Warhammer Online released September 18

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Mythic Entertainment has confirmed that Warhammer Online is definitely on its way in September.

Click here to read the full article

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=194735?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-General-RSS

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Study: Gamers not interested in MMO subscriptions

[Reposted from Joystiq]

Market research firm Parks Associate has released a study claiming subscription-based MMOs aren't dropping enough loot for its players. According to the group's Electronic Gaming in the Digital Home II study (via Worlds in Motion) only the hardcore gamers were into the subscription model, whereas the casual gamer showed "significant interest" in the free-to-play, microtransaction model.

Another part of the study found that, of the non-MMO players polled, 14% would be interested to play if they could play for free, whereas only 2% of that group was interested in subscription-based MMOs. As we always caution, studies generally aren't worth more than the pixels they're displayed on (unless it's a nice monitor, then they're probably worth less). In a recent polling at Joystiq HQ, games that are "free to play" were also seven times more likely to grab our attention than games that weren't free.

Said Director of Broadband and Gaming Yuanzhe (Michael) Cai: "World of Warcraft, with over 10 million players, exceeded expectations for subscription-based MMORPGs, but it's unlikely any other publishers will achieve the same in the near term using a subscription model." Of course, that's kind of a no-brainer even for WoW's competitors.

[Via Eurogamer]

http://feeds.joystiq.com/~r/weblogsinc/joystiq/~3/344625687/

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Business Models

You may want to head on over to this Gamasutra feature by Paul Hyman where the online game market has a battle raging between subscription-based and alternative microtransaction-related business models. Gamasutra examines the matchup with SOE's John Smedley, Three Rings' Daniel James and EA Mythic's Mark Jacobs.