BattleCorps, Archive Content, Game Aids and Sales

Many of my little article rants only scratch the surface of any given topic. In part, my generalized articles are written in the interest of brevity, but the generalizations are also due to the interconnectedness of the intellectual property’s many problems and opportunities. Tackling the ins and outs of a new BattleTech box set can’t happen without discussing “other” things like game scope, pricing, etc., as well as tactical BattleTech’s supplementary game rule sets. All of those things—and more—are integral components of the box set discussion. Touching on every point, however, is virtually impossible to accomplish without overwhelming the author, the reader and the article’s central topic. And while these small articles may not be definitive on any one subject, I hope they generate discussion, retrospection and (hopefully) some impetus to implement creative change, or take advantage of some of the many sales opportunities BattleTech has to offer.

That said, with this article, however, I want to delve a little deeper into the BattleCorps’s game aid revamp suggestion I made in the BattleCorps and Subscriptions article. Specifically, I want to look at some interesting case studies and offer some supportive analysis of the idea.

In my earlier article I offered the following idea as a potential money-generating option for a revamped BattleCorps subscription website:

“In addition to utilizing the preexisting story and article library as pay-for-content as mentioned above, the membership subscriptions could be built around web- and mobile-based game aids. While this type of subscription takes on some aspects of the application subscription model it could be uniquely suited to a tabletop game like BattleTech with its vast and rich product library. For example, one optional game aid function could include monthly access to the BattleTech sourcebooks, record sheets and core rulebooks in a non-downloadable format using the same software as Flippybook. The BattleTech library would be divided up into tiers, with monthly membership dues increasing with tier advancement. Newly released product would be added to the membership library tiers on a quarterly or semiannual basis to encourage individual purchase of new product. Since most of BattleTech’s library is already in PDF format the resources required to create this feature is minimal compared to creating a catalog of new content. This type of membership subscription offers current and returning players an on-going incentive to maintain their subscriptions, and could be competitively priced to entice new players. The catalog tool also affords Catalyst the opportunity to guide players with “suggested” reading options and an opportunity to integrate directly to BattleTech’s e-commerce platform. This membership will address the problem of immediate access-immediate download-immediate cancellation as sometimes seen when customers have full access to downloadable digital document libraries.”

I guess the big question is whether or not archive content is financially feasible for a subscription business model?

The answer: Absolutely.

Visiolink ApS noted that Newspaper archives are one of the digital areas in which readers have not become accustomed to obtaining free content. Experience has shown that search access to newspaper archive content is a feature that readers will gladly pay for, just as the availability of such an option serves to retain current subscribers and attract new ones.

For example, in Norway, Aftenposten was one of the first newspapers to offer its readers a searchable, digital archive. Some 1.7 million pages spanning the publication’s 154-year history can now be searched through on computers, smartphones and tablets.

At the launch of the service the number of visitors to the paper’s homepage tripled, and archive activity remains high to this day.

So customers will pay for archive access, but does that mean BattleCorps should implement a pay scheme similar to newspapers?

No way.

The paywall setup is designed specifically for publications and publishers that provide new and daily content in conjunction with the archived offerings. Since we’re trying to avoid putting BattleCorps in a position where it needs to provide new content on a regular basis, a paywall subscription setup won’t work.

Instead, I want to circle back to the idea that we need to start viewing the archived BattleTech products less as a publication and more like a game aid service I can provide to my customers—in this case—new, returning and current players. So BattleCorps can avoid the messy hassle of using some form of “hard” or “soft” paywall to sell subscription content.

In an article titled: How two small family-owned newspapers in Vermont had success with a paywall Poyner.org breaks down the paywall option with some hard numbers. While BattleTech cannot be compared to a newspaper, we can make some correlations between the two. Newspapers historically made most of their revenue through the sale of advertisements and strong circulation, whereas BattleTech makes most of its revenue through the sale of new product. Both are in a constant struggle to produce new product for sale to a dwindling customer base. However, in reading this article, if we consider the sale of advertising equivalent to the sale of new BattleTech product, then we can also say a paper’s circulation numbers can be used as general description for new, current or returning BattleTech customers. In light of this easy comparison the article presents some compelling pay schemes for subscription-based archive content that apply to BattleTech’s product catalog.

Beforehand, I want to point out that “the Rutland Times Herald and its sister paper Barre-Montpelier Times Argus have added six figures in annual online subscription revenue while losing less than 9 percent of digital advertising.” As a measure of success, the fact that both papers added such a significant amount of money through annual online subscription revenue while only losing a small amount of digital advertising is amazing. This tells me that even with a small decline in the overall number of BattleTech customers BattleCorps can still generate significant revenue.

Which brings me to the article’s pay-for access schemes. The newspapers offered the following BattleTech-applicable payment schemes.

Digital-only subscription: Includes e-Edition, website access, business journals access. In February 2013 we introduced a $1 upsell for the same access to the sister paper to comply with new audit rules.  Most popular options are the 52-week purchase at $2.99 a week and then the 8-week purchase at $3.49 a week. Between the 2 papers we have 914 of these.

Day Pass: We offer a day pass for $.99, packs of 5, 10 or 20 day passes at a discount.

The digital-only subscription is pretty standard, but the Day Pass and associated expansion passes is an interesting take on the pay-for-on-demand content commonly seen with movie rentals. Using a similar Day Pass setup to access BattleTech’s product archive, customers could conceivably spend money on BattleTech every time they run a game, or want to run a game, or before purchasing an archived product for full ownership. Think about it, BattleCorps could offer a Day Pass to customers with limited or full archive access options. Catalyst could be making hundreds of dollars a day on daily access passes from previously published content.

The key to implementing successful pay strategies like this is to continue to think of BattleTech’s large product catalog as the game line’s equivalent of a newspaper’s publication archive. It can be digitally offered by similar methods and generate revenue long after its initial publishing. By viewing BattleTech’s product catalog in the same manner as a newspaper archive the BattleTech catalog becomes a multi-month subscription draw…

…and I haven’t even touched the possibilities of using the same technology for revenue generation by using FLGSs to create targeted ads, build community, sell new product and more.