SOE VP talks microtransactions and the future

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Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Business models, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play

If you're a fan of Sony Online Entertainment and curious as to how free-to-play and RMT will affect its stable of MMOs in the future, ZAM's got a new interview that's worth a read.

The piece features Laura Naviaux, senior VP of global sales and marketing for SOE, and she shares an interesting nugget relating to digital currency and real-money player markets. "I think everybody gets excited about potentially being able to create user-generated content to sell it to their peers, etc. There are a lot of different ways to slice and dice that, and it's something that we're watching," Naviaux says.

She also speaks to the success of EverQuest II thanks to its free-to-play switch, as well as some of the more popular cash shop items (mounts currently account for approximately 25% of the game's revenue). Finally, Naviaux acknowledges the challenges inherent in the business model going forward, and how they stem in large part from knowing how much is too much. "I don't think that anybody wants a game where you can outright buy power that makes the game unfair and un-fun, and that is a line we don't want to cross. But there are a lot of shades of grey in there, and that's something we want the players to determine," she explains.SOE VP talks microtransactions and the future originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.




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