In Trion World’s May producer’s letter, executive producer for Atlas Reactor Peter Ju, has outlined their plan going forward with a “premium digital game model”.
Just this week GameSpew cited that the business model outlook at the time may have hindered the game at launch. Well, it turns out they listened, and not just to us, but to the feedback gathered from players during the current closed beta.
Peter Ju explained that the free to play model was actually limiting their design and vision of Atlas Reactor:
“During Closed Beta, we’ve been figuring out how to best tune our Free to Play game to create a sustainable business. To make it viable, we would have had to do some things that run counter to your feedback, making the game less fun.”
He went on to explain that by re-introducing the game as a premium paid product, it gives them extra freedom to design the game “with fun as their first priority”. It means that rather than having a small selection of free characters to play from, all current (and future) Freelancers will be available to all players. The production team will also be revising the “Seasons” system with a greater focus on rewards that will be attainable through gameplay.
Some cosmetic items will still have an added price tag however, but many will now be collectible throughout normal gameplay – and the price of others will be lower.
It seems that a F2P business model was holding Atlas Reactor back by the fact Trion Worlds admit they “have had to do some things that run counter to your feedback”. Also, in a forum post by Community Manager Muzzy they have outlined the new pricing scheme which will be available in a few weeks.
Right now it seems from the producer’s letter that $29.99 is the price they’ll be going for access Atlas Reactor: “$29.99 for full access to Atlas Reactor allows us as developers to focus on the things we believe you care about the most: The competitive, balanced fun rather than store mechanics.” The forum post shows there is a limited $19.99 early price as well.
Peter Ju promises more high-level improvements to be announced in the coming weeks.
