id CEO terms Quake Live an entertainment success
id CEO Todd Hollenshead says that Quake Live is a creative success, but the company needs to figure out how to make it a financial one as well.
Speaking with vg247.com about the company's entry into the world of free-to-play, Quake Live, id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead said, "The game is an entertainment success, so now we have to figure out how to make the business model work." The reality that's set in, though, is that the in game advertising model hasn't been anywhere near as profitable as hoped. Facebook games, where the advertising is pervasive, thrive on it, but showing players dynamic ads while they play Quake hasn't proven nearly as effective.
In the wake of that failing to generate the income to sustain the game, id implemented a new subscription model, and added traditional Internet advertising such as ads on the site and video advertising. The company hopes to recoup some of its losses through these means. Quake Live certainly isn't dead yet. "As long as I've got an opportunity to try and do something with Quake Live--because I love the game--[I'll do it]," said Hollenshead.
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replyGarnett Lee posted a new article, id CEO terms Quake Live an entertainment success.
id CEO Todd Hollenshead says that Quake Live is a creative success, but the company needs to figure out how to make it a financial one as well.-
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Alas, I love playing new maps and wouldn't mind paying for them, but, from what i've heard, not enough people are around to even fill them since they are subscription only.
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Sadly, this is true. The maps get a huge amount of play during the free or open special event weekends, otherwise you could wait around for ten minutes on an empty premium server waiting for it to fill up. Bring your A-Game too, because most everyone that joins will probably be at least Tier3/borderline Tier 4.
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They are just behind the times in so many ways. I think they need to hire people from Valve.
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I was still playing regular Quake 3 Arena before this came out . Jumped into Quake Live when the beta opened up. It's still the most fast paced, solid multiplayer shooter out there, bar none (Although, I am bias I admit). The one thing I love about it is it brought the community back together again, got the old players back in, giving it a solid community. I haven't gone premium yet, but it is tempting, I just wonder if there's enough players with premium to make premium viable, particularly in Australia where the community is small enough as it is.
I do miss the gibs of the original Q3A though, the sparkle explosion when you get a frag isn't anywhere near as exciting, if they threw that option into premium I'd be sold I think. Which makes me think I might have issues...-
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Rage is clearly a move away from sparkle explosion
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'Entertainment success' was Carmack's own words. The whole quakelive operation seems a bit adrift. Think about all the mediocre crap content that's out there, making money, and id can't turn a profit on a hugely enjoyable product with world class name recognition. What, because Massive went out of business? Whoever's in charge of marketing that product needs a wakeup call.
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Definitely agree. They need way more advertising and a bigger playerbase. The game is rock solid for its deathmatch and game modes, but the gamer population is starved for players.
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Up-time on the servers exceeds 99% of the time. Play it, buy it. Thanks.
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It's not that cut and dry. What about a marketing project? You can sink millions into them in order to bolster sales. It takes money to make money sometimes. Any "free" project released can fall under that same category if you choose it to.
I released a free addon recently and its only purpose was to increase awareness of my paid projects. That in itself doesn't translate into direct cash flow, but it is important, none-the-less.
id's goal was probably to keep the core gamers happy, and in turn the core gamers will spread the word, say nice things about id in message boards, and generally give praise for id's generosity. Valve has a similar following. Such a thing is invaluable.
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I would attribute the poor financial performance to lack of paypal payment option. (Im pretty sure when I paid it was cc only). I've seen handfuls of people that would like to go premium but want to use paypal.
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I just think its a bad fit.
Quake is a hardcore game.... what hardcore gamer wants to play browser based games from years ago? They like to play games that will test their dual GPU graphics to the limits!
Obviously reading the comments there are people who love it but i don't see a big enough appeal to make it successful.-
A hardcore gamer wants to play what's best. That has nothing to do with graphics. It has to do with physics, gameplay, balance etc. The hardcore people are the ones who muddy down the detail to nothing for visibility anyway.
You're thinking of a fidelity whore. One who loves to turn up details they will never notice just to brag about the framerate. That's closer to a wine taster than a gamer.-
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Quakelive doesn't look bad in the sense that many older games look bad. Quake has a distinct enough look that it ages pretty well. In some ways it's more visually pleasing than quake4 mp.
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