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Going Free-To-Play Triples Lord Of The Rings Online Revenue
Turbine's fantasy MMORPG has seen a 200% increase in income generated since going free-to-play with microtransactions last September. Like it or not, this is what the future looks like.
Speaking on a recent TenTonHammer podcast, Turbine communications director Adam Mersky shared that tidbit along with a similarly impressive figure for another of the company's MMOs, Dungeons & Dragons Online. DDO came back from the brink of death when it was converted to a free-to-play model in 2009, with revenues growing 500% after the change.
The LOTRO figure is much more impressive, as that game had met with reasonable commercial success previously – DDO was a flop out of the gates, and 500% of very little still isn't much. Nonetheless, both numbers are fantastic news for Turbine, and the company deserves congratulations for adapting to the modern MMO marketplace instead of stubbornly clinging to a dying business model (well, dying for everyone who isn't Blizzard, anyway).
[via Gamasutra]
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