City of Heroes Community Q&A #2

MMORPG.com is offering up the second installment to their ongoing City of Heroes community Q&A with Cryptic Studios’ Jack Emmert.

Q: Where do you see the future of microtransactions and RMTs heading for MMOGs? Is it the way of the future, an alternate payment system to subscriptions, a flash in the pan or something else all together?

A: It would be foolish of me to say that microtransactions won’t amount to anything, but I do think the subscription model will remain dominant for a while. We’re pretty comfortable with monthly bills in North America (cell phones, cable, telephones, etc.) so I think it’s natural. On the other hand, I think we’ll start seeing some games experiment with microtransactions. It’s a rough bet, though. Subscriptions provide a pretty reliable revenue stream, while microtransactions are much less predictable. MMORPG’s are very, very expensive. Publishers and developers want to make sure that they can make their money back!