Gamigo Cites ArcheAge Unchained’s Rocky Launch As The Reason For Switching To Paid DLCs

A few days ago, Gamigo announced their plans to charge a small fee for major ArcheAge Unchained updates in the future, starting with Garden of the Gods. Naturally, this resulted in a massive backlash from Unchained players who were sold on the fact that they only had to pay for the game once to get access to all of the game’s content.

Gamigo followed up their Discord announcement with a forum post later the same day giving a more detailed explanation as to why they thought it necessary to switch to a paid DLC business model. Both Gamigo and developer XLGames cited the game’s rocky launch and problems with the early versions of the ArchePass system as the reason for the switch, saying that the service hasn’t fully recovered from these early flaws.

“After extensive internal evaluation both at gamigo and with XL Games, we concluded that the way forward for the game is to take some dependencies away from the Archepasses and focus instead on introducing new content in the form of game expansions, which are sustained via a one-time access cost. This decision is based on an evaluation of the market and what gamers are familiar with, in games and MMOs with business models comparable to Unchained.

There were statements made last year at the release of Unchained addressing how future content would be delivered. At the time, these comments reflected how we theorized the future would unfold. Due to the deficiencies mentioned it was important for us to pivot to a retail expansion approach to continue sustaining the title.”

Gamigo also said that they see the decision as a commitment to the game’s future and are asking for the community’s understanding and their continued support.