With DotA Valve is going F2P right out of the bat, hoping to equal or surpass League of Legends in Usernumbers, generating profits with microtransaction from cosmetic items just like LoL does. If you don't know, LoL is a massive financial success.
True, but the thing to keep in mind is LoL is the game which truly kicked off the free to play/supported by microtransaction trend. And they've built their loyalty over years of good service.
As for Valve on the other hand, you'll need Steam to run DOTA 2, and it won't cost anything to play. In direct sales terms, they are losing money by maintaining them, but it isn't just the microtransactions they can support the games with. It's also the Steam cash flow. And what does having the Steam client so close encourage you to do?
That's what I meant. They're both easy hooks into Steam, so despite costing money to maintain, just by existing the way they are, they'll provide profits to Valve. Not a bad system, although I can't imagine another company doing the same things and keeping afloat beyond a few years, unless that free to play game wasn't the only one to their name.
Hopefully the last time I will respond in this Thread, I just can't let this sit in here unanswered.
Every user to a "Free 2 Play", "Play 4 Free" or "Freemium" game is a potential customer, yes. But not only to the Platform the game is featured on, but also to the game itself.
You do not loose money maintaining a successful Free2Play game, you earn money from items sold and make a profit. That is the business model. When developing and releasing a F2P Game, you don't generally intent "to keep afloat" as you put it or "lure people in to your Store to purchase other things". No, your goal is to earn a healthy profit through the game you have created.
League of Legends has a standalone client, no hook into Steam or another Distribution Platform. Same with World of Tanks, War Thunder or any other of the dozens of F2P games out there. They don't have a Distribution Platform they are trying to promote, why do you think these games exist? Let me go ahead an answer that for you: To earn money from their F2P game.
Hell, just look at the App Store from Apple. Many F2P games on there as well and they generate profit both for Apple and the Developers of the games. Not by luring users in to the platform, and hoping to earn money from other purchases but by the games themselves.
Wikipedia said:
Mobile analytics company
Flurry reported on July 7, 2011, that based on its research, the
revenue from free-to-play games had overtaken revenue from premium games that earn revenue through traditional means in Apple's App Store, for the top 100 grossing games when comparing the results for the months of January and June in 2011.
Also, LoL might be one of the factors microtransactions have become more popular with Publishers and Developers, but it hardly kicked off the trend all by itself. The model originates in Asia and was adopted by the West before, LoL just is the most prominent example of a F2P success story.
