John Smedley gives interesting tweets on DC Universe Online

Not pictured: John Smedley dancing in his office.

DC Universe Online is one of the most recent games to make the business model change over to free-to-play, but that alone isn't an assurance of a game's success. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. And according to the latest Twitter posts by John Smedley on his feed, that pudding is exceptionally rich; Since the business model switch, the game's revenues have been up an astonishing 700% per day, with 53% of the revenue coming from the PlayStation 3 players.

The playerbase is growing, as well, with about a 6% increase per day. Apparently, 85% of players are returning players, and it would seem that many of them are happy with what they see judging by the growth in both revenue and total population. Enough to purchase more characters, even -- extra character slots are one of the most popular items in the cash shop, with the Vanguard of the Heavens skin being the other most popular item. It's an interesting set of numbers, showing that the proof is most certainly in the pudding -- and it's quite a lot of pudding.

Reader Comments (30)

Good to hear! May this be one gigantic poke in the eye for the F2P naysayers. :P

@pcgneurotic
Meh, I'm more interested to hear about 6 months from now. They got $5 from me, but I've already quit playing.

they should've went F2P before the whole "mega server" deal.

@warpax

Agreed. Looks like they may even have to split the Megaserver.

@warpax

Why? Doesn't make any difference. /boggle

If someone wasn't going to pay after the megaservers, they weren't going to pay before.

@real65rcncom but if they wouldve went f2p first then everyone wouldnt have to be dealing with all the server issues from going to "mega server"

@warpax There we no real problems going to Megaservers. The problem was going from 30k subscribers to 1 million players overnight. A 2x2x2 box isn't going to fit a 10x10x10 item no matter how many dividers you put in the box.
Structurally, the phases should make the need for separate server unnecessary.
Smedley's tweet in response to the Vanguard FTP question was also interesting, practically a "yes".

How long has it been, a week or two?

It's been said before, but it's worth repeating: an MMO is a marathon, not a sprint.

@jealouspirate

That's the thing. The servers were very busy at launch too... for about a month, when everyone realized that it took less than a week to hit level cap, and they were already tired of the small amount of content the game had, and still has. DCUO = queue for instances at endgame, and that's really all there is that's worthwhile to do.

The combat was pretty interesting, but not nearly good enough to keep people playing this shallow MMO that turns into a hyper-repetitive lobby game at the end.

Good for them!

I wasn't inclined to download the game, not being a superhero-genre fan, but under pressure from a younger family member I took the plunge and was surprised at the quality of the game.

The combo-clickfest grows on you, and my only complaint so far with the game is that it's so damned tough for an acrobat to keep up with a super-speed hero while questing.

The Ps3 response is good news for the forthcoming Dust 514

there haven't been any login queues (PC) since the first week. no need to split it up. wait a month until all the f2p players leave and the true fans ( players) are the only ones remaining

Daily revenue increases of 700%? Seeing as it was a montlhy subscription with a cash shop - does that 700% mean an increase in daily cash shop spending? And if the number was low to begin with, it does not necessarily mean it equate to greater profit than original monthly subscription model. Seeing as players are now spending small amounts in the store to cover the basics of what they had access to in the subscription based model.

If Smed's numbers indicate a 700% profit increase over their monthly intake prior to F2P then that is a good difference.

Well, if it makes Smed happy that these numbers are better than before. Then SOE's decision to go F2P was a good one. :D

@(Unverified)

revenue would include the subscription, keyword being revenue.

The 700% will largely be coming from the DLC, it'll be more telling how it's panning out when there hasn't been a DLC for two months (since the revenue will decrease due to nothing worth buying in the marketplace)

@Protoavis There releasing the Flash DLC next month which comes with a new powerset, thats content to me

Revenues were pretty far down in the toilet. 700 times nuthin' is still nuthin'.

Still... it'd be nice if they survived. I love the property, even if I'm not crazy with the poor design choices. It's remotely possible that given time, it could mature into a game worth playing for more than a few weeks.

well not really surprising. At the time of the original release it kind of seemed that a lot of people liked the game but just weren't willing to part with a monthly subscription. The f2p model should make those people more willing to come back and hopefully spend a little here and there.

I'm happy for SOE. I am really liking DCUO. I have already converted my two Clone Wars Adventures accounts to DCUO Premium. And I am probably going to give my son the Station Cash to convert his account.

My wife (a CWA player) even made a character on her DCUO account, but she was shocked, appalled....and dismayed by the upper chest region of the DCUO female characters.

@(Unverified)

The weird thing is the bust size changes depending on what you wear. Skimpy clothes = bigger boobs... weird but true logic.

@(Unverified) Player models are pretty much stock Unreal player models so go blame all the console droolboi's for the large chested women models. Look pretty much the same in Global Agenda also but there it's hidden by the large armor chunks you wear.

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John Smedley gives interesting tweets on DC Universe Online

Reader Comments (30)

Posted: Nov 21st 2011 6:33PM pcgneurotic said

Posted: Nov 21st 2011 10:43PM KvanCetre said

Posted: Nov 21st 2011 6:37PM warpax said

Posted: Nov 21st 2011 6:50PM Faction 3 said

Posted: Nov 21st 2011 6:57PM real65rcncom said

Posted: Nov 21st 2011 7:05PM warpax said

Posted: Nov 22nd 2011 1:14AM Furdinand said

Posted: Nov 21st 2011 6:46PM jealouspirate said

Posted: Nov 22nd 2011 1:14AM AnathemaOne said

Posted: Nov 21st 2011 6:58PM Borick said

Posted: Nov 21st 2011 7:21PM Lateris said

Posted: Nov 21st 2011 7:34PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 21st 2011 8:07PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 22nd 2011 1:59AM Protoavis said

Posted: Nov 22nd 2011 8:56AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 21st 2011 8:19PM Yukon Sam said

Posted: Nov 21st 2011 8:32PM madcartoonist said

Posted: Nov 21st 2011 8:35PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 21st 2011 11:22PM Dirame said

Posted: Nov 22nd 2011 2:24AM Amusednow said

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