Granado Espada - Business model revealed, and bikinis too

Well, the long-awaited business model for Granado Espada has been announced, and along with it a lengthy piece on the rationale behind the decision. The goal is simply to make money, question is how to make it viable. Like, how do make sure 90% of the players don't quit once you start charging them in some form...lol. The dungeons don't seem to be congested with players today. :p

Plenty of talk about it on the forums (here, here, here, here...) and blogosphere. Don't have too much feelings about it, but generally I feel it is (might be?) a fair price to pay, provided they fix a few bugs, get rid of the botters and continue to create new content for the game. So what's the pricing gonna be like?

Granado Espada will run on a hybrid pay to play model.

Gamers will be required to invest at least SGD$9.90/P300/RM$20/USD$5.60 into the game per month via various payment methods. Minus a nominal fee, this amount will transfer into G-Points which can then be used at the cash shop for premium items. Players have the option to invest more than the minimum per month for large cash shop purchases:

Players will get locally priced game value cards from their local distributors. Watch your local distributor's official GE websites for more information.

Not sure if I'm understanding this correctly buy if you spend US $40, you can play for 1 year. That's around SGD $60, or 5 bucks per month. Seems affordable to me. But that's not saying I'm gonna subscribe to the game, cos there's other considerations like time.

And speaking of creating new content, look at what else has been revealed about Granado Espada recently. (First spotted in the House of Reclusion.)


Yeah, that's the scout and fighter with more than their armour removed. (And getting a bit too intimiate too)

The gang's enjoying a bit of the sun and the breeze.

I suppose we'll soon be able to see them on our shores. It's nice to see that new content is being rolled out even as the players have to start paying for the game, hopefully it will enrich the whole experience. Customisation is a huge factor in MMORPGs. IMHO. Check out the Japanese site and the Korean site for more potential content coming our way.