Let's Talk Monetization

Sorry. You can never tell around here given some of the ideas.

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True that…

if gleam club enabled you to get more time from your oortshards when fuelling portals, not wiped it out entirely, but maybe doubled the time you currently get, that would be a big plus

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I agree with @CaptAmerica1611 s comments.

New perk 4 guilds…

OORT storage vault that fuels portals that are aligned to the guild if approved by the Guild Master.

Yea it would most likely be a recurring cost for Gleam Club, if $49.99 a month is your thing … you are in the minority. Good way for new players to NOT want to play the game.

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I totally agree.
Suggested that when sovereigns came out. Special type of plot that cannot be used in public worlds:

  1. Basic package upon buying a world.
  2. More to be earned for each refuelling of a sovereign world. (Alternatively xp earned while playing on sovereigns could be shown separately and be translated to new plots, but that seems too complicated and confusing to me. Instead a new premium type of cubits could be introduced with buying sovereign plots being one of the abilities. That would be an additional way of getting sovereign plots, rather than instead of earning them with world fuel).

Owners of sovereigns are often continuously involved in public worlds projects, usually useful and important for the community (hubs, malls, guilds etc.). So making them share plots between public projects and their often excessive and creative use on sovereigns is a burden. Especially that many sovereigns are made to offer public mines and farms for all to use. It makes life easier for all players and should be supported somehow (like the aforementioned plot packages added to the world/world fuel bought).

Those who earn a lot of plots that wouldn’t be used on sovereigns, could give/sell them to others.
Thus coupling sovereign plots system with plot exchanging feature seems a good idea.

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Gc+ would be ok but i dont see new players getting it with the current price that they have to pay For the game. 40€ is Pretty hefty amount.

Personally i would like To see this game drop somewhere around 20 - 30€ market.

Obviously this aint really popular subject but if they go f2p route i think there should be a Wipe (Yes. This is just my opinion).

I agree with @Havok40k that you shouldnt link craft times To anything.

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It is HIGHLY likely we go F2P in 6-9 months

I believe cosmetics are where it is truly at. Pets, weapons, armor, capes, glow effects (like footsteps and transparent wings), and possibly even races. Imagine wearing armor with runescript lit up across it, or capes with different types of enemies or even guild emblems on it. Path of Exile has gotten hundreds if not thousands of dollars from me over the years for different armor sets.

If they release a very simple armor design for each tier in game, they could add in cosmetic armor packages and make a killing. Especially if they put out new themed types of armor and weapon cosmetics every quarter. Make the cosmetics worth $3 to $5 for unique pieces or buy the set for $15-$25 (obviously spit ball numbers). Helms, gloves, shoulders, chest, legs, feet, and back would make things easier, though I don’t know how the models are designed.

It is a safe bet in a lot of ways since it is hard to say cosmetics are pay to win. They could also make them purchasable premium currency and allow people to get a very small amount of it every week from their weekly feat.

These other avenues need to be evaluated/developed before we can really say what gleam club plus should look like. If there is a new premium currency, we need to know what we can get with it and how much would be appropriate to add into gleam plus. If the goal is just to make it bypass more sections of the game for convenience, the conversation needs to go back to the circular “Where is the P2W line in boundless?” along with “Is this bonus a fix or does the rough section of the game (portal fueling and crafting times) need to be rebalanced?”. I’m honestly hoping a fresh set of eyes smooths over a lot of these issues through balancing rather than needing to create a gleam club plus that looks like P2W from new and outside perspectives.

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Not sure if it was mentioned (only saw some about a loot-drone) but one thing I would definitely pay for is a camera feature that allows for camera shots from high in the sky. Kind of like spectator mode in Minecraft, but without the possibility to go through objects (to prevent scouting for resources under ground or enter prohibited areas etc). I really love how in MC you can get these awesome shots of builds with that. Definitely think that could be a gleambow feature or similar subscription.

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The weapon and tool cosmetics fit into the current system well, however the rest are all pay to win mechanics which I don’t think the community would back. Primarily the crafting time reduction. That’s something that needs addressed across the board for all players. The XP and cubits, as the game currently is, wouldn’t be too devastating as leveling is ridiculously quick.

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None of the suggested benefits solve any existing problem and certainly does not get people into buying gleamclub.

Try to think of NEW things that will make money for Monumental.

I think if we were capable of that we’d be all trying to be the next Bezos!

I don’t think that’s true. I specifically listed the benefits in my OP BECAUSE I would happily fork over the cash for them lol. Especially the reduced crafting times.

Specific to the idea of subscription based befenits:

  • auto portal refuel (Oort still required)
  • additional home beacons
  • spawn meteor tool(one charge per week, stackable?)
  • exo totem (1/month/GC+, when placed on a planet adds a marginal chance for an exo to appear around that planet, more totems = higher chance, is deleted once an exo spawns)

One time purchases:

  • expanded inventory
  • pets/mounts
  • cosmetics

For the record this was never proven. We had a person from SE saying their side but the Boundless Devs did not RELEASE financial records. So this is an assumption on what “was making money” and what was not" and the context of that money making. If the new owners want to release and make public their records on how much they bought the game for and release monthly income statements then I think it is a fair to say - PROVEN.

Otherwise we need less people making statements of FACTS and instead just focus on how we can improve problems. It will help us a lot if people are more responsible like this when we move into a “game design adjustment phase” like we know we are about to get into. We will have enough drama and arguments as each person throws their “expert” opinion in so we should at least try to not define something as a fact unless it is.

As for “monetization” strategies I strongly am against any change until core game problems are fixed that improve onboarding and keeping around. Trying to turn this game into just a money making machine so the new owners can get their “investment” back will not end well and likely drive more people away. The current GC situation is fine… More customization is nice for characters but trying to make money FIRST over fixing problems is a bad idea.

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James’ tax financials were shared on these very forums as it’s public record in the UK to have to show the money being made by any business residing there. From there, some simple speculation on server costs lead to the pretty safe assumption the game was not profitable. I’m too busy today to dig it up and I don’t care enough to do so anyway.

1000% YES please!

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We don’t know and we won’t. It’s over and done with now.

SE said they were receiving the Steam/PC funds which included game sales & GC. They were going to use that to recoup their investment and were keeping the servers up. SE said there was nothing left over to pay for advertising, development, nor Boundless dev salaries. They said they didn’t even have any data as far as Playstation sales numbers nor rental planets. With the new deal, it appears everything is now in the hands of Monumental. Time to move forward.

I think it’s fine to discuss Gleam Club & cosmetics. In order for Boundless to grow & flourish, it will have to expand it’s offerings at some point - to get in line a little more with what players expect from this type of game in 2022/2023.

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Sounds nice