Battle.Net fees?! Say it ain't so Blizzard!!

[Raedon]

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/BlizzCon-08-New-Battle-Net-Will-Have-Fees-12751.html

BlizzCon 08: New Battle.Net Will Have Fees
By Pete Haas: 2008-10-12 11:55:34


A new version of the multiplayer browser Battle.Net will debut with Starcraft II. How will it be superior to the previous version? Well, it'll be able to hit you up for money.

During a BlizzCon 08 panel discussion, Diablo 3 director Jay Wilson said, "We are looking to monetize Battle.Net so that we get to keep making these games and updating features. We kind of have to.” Blizzard wants to avoid putting in a subscription but yes, some as-yet-unknown features will cost money.

Apparently Activision really likes the word "monetize". They've been using it a lot lately, first with Guitar Hero: World Tour, then with Call of Duty: World At War, and now Battle.Net. Guess they've settled on a strategy for their top franchises from here on out.

Quite possible the paid content for Battle.Net is something superfluous, like custom avatars for the browser. If they tried to sell special items or some such, an angry mob with pitchforks would gather. It's also possible Wilson was talking about additional episodes for the game. Whatever it is, be sure to keep your wallet handy.

[Poofta!]

i guess theyre strapped for cash... too bad they dont have some kind of MMO to bring in more money than any other game ever has... *sigh*

[G-Boobie]

It's disappointing, but not surprising.

Isn't it weird how quickly Activision has become the "new EA"? It seems like it took less than a year.

[boatofcar]

Damn them for wanting to make money. It's almost like they're a business or something. And the way they force us to buy the games! It's criminal!

[Icarus Moonsight]

Extremely disappointing. Oh well, goodbye Blizzard. You're officially dead to me. I know they are going to make a killing, but they're not getting a dime off me.

[Lothars]

I love how you all are so quick to judge, this comment was refering to there being dlc for diablo 3,

They have said repeatedly that they will not charge for B.Net but might for some features for it or other DLC.

I will try to find the links but that joystiq link and most of the other links are wrong and spreading around false information.

[Raedon]

Well, if they do charge I hope they don't charge people with World of Warcraft accounts.

[carlcarlson]

Sheesh, lots of overreacting going on in here. If there is a subscription fee, then yes, I'll join your party, but I don't think that's the plan. I'll wait until they release details to get all pissy. My fingers are crossed that it's just cosmetic stuff. If it's items or anything like that, though, then I'll bump this thread with some expletives. Just you wait!

[JunkTheMagicDragon]

bah, single player and lan campaigns are where it's at for diablo anyways.

i'm just happy as hell they kept diablo like d2 and not a diablo-skinned wow.

[Starwander]

I have always thought that Blizzard should sell equipment for their online games like Diablo 2 on closed Battle.net. It would be a great source of revenue and before anyone mentions that it gives an unfair advantage to certain player’s just type in “Diablo 2 Items” into a Google search to see that it is indeed a thriving market.

[Trebuken]

Isn't World of Warcrfat bringing in an immense amount of money? I hope they'll keep it free theopugh I suspect they'll add the micro-transaction options that they can. Hopefully it will keep Diablo 3 accounts and items from being auctioned on ebay...

[geneshifter]

Good thing D3 will be on PC so that hackers can make this playable with client-side servers and bypassing BN.

[cyberfluxor]

I don't mind a monthly payment with Diablo 3 after I've beaten single player. When it comes out I'll have this game on hot priority.


Good thing D3 will be on PC so that hackers can make this playable with client-side servers and bypassing BN.

Yes, nothing like relying on others to receive an illegal server dump or reverse engineer the client/host data to manipulate it into a hacked server. Fun times playing on servers rampid with hacks, cheaters, modifications, and admins with complete control over your account and no EULA.

[geneshifter]

I don't mind a monthly payment with Diablo 3 after I've beaten single player. When it comes out I'll have this game on hot priority.



Yes, nothing like relying on others to receive an illegal server dump or reverse engineer the client/host data to manipulate it into a hacked server. Fun times playing on servers rampid with hacks, cheaters, modifications, and admins with complete control over your account and no EULA.

Uh, OK.

[boatofcar]

The overreaction in this thread is just epic.

[Raedon]

I don't mind a monthly payment with Diablo 3 after I've beaten single player. When it comes out I'll have this game on hot priority.



Yes, nothing like relying on others to receive an illegal server dump or reverse engineer the client/host data to manipulate it into a hacked server. Fun times playing on servers rampid with hacks, cheaters, modifications, and admins with complete control over your account and no EULA.

Diablo II wasn't exactly a 'hack-free' environment on Battle.net either.

[Nirvana]

Dammit. That's why I loved Diablo II so much. Gotta love the freeness.

[carlcarlson]

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/13/blizzcon-2008-rob-pardo-talks-battle-net-monetizing/


Wow, that's an evil way of putting it. Julian's turning into a business guy on me. Here's the way I would put it. We're definitely not looking at turning Diablo into a subscription based game. It's clearly not an MMO, so it's not appropriate to do a business model like that. The way we approach all of our games now, is we come up with what we think is a great game, and then we wrap the appropriate business model around it. If that's just a box price, then that's that.

With Battle.Net we're definitely looking at possible different features that we might be able to do for additional money. We're not talking about Hellgate or anything like that. We're not going to tack things on. I think World of Warcraft is a great example to look at. We charge people if they want to switch servers or if they want name changes, things that aren't core to the game experience, they're really just optional things that some people want. It takes us some development work to do it, so it makes sense to charge for it. We would never do something like say to get the full game experience, you'll have to pay extra.

Not quite confirmed, but it sounds like it will still be free to play and the only monetized features won't be in-game.

[Raedon]

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/13/blizzcon-2008-rob-pardo-talks-battle-net-monetizing/



Not quite confirmed, but it sounds like it will still be free to play and the only monetized features won't be in-game.

That leaves the door fairly wide open. I'm sure it won't be $10 a new level or something like that but I'd love to know exactly what Blizzard means by such a vague statement.

[carlcarlson]

We're not going to tack things on. I think World of Warcraft is a great example to look at. We charge people if they want to switch servers or if they want name changes, things that aren't core to the game experience, they're really just optional things that some people want. It takes us some development work to do it, so it makes sense to charge for it. We would never do something like say to get the full game experience, you'll have to pay extra.


That leaves the door fairly wide open. I'm sure it won't be $10 a new level or something like that but I'd love to know exactly what Blizzard means by such a vague statement.

I'd say that's fairly specific. He's not going to give us a list but he pretty much says that nothing that is in the actual game will cost money.

[nate1749]

They should have free servers for everyone then a very expensive pay servers that are monitored constantly and prevent all cheating. I'll pay $100 a month for that no problem (well maybe $100 is a little high, but I'd pay a lot!), I hate all the cheaters and is why I stopped going on battle.net 8 or 9 years ago.

Nate

[Volcanon]

Why dont they just not make crappy netcode so the game can't be hacked in the first place?