# V7 Operator Economics — Pricing the Platform-Orchestrated Realm Fleet Status: V7 commercial planning. Source: fills the planning gap identified in `V1_V7_PLAN_SET_AUDIT_2026-06-12.md` §6.2 (no operator pricing model). Grounded in `V7/V7_features.md` (features§"The Hosting Continuum", features§"Hosting, Orchestration, and Who Pays", features§"The Creator Economy") and `V7/V7_ARCHITECTURE.md` (arch§"Hosting, Orchestration, and the Realm Fleet", arch§"Danu — Server Meshing", arch§"Moremi — Realm Server Architecture"). Owner: Abundantia economy lead with platform infrastructure lead. All prices/costs below are planning assumptions adopted 2026-06-12 unless tied to a cited spec commitment; finance to re-base on actuals at creator alpha. Date: 2026-06-12. ## 1. Pricing Philosophy features§"Hosting" fixes the frame: the platform pays for inviolable services and a buffered official fleet; operators can pay for orchestrated capacity or bring their own compute. Within that frame, the commercial posture is: 1. **Hosting is an on-ramp, not the profit center.** The platform's economics are the creator economy (engagement pool, sales margin, storefronts — features§"The Creator Economy"). Hosting is priced to be obviously competitive with the FiveM GSP market ($10–50/mo for typical servers) so price is never the reason a community stays on FiveM. 2. **Margin pays for what GSPs don't provide.** V7 hosting bundles DDoS scrubbing, attested anti-cheat, Nephthys persistence with PITR (`V7/docs/world-state-rollback.md`), and the safety stack — the comparable isn't a bare game server, and the margin target (§5) funds that bundle. 3. **Population is the price axis.** Operators understand slots; all tiers are priced by concurrent-population cap, which also tracks the actual cost driver (sim CPU + bandwidth scale with pop — arch§"Netcode": per-client 64–256 kbit/s). ## 2. Cost Basis per Realm Tier Cost model assumptions (planning assumptions adopted 2026-06-12): - Compute reference rates: dedicated-vCPU cloud instance ≈ **$0.011 per vCPU-hour blended** (Hetzner CCX-class on-demand; the repo's owned Hetzner bare-metal footprint — arch§"Hosting" `Distributed` scheduling — runs cheaper at ≈$0.006/vCPU-hr amortized, used for persistent realms; Spot for stateless sessions at up to ~90% off per arch§"Hosting"). - Sim sizing: Moremi at 10–30 Hz open-world tick (arch§"Moremi") sustains ≈32 players per dedicated vCPU including Ixchel sandbox budgets; memory ≈0.75 GB per 32 players + 4 GB base. - Egress: ≈150 kbit/s average per client (mid of the 64–256 kbit/s budget) ≈ 1.6 GB per player-day at 24h occupancy; blended egress ≈$0.005/GB on the owned footprint + CDN mix. - Realms idle: average occupancy across a month ≈ 20% of cap for community realms (evening-peaked — arch§"Hosting" webhook autoscaler); orchestration scales to demand, so cost follows occupancy, not cap. | Tier | Footprint | Platform cost basis (monthly, at assumed occupancy) | | ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Solo** | Local client only (features§"The Hosting Continuum"); Nephthys sync only when promoted | ≈$0 (storage of saves: cents) | | **Listen (~16)** | Host client's machine; platform carries gateway relay + Nephthys once it leaves Solo | ≈$1–3 (relay bandwidth + persistence) | | **Dedicated 64** | 2 vCPU slice + Nephthys share | ≈$6–10 | | **Dedicated 128** | 4 vCPU slice + Nephthys share | ≈$12–18 | | **Dedicated 256** | 8 vCPU / 32 GB node-equivalent (≈$0.09/hr on-demand ≈ $64/mo at full burn) + Nephthys + egress | ≈$25–40 at 20% occupancy with autoscale; ≈$80–100 worst-case pinned 24/7 | | **Meshed 1000+** | See node math below | ≈$350–700 at realistic occupancy; ≈$1,100–1,500 pinned 24/7 | **Meshed node math** (from the Danu design): single-node authority tops out ≈256 (features§"The Hosting Continuum"), but meshed regions are sized below that for handoff headroom — plan ≈150–200 players of authority per sim node (planning assumption adopted 2026-06-12; the co-location constraint and split/merge headroom of arch§"Danu" argue against running nodes at the single-realm ceiling). A 1,000-pop realm at peak therefore runs: - ceil(1000 ÷ 175) = **6 sim nodes** (8 vCPU each) ≈ 48 vCPU - **Nephthys replica allocation**: 2 nodes (4 vCPU each) for the replication/persistence layer at this event volume ≈ 8 vCPU - **Danu control + gateway share** ≈ 4 vCPU - Total ≈ **60 vCPU at peak** ≈ $0.66/hr on-demand ≈ $475/mo pinned — but dynamic split/merge (arch§"Danu") means off-peak the realm runs 1–2 nodes; at an evening-peaked 30% weighted utilization ≈ **$140–200/mo compute** + egress (1,000 players × 3h/day avg × 150 kbit/s ≈ 6 TB/mo ≈ $30) + Nephthys storage/PITR (≈$5) ≈ **$175–250/mo realistic**, with the $1,100+ figure as the pinned-24/7 worst case on cloud rates (owned bare-metal roughly halves it). ## 3. Benchmark — What the Market Pays Today Planning assumptions adopted 2026-06-12, from public GSP price lists and flagship-community Patreon tiers: - FiveM GSP hosting: $10–25/mo for 32–64 slots; $30–60/mo for 128-slot performance tiers; serious communities on dedicated boxes: $50–150/mo. - Flagship RP community budgets (Patreon-funded): $500–5,000+/mo including dev payroll — hosting is a minority line; they buy reliability and tooling. - Plus what FiveM operators pay invisibly: Tebex fees, DDoS mitigation add-ons, database hosting, txAdmin infrastructure, and dev time for what V7 bundles (persistence, anti-cheat, voice — Pheme replaces a Mumble server). ## 4. Proposed Operator Pricing | Plan | Cap | Price (monthly) | Notes | | --------------------- | --------------------------- | ------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Free** | Solo + Listen (~16) | $0 | Unlimited Solo; Listen always free (host's own compute). Includes Nephthys persistence once promoted off Solo. | | **Community Free** | 1 Dedicated realm, 32 pop | $0 | The funnel tier: idle-hibernate after 60 min empty (cold-start absorbed by the buffer autoscaler — arch§"Hosting"); platform branding on listing | | **Dedicated 64** | 64 pop | **$12** | vs. GSP $10–25 with none of the bundle | | **Dedicated 128** | 128 pop | **$24** | | | **Dedicated 256** | 256 pop | **$44** | The serious-community anchor price; under the $50 psychological line | | **Meshed** | 1000+ (Danu) | **$299 base + $0.20 per node-hour above the 2-node baseline** | Usage-priced because meshed cost is genuinely elastic (§2); typical evening-peaked 1,000-pop realm lands ≈$420–550/mo all-in | | **BYOC** | Operator hardware | **$0 hosting; platform services fee 15% of realm storefront revenue, min $19/mo per realm** | T2-vetted operators only (`V7/docs/operator-data-protection.md` §5); covers gateway/DDoS/Nephthys/safety which remain platform-side (features§"Hosting") | Pricing rules: - **Annual prepay −15%.** Founding-realm discount per `V7/docs/community-migration.md` §5.1 (50% off Dedicated-256 for 12 months for the first 200 Verified realms). - **No pop-cap overage sales**: a full realm queues (features§"Population Targets and Degradation") — selling burst headroom would undermine the queue-priority SKU operators sell (`V7/docs/off-platform-monetization-policy.md` §2) and make cost unpredictable for operators. - **Hosting fees are payable from creator earnings**: an operator's Aje balance (engagement payouts, storefront revenue) can pay hosting directly — successful realms host free in practice, which is the flywheel pitch. ### Carve-outs already specced - **Official realms**: the platform pays for a buffered fleet of official realms (features§"Hosting") — these are marketing/liquidity surface, booked as platform cost, never competing on paid features with community realms. - **BYOC**: per features§"Hosting", BYOC carries sandboxed realm logic only, never platform services; the 15%/min-$19 services fee prices the platform plane the operator still consumes. GSP resellers get the certification economics of `V7/docs/community-migration.md` §2.4. ## 5. Platform Margin Policy - Target **gross margin on paid hosting tiers: 35–55%** at assumed occupancy (Dedicated 256: $44 price vs. $25–40 cost ≈ 10–43%; Dedicated 64: $12 vs. $6–10 ≈ 17–50%; Meshed usage pricing is set at cost × ~1.6). Planning assumption adopted 2026-06-12: occupancy-driven cost variance is the margin risk; the autoscaler's idle-hibernation efficiency is the single biggest margin lever and gets an owner (infrastructure lead) and a quarterly efficiency review. - **Floor rule**: no paid tier is ever priced below its pinned-occupancy marginal cost by more than the Community Free tier's CAC justification — i.e., losses are taken deliberately on the free funnel tier only. - **Re-price cadence**: hosting prices reviewed every 6 months against hardware cost and GSP market; price *decreases* pass through immediately, increases grandfather existing subscribers 12 months. ## 6. Revenue Projection per 1,000 Active Realms Planning assumptions adopted 2026-06-12. Tier mix assumption for a steady-state cohort of 1,000 active (≥weekly-session) realms, based on the FiveM market's shape (a long tail of small servers, a thin head of big ones): | Tier | Share | Realms | Price | Monthly revenue | Est. monthly cost | Gross margin | | ------------------ | ----- | ------ | --------- | ---------------- | ------------------ | ------------- | | Community Free | 55% | 550 | $0 | $0 | 550 × $4 = $2,200 | −$2,200 | | Dedicated 64 | 20% | 200 | $12 | $2,400 | 200 × $8 = $1,600 | $800 | | Dedicated 128 | 10% | 100 | $24 | $2,400 | 100 × $15 = $1,500 | $900 | | Dedicated 256 | 9% | 90 | $44 | $3,960 | 90 × $32 = $2,880 | $1,080 | | Meshed | 1.5% | 15 | ≈$480 avg | $7,200 | 15 × $210 = $3,150 | $4,050 | | BYOC | 4.5% | 45 | $19 min + 15% fee (avg ≈$55) | $2,475 | 45 × $6 = $270 (platform-plane share) | $2,205 | | **Hosting total** | | 1,000 | | **$18,435/mo** | **$11,600/mo** | **$6,835/mo (37%)** | Arithmetic check: revenue = 2,400 + 2,400 + 3,960 + 7,200 + 2,475 = $18,435. Cost = 2,200 + 1,600 + 1,500 + 2,880 + 3,150 + 270 = $11,600. Margin = $6,835 ≈ 37% blended including the free tier's drag. **The point of the table**: per 1,000 realms, hosting nets ≈$82k/year — while the same 1,000 realms at the assumed engagement (≈120 weekly-active verified players per paid realm average) drive the platform's actual business: at a modest $1.50/player-month platform-attributable commerce take (storefront margin + engagement-pool funding share — features§"The Creator Economy"), ≈54,000 weekly-active players yield ≈$81k/month ≈ $970k/year of economy-side gross. Hosting margin is ~8% of the realm-driven total — which is exactly why pricing optimizes for realm count and survival, not hosting extraction (§1). Finance owns re-basing both sides of this table on actuals at each rollout stage gate (features§"Region Rollout Strategy"). ## 7. Risks and Levers - **Occupancy risk**: if average occupancy runs 2× assumption, Dedicated-256 margin goes negative → levers: hibernation aggressiveness, Spot mix for respawnable sessions (arch§"Hosting" cost tiering), owned-hardware share. - **Meshed sticker shock**: $480/mo is real money for a community → mitigated by earnings-pay-hosting (§4) and the founding-realm program; track the "meshed realms funded ≥50% by own Aje earnings" ratio (target ≥60% by month 12 post-economy-launch). - **BYOC cannibalization**: if BYOC under-prices orchestrated hosting for big realms, orchestrated Meshed adoption stalls → acceptable by design (BYOC still pays the services fee and the platform sheds the compute cost), but watch that BYOC operators meet the same reliability bar (realm-health surfacing in the browser — arch§"Observability" — is the market's corrective).