NCsoft begins selling 14-day MMO trials at retail

by Samuel Axon on May 15th 2008 7:00AM

City of Heroes, City of Villains, Guild Wars, Lineage 2, Business models, MMO industry, News items, Tabula Rasa

NCsoft Europe announced that it has begun selling in the U.K. what it calls "starter packs" for some of its games - City of Heroes, City of Villains, Guild Wars, and Lineage II. Tabula Rasa will follow later in the year. The packs cost £1.99 at retail, and come with all game content plus a two week trial subscription period, encouraging players to return to buy the game at retail when the period ends.

This is essentially your standard 14-day trial -- a staple in the industry -- made available through retail for would-be subscribers who might not come across such opportunities on the web. NCsoft hopes that this move will net some new customers -- especially for its struggling properties.

"In an ever increasingly digitally orientated retail environment, encouraging players to return to retail is a win-win for both outlet and publisher," said an NCsoft rep. We had heard that the whole digital download thing could be the saving grace of the PC platform, but whatever!

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Tags: city-of-heroes, city-of-villains, coh, cov, cox, demo, europe, guild-wars, lineage-2, lineage-ii, ncsoft, ncsoft-europe, publishing, retail, subscription, tabula-rasa, trial, uk

Reader Comments (2)

This is a good idea... provided you can FIND a trial disc when you want a trial. I was hunting for a Guild Wars trial disc and couldn't find one. Then I remembered that I'm not a starving college student anymore, and that a one-time $25 fee (prices at your local/online retailer may vary) for a full copy of a game that has no monthly fees isn't a prohibitive expense in the way that a game which goes away if you stop paying can be.

The irony? Inside the game box was a set of trial codes.

So....not only do i have to go track down a disk and pay money for a "free trial" but then i have to go back and buy a box to keep playing??

NCSoft is completely out of touch with reality on this. There are several people i know who would love to give TR a shot, but there is no demo and they sure as hell arent buying the game without trying it.