Galaxy

Galaxy is one of the countless Virtual Reality games existing on the market, however it's the most popular by far. It's succes is thanks to the unique marketing of the game. At first it wasn't any different from the other games, being a Sci-fi MMO, but their success meant they had a lot more resources to improve and expand, gaining a monopoly over the genre and they started placing all their funds into development.

The reason was that it was the first game to successfully implement advertisement into a not Free-to-Play game by makimg it a feature.

As usual they grew by promoting big brands, giving benefits to users buying those products and services. Before that however the game was still in "early access", at least they called it that anyway, so they were trigger happy with giving out keys for free or at a large discount.

 This lead to the game becoming popular since you could get the game for cheap or even free, so those players who bought the cheapest VR headsets that you could get in any store, all swarmed the game.

That's when they started making deals with large companies. At first many of the users were annoyed or mad at all the ads and promotions popping up on their HUDs so they complained.

The players thought this was the downfall of the game and they player count started decreasing. The developers were silent however.

It took them 4 months to release an update that would change the history of VR forever. First of all the new update completely got rid of the popup ads and promotions. Next they completely remade the game engine, and it felt the same as any of the top VR games on the market which were famous about their realism and immersion.

And actually these two things were enough to bring back all the old players and many new ones.

But there was one thing they did not expect when playing the game. Yes, it did not have any pesky ads in your face, however when you left the creation center you were immediately greeted by giant neon advertisements with all the real world brands on them.

Many of the players who first entered were angry or confused, since this didn't change anything! However after leaving the city when they arrived to other places, the advertisements got less and less with only the biggest company logos showing and next to them were the fictional advertisements.

And this was not all, have you ever thought that: 'Damn this (Generic Large Brand)™-Cola was good, now I'll take this (Generic Large Brand)™-Cola-PlasmaBoosted-LaserRifle ver. ZX79 and kill some aliens with it?'

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No? Well after playing this game that thought will become as natural as breathing.

That's right, all these companies that sponsored the game, had their own weapon, armor, spaceship, AI, grenade, and many other things in the game.

And all these objects were on par with the fictional weapon distributor's weapons.

You bought some chips? Let's hook you up with some acid infused grenades with the company logo on them.

Got a new pair of shoes that look awesome? Wear them in-game as well, with unique bonus stats!

Bought our new car? Why not enjoy this spaceship as well!

Etc. Etc… You get the point. At first everyone was sceptical if this new neash thing would take off, but oh it did.

Many call the start of Galaxy's Golden Age when famous clothing companies started advertising. All the designs from the real world were brought into this one, and the professionals put together even more items for the game.

Not only that, all kinds of companies started joining in, Vehicles, Construction, Tourism, Entertainment, Etc.

These all meant you could get professionally designed items and services in the game and it became more realistic.

And the thing that made the game keep growing, is that companies could fight in the game for advertisement space, weapon factories, plans for a new spaceship, own property...

And after a while the developers could afford to not to single out one company.

Oh, you could still pay to be advertised, but if you wanted an infrastructure in the game, you had to pay a lot more.

And that's when players could be hired to do work for the company.

This was when the game turned subscription based.

It had a 30 dollar minimum option, however even that could seem a lot to people. But this is where it all comes together.

Companies could pay your subscription if you made a contract with them.

In the background the companies didn't have to pay the full price as they usually had an agreement with the creators.

These subscriptions granted the players some ingame currency every month, but if you paid yourself, you got more.

Hence the reason why companies don't have to pay the full subscription.

One could argue that this makes it a free to play game, but you had to do the company "quests" in the game for it which could even mean… Be a shopkeeper… Or run around the city advertising the company… Help build this…

Obviously this had limits and being in a contract with a company did give you bonuses, but you could still at any time throw in the towel and quit.

The company was not charged and you were freed from slavery. However you can't play until you pay the subscription.

To fight this, players realized they could open their own "companies" and get players in cheaper.

When the developers were asked how this exploit got through testing, they said it was intended to be this way.

This intensived players to group together into companies and this was a very interesting concept to many and this caused another influx of players.

This is how Galaxy became the world's largest VR game…