There is NO PROOF that CoH Freedom was more profitable BECAUSE of free players... it was simply more profitable. I offer this reasoning:
VIP players made it more profitable... I know I did. I gave myself an allowance of "only" $50 a month to spend on the Paragon Market every month...guess who was bad and over spent most months.. Yep.. Me LOL! I figured it out right after the announcement that my CoH budget went from $45 a month (I had three accounts) to $120 a month. CURSE YOU PARAGON MARKET!
So do I think it was the freebies bringing the majority of new funds into the game... No I think it was a lot of VIPs wanting more... more.. more
Regarding the Premium and VIPs in my proposed plans for the return of CoH1 and bonuses for CoH2.
Let's say "only" 20,000 players come back (Where do I get that number from??? Well CoH1 is a 10 year old game that is going to be stuck in maintenance mode... it doesn't have the star power it once had. I wouldn't be surprised if many ex players have given up on MMOs or that they will be excited...but wait for CoH2.
So 20,000 players... Now let's say this entire deal costs 2 million. I think that's a fair price. So let's look at how this will work:
20,000 players... at $9.99 a month will take 10 months to pay off the PURCHASE cost...this does not include servers...staff..etc. So let's round that up to an even year to call everything paid off WOOHOO!
So 1 year of players...just to break even.
Now let's say HALF of those returning players are VIP... so they are paying $5 more a month...which goes towards CoH2... that's only $600,000... which will not buy you much towards development when you consider staff, computers, an office, etc... Well Poop.
So now we move into year 2 (I am giving them 2.5 years from relaunch of CoH1 to launch of CoH2...which is a tight schedule).
Year 2 allows more sub money to be funneled into CoH2 ... since now we are just maintaining CoH1 and have paid of the purchase price etc.
So yes... it makes complete sense to offer incentives to people who for a year support CoH2 with an extra $5 in their sub..and yes it makes sense to give them even more incentive to continue to do so to help fund CoH2.
Two things to think about:
1. Had CoH never closed... and you wanted to be VIP... there is NO change in the amount you will be spending on your subscription, but a lot to be gained when CoH2 comes.
2, The financial differences over a 2.5 year period:
Premium cost: $299.70
VIP cost: $449.70
$150 more over the course of 2.5 years... $60 per year more. That's 2 nights at a movie btw
ALSO - There will be no NEED to save for CoH2 if you are VIP from relaunch of CoH1 because you are getting a FREE copy of CoH2.
I think it important to not think about "ohhh they are getting this or that" and focus more on... "Oh I am helping support a game I love...and a game that I will love."