Joyride. A free game and new business model for Microsoft.
Submitted by rapture on Fri, 06/05/2009 - 9:31pm.
Joyride will be a FREE video game released on the XBOX Live Arcade by Microsoft.
What’s the catch? Your Avatar customization and micro-transactions inside the game.
While the game will be free, Microsoft is betting on the fact that you’ll want to customize your experience. And I think they’re making a great bet.
After all, when we play a First Person Shooter or especially when we play a Role Playing Game we customize our character in-game. Microsoft has tested this theory by marketing “upgradeable” or “exclusive” in-game items, such as the golden lancer in Gears of War 2.
Gamers want to be unique. Just look at the armor permutations in Halo 3. Would you have paid money for a special weapon? For special armor? For new abilities and equipment?
With Microsoft reporting that they’re expecting to generate $1 Billion, they are already seeing the growth of micro-transactions over their network. Gamers are spending many millions of dollars of maps and downloadable content that months later would be free to download. Gamers want exclusive content.
In Joyride, you’ll be able to play the game for free and you’ll be playing with your Avatar that you’ve got set-up in your New XBOX Experience dashboard. You’ll even be able to share some in-game content with other players for free (e.g., you can send them maps that you’ve gotten).
However, Microsoft is going to sell you upgrades for the game. Besides the obvious upgrades that you can make to your Avatar through the soon-to-be-released Avatar Marketplace, you’ll be able to buy in-game content and features for your presence in the Joyride game. You’ll be able to buy a new car, buy new engines and parts for it in a car marketplace, buy new maps, and unlock new features by paying money.
While it’s uncertain just what exactly you can buy, I wonder if those that can afford the upgrades will have any advantages over those that can’t.
I can’t help but wonder how much money MSBungie would have made it they made, say, the Halo 1 pistol a $10 purchase. Would the majority of hardcore Halo fans have made the purchase?
I know I sure would’ve.
Can you think of any other media or consumable goods that are free but have major accessory markets?
The latest game similar to this that came out last month from Sony Online Entertainment is called Free Realms. http://freerealms.com , a very casual minigame and quest based mmo. Free but a big accessory market.
They got 1 million active players in about a week and a half after release. A week ago they passed 2 million active players. I can't even imagine how much money they are making with the micro transactions.
I have been playing this for about a month and it's a great game. It is sort of "WoW light" because it is quest based like WoW, but is more designed to appeal to a casual audience who doesn't want to spend time just leveling a character. It has quest instances, cart racing, trading card game, etc
It has multiple "jobs" instead of classes, you can switch between jobs on the fly, and you can customize each one with items bought from an accessory market using points similar to xbox live points.
At first glance it's a very kid oriented game, but I think there was a review online somewhere that likened FreeRealms to a good animated movie.. aimed towards kids but can be appreciated by any serious adult.
i play free realms also its pretty fun how it has tower defense bejeweled kart racing and other stuff. U can also become a member and get 5 other jobs more quests and theres tons of exclusive content
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