Freemium Gaming (2001) = Runescape… Free Premium Play With Others… …Improve User Experience Paid Users + Share of Total s 1.6MM 12% on i l l i ) M ne Li Red ar) ( B l I launched [Runescape] in 2001. ota ue T l The basic plan was to run it for free, but to pay for my B ( hobby through advertising.However, when the dot 0.8MM 6% of com bubble began to collapse, advertising dried up & ers er % Us Us there was no way to pay for the game's server. d ai d This is how the member [subscription] came about... P ai P once we had people paying, we were able to reinvest back into the game. The more we invested, the faster it grew. Andrew Gower–Runescape / Jagex, Creator, 5/07 0 0% 2003 2005 2007 Source: Jagex releases, as compiled by The Guardian (12/03), Gameindustry.biz (2/05), Runescape Blog (5/07) & GigaOM (6/07). Andrew Gower Interview first appeared on gamasutra.com (5/07). Internet Trends Note: Users refer to monthly active users. Total Users refers to active users (free + paid) in relevant period. 102 2019