
What's the best subscription model for an online game? - chestersquirrel
I&#x27;m a dev coming from an eCommerce SaaS background, where subscription pricing, either monthly or yearly, is the norm.  Recently I acquired an online multiplayer game, and since it&#x27;s my first time in the gaming industry I&#x27;m wondering if the same ideas work here?<p>The game has a hybrid monetization model. There are in-game purchases, and also a subscription plan.  Sales are split about evenly between the two.<p>For the subscriptions, originally they offered 1 month, 3 month, 6 month, and Lifetime subscription plans.  When I came on board the first thing I did was eliminate the Lifetime subscription option (replacing  it with a 1 year plan).  I know from my SaaS background that lifetime plans are a killer.  (You collect money from the customer 1 time, but are obligated to provide support to them forever.  It&#x27;s like a ponzi scheme where you rely on money from new customers to keep paying your support staff dealing with old customers.)<p>However I now have 2 problems:<p>1) Sales are down. At first I thought it was just a &quot;rain shadow&quot; from all those lifetime subscriptions that had already been sold.  (Also the old owner was doing a big sale on lifetime subscriptions before I started, and a ton of people bought it.)   But now it&#x27;s 6 months later and sales are still down.<p>2) People are always asking me why there isn&#x27;t a lifetime option. Now some of those people have been around the game for a long time so they would remember we had it before, but some people are new to the game and asking about it.  I see some other online games offer lifetime plans, so is that just a thing in the gaming business?<p>So my questions are... should I offer a lifetime subscription?  Should I get rid of subscriptions entirely and focus on in-game purchases?  Or something else?<p>Your thoughts are much appreciated!
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gnikif
Hard to advise without knowing your product metrics. But on general online
games are notorious for low retention. A lifetime plan might make sense, since
the anticipated lifetime might be low and economics would add up.

Pull up the historical data if you can on how lifetime plan performed in your
company when it was in place. If you know retention for the users, that
purchased the plan and the acquisition cost, you can check, whether the
lifetime plan makes sense.

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Chrslaurent
Increase the price of your lifetime subscription, and make other subscription
more attractive. They will stop complaining and naturally switch to shorter
one

