Starting from October 5, 2009 Virtonomics won’t be free-to-play any more. The new game model will be Shareware, which means that free playing will be possible for 14 days only.
There will be 2 options provided for Virtonomics players:
1. Subscribers game – “Anna” realm has been opened on September 29, 2009. (Here are ).
- all enterprises and game functions (except for decorative, like office decoration) are free
- game situation updates require payment
- the minimum cost of monthly subscription is $8.25 (in case if purchase the whole year)
2. Game with obligatory minimum payment for services – “Mary ” realm (Here are .)
- game updates function is provided in addition to purchased game services
- 1 game point spent by the player for any kind of game needs will ensure 6 full-scale game updates (but no more than 90 in total). It means that every player must spend at least 5 game points per month to ensure himself a normal game process
- the player can choose any kind of services or enterprises to spend game points required for game update
There will be two different game modes: Demo mode (DM) and Full mode (FM)
I. Regulations of DM
a) For 14 days starting from the moment of registration, the player can play the game in demo mode for free;
b) Every time the player spends game points, it will change his mode from DM to FM for 6xP (P = number of spent game points). However, the total duration of paid period can not exceed 90 game updates. The rest of unspent free period will be added to the duration of FM, when the player switches from DM to FM;
c) When the player loses his DM status, he keeps all his actives, qualifications, achievments, etc.;
d) Every new expenditure of game points will add to FD duration 6xP updates. However, the total duration of paid period can not exceed 90 updates;
e) In case if after 14 days of DM the player didn't switch to FM, his game character will be expelled from the realm;
f) The DM companies have following restrictions:
- it is forbidden to take part in competitions and promo-actions of the realm;
- it is forbidden to use massive messaging function.
g) The restart will return 14-days DM period back to the very beginning;
h) Registration in the game is only possible after e-mail confirmation.
II. Procedure of FM conclusion
a) In case if the comapny officially goes bankrupt, it WILL NOT disable the rest of the utilization regulations;
b) 10 and 5 days before the end of paid period, the player will receive a notification;
c) After the first non-payment, the company will be "frozen":
- all the workers will be set on vacation;
- advertising campaigns will be suspended;
- sales of all enterprises will be cancelled (except for auctions);
- all the market offers on technologies and licenses will be cancelled;
- all the market requests for licenses will be cancelled;
- all the offers for goods sale will be closed;
- all the contracts will be zeroed.
The player will receive a notification, his access to company will be partially blocked;
d) After 5 unpaid updates, the company will be ultimately terminated - the contracts will be cancelled;
e) After 90 unpaid updates, the game character will be expelled from the realm;;
f) The restart will return all the counters back to zero, and bring the company to the regular 14-days DM..
III. Procedure of switching to the new system
a) Counters of DM and FM will be activated on October 5;
b) All players registered before 28.09.09 , who had spent game points, will automatically get a paid period of 6xP updates (P – number of spent game points) and a 14-day bonus. However, the total duration of paid period in FM can not exceed 180 updates;
c) The players without any spent game points, will also be switched into DM, their assets won’t change.
IV. Other changes, related to the new game model
a) First payment bonus is cancelled;
b) Restart in FM will bring the player back to the step of company creaction, without any restrictions on the validiy of FM. The player will get back half of game points, spent for qualification, in form of undistributed points, which can be spent on qualification growth ONLY;
c) It is forbidden to post any kind of announcements about credits, sponsoring funds etc., as well as requests for credit. Credit-related announcements will be deleted, their author will receive a warning. Violators can be blocked or expelled from the game;
d) VIRTs and bonus points (gained as a prize in competition, etc.) are equal to paid points, and therefore can be used for Full Mode prolongation.
V. The expected modifications
1. Within the nearest 180 updates (until the end of November) some will be implemented. Besides, we’ll introduce a system of several characters amalgamation (subject to they belong to the same player).
2. In future we’ll introduce non-manufacturing business industry.
Consider this... Im playing from the Philippines. $8 is what I'm actually paying for my internet service connection every month! I signed-up in Virtonmics because it's free but now it's not free anymore and I'm feeling that 'digital divide' again. How disappointing.
4.10.2009, 01:01
Wow, Highstreet! $8 a month for internet access! That's about a 5th of what I currently pay for internet access. I can only dream about those kinds of prices for access. The best I can do is $10 and that's a dial-up connection.
4.10.2009, 01:18
well i pay here in Slovenia for 10/10 broadband (optics) 14 € a month...i think we have cheap internet too
but the problem is, if I want to buy 5 points I pay provision which is 20 % of the amount of price of the points...so i have to buy them at least 10 or 15 so i it pays me off
4.10.2009, 02:45
The beginning of the end has started already. Suppliers that have supplied my factories and stores since I started this game, have failed to deliver - I did a check and their companies have disappeared. Like the vast majority of us they are not prepared to pay and have left the site to look elsewhere for their entertainment. I think even if the Virtonomics team decide to scrap their plans to charge, the game has already been damaged in a major way.
Way to go Virtonomics Team, you're effectively killing off what you had such high hopes of getting rich from. If only you had a 10th of the grasp of economics that the majority of your players have, then you wouldn't have done this.
Free Free Free is a big business ,, you just have to find how to make money with it , Yahoo is free , Google is free , face book is free , the people is ypu biggest asset in real world and also in the game , if you loose the people (players) you have nothing left might as well close it down , i sell cars and we always offer free hot dogs and free parking and free oil change for life if you buy a car ,, lots of big games and successful ones are free ,, and they make money ,, thats how i found this game because it was free , people who live mostly in the USA and western Europa's will never be forced to pay for a service ,,but if you make it appealing to them they`ll pay good,, USE the leverage of the people none paying ones will bring the paying ones and thats a fact . it`s amazing how a professors in economics will teach people in university on how to make money ,, but him self are not making any money .. i`m sure the people who made this game are very smart group and will do what best for the game , i give you an example on marketing ,, some marketing strategy may work for example in china but for sure will not work in the US or england because they simply different people ,,you have to approach them differently ,, in 1960`s Toyota brought cars to the US and it was a failing no one bought them ,,so after 5 years loosing money Toyota pulled all there cars back to japan and send there people to study the market in the US they researched it for over 10 years , then they came back with the right cars that sells in the US ,, i`m sure the Toyota you buy in the US is different from the Toyota you buy in china !!
any how i just wanted to say something because i like this game and i think who ever made it is very smart but they lack knowledge of the Western world kinda speaking on how to market there game and make money out of it .
Thanks for reading .
4.10.2009, 05:16. Subject: I like the game
I really like the game actually. And frankly, my income is at a level that I could comfortably pay this even though it seems pretty high. But I won't for a couple reasons:
1. Not giving my credit card info to some Russians in Russia. Sorry guys, some of my best friends here in the US are from there, and frankly they wouldn't do it either.
2. Even if the pay issue was resolved, how many players will stay? It's hard enough as is to find a stable supply chain/customers with the free version. Every time someone doesn't pay their business goes away? This is a logistical nightmare to the gamer.
Some things to consider:
1. Consumers are stupid and they complain a lot. Are you realizing the complexity you are adding to your business by doing this? It will never go smoothly. The $8.25 presents its own challenges but that 2nd method? How many customer support people do you intend on hiring to fight over $3?
2. Sell it. You have something here. However, realize this move WILL destroy your asset. Back down, keep the current method, keep tweaking the gameplay and look for a buyer. Seriously, I'm in Silicon Valley. E-mail me with a price, I'll be sure to want a finders fee but have no problem shopping this around.
Guess in terms of internet service, I'm the one who is paying one of the highest. $25.28 a month for a 1 mbps ADSL line. Throughput that I manage to get on a normal day, only 30% of the bandwidth max.
What can I say, I'm from a developing country. Costs on IT related stuff as bloody high and overpriced. Especially for businesses. A lot of people are ripping off businesses for business application systems that costs them thousands to millions. Well, maybe you can blame on our weak currency for that or most of the IT firms that exists around price their products like a gold mine.
When I'm venturing in this business, I'm gonna provide open source business application systems with low cost and try to support all the small businesses that needs them. Slowly kill of all these overpriced IT firms.
4.10.2009, 06:41
someone has not though it through have they? price for the game is too high. this at the same time as market deregulation in game when a LOT of players will delete their accounts and leave. good plan! in game the markets will fail. in real terms, greed got the better of them. you have to pay at least $8 a month? thats $4,000,000 a month in income. that was the thinking there isnt it?well ill check back in 3 months time. i mean in a quarter you should be able to hire a team of developers with that sort of money in russia right? haha bye bye.
4.10.2009, 11:15
Last time edited : 4.10.2009, 11:17
maybe JOLT Online is interested to buy virtonomics, and we can play for free , who knows
4.10.2009, 11:38
Even if they decided to scrap this whole charging, the game has died. As someone has already said, Virt-companies have already shut their doors, prices have gone sky high and there is a lack of buyers for some products.
Last week i was selling sausages at $45 and have three factories producing around 340,000 per day. I can't sell them for $25 now which is about cost
4.10.2009, 12:37
Too bad that they require us (players) to pay..
I just tried the new realms and it is quite exciting..
especially with the new products introduced and number of new countries (Indonesia - my country-, China, etc)
So sorry that I had to say good bye to this game...
It's been fun playing and hopefully Virtonomics would change their mind.
I am looking forward to hear good news from them
4.10.2009, 13:32
don't worry about other players leaving coz. if this game will be free to play then i'm sure they'll be back..
The only question here is, WILL this game ever be free all the time?
4.10.2009, 14:15
with all this paying stuff, I hardly see anybody willing to pay for something that only works for 30mins a day (that what it takes you to update your business) and of these 30mins 1/3 is waiting time!
I have a fast internet connection but any page to open in this game takes 5seconds minimum, often very much longer! Is this service or customer friendly? Do we pay for something like this? For a game were you have a book besides you, or someother stuff to do on the internet to bridge the waiting times for pages to open?
I guess many people will be gone only because of these lacks in loading. the others will be leaving because of paying.
I am playing several other games and for the ones that are really good, I pay a fee to use additional options. I was willing to do this here as well and already bought some game points. But now that I have to spend them for simply playing, I am no longer willing to spend money on this.
4.10.2009, 14:39
Sad news. I'm off. Byee.
4.10.2009, 16:26
Everyone move to simunomics.com it's free, death to virtonomics...
, who knows 
