Subscription Platform for 20+ Year MMO Franchise
We architected and built a modern subscription platform enabling multi-tier offerings while respecting players who've been subscribers for over two decades.
Key Results
The Challenge
A major MMO studio needed to modernize their subscription infrastructure to support multi-tiered offerings. The existing system couldn't handle the pricing flexibility they wanted, and they needed to balance business innovation with respect for loyal players—some of whom had been subscribers for 20+ years at grandfathered rates.
Our Solution
We evaluated vendors, selected Chargebee, and built an event-driven architecture using Java Spring Boot and Kafka. Product owner tooling in React/TypeScript enables non-engineers to configure subscription tiers and pricing without code changes.
Technologies Used
The Challenge
Subscriptions are the lifeblood of MMO games. Our client—a major UK-based studio with a beloved franchise—needed to modernize their subscription monetization to support multi-tiered offerings, but they faced unique constraints.
Some of their players had been paying subscribers for over 20 years, many at grandfathered rates from the early 2000s. Any solution had to balance business needs with player experience, avoiding a system that felt extractive to the loyal community that had supported the game for two decades.
Our Approach
Vendor Evaluation and Selection
We conducted a thorough evaluation of subscription management platforms, ultimately selecting Chargebee for its multi-tiered subscription capabilities. The key was finding a vendor that could handle complexity while allowing the studio to maintain control over player experience and entitlement delivery.
Event-Driven Architecture
We designed an architecture using Java Spring Boot and Kafka that cleanly separated concerns:
- Chargebee handles payment processing and subscription lifecycle
- Kafka propagates subscription events across the platform
- Spring Boot services manage entitlement logic and game integration
- Clear boundaries define what lives in the vendor vs. what the studio owns
Product Owner Tooling
A major focus was building React/TypeScript configuration tools that let product owners define and manage subscription tiers without engineering intervention. This was crucial for business agility—the team needed to iterate on offerings quickly.
Player-First Design
Throughout the project, we pushed for player-first decisions. When the business wanted to tighten grandfathered pricing eligibility, we helped design an approach that was firm but fair—limiting the window to re-up at legacy rates rather than eliminating legacy pricing entirely.
The Results
- Multi-tiered subscriptions with flexible pricing enabled
- Product owners empowered to configure offerings independently
- End-to-end flow from purchase through in-game entitlement delivery
- Well-documented integration with clear vendor boundaries
- Player trust maintained through thoughtful transition design
"The subscription platform gives us flexibility to experiment with pricing while the tooling lets product owners move fast. Terminal Velocity helped us design an approach that's firm but fair to our longtime players."
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