THQ's Brian Farrell states that the upcoming Warhammer 40k: Dark Millennium Online will utilise a "flexible"monetisation model so they can "exploit the game on a worldwide basis."

The Vigil developed MMO won't have "just one business model," but will employ "other monetisation mechanisms"and the team has been "very thoughtful about how" to do it.

This could mean the western markets see a more traditional subscription charge, while Asian markets get a free-to-play model with plenty of micro transactions.

Most MMOs have tended to adopt the free-to-play philosophy eventually here in the west, as the majority that do see a spike in popularity and profit; Age of Conan, Lord of the Rings Online, Champions Online and more.

"The markets are different around the world for the business models with which you can ship an MMO," said THQ CEO Brian Farrell during an earnings call. "So what we've done is make the business model within Dark Millennium Online flexible so we can use different business models in different territories and exploit the game on a worldwide basis."

"We will have not just one business model, like subscriptions. There will be other monetisation mechanisms in the game... The team there is being very thoughtful about how we maximise monetisation in this game." CFO Paul Pucino reveals it is THQ's grandest financial project to date with a minimum of $50 million pumped into it. It's due out in 2013.

Source

Personally I think its a good thing that they are doing this right off the bat. Since frankly, having a 'F2P' mode really opens up the game to a much larger audience.

Also, implementing these systems from launch allows them to tailor the game to fit these business models.

Its a good business move imo. Time will tell just how good, depending on how they control content.

Although I really wish we got to know more about the content...

already a topic on this in general forums. May want to merge them!

At least we have SOME news now.

Potentially horrible news.

If it goes Pay to Win, I won't play.

Well, I thought that they were just going to have an in-game store for cosmetic things and some minor things like 5% exp gain?

I don't believe we should read into this too deeply. Take it for what it is, no speculation. All that's been announced it that they are looking at each market individually and deciding which monetization scheme they feel will work best for the game in that specific market.

Hopefully soon we see some real good info on the game release when that releases we can make some educated guesses at the monetization model for our own home markets.

On a side note if they have the time to research and develop there pay plan over a year from release they must be confident on the current schedule and amount of work done on the game! So good stuff should. So coming the fans way soon!

Where did you read that?

I have always seen Free to Play and microtransactions as something that cheapens a game. I hope they stay away from it, at least in the major markets (US/EU).

Well, isn't that the norm for in-game stores in mmos now? I was making my assumption on games like guild wars, Lotro, and AoC. I have no actual article, go figure , that says its only on that small of a scale, but if they are going to do microtransactions, then I would assume it would be just that, micro.

Then again, all they said was different forms of pay per region, so they might not even HAVE it in the united states.

I don't think this game is going to differ that much from what we are used to in North America, EU, AU, ect... I think the alternate marketting is for the sake of other places. I think it's a solid plan and may be a good attempt at ensuring we have a huge playerbase. The problem is that it sounds like they may be having global servers which is garbage for PvP. If they want premier PvP they have to focus on regional servers. Maybe they're scared that the fan base isn't large enough to have big populations by region. As long as they work with Relic to fix Space Marine and make some solid PR contributions before release.. it should pick up fine.

A major issue I see with the release timeframe is that other games have started to jump on their band wagon with whole vehicle/PvP centric MMO idea. Planetside 2 is being heralded as good. Also, there's a Mechwarrior MMO coming out... Guild Wars 2 is being advertised as the one that's going to Bust WoW.

If DMO is going to take the cake.. they have to get away from the 2 faction design and they better incorporate alot of the good ideas we've been posting.