Notes

EVE Evolution The Secret To EVE Online's EVE Online's Success

Space-based MMO EVE Online was not an immediate success when it launched in 2003. It was launched to much less fanfare than newer games are used to and had only 50,000 subscriptions in late 2004. EVE was targeted at a specific segment of the MMO market that was new to sci-fi. It was hard to estimate the number of people who would be interested in. Additionally, World of Warcraft, which came out in late 2004, attracted a large part of the MMO market, causing significant disruption to subscription numbers. Despite all the initial issues, EVE Online has been a massive success with consistent increase in the number of subscribers. What is the secret to their success, you may ask?



With just a few days to go until the release of the Apocrypha expansion and box versions of EVE are available in stores I look back at the choices CCP made and suggest what other developers can take away from EVE's story of success.



Free expansions: The typical MMO development model is to charge for regular expansions that add new areas and content. EVE Online has taken a different approach, and it has been a huge part 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 released for free and applied to the entire game world. This could be less of a problem to the developers since they don't have to support old content that is changed with an expansion, and there's no need to separate players into different areas depending on the expansions they have. In addition, the idea of getting free expansions helps to get more subscriptions, and the revenue generated over time by those subscriptions easily outweighs the money they'd earn from charging for expansions.



Iterative development: While most MMOs will offer free balance and bug fix patches throughout the year, few will release all their new content for free. EVE Online does, and it's part of an method of development that is iterative, meaning that the game is an ever evolving product. Instead of seeing the game as a set of individual subscriptions, they are seen as a way to maintain the game's development costs. The result of EVE's constant development is that it keeps players engaged and helps prevent the game becoming boring. In the end, EVE's player retention rates are much higher than the average, which results in an ever-growing increase in the number of subscribers. Players still come into the game at the same pace, however they tend to leave at a slower rate.



This method of development isn't confined to EVE Online. In some form or another, it's been the cornerstone of several other MMOs that all exhibit the same steady growth in subscribers. Lord of the Rings Online updates (called "books") often include new content. runescape-private-servers.com Runescape is a popular game among younger gamers, releases new quests and areas to the game every couple of weeks. The majority of players view their MMO subscriptions as a long-term investment and knowing that they're getting something new every month makes the deal a lot more palatable and will make them less likely to quit.



Server model: I went into more detail about this in a previous article but this article wouldn't be complete without mention of EVE's server model. CCP made the decision early in the game's development to establish a single server where all players would interact instead of creating multiple servers or shards that could be separate instances of the game's world exist. This has had a profound impact on the game's gameplay. It makes territorial conflicts seem more real than if there were other servers. It also provides economic stability in the markets run by players.



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


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