It’s a matter of out with the old and in with the new as Kitely announces new pricing plans for their virtual world offerings.
Going – The USD$35 a month Gold Plan that gave users 20 free time based regions and unlimited access.
Going – The USD$20 a month Silver Plan that gave users 10 free time based regions and 120 hours access to time based regions. Access to fixed price regions doesn’t deduct time from a time based plan.
Gone – The USD$5 a month Bronze Plan that gave users 2 free time based regions and 30 hours access to time based regions.
Incoming – The USD$19.95 Premium Account which gives users 5 free time based regions and no restrictions on time spent in time based regions, your own or anyone else’s. This will replace the Gold and Silver plans. The Bronze plan is disappearing completely and people on the Bronze plan will be put on the regular account plan, which will replace the current free based plan. The details on the new regular account plan are not detailed anywhere I can see.
However there’s a grandfathered perk on offer for Gold and Silver plans which means if you’re using one of these plans at the end of the year you can stay on those plans and receive added perks. For example the Silver Plan will no longer have the 120 hours restriction, you’ll have unlimited access to time based regions as well as still being able to have 10 time based regions instead of 5 for the Premium Account.
The Gold plan, which has always had unlimited access to time based regions will boost the number of free time based regions you can have from the current 20 free time based regions to 30 free time based regions.
There are some unanswered questions and I’m currently poking Ilan with a big stick to try and get some answers. The lack of information regarding the new fixed price region offerings is something that I doubt I’ll get any answers about but it will be interesting to see what they come up with.
Kitely does have fixed pricing for regions, a fixed price region means it’s not dependent upon minutes, the current fixed price plans are:
- 1 Region – USD$40 a month
- 4 Regions – USD$60 a month
- 9 Regions – USD$80 a month
- 16 Regions – USD$100 a month
Fixed price regions don’t take minutes away from visitors and they also allow you to import and export OAR files for free. There are charges for importing and exporting OAR’s on free time based regions. Fixed price regions also don’t count as a free region in your membership plan.
Kitely’s model has always interested me because I like the options they offer. Time based billing sounds scary and may make you scratch your head but if you only expect to spend a few hours in a Kitely virtual world then they are very good options which can lead to you being able to have regions for an extremely low cost. The more time you spend there of course, the more options such as fixed price regions become attractive. However it’s that option that appeals to me, options are always good.
However one word of warning, Ilan has indicated that the concept of time will be changing in a way that hasn’t been announced yet. When all the odds and ends are tied up, new way time will be calculated and the new fixed price plans announced, then people will be in an even better position to judge what’s the best plan for them.