Dark Orbit: spend a grand for an in-game upgrade?

[qubit]

You want me to toss in a couple bucks for a sweet mount in your F2P MMO? Sure thing. 10 bucks for a huge content pack? No biggie. Over a thousand dollars for one little drone– wait, what? It may sound crazy to normal folks like you and me, but Bigpoint’s Dark Orbit, a browser-based F2P spaceship MMO, recently sold 2,000 of their in-game drones in just four days, priced at 1,000 Euros each! The sales net Bigpoint around two and a half million dollars.

You’re probably asking yourself, “What are these drones and how can they possibly be worth 356 copies of Orcs Must Die (which is on sale for only $3.74 in today’s Steam sale)?” Dark Orbit is a spaceship MMO and players use drones to help aid their ships during interstellar combat. The most powerful drone is the level 10 Zeus Drone, which is extremely rare and difficult to make, making it a hot commodity for anyone seeking a top position in the game. So Bigpoint decided to sell them at a ridiculously high cost, to see how many would bite–and way more than I would’ve guessed went for it. Pay-to-win may not be an endorsed strategy for many gamers, but sales numbers like these show that people are more than willing to pay for the extra power to step up their game.

Truly a case of a fool and his money are soon parted.

PC Gamer

[W1zzard]

irl friends of mine spent hundreds of euros each month for a f2p mmorpg from the same mfgr

[Jstn7477]

I have friends who dump lots of money into Team Fortress 2, sometimes hundreds a month. I, however, use my money for better computer parts or different games, at least.

[pantherx12]

Reminds me of the gameloft games, have to spend £1000s if you want good stuff, that or grind and grind and grind.

(they do Android games)

[AlienIsGOD]

I used to play this game, my best friend still does. I only spent maybe 50 dollars on it tho and got bored quicky.

[qubit]

You know how these companies normally make their money, don't you?

It's the drip, drip, drip of small expenses. $2 here, $10 there, $4 another time and so on and before you know it, you've spent several hundred dollars.

What I still can't get my head around, is how they managed to sell multiple $1000 single piece upgrades? That's why I just had to post this thread. Unbelievable - I want some of that mojo.

[catnipkiller]

Try world of tanks. Iv seen some1 spend 500$ just for ammo and another 1.5k for tanks. Only sheep that need to feel better then others by spending more money. This is why i will never play free games.

[AlienIsGOD]

IMO LoTRO was the worst, spent over $250 just to get bored of it quickly. Too slow paced for my liking and just about anything good needs to be bought. I could have went VIP, but i prefer WoW over LoTRO and couldn't justify 2 subscriptions.

[Chryonn]

in all honesty, who are we to judge? if they have the money but not the patience to grind, then let them pay for what they want. while i'm not advocating nor condoning such actions, i say let them.

[Solaris17]

Originally Posted by W1zzard

irl friends of mine spent hundreds of euros each month for a f2p mmorpg from the same mfgr

[qubit]

Originally Posted by catnipkiller

Try world of tanks. Iv seen some1 apend 500$ judt for ammo and another 1.5k for tanks. Only sheep that need to feel better then others by spendimg more money. This is why i will never play free games.

Don't you just love the way these "free" games turn out several orders of magnitude more expensive than the traditional ones with a fixed price?

Yup, I won't play them either.

[N-Gen]

I spent along the lines of $1500 in the span of a year and a half on a f2p mmo, and then decided it would be better for my pocket if I just switched to WoW.

[INSTG8R]

Originally Posted by qubit

Don't you just love the way these "free" games turn out several orders of magnitude more expensive than the traditional ones with a fixed price?

Yup, I won't play them either.

Funny how that seems to work out

[Suhidu]

Drones in droves buying drones?

[Mr McC]

Originally Posted by Suhidu

Drones in droves buying drones?

Yes, but they were zeus drones, apparently, so I suppose that justifies it to a certain extent.

[scaminatrix]

Suppose this will keep it free to play for a while

[CrypticDecipher]

In Bigpoints Battlestar Galactica Online I've spent $99 on a big pack of hard to get stuff and like 350,000 of the in game money which I sat and did the math and was a good offer. And I frakking love that game. That was a one time thing, and maybe like $2.99 every now and again for some extra 5,000 in game money but all that money for one thing in that Dark Orbit game? D@mn! At least Bigpoint wont be closing down its servers/ games soon.