AOL's attempt to charge a premium for online games has run into problems -- like availability of most of AOL's premium pay games elsewhere, either for less or for free. The phenomenon of `community' that AOL touts is making this widely known.
A main reason AOL began charging was because gamers were spending huge
amounts of time online under flat rate. But when a sub goes to the Web
to play a game on a free site, AOL incurrs the connect time without
additional revenue.
Little known, is that AOL's most popular action games are produced by a subsidiary of News Corp -- Kemsai, which distributes the identical games via other ISPs and Web services, some of whom price play significantly less than does AOL.
Among these is News Corp's own TV Guide Entertainment Network. It
offers plans of $4.95/mo - 4 hours and $0.03/min thereafter, or
$39.95/mo 40 hours and $0.02 per additional minute. The $1.24 and
$1 of the basic plans contrasts with AOL's $1.99. Web-based
Geocities offers identical service and rates. In fact, Kemsai
handles the registration and billing for both TV Guide and Geocities.
tvguide.com
geocities.com
Significant is that an AOL subscriber doesn't have to change access
providers to play the games via TV Guide or GeoCities.
Meanwhile, 25% of AOL's premium games have moved to the web.
The following games have recently left AOL:
CyberStrike -- Moved to the Web on July 19th.
GemStone III -- Moved to the Web on July 19th.
GemStone: DragonRealms -- Moved to the Web on July 19th.
Modus Operandi -- Moved to the Web on July 19th.
Federation -- Moving to the Web in early August.
To Our Gaming Friends: On September 1, 1997, Hundred Years War will
be leaving America Online to move to the World Wide Web.
--------------------
In addition, MICROSOFT has significantly expanded FREE offerings on
its www.zone.com gaming site. This includes replicas of most of
AOL's WorldPlay games as well as major offerings from Hasboro,
Lucas Arts, and selections from Microsoft's popular array of action
games including Flight Simulator.
And today: 08/27/97 Tamagotchi(TM) Virtual Pets Landing on
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0; 7th Level, Bandai and
Microsoft Launch Alien Invasion on the Net
And yesterday:
08/26/97 SegaSoft to Include internetMCI Service With HEAT.NET Internet Game Network Software
HEAT.NET customers who sign up for internetMCI service will get their
first invoice month free and pay a promotional rate of $18.95 per
month thereafter.
NEW ALL JAVA FREE GAMES SITE
classicgames.com |
