Financial and business models

Other (objects, etc.) concept

This is a container group; its children are:

Commercial	A notably commercial product despite copyrights (or lack thereof) and/or licensing agreements (or lack thereof) that many perceive as incompatible with commercial sales.	1970 / 2024	12437 games
Free-to-play	MMOs that can be played for free, but usually offer premium membership for added content or sell special items to those who want to dish out their real money.	1980 / 2023	911 games
Freemium	Free to play but certain features, services, or virtual goods are only available to paying customers.	2002 / 2018	41 games
Microtransactions	Sells small in-game items or other things of value to players for real cash, usually with the intent of funding the game's servers, maintenance, and continued development for otherwise free product.	2002 / 2021	168 games
Pay-once MMO	MMOs for which you only pay once after which it's playable like any other game with no need to pay subscription if one even exists. Pay-once bit does not extend to expansions or possible microtransactions.	2005 / 2019	15 games
Pay to win	A free-to-play/freemium business model/policy where paying customers gain definite and unfair upper hand compared to non-paying customers who can't get it or anything comparable by simply playing.	2008 / 2013	3 games
Subscription	Uses monthly or similar subscription system to fund running the game servers and possibly for adding new content.	1998 / 2015	58 games