Quake Live not sustained by advertising.

[barmyllama]

It seems that Quake Live can't be funded by advertising alone.

In-game advertising has failed to bring in enough revenue to support id's free-to-play Quake Live, John Carmack has admitted, meaning the company will need to switch to a subscription model in the near future.

The developer announced the plan during his QuakeCon keynote address, reports Shack News, explaining that in-game advertising wasn't bringing in enough revenue to support the browser-based title.

"The in-game advertising stuff has not been big business," he admitted. "That's not going to be able to carry the project."

Instead, the game, which began its open beta in February this year, will turn to a subscription system - although Carmack stressed it will never be entirely pay-to-play. Instead, Quake Live paid subscribers will be given the freedom to configure and run their own private servers, while other gamers will still be able to play for free.

"Quake Live is gonna be Quake Live for the foreseeable future," Carmack added. "It's only just now that we're going to be able to put it to the test."

I don't know how many regualr players Quake Live has, but I was certainly put off by having my arse handed to me on a plate in every single time I played it. It's not exactly casual gamer friendly and maybe they just don't attract enough players. Not a lot of players equals not a lot of people to advertise to.

Battlefield Heroes, on the other hand, is a lot easier to pick and play, plus it has more than one revenue stream.

I have read that the average BF Heroes player spends $20, so maybe that's the way to go in this particiular business model.

 

[xiphrex]

To be honest the in-game advertising is probably enough to sustain quake live, but they want an excuse to charge for allowing private servers. Which is fair enough, as look at any other PC FPS game and you have to pay £20-30 per month to have your own private server.

 

[LabR@t]

just release it i hate paying monthly, i mean how much they talking? or just patch q3 with the new the new map tweaks

not work more than £1 a month, i mean u can pick q3 dirt cheap

 

[xiphrex]

Yeah imo they should sell it like a normal game, I would buy it if it was a one off payment of £15.

But a subscription charge Im less keen as I dont really play it enough but when I do I expect it to be there waiting for me.

Of coarse these days you have web services with subscription charges everywhere like rapidshare etc so I think it would work either way for ID.

 

[OldComputerGuy7]

I dont think it would work as a subscription only game as it didnt seem that popular when it was free. I didnt enjoy it that much, i used to enjoy online FPS shooters but Quake live didnt to seem to work for me.