Does WoW need to charge $50 for an expansion to stay profitable? Nope.
Is $50 a fair entertainment value? That's up to each individual person. I always though sub MMOs were an extreme entertainment value (before the influx of f2p), and just because there are cheaper but inferior options available doesn't change the fact that for the money I would give to Blizzard or SoE for expansion + sub is a great money for entertainment time value.
Originally posted by observer All their expansions have cost that much. Until people stop paying that much, it won't stop. On top of that, it costs monthly, even though, in my opinion, the quality of WoW isn't worth that much anymore, if it ever really was.
If you knew how difficult the whole process of updating character models is you would know that 50 bucks isn't even that much. There are very few companies like Blizzard who are doing such an amazing job in keeping a 9 year old game up to date.
Are you serious? It doesn't take long at all. A year at the most. They've waited 6 years to do it, and that's unacceptable for any company. They just wanted to wait until the time was right, when their sub numbers were going down.
I guess you are speaking from your own personal experince then as a game designer? my bad. i should have never believed Blizzard game devs and should have taken a word of some random poster on the forums.
i am sure this has been asked before but honestly.....$49.99 for an expansion? not a full game, but an expansion???
i know it's wow and blizz shits golden nuggests but that's just getting a little ridiculous IMO
That is a decent price for a full fledged expansion.
A good expanple here, do you see how Swtor sells their DLC for cheaper? well, compare the sizes and the amount of content and you see you get what you pay for.
But look, Pandaria is $20 bucks already, expansion prices tend to decrease faster than the base games. I cant wait for WoD, but ill probably get a physical disc on sale(or trade in) at gamestop post launch.
SWTOR doesn't sell DLC to subs only to free players.
When Makeb first came out, subbed players got it at a discount, as for the cash shop, you get 500 cartel coins a month (+100 if you have an authenticator) which is not really enough to buy much, so anyone buying packs etc, will probably spend a fair bit in addition to paying a sub, it wouldn't surprise me at all if subbed players spent more than F2P players in the cash shop, as there is a 'lot' of vanity items in there. just as an example an 'unmodded' armour set will often cost around 1200-1400 Cartel Coins, but my guess is they rely on the 'gambling' from players buying the packs with random items in, thats one side of the game that i think really needs to be looked at
Originally posted by gervaise1 The real question: Is the xpac worth $50 plus the $15 or $30 whilst you play through it plus - for long subscribers -the sub cost between the last new content and the xpac. For 14 months that's $200. So $265 minimum. As DMKano says market research will have been carried out. Given the drop in subs I sould expect one element of their analysis to be players returning for 30 days only. And they will want them to pay a higher price imo. I wonder whether they thought of having a discount model to reward long term subscribers. Say 15 percent discount for every 3 months I the last year? (So max 60 pc making it $20 for people with a full year (purchase via Bliz only, no media). Because as it stands I could see a lot of old subscribscribers leaving after a couple of content patches or so.
They do have discount prices for longer subs...You can get 1 month for 14.99. 3 months for 13.99, or 6 months for 12.99. You can also find year subs online, I think those are given to employees or special events, not completely sure but you can buy those for kinda cheap as well.
I know. What I am zuggesting is a dis ount on the cost of the expansion. So that someone who has subbed for a year say gets a 60 percent discount on the expansion. A loyalty bonus for staying subscribed during the content famine.
They make something that all current players think they need to have, to own a full game which they invested hundreds of dollars in.. It's a complete ripoff extremely shady system. It's like no one knows how simple it is to reuse and tweak already existing models and shaders. These aren't sophisticated models.. Everything in WOW is built of very basic low quad count models and simplistic 3 layer shaders. Color, bump, specular. You already pay 15 a month for an expanding game experience AKA.. MMO. Paying 50 or 60 dollars for a couple more hours of game experience and window dressing on top of that is dumb. Add on top of that, that you've spent hundreds of dollars on something you don't actually own and you have a major issue. You're only renting WOW it's not on a disc or hard drive for you to play if they pull the plug 3 years from today when the next theoretical wow killer comes out. Most of my last experience in WOW was spent being annoyed at how many people can Jam their ridiculously oversized and gaudily designed mounts in front of the auction hall. I wasn't impressed with the game during my last test drive.
Here's the easy part of all this, if the value isnt there for you don't buy it or sub to WoW, if it is then do. I haven't played WoW now in a number of years but I never felt ripped off or milked. Why, because no one makes you buy it or sub. It's a choice. People seem to forget that. If they don't push any new content for a long period take a break. Until Blizzard somehow can force people to buy the product no one is being ripped off. It's all your choice to play or not. At this point it's not like don't know what WoW is about as a game so if someone buys it and then complains it's more of the same etc. it's no ones fault but their own.
If it is not for the 90 boost, i would just wait for like 3 weeks after the initial expansion launch and upgrade my account. I was in on the 2nd day of MOP launch and it wasnt a `nice` experience cause i had to wait in a que.... I've got another friend of mine who couldn't even click on a quest npc because of craploads of players near the quest giver.
I am really lazy to level to 90 because
(1) low level pvp is imbalanced as fuck
(2) 1 to 69 is boring as hell and im only interested to pvp.
Can't wait to get home and get my hands on a monk healer lol.
Once again, for all those saying "DERRR DEY ALWAYS COST DAT MUCH". Uh no, you are wrong. Every single expansion for every single Blizzard game has cost $39.99 for the base edition. For some reason, Blizz thinks WoD is worth the extra ten dollars because it's delivering the least amount of content than any of their previous expansions? Ten levels instead of five? Really? That's an arbitrary number. Leveling to 100 will take as long as it took to level from 85 to 90. They've already explicitly said as much. What new features are we really getting? Garrisons. That's it. Farmville 2.0 that gives you even less of a reason to be out in the world which flies in direct opposition to every supposed goal of the last expansion. New character models? Not all of them will even be done in time for release. It's been damn near two years and what do they have to show for it? The most bare bones uninspired directionless garbage they've come up with in the entire history of their company. Oh but now you can insta-level to 90 and jump right into the most on-rails and shallow questing experience they've ever delivered all for a paltry extra $10! Thanks but no thanks.
Its usually 40 dollars . I know there is a little thing called inflation but even so for an old game this is high . People playing the game now will obviously buy into anything Blizzard does . Blizzard fans very often have their heads so far up that companies posterior that they will defend anything they do .
The question for people who have given up the game and are thinking about going back to play through the content is if this is worth the money to you ( and a monthly fee ) . If it is then go out and buy it . If its not don't buy it and send Blizzard a message to go forth and multiply .
In my view as a long time WoW player from Vanilla to Cataclysm is Blizzard as a company have lost all credibility which is why 5+ million people have left them to go elsewhere . From what I've been reading of the massively articles about WOD beta it is not very good at all .
Originally posted by Goll25 $49.99 is nothing, and with the work that blizzard always puts into the start of an expansion, it is practically a whole new game. There is arguably more content in an expansion pack patch X.0 than any yearly franchise you'd pay $60 for like CoD, Battlefield, Sports games.
Don't forget you are paying $14.99 a month to cover the cost of the people working on the expansion also, since they are not putting out any new content. So if you keep your sub active the whole time the cost is really going to be well over $200 for that new content by the time it comes out.
Originally posted by daltanious Originally posted by baphameti am sure this has been asked before but honestly.....$49.99 for an expansion? not a full game, but an expansion???i know it's wow and blizz shits golden nuggests but that's just getting a little ridiculous IMO
This expansion is worth more then like 5 other full games put together, so I do not see any problem. Worth every single cent and much much more.
I have no problem with it, as Blizzard is one of the few devs that support OSx and Windows with equal care. I get the same experience from my Windows desktop at home and my MacBook Pro away from home.
Originally posted by Thane Originally posted by baphameti am sure this has been asked before but honestly.....$49.99 for an expansion? not a full game, but an expansion???i know it's wow and blizz shits golden nuggests but that's just getting a little ridiculous IMO
what's redicoulus about that? normal price for games.
normal price for a full fledged game, not an expansion.
Give it two months and it will go down. They gotta make the massive moneys off the impulse hardcore players first.
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
i am sure this has been asked before but honestly.....$49.99 for an expansion? not a full game, but an expansion???
i know it's wow and blizz shits golden nuggests but that's just getting a little ridiculous IMO
Doesn't matter, they have millions of puppets lining up to buy it. They could charge $99.99 and it wouldn't make a difference, people would still gobble it up.
Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV Have played: You name it If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.
Originally posted by baphameti am sure this has been asked before but honestly.....$49.99 for an expansion? not a full game, but an expansion???i know it's wow and blizz shits golden nuggests but that's just getting a little ridiculous IMO
what's redicoulus about that? normal price for games.
normal price for a full fledged game, not an expansion.
Yes and you can get maybe 40 hours out of some games. You can get about 50 days played out of WoW.
dozen lockboxes in free™ to play MMO's or couple armor pieces in Rift no tricks traps MMO or 1 spaceship for a game that i might be able to fly 2016 maybe etc or full expansion for WoW?
full expansion sounds better deal in my ear atleast.
So, did ESO have a successful launch? Yes, yes it did.By Ryan Getchell on April 02, 2014. **On the radar: http://www.cyberpunk.net/ **
Comments
Does WoW need to charge $50 for an expansion to stay profitable? Nope.
Is $50 a fair entertainment value? That's up to each individual person. I always though sub MMOs were an extreme entertainment value (before the influx of f2p), and just because there are cheaper but inferior options available doesn't change the fact that for the money I would give to Blizzard or SoE for expansion + sub is a great money for entertainment time value.
I guess you are speaking from your own personal experince then as a game designer? my bad. i should have never believed Blizzard game devs and should have taken a word of some random poster on the forums.
Forgive me.
When Makeb first came out, subbed players got it at a discount, as for the cash shop, you get 500 cartel coins a month (+100 if you have an authenticator) which is not really enough to buy much, so anyone buying packs etc, will probably spend a fair bit in addition to paying a sub, it wouldn't surprise me at all if subbed players spent more than F2P players in the cash shop, as there is a 'lot' of vanity items in there. just as an example an 'unmodded' armour set will often cost around 1200-1400 Cartel Coins, but my guess is they rely on the 'gambling' from players buying the packs with random items in, thats one side of the game that i think really needs to be looked at
This expansion is worth more then like 5 other full games put together, so I do not see any problem. Worth every single cent and much much more.
They do have discount prices for longer subs...You can get 1 month for 14.99. 3 months for 13.99, or 6 months for 12.99. You can also find year subs online, I think those are given to employees or special events, not completely sure but you can buy those for kinda cheap as well.
I know. What I am zuggesting is a dis ount on the cost of the expansion. So that someone who has subbed for a year say gets a 60 percent discount on the expansion. A loyalty bonus for staying subscribed during the content famine.Every other expansion was 39.99 for the base version.
The sole reason i bought the expansion pack is
(1) lvl 90 boost
If it is not for the 90 boost, i would just wait for like 3 weeks after the initial expansion launch and upgrade my account. I was in on the 2nd day of MOP launch and it wasnt a `nice` experience cause i had to wait in a que.... I've got another friend of mine who couldn't even click on a quest npc because of craploads of players near the quest giver.
I am really lazy to level to 90 because
(1) low level pvp is imbalanced as fuck
(2) 1 to 69 is boring as hell and im only interested to pvp.
Can't wait to get home and get my hands on a monk healer lol.
Its usually 40 dollars . I know there is a little thing called inflation but even so for an old game this is high . People playing the game now will obviously buy into anything Blizzard does . Blizzard fans very often have their heads so far up that companies posterior that they will defend anything they do .
The question for people who have given up the game and are thinking about going back to play through the content is if this is worth the money to you ( and a monthly fee ) . If it is then go out and buy it . If its not don't buy it and send Blizzard a message to go forth and multiply .
In my view as a long time WoW player from Vanilla to Cataclysm is Blizzard as a company have lost all credibility which is why 5+ million people have left them to go elsewhere . From what I've been reading of the massively articles about WOD beta it is not very good at all .
Don't forget you are paying $14.99 a month to cover the cost of the people working on the expansion also, since they are not putting out any new content. So if you keep your sub active the whole time the cost is really going to be well over $200 for that new content by the time it comes out.
okay that's not being very realistic lol
what's redicoulus about that? normal price for games.
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
no they have not always cost this much, maybe you are new to wow?
this expansion costs the same amount of money that i paid for the full version of wow when it launched (full retail price at the time), that's a fact.
i have never seen an expansion for any game cost this much but blizzard knows they can get away with it so they do it.
other than the level 90 boost, i don't see anything different about this expansion compared to the ones in the past, in terms of content.
IINM that free 90 boost is only if you pre-order as well, so it really isn't a feature, it's a marketing ploy.
normal price for a full fledged game, not an expansion.
The fact that 10,000+ people are signing up ever beta key giveaway on this site shows that there is interest in WoD.
At least their Australia tax is pretty minimal, we only pay $55 Australian which is roughly the same as the US price.
The Enlightened take things Lightly
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
Doesn't matter, they have millions of puppets lining up to buy it. They could charge $99.99 and it wouldn't make a difference, people would still gobble it up.
Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
Have played: You name it
If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.
Yes and you can get maybe 40 hours out of some games. You can get about 50 days played out of WoW.
WOD $49.99? seriously?
dozen lockboxes in free™ to play MMO's or couple armor pieces in Rift no tricks traps MMO or 1 spaceship for a game that i might be able to fly 2016 maybe etc or full expansion for WoW?
full expansion sounds better deal in my ear atleast.
So, did ESO have a successful launch? Yes, yes it did.By Ryan Getchell on April 02, 2014.
**On the radar: http://www.cyberpunk.net/ **