The latest dev blog from Goblinworks, makers of the upcoming Pathfinder Online (currently holder of the very distinguished “Next sandbox MMO least likely to suck” award) talks money, specifically that they spent 1.9m in 2013.
Numbers are fun, especially once this game is released and we see just what 1.9m in a year really gets you. We know what 300m+ from EA gets us (Tortanic), we know 38 Studios wasn’t able to create much of anything with a giant pile of (Rhode Island’s) money, we know the relative cost of WAR, and now we will see what happens here and with the slew of other Kickstarter MMOs.
Side note: The screenshots in the dev blog look refreshing, in that the world won’t be a neon crapland of ‘magic’. The closer someone comes to making a game that looks and feels like a Mount and Blade Online game, the better.
Hardcore Casual 
Looks great. I might actually kick in some money for it.
I’ve been following Pathfinder for a while now and have been cautiously optimistic about the project. My main qualms about the project lie with Ryan Dancey’s checkered past. It might still prove to be another Dark and Light.
“Dancey [CEO of Pathfinder Online developer Goblinworks] said that upon launch, Pathfinder Online will be a subscription-only MMO, but suspects the business model will change over time.” — Any news source on the web.
So they are already planning to get some money from “subscriptions are magic!” people at the start and after the four month tourist rush is over, they’ll change to more lucrative free to play. But I’m sure this will never happen with TESO, Bethesda will never have any item store selling, say, a horse armor or something similar.
ASL, you keep talking about making money, but I come here to read about interesting games not about making money.
Well, you see, the general consensus among subscriptionists (members of the church of monthly subscriptions) seems to be that subscriptions make any game greater than it would otherwise be and free to play makes the game a total crap. That’s why a complete failure like Darkfail is the greatest ever and something like Path of Exile can never be good because it costs nothing to play.
Now, in my opinion, the business model has almost nothing to with a game being good or bad. Based on what I’ve seen from TESO so far, it would be a crap on a stick whether it would be free-to-play, buy-to-play or a subscription game. If I had to buy League of Legends it would be just as good game as it is now when I get to play it without paying anything at all. Similarly, most Korean free-to-play mmos are a total waste of time and they wouldn’t turn into happy fun lands made of pure joy if they had monthly subscriptions. But that’s just my opinion.
I’m looking forward to seeing Pathfinder Online. I hope it’ll be good. And hey, it seems that I get to test it for free, too, as they’re planning on going free-to-play already.
If ASL were doing this on purpose, he’d be a fairly talented comedian.
I will promise to act surprised when TESO goes free to play and people here will claim that with subscriptions it was more magical than Drizzt Do’urden fighting the Balrog in Westeros but since then it’s unplayable because it has no subscription fees.
What do you promise to do if that doesn’t happen?
Can u name one MMORPG not a moba game that has succeeded with a f2p model? Since its so lucrative…..meh this is actually what I expect from a LoL player. U will pry pay for hearthstone just cuz blizzard makes the best games even tho they are as far from f2p as u can get. Sub model.with free expansions is the only model. If u have a good game ppl will pay u monthly for it that simple. Hell u don’t even need a good game just good marketing look at WoW. LoL is a terribad dota knock off. If u have to have your dota dumbed down smite is way better then LoL but still dumbed down compared to dota 2. But the one thing all 3 games have in common is BECAUSE Of the f2p model they have communities that are just terrible. MMORPGs in f2p end up just like that. Mostly cuz the ppl that can’t afford $15 a month are 10yr old kids. Comparing moba games to mmorpgs is apples to oranges tho. But it nothing magical if the game sucks as sub they go f2p so they can get some of that sucker whale money. Its just how it works if u think ppl actually develop games to be f2p from the ground up outside moba I got some swamp land for sale