The latest League of Legends update lets you see your purchase history, both real cash and IP spending. From a quick survey on the Inquisition forum, it’s pretty clear Riot going F2P has earned them a whole hell of a lot more money than if they had sold LoL for $50 a box. I’ll have to check my personal total when I get home, but I’m pretty sure I’m sitting at $150+, and Aria has bought RP as well.
Now if LoL had a box price of $150, I would call that crazy. Which is funny, because if LoL was boxed for $150, I would expect it to come with all of the content, yet my $150 has not even gotten me close to owning all of the skins or champs out.
Nor do I feel that $150 was poorly spent. If anything, that $150 is a bargain considering how long and how often I’ve played LoL. Even by MMO sub terms (already a steal in terms of spending/entertainment), this works out to just over $10 a month for me, and I’ve spent sub money on games far, far below LoL.
I’d like to hope that LoL shows you don’t need to sell power to make it in the F2P market. Something tells me though that the item shop/gold ammo stuff will continue.
Hardcore Casual 
$60 here (playing since August 2010 after reading about LoL in this blog). My boyfriend is at $140.
We left WoW’s $15/month for LoL. He spent a bit over $10/month, I spent $5/month. I don’t regret it at all.
I’m in the $100-150 range and I’ve been playing a few weeks short of a year. This has gotten me about half the champions, 13 skins, a 7-page rune bundle, and some XP/IP boosts while I was leveling myself up.
I have almost 600 games played, which at an average of 40 minutes per game, is roughly 400 hours worth of entertainment. Well worth it, imho!
I don’t know that every game would fit well with the LoL business model, but Riot has definitely proven it can be successful with MOBAs. I think FPS games may go this way soon too.
Valve would be insane to charge for DotA2. It’s all about reaching a critical mass of players, and when you charge for your game up front, it really limits your potential.
LoL will be the WoW of the MOBA genre – why would someone risk $$ up front to play DotA2 when they could play LoL for free? They’re basically the same game, with minor strategic/design tweaks.
Dota 2 is free…
I been a cheap ass and only spent $15 on LoL. Another F2P game I play much more frequently (World of Tanks ) I spent around $75
Overall I dont feel bad because I wasnt forced to “pony up” and it those 2 games definetely warmed me up for f2p model
Real gamers don’t buy gold ammo bro.
Fight the good fight!
$45 in about 8 months of regular play.
I don’t get that much play time out of $60 SPGs, generally, with very few exceptions.
I think $20, my first or second was a bad experience… I never got IP for $10 I spent and I had to push paypal again and again to get my money back, even threatening to never use paypal again.
I’m assuming you mean RP, not IP? You can’t buy IP.
Also did you email Riot about it? They are usually very fast to respond to that stuff.
yer RP, i did email them but at that point in time their service was horrible
I would pay money for auto levels in this game. I really would like to see what champions the opposing team picks. Would make the game a lot better. Also tier 3 runes for jungling. And a rating system.
Leveling in non mmo makes me sad :((((
$150+ LOL….I am so glad I came by your blog today! now I feel so much better! :D
Pingback: More DLC as Something-Something | Kill Ten Rats
Pingback: Who are you, and what did you do with the Syncaine I know? | Game Ninja
The challenge is finding the right thing to sell. LOL has champions, Skins and Boosts. I for one only buy champs, though clearly people are buying skins (and I guess boosts). Champions effect gameplay, skins do not.
As and aside, Firefall has its work cut out because they don’t have champions they instead have battleframes, which seem more like classes then anything else. It is hard to make a new class every two weeks, so they will be stuck with Boosts and Skins as their only products and it isn’t clear those are enough to be sustaining.
That said, it is F2P so I’m definitely join to try it out no matter what. They get their shot.
I have spent over 500 lol
Is it sad that just last month i passed the $1,500 mark? i think i may have a spending problem…
i would have spent $350+ on LoL but i own all but 2 champs and alot of skins.
I think i’m up to about $600 worth of skins.
Personally I’m waiting for Path of Exile – True F2P Diablo 2 successor, with graphics at least brought up to present day, and no P2Win? Yes Please! Open Beta tomorrow.
http://www.pathofexile.com
Not sure how their shop will work down the road, but charging for permanent bank slots and character slots will only work short-mid term.
Pingback: Oh noes, I used the item shop! | MMO Gypsy – Wandering online Worlds
Well I have wasted around 700 euros on LoL. :P
around $180 :P
( i got 2 accounts and buyed also new champs wih rp :P )