"No more DLC that gamers have to buy for the full experience" - UbisoftUbisoft's VP of live operations Anne Blondel-Jouin on what Ubisoft has discovered from giving away Rainbow Six DLC
Ubisoft says that it will no-longer sell DLC that gamers will need to fully enjoy their game.
VP of live operations Anne Blondel-Jouin told GamesIndustry.biz that the publisher now looks to support its multiplayer games for between five and ten years, and in order to keep players engaged, the firm must be very careful when it comes to monetisation.
Ubisoft has enjoyed a lot of success with Rainbow Six: Siege, a shooter where the extra maps are being made available for free - gamers only need to pay if they want to customise their characters, or buy new ones.
"Monetisation is something we have to be very careful about, and my team is in charge of that and making sure we find a right balance," Blondel-Jouin says.
"The key is if it's not adding something on-top of the actual experience of the game, then it is no good. Because you'll be asking for more money for the wrong reasons. Also, if the content is compulsory for the gamers, it's no good as well. It is a way to deliver more fun to gamers, but they have a choice to go for that extra fun or not. If I take an analogy of an amusement park, you can go through all the rides, but then you can also go to the shop to buy some food or merchandise or whatever... regardless of whether you spend in the shop, you're still part of the whole experience. Nobody is making you buy if you don't want to, but it is another way to have a different entertainment experience. If you're with your kids, and there's a toy you want to get, we will make sure it is an extra experience. It won't be the case if you don't buy it then you can't do anything else.
"It wouldn't work if it was about making it compulsory for gamers. No more DLC that you have to buy if you want to have the full experience. You have the game, and if you want to expand it - depending on how you want to experience the game - you're free to buy it, or not."
Rainbow Six's DLC strategy is the same as the one adopted by Microsoft for Halo 5, while Respawn is also giving away its maps for free for Titanfall 2. The idea is that by ensuring all gamers can play across all maps and modes, then fans are likely to stay engaged in the experience for longer. Blondel-Jouin says the strategy has worked for Rainbow Six, both in terms of Daily Active Users and commercially.
"The way we monetise Rainbow Six is that people are happy about the new characters, and they can customise them with weapons and charms, but even if they don't do it, they will have the exact same experience of the other gamers," she says. "It is just an extra piece of revenue for us, which comes from gamers being happy. If gamers were not happy, we would not ask for that extra money.
"It does have the same commercial impact [as charging DLC]. It is also more fair for both Ubisoft and the gamers, as it is an extra proposal for them and they even take it or not. This new way of doing things, is because it is Ubisoft's responsibility to deliver gamers with the best quality possible. If you do a nasty toy, it will stay in the store no matter what the brand is. It is putting our creative teams back to work to deliver the best stuff for gamers, and it's a win-win situation."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2 ... ce-ubisoftWell no gooseberry fool
I think FPS games have always been affected the most when it comes to actual chargeable levels, even back in the old days when the PC games called them Expansion packs. As soon as a bunch of levels are locked away to X people who pay for them, the game dies online (because only a small % of players play the new maps which means even those who bought them stick to the base game levels)
Charging for weapons, cars and skins and other cosmetics that can be used alongside the base game players makes a lot of sense and I can't believe it's taken this long for us to see it become adopted.