is the new quartersink"

As far as I'm concerned, the arcades are dead. While I was one of those "quarter-sinkers" when I was a young teenager, the home consoles killed the arcades as far as I'm concerned, and I learned to pay for games outright.

I'm also of that 98% who hasn't dropped a dime on these models, but if you look at We Rule, it's got the admob stuff in there so they're still making money off me anyways, regardless if I pay for "stuff" or not.

What's my point? I dunno anymore, other than while I have chosen Plus+ as my achievements of choice, I'll gladly play all the games for 5 minutes and move on. None really hold my attention for too long anyways, and I'll let those 2% fund my gaming time.

So to all you people paying for nothing in return, and funding my Plus+ gaming, I salute you....

Interesting article. I too am in the 98%. I think I've made one in app purchase - bought Hazeltine course in Tiger Woods '09.

I don't like this one bit. Especially in competitve gaming models.

I'd say the best way for a gamer would be a Freemium Model and for those who really like the game a "normal" full version at full price but without the need to get any inapp purchases.

What I find kind of funny is that originally, the whole freemium thing was to combat "piracey". I certainly don't hear anything about that anymore. I guess that point was made mute by in-app purchases.

Let's be real, and the ONLY reason is that it's profitable, and likely extremely profitable.

I guess those 2% have a lot of disposable income, just like the wealthy 2% of the world.

As for mrholder, your purchase was an in-app purchase, and one that doesn't expire, so I wouldn't classify that in the freemium model. You just purchased additional content which you can use as much as you wish. Kind of like the game you payed for.
Now go pay for any of the freemium models, and tell me how long that dollar or 2 lasts. A few minutes? And then what do you have to show for it? Nothing, other than having funded my playing! LOL

Freemium model is very tricky to my mind. It has been around for quite some time now. I have been playing a browser-based (Flash) MMORPG a few years back that made use of it. The problem is it's very difficult to balance out the payable bits - all to often either they give a huge unfair advantage to the ones who pay or there is no incentive to pay at all. I'm not a fan of it myself but I can easily see people willing to pay an additional 1-2-3 bucks to get a leg up through the more frustrating bits.