There’s been a great deal of talk over the last year of free-to-play and subscription models for online games. With a harrumph and heads nodding in agreement, every pundit is saying that the subscription-based MMOG is dead; gone forever. Ten Ton Hammer’s Jeffprime says that all this talk is utter crap, and he’s here to tell you why subscription based gaming will continue to survive and live for a long time.

Money is the single most important factor in online gaming. Game companies need to make money to survive, despite many trollish fantasies otherwise. Game companies spend a great deal of money to create a game and get it to market. Most MMOGs take at least 2 years of development and cost tens of millions of dollars. Sure, they recoup some of that money when they sell the box set, but they’re still in the hole.