JWPlatt wrote:
I was just thinking I hope the discounts don't affect what Turner/GameTap is willing to provide toward Cyan's budget. I was willing to pay the regular amount but prefer annual charges. The discounts were a pleasant surprise. But if there were an option to pay the regular price for the year and put the discount ($3/month at the annual rate) directly into Cyan's budget, I would prefer that!
Good point JWPlatt! I agree with you that $10 USD per month is an acceptable rate to try and get this concept and gaming model off the ground and into the mainstream gamers' awareness, a price i too would happily pay for the experience. But i wouldn't be overly concerned that these new pricing plans will result in decreased funding for URU Live; I'm guessing that Turner is simply trying some new price points to make some headway into the market, and if successful, the increased volume in subscribers, and attracting some advert interests, should result in a profitable arrangement for all concerned. Maybe there'd be some short term revenue problems, but long term its much like the cable TV model without the service tiers. Lets hope they don't start implementing that!
IMO they (GameTap) really need to get some more hype coverage from the gaming media -if it wasn't for my interest in this URU Live revival i never would have become aware of their services at all. Gee, how many subscribers were there in the first URU Live attempt? Whatever it was, it wasn't enough to cover the costs as they were at that time. I'm sure Turner can carry some loss in order to (hopefully) expand its market