Why the "Pay to Own" Model is Dead
- Dennis Wan
- Jun 19
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 20
Remember paying $60-$80 upfront for a video game and owning it forever? I remember ponying up a whole year’s hard earned savings of $69 for Secret of Mana on the Super Nintendo when I was 15. Yeah, those days are over.
It’s not what you think. Sure, there are still premium games going from $40-$80 each that are still doing well. But do you really own it? More likely that not, you are just “renting” it till the servers go down.
Factoring in inflation, the price of games has actually gone down over the years. And yet the premium "paid" model is a massive barrier to entry today. Why would a player risk putting big bucks down on your game when there are thousands of AAA-quality games available for free? The industry has shifted decisively to Freemium and Free-to-Play (F2P). By removing the price tag, you can acquire massive user bases overnight. (Let’s leave the topic of the cost of acquisition for another day) The challenge changes from convincing someone to buy a game they haven't played, to convincing them to spend money in a game they already love.
Not to say F2P faces plenty of challenges of its own, a huge part being the initial funding. Who’s going to feed my kids while I build the game for free? But that’s an article for yet another day - let’s get back to monetisation.
This is where In-App Purchases (IAPs) for F2P and Freemium games come in. You sell consumables (like extra lives) or permanent upgrades (like removing ads). You are no longer selling a product; you are managing a live service. Stay tuned to learn more on the pros, cons, and best practices of major monetisation models in use!
If this has been useful to you, and you'd like to find out more, reach out to Dennis Wan at www.copiaventura.com !
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