Lifetime Accounts

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Gengrel, Dec 6, 2022.

  1. Gengrel Lorekeeper

    *writes a letter to Santug Claugg*

    My one and only wish is for lifetime account subs please, I've been a good halfling, I promise

    *crosses hairy toes and fingers and wishes hard*
  2. Gengrel Lorekeeper

    rumor has it the last owners reaped the monetary rewards. You should do a sale and see how it goes with your xmas bonuses under your company name ;) Did you wish for a private island? It could be yours! <3
  3. Act of Valor The Newest Member

    Daybreak lost money overall with the lifetime subs. So no, I don't hope this happens again.
  4. Deux Corpse Connoisseur

    Let's retool the OP's request:
    If & when DB sells the EQ franchise please offer us lifetime subs right before the new guys take over k thanks :)
  5. Kaenneth [You require Gold access to view this title]


    Questionable, I used the money saved to pay for another account, and I bought NoS (and all the other expansions between Lifetime-Offer and Now) for both the lifetime account and the other account.
    Arcolin likes this.
  6. Windance Augur

    Where are your facts ?

    I know of 5x people in my guild who purchased lifetime memberships. 3x of the 5 have since retired/quit playing with in two years of purchasing the lifetime sub.

    No one but the EQ team can say if the one time lifetime sub were worth it. Most speculate that they needed a quick cash infusion and selling lifetime was how they chose to do it.

    With that said. I don't think they would do it again, unless, they again need a quick cash infusion to stay afloat.
  7. Veteran_BetaTester PIZZA!

    Correct me if I'm wrong here on this topic...
    Wasn't lifetime subs introduced around the time Smed stepped out and Daybreak came in?

    If so it would have been a gift for those that got it. If I remember correctly... I doubt that will happen again.
  8. Andarriel Everquest player since 2000

    Funny how some people think they made $$$ in the long run.
  9. KushallaFV Playing EverQuest

    Yes, I think they did. It removed the monthly or yearly pain point and freed a person up to spend more. I don’t think a majority of lifetime subscribers are holding off spending until they receive full value from the Lifetime subscription. They’re most likely big tunas and whales.
    Also, throw in psychological factors like sunk cost fallacy to retain players for longer.
    I_Love_My_Bandwidth likes this.
  10. Iven Antonius Bayle

    Your wish will come true
    in about twenty years
    telling you Claugg Santug
    for the price of twenty beers
    Cheers !
  11. Iven Antonius Bayle

    I don't think so. Such offers are based on statistical values and DBG does know exactly how long the average user is playing until it does quit. AllAccess is also not the only source of income as DBG has a whole bundle of offers that does easily get overseen.. It was a good deal for DBG and a few players and a bad one for those that did quit. Only a few of those will return and those who will do won't hurt.

    Lifetime memberships have also interesting side effects like binding players and alluring them to buy other stuff that they won't had bought otherwise as every player has a monthly budget. If they don't have to buy AllAccess they will buy other stuff instead.
    Rijacki likes this.
  12. CatsPaws No response to your post cause your on ignore

    Smed left in 2015. Lifetimes were offered in 2018
    Xianzu_Monk_Tunare and Smokezz like this.
  13. Warpeace Augur

    This again?
    Veteran_BetaTester likes this.
  14. Duder Augur

    They were offered at end of year, the year prior to them selling the company. They were actively cooking the books to inflate the portfolio's value. Later in March? They performed a server migration to a provider to bring down the costs (on the books) of operating and maintaining the servers. They also saw what, half the known dev team leave or be terminated within a yearish period prior? The only reason they were offered was to line the pockets of the owners with a fatter bonus and cook the books to inflate the value of the company in preparation for it to be sold.
    FYAD, Fenthen, Arcolin and 3 others like this.
  15. Tegila Augur

    Idk how much lifetime cost before, I wasn't around at the time, but I know I would be buying FFeditions on more accts if I didn't also have to pay subs, so would be no money lost here. Also assuming the cost of lifetime would be too high to buy more than 1 account during a limited time availability if they did do it again. As it is for me these days, I only play like 4 months a year, the other 8 months they get nothing from me, so 1 acct only gets max $60 a year in subs from me, yet I would buy lifetime for convenience even of it's take 6-10yrs to make up for it.

    And if lifetime were offered every year for 2 weeks in December, I'd buy 1 a year til I had on all. Do they even think game's gonna make it to 30years? Cause that's about how long it's take me to buy enough lifetime subscription that way, AND how long it's take to start seeing a return on the first IF it were to be available like next week.

    Example/sidenote: I spent over $300 this summer on pirate ships not just because I like them but because of the free rent forever even though escrow isn't hard to pay for a decade up front. Lifetime would be the same idea.
  16. Veteran_BetaTester PIZZA!

    Thank you, I wasn't sure and I didn't want to research.

    I believe Dudor answer should be know as.. it probably never will happen again (lifetime sub).
    I don't believe the $$ taken in for lifetime subs would '' inflate the value of the company '' the company was pretty big with other games as well as EQ. It would have a very small percentage if that.
    Rijacki likes this.
  17. minimind The Village Idiot

    You should be very careful about accusing a company of accounting malfeasance on their own forums.

    Pumping up revenue via legitimate sales is not "cooking the books" even if the intent of the sale was to pump up the value in the short term.
    Nennius and Rijacki like this.
  18. minimind The Village Idiot

    It cost $300 and was last sold in 2018, I think. Today's annual cost is $120. So, basically you pay for 2.5 years and get all the years until EQ folds. It's been nearly 4 full years since the sale. That's why people say it was a loss-leader for short-term gains.
    Xianzu_Monk_Tunare and Yinla like this.
  19. Tegila Augur

    Thank info, but do we know how many bought it? How many months a year those accounts are typically played? How many even quit before getting their $300 worth of actual usage?

    It's only 120 if you pay a year at a time. Feasible for an account but not for a bunch all at once(but at $180/ye it's take less time). For me as I said, I only play 1/3 of the year so it's take 5 yrs at $15/mo played before any loss. Population always drops after a point in the expansions so I'm sure I'm not the only one who would take a lot longer, and that frees up $$ to spend on other parts of EQ. For most, this game isn't about reducing the cost, but prioritizing what that $ is spent on.

    I OTOH, played <3 months in 2018(I thought DBG came way back in like TBM era though), and about 4 months each starting late '20, '21, and now '22 but it's only been 2 weeks so far this run, so they've only made about $180 off me in that timeframe vs what could've been $300 had it been available when I was on in '18(it wasn't but I'd heard about it in the past back then) Granted I played even less than i expect to, but I always play less than planned in the end while way back I was on nearly 24/7(TBS through RoF ending at CotF launch) I also had the $99 a year locked in back then so it'd still take 3 years if I'd never stopped playing because I'd still be paying$100 not $120 or $180. But there were no expansions over $100 back then, now I'd rather put my money towards better expac packs if I could, but subs come first
  20. minimind The Village Idiot

    The 2018 sale sold 100% of the 6,000 lifetime subs available (https://www.everquest.com/news/eq-winter-extravaganza-2018). This resulted in $1,800,000 in Lifetime subscription revenue.

    If each of those accounts were to pay annual memberships instead through the end of this year, those subs would have produced $2,880,000 in revenue. Thus, assuming all those subs are still playing, the sale resulted in $1,080,000 of reduced revenue thus far (and $720,000 each subsequent year).

    It's worth noting that the ONLY reason someone would purchase a lifetime subscription is if it's mathematically advantageous. I don't think anyone is going to spend the equivalent of a 70 year sub ($8,400), no one would buy it because they don't think they or the game will last THAT long. People want lifetime subs that they anticipate will be a deal or, in other words, result in reduced revenue to Daybreak.

    Daybreak doesn't want that and won't want that again unless they're really hurting for cash in the short-term. And if the day comes when Daybreak is desperate for short-term cash again, it would behoove them not to offer something that explicitly reduces future revenue. Instead, they should sell consumable things in the DB store (or put consumable things on fire sale) that give massive temporary boosts (experience potions, glyphs, tradeskill, etc.) or heroic characters.
    Yinla and Nennius like this.