Cryptic Puts Lifetime Subscriptions For Its MMOs On Sale

[vansau]

Cryptic Puts Lifetime Subscriptions For Its MMOs On Sale

If you love either Star Trek Online or Champions Online, you might want to think about taking advantage of Cryptic's latest sale.

Lifetime subscriptions to MMOs aren't a bad idea, when you stop to think about them. If you know you're going to play a game for longer than two years or so, the subscriptions will eventually end up saving you a lot of money (provided the game doesn't die before then), and they provide a lot of cash up front for developers/publishers. Special lifetime deals were offered for Champions Online and Star Trek Online before they launched, and Cryptic Online has brought the offer back.

Lifetime subscriptions to both games are on sale for $239.00 each, down from the regular $299.00 price tag. The sale is tied to two big events coming up for Cryptic's games: Star Trek Online is approaching its first anniversary and Champions Online is about to launch its free-to-play version. The sale is going to run from January 25th until February 4th.

According to Massively, the lifetime subscription still has appeal for hardcore Champions Online players, even though the game's about to become free: "Champions' F2P version is permanently restricted in several ways, such as limiting players to playing archetype templates instead of being able to build their own character. Whether one is preferable to the other is up to you, of course."

Source: Massively

Permalink

 

[uppitycracker]

lifetime subscriptions can save you a lot of money, but they're usually quite the gamble, especially with all the MMO's that have gone under so quickly, or eventually go free to play. granted with champions, it's already a pretty well established game, but i'd be a little hesitant after the release of DCUO, especially with how old champions is. star trek, who knows, i haven't really kept up on the success of that one.

 

[Danpascooch]

This would be nice for WoW, though I wouldn't get it now. Maybe 2 years ago, but not now.

I honestly don't think WoW is going to be very relevant in 5 years or so.

 

[Danpascooch]

I wish WoW had this, actually, I wish they had it two years ago.

Personally I think WoW is in for a very slow death. My guess is in about 5 years, it's still going to be profiting, but it won't be indisputably more popular than everything else anymore.

 

[Sixcess]

It might be an okay offer for STO, but Champions? The choice between putting dev time into a major IP like Star Trek or the already struggling Champions is no choice at allm so I don't see CO delivering the content to justify this. This feels like a last ditch effort to squeeze some money out of CO before they leave it to gather dust in F2P hell.

 

[vxicepickxv]

DCUO also has lifetime membership, but I don't think it's going to be that great a game.

 

[viranimus]

Yeah.. hrm... I dont know I would be convinced to drop 300$ on a game that might be shut down or sold off within a year.

Wasn't impressed with Champions, and wasn't impressed with STO, as honestly both games seemed fairly last gen MMO. In the face of ToR, DCUO, GW2 and the next gen MMOs on the horizon this is a fairly tough sale. Perhaps if Cryptic was a better developer, and didnt stay so far behind the curve, but as it stands, Not interested, thanks, but no.

 

[beniki]

It's interesting that they have those choices. I wouldn't want to shell out that much cash in one go though.

Especially since both those games still feel unfinished. I love some of the ideas Cryptic have. In my opinion they make the best role playing games of the whole genre... in STO you can actually spend all your time exploring new worlds and civilisations, and have a fully customisable bridge crew.

But there are bugs aplenty in those games, and awkward transitions. Some of the level designs just don't make a lot of sense, and I get a reward failure at least once per evening.

Great games... just not finished yet.

 

[Snotnarok]

Buy up your lifetime memberships soon, before they go under or before they go free to play!

 

[Irridium]

I wish WoW had this, actually, I wish they had it two years ago.

Personally I think WoW is in for a very slow death. My guess is in about 5 years, it's still going to be profiting, but it won't be indisputably more popular than everything else anymore.

There was that chart that was leaked a while ago that basically said Blizzard had at least 2 more expansions planned. Those should keep the game good for another 5 years.

But I see what your saying though. I just think it'll take longer then 5 years for it to start.

 

[RoBi3.0]

DCUO also has lifetime membership, but I don't think it's going to be that great a game.

I played in the beta and loved the game. It is one of the better MMOs that I have played in a while. If Sony had offered a lifetime sub for the PS3 I may have subbed up. Instead I spent that money on a XBOX.

The PC life sub was only 199.00 which is very reasonable.

On a side note I am sad to hear at champions is restricting F2P characters to templates. That seems very counter productive to me.

 

[Ohlookit'sMatty]

Now I know this sounds good on paper but you are still paying for a 'lifetime subscription' that unless you play for a min of 4years you won't break even // now you have to ask yourself, how many MMO's are still running after four years

Hell even if WoW did a sale like this I propable wouldn't go in for it as who knows if I'll still be playing by then

-M

 

[ishist]

There are not many games I would shell out a lifetime sub for. A lifetime sony station pass as long as they keep adding games to the list, SWTOR because I have 100% faith in Bioware making a game I will love. and that's all I can think of at the moment, unless a few others offer lifetime subs for ~$100.

 

[Nieroshai]

This would be nice for WoW, though I wouldn't get it now. Maybe 2 years ago, but not now.

I honestly don't think WoW is going to be very relevant in 5 years or so.

I think WoW still has a lot of life in it, because that's exactly what people say about it before every expansion. And every expansion not only brought potentially bored players back into the fold, but brought in millions of new players. But I think WoW should do some kind of reduction in price or a yearly subscription for the cost of a full $60 game. Or make the game itself more expensive ($60?) for a first-time buy then a $5 a month fee? I mean really, this game rakes in the cash big time, I think there are enough of us that Blizzard can cut us some slack.

 

[timmins]

This is still well above the going rate for STO. If you want a lifetime sub for that, just google around, and you can find them for half that price from players who bought in early and don't want them any more. And buying a lifetime subscription to a free to play game? Even if you DO get a bunch of extra benefits, the temptation to destroy the value of your subscription with a cash shop might be pretty big for the developer.

Star Trek Online has a lot of cash shop item problems itself, with some really powerful endgame ships being either literally only available for cash money (the guramba siege destroyer), or effectively a cash shop only item (the only way to get the Galaxy Dreadnought cruiser without paying cash is to get five friends to buy the game through the referral program, for way more than the going rate (amazon.com was selling the game for $2.50 this christmas, it's 20 bucks on the official site), and then subscribing for an additional month at 15 dollars each.

This sounds like a terrible deal. Star trek online's lifetime subs are not only worth vastly less than this deal, but are easily purchased for far less, and champions online is literally about to go free to play. And that's even if the games do not get seriously messed up in the near future by publisher money grabs, like the only cruiser class ship that can mount cannons costing $25 American.

 

[Nieroshai]

I wish WoW had this, actually, I wish they had it two years ago.

Personally I think WoW is in for a very slow death. My guess is in about 5 years, it's still going to be profiting, but it won't be indisputably more popular than everything else anymore.

There was that chart that was leaked a while ago that basically said Blizzard had at least 2 more expansions planned. Those should keep the game good for another 5 years.

But I see what your saying though. I just think it'll take longer then 5 years for it to start.

I don't think this'll hapen until a better MMO comes out. Aion tried, and even emulated most of WoW's features, but just like DDO, I played for 3 months and decided I missed the atmosphere of WoW.

 

[timmins]

Midnight alone, your math is off. at 15 bucks a month, plus getting the game free with a lifetime sub, if you had bought a lifetime sub at the launch of STO, you would break even in less than seventeen months, assuming you would have bought the game at $50, and the lifetime sub was 300. So the break even point for people who would have subbed from launch up to now would actually be this summer, not 3 years from now.

And assuming that the business model doesn't change, At 240, the break even point is still about the same (16-17 months), if you figure the game is currently worth less than it's one month subscription cost at present.

 

[Optimystic]

This would be nice for WoW, though I wouldn't get it now. Maybe 2 years ago, but not now.

I honestly don't think WoW is going to be very relevant in 5 years or so.

Funny, that's what people said 5 years ago ;-)

As for Champions, 10 bucks says their "create your own character" schtick ends up being added to the store at some point, making the whole "get the lifetime subscription or lose this feature forever!!!" lose its punch.

 

[mythgraven]

Buy up your lifetime memberships soon, before they go under or before they go free to play!

Right on. I played STO for about 3 months before I called it quits. People throw the phrase "Swirling the bowl" around, and when I say that STO is doing this, I dont mean that tomorrow the servers are going to have their plugs pulled... but I do wholeheartedly believe that STO will be F2P within a year.

The game was fun, but the community is just as unhelpful and selfish as any other MMO community. The action was a blast in space, and completely abysmal on the ground. The cash shop is the biggest running scam Ive seen in an MMO, with scores of detractors and defenders, and the most tissue thin reasoning behind it.


Frankly, there just isnt enough "game" here, to justify a subscription fee. Because Trek has a built in fanbase millions strong, I have no doubt the Cryptic Store will continue to make money, but please do not fool yourself into thinking that money is being put into the game.

This is an attempt to grab as many $300 subs as they can.


Whiskey Echo!!
Mythgraven