Echo Bazaar
Online RPG's sales double after premium subscriptions addition.
Award-winning indie RPG Echo Bazaar changes its freemium model to include premium subscriptions and sees conversion rates double Indie game developers Failbetter Games, has introduced a premium subscription model to its freemium game Echo Bazaar. The company has reduced the number of free actions given out each day to non-subscribers, causing something of a furor among their players and several fits of the vapours. Two weeks after launch, the dust has settled, the forums have calmed, and the number of players buying a monthly package of extra turns has doubled.
It’s still more than possible to play through Echo Bazaar for free. The game boasts nearly half a million words of text and counting, and over 90% of that text is accessible for free. Yet as this move shows, even indie RPG social browser games that are almost entirely text can turn a healthy profit on the right transaction model
A game of darkness, danger and depravity, Echo Bazaar has been described as “gloriously atmospheric’ by the Guardian and “rich with clever machinations” by the New Yorker. Awarded Best Browser Game 2009 by The Escapist magazine, it has since become immensely popular with critics and players alike. With narrative-driven gameplay, meta-character interaction with players outside the game world and addictively twisty plots, it’s a gaming experience unlike any other.
For further information, screenshots, interview requests or press access to the game, please drop me a line at Alice French, alice@failbettergames.com
Notes for editors
A little more about Failbetter Games:
A dangerous cadre of wild-eyed narrative engineers, Failbetter Games was founded a little over a year ago by Alexis Kennedy and Paul Arendt, to develop narrative driven social games and interactive digital storytelling. Their first game, Echo Bazaar is an awarding-winning handful of Lovecraftian Victoriana set in Fallen London, once the capital of the British Empire and now home to the Bazaar.
A sample of further reading:
“Best Browser Game of 2009” – the Escapist Awards
The Escapist interviews Alexis Kennedy and Paul Arendt
JayisGames review
Respected interactive fiction commentator Emily Short on Echo Bazaar
Radio 5 Live interview
The Guardian on Echo Bazaar