So much for the forum users claiming Rift had sold over a million copies since launch. According to Trion in an interview with Gamasutra, Rift is nearing its 1 millionth sale. Interestingly enough, VP of publishing David Reid also revealed that the 1 millionth customer, and whoever they refer, will get something special from Trion.
“We are on the verge of selling our 1 millionth unit of Rift,”
For some members of the community, Rift’s health has been in question since Trion announced the introduction of weekly allowed server transfers for no fee. With this announcement, Trion hopes to alleviate those concerns, while planting the idea that the free transfers are simply intended to be a convenience for players.
“The subscription market is not dying, we’re clearly seeing that. The MMORPG market is not declining. We believe a quality product is going to continue to be something that gamers are willing to pay for as long as we continue to run the service as we should,”
In an interview with Gamefront, Scott Hartsman made a great point on the evolution of the community:
Back in the day, WAY back in the day, in the Everquest, Ultima Online days, nobody had real life friends that played online games, so you made all your friends online. These days, you have friends all over the place, and you probably do have real life friends playing the game. The world has changed a little bit. For us, we want to make sure that when you suddenly discover that your buddy from college or from the old job is playing on another server, you can click a button and go play with him. Chances are, you’re going to be happy, you’re going to stick around longer, and then everybody wins.
More on Rift as it appears.
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