Notes

EVE Evolved: the Secret of EVE Online's EVE Online's Success

When it was launched in 2003 space-based MMO EVE Online wasn't an instant success. It was launched to much less attention than the newer titles and claimed only 50,000 subscriptions in the latter half of 2004. Apisa EVE was targeted at a specific segment of the MMO market that was relatively new to sci-fi. It was hard to estimate the number of players who might be interested in. Even worse, World of Warcraft, which was released in late 2004, attracted many of the MMO market, causing a major disruption to its subscriber numbers. Despite all these initial problems, EVE Online has been an enormous success, with steady growth in subscribers. So what has been the secret to their success?



Only a few days remain before the Apocrypha expansion is released and boxed copies of EVE are available in stores. I take a look at the choices CCP made, and offer some suggestions for other developers to learn from EVE’s success story.



Free expansions: The standard MMO model for development involves charging for regular expansions that add new areas and content. EVE Online has taken an alternative strategy that has been a major element of its success. Nathan "Oveur" Richardsson, CCP's Executive Producer said in an interview that he views the cost of expansions an element of the subscription fee. EVE's expansions are therefore made available for free and can be applied to all game players. This can be less of a headache for the developers since they don't have to maintain old content that's modified by an expansion, and there's no need to divide players into different areas based on what expansions they have. Additionally, the idea of getting free expansions helps to gain extra subscriptions and the cash earned over time from these subscriptions easily outweighs the money they'd earn by charging for expansions.



Iterative development: Although most MMOs release balance and bug fixes throughout the year for free however, only a handful of MMOs provide all their latest content free of charge. EVE Online does, and it's part of an iterative development strategy in which the game is an constantly changing product. Instead of seeing the game as a series of individual subscriptions, they are seen as maintenance for ongoing development costs. The result of the game's constant change is that it keeps players interested and prevents the game from becoming dull. The retention rates of EVE's players have been significantly higher than average, which has resulted in a steady increase in players. Players continue to join the game at the same pace, however they tend to leave at a slower rate.



This development strategy is not limited to EVE Online. It's been the basis of several other MMOs which have seen the same steady increase in subscribers in a variety of ways. Lord of the Rings Online updates (called "books") frequently include new content. Runescape, which is popular among younger gamers, releases new quests and zones to the game every few weeks. MMO subscriptions are typically viewed as a long-term investment. Users find that they receive new content every month, which makes the deal more attractive and less likely to cancel.



Server model: Although I've covered this in detail in a previous article, this article would not be complete without mentioning EVE's server model. CCP made the decision early in the game's development to create a single server on which all players could interact instead of creating multiple servers or shards where distinct versions of the game's world are present. This has had far-reaching consequences for gameplay, making territorial disputes appear more real than they would if other servers existed and forging economic stability in the market controlled by players.



The secret behind EVE's success, part two of two


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