Why B2P Is The Future Of MMO Payment

For the last twenty years, the subject of payment when it comes to your favourite MMO has always been up for debate. We’ve had numerous options available; from free-to-play, subscription, to a few more not worth mentioning. Payment methods for games has always been a hot topic, but the newest, in the form of buy-to-play, may just be the new and future standard for the industry.

If you’re looking to start playing a new MMO, the method of payment can often be the tiebreaker – a subscription can lock in every month, while a free-to-play model may seem great at first, but the additional paywalls can keep you locked from much of the content. It’s very much up to personal preference, but the recent push for buy-to-play games may be the only choice within the next few years. These are some of the reasons why.

1. Free-To-Play Barely Worked
There was never anything wrong behind the concept of F2P. The idea was that the player would be able to download and start playing immediately, and the devs would recoup their costs by offering additional content that came with a charge. The problem is that people became greedy, and they knew that locking content behind a paywall would allow some players to have access to better gear/stats/skills, and others would be coerced into spending more than they should to have the same level of gear/stats/skills.



2. True Ownership
Ownership is something that has been debated when it came to subscription – the fact of the matter is that if you owned a game that used a subscription model, the moment you hadn’t paid, you would no longer have access to that game. With B2P, you own that game, you can play that game whenever you want, and you never have to worry about your account being suspended.


3. A Larger Demand
We live in an age where games are churned out a dozen at a time, and having to spend money on every game that comes across your Steam store-front, especially if it’s subscription-based, would mean running out of cash fairly quickly. B2P means paying for that game once, having it in your library forever, and allows you to move on to other games if you need a break from your current one – without having to continue your subscription.


4. It’s Once-Off
The real benefit here is that there are no hidden costs, or at least, the costs that you pay still give you full access to the game. The microtransaction era has hit a lot of gamers hard, and in a constantly changing financial climate, it’s better to have paid for something once than have a recurring monthly payment, especially when that money could be put into something else, like streaming sites or online betting NZ, or even just paying rent. The hope is that B2P becomes more practical, more wide-spread, and allows gamers much more freedom.