EVE Online passes the 200k subscription mark
Filed under: EVE Online, MMO industry, News items
Not to diminish this accomplishment, it's important to note that these are subscriptions and not unique subscribers. CCP has been pushing "The Power of 2" heavily on their current playerbase and hundreds if not thousands have several subscriptions. I also believe CCP could have already hit their ultimate goal to have a bigger subscription base than Iceland's population, 300k, if they had retuned the newbie experience. Free game client; free expansions; decent rookie help channel; all this ease-to -accessibility is fantastic, but it still isn't enough, and I'm sure CCP has some telling numbers on how many players didn't get past the tutorial. CCP is addressing a small part of this problem in 2008 and beyond with a planned in-game EVE-pedia, but I am a bit surprised they haven't emphasized more focus on improving the newbie experience aside from the newbie tutorial revamp, which could be a lot better.
EVE may not be the behemoth WoW is, but EVE has proven to keep a slow steady growth since it launched in 2003, which normally isn't the case for most MMOGs. The last true pinnacle point in overall subscriptions occurred in early 2006 when EVE reached 100,000 subscriptions. The players drive this game. The players are the content. I'm looking forward to the day when EVE actually breaks 300k unique subscribers.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Nick Simpson said on 4:25AM 11-18-2007
Yep, I for one didn't make it past the tutorial. That was several months ago at least, but it just seemed so complicated.
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Coherent said on 4:53AM 11-18-2007
EVE’s population is growing because it dominates the genre of Space MMO’s and it is picking up the fallout from WoW players who want science fiction instead of fantasy.
While it is an awful game, it’s the best in the genre. But it’s a very very short stack of candidates.
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Matt Warner said on 7:09AM 11-18-2007
I believe that WoW's impact on the growth of other MMOG userbases is so miniscule that it may have taken more experienced players away than its contribution to those bases with new MMOG players that started with WoW. I can't back this up with empirical data, but I can state the obvious that WoW has had a crazy averse effect penetrating a mainstream userbase and that most other MMOGs haven't really seen a huge numbered growth since WoW launched.
A few MMOGs shut down this year, you would think a game like Auto Assault, which was definitely niche, would at least sustain enough subscribers to thrive and yet it flopped. Other MMOGs like CoX are more or less stagnating. I think the only real break-out hit so far this year is LotRO, and if they were expanding like crazy they would be adding servers, but they may have peaked already. I would say CCP’s userbase success in subscriptions comes from the fact that yes, it dominates the MMOG space market, and also that they expanded EVE into (million+ player potential, PvP freaks) and the recent client additions.
Coherent said on 4:39PM 11-19-2007
I argue that the reason other MMO's aren't seeing an increase in numbers from WoW is that they are so poor quality in terms of enjoyment that they compare extremely unfavorably with WoW.
Only Blizzard seems to have the magic formula of fun/grind that makes players continually interested in their world.
Bellerophon said on 9:03AM 11-18-2007
With only a few weeks left to the Trinity expansion... pretty sure that will reel in even more people at least remotely interested in Sci-Fi.
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PassinThru said on 9:13AM 11-18-2007
I tried EVE Online for the two week trial. It was OK - I liked many things about it. But I realized I was spending most of my time mining, which gets old fairly quickly. I just didn't hold my interest. When the trial ended, I even considered paying the $20 to buy the game. $20 to mine for another month? No thanks.
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Matt Warner said on 3:10AM 11-19-2007
You can also use a game time code and knock off 5 dollars. I'm not much of a miner either. It is definitely a game of patience. I had a frustrating time in-game today. I got a new ship and it turns out it's not as efficient as my old ship because I need to train up another 2 weeks of skills... It happens, but it is still very frustrating. ) I wouldn't make EVE your only/main MMOG unless you were into PvP or actually really fell in love with the game from the get-go.
AnotherThing said on 10:58AM 11-19-2007
The sad thing is that I really wanted to like this game. I was tired of the whole orcs-and-elves fantasy thing, and I really like sci-fi. I thought the backgrounds were beautiful, and the ships looked really cool. But I kept waiting for something to happen. Other than being blown to bits by three other ships when I strayed into the wrong space on a mission (which wasn't exactly what I had in mind) nothing ever did.
I also encountered the same feeling when I realized that the next ship I wanted I'd get skills for a couple of days after my trial expired. While I really appreciate some of the thinking behind skills taking a fixed amount of time - no power leveling here! - it does mean a lot of waiting, whether you're playing or not.
I don't understand about time codes, but it doesn't really matter. It's not the cost that is keeping me away.
Mercerfy said on 5:04PM 11-18-2007
I think those looking for SciFi action will go the way of Tabula Rasa instead of Eve. I tried Eve and it was not enjoyable for me but Tabula is a nice change of pace from the WoW scene.
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Matt Warner said on 3:05AM 11-19-2007
Yea, I think you are dead on there, and hopefully it will attract some from the fps genre. I actually liked Planet Side a bit more than Tabula Rasa, but PS was before its time imo. It should be interesting to see what numbers Tabula Rasa pulls in. NCsoft releases their subscription numbers, but it will be about another four months until they release them again unless TR hits some milestone and they sound off a press release before than.
nb747 said on 10:14AM 11-20-2007
I am so ready for another Space MMO other than EVE. I want EVE like with more PVE content options and less evilness.
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Rolly said on 9:43PM 11-24-2007
Well, if you couldn't manage the first days, don't play it.
I was a hardcore WoW player (don't wanna remember how much /played time I got... really don't) ,and I was invited many times by friends to play EVE, but I refused . 6 months ago, I started it. And what can I say, I love it.
If you're in the "gimme epixx, 1337 stuff" type of games, stay away.
What people don't see (or try to see) is that EVE is a world made by players . Economy, politics, manufacturing, all these are done by players. For players. And... you need to use your brain. A lot.
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