114 replies to this topic

[Rushdie Saladin]

I can see the writing on the wall, this game is going to become a grind for me just like WoT and I will end up no longer playing.

For World of Tanks that didn't bother me, but this is m.f'in BattleTech! I want to play the {Scrap} outta this game and I want to feel like paying is money well spent. I want this game to succeed!

Planetside's pricing model sucked me in. First they had 3x bonuses on in store game cards and walmart had 20 dollar cards for 15 bucks.That hooked me twice. Also the subscription comes with tons of perks, So I bought a year because it was cheaper per month. Most of the time, because of the perks, I just log in collect my daily 48 on my toons and log out... But I log in everyday. I check the sales in the stores everyday. I spend my credits anytime the sale is good. I occasionally buy additional credits if the sale is something I really want. They have at least 200 bucks of my money, they got most of it in the first 3 months I played, and I would pay another 30 bucks if they do another 3x bonus day and I will almost certainly renew my subscription.

I am a casual gamer who sees a 60 dollar game and goes "Meh, I'll wait for a steam sale" unless I have some serious fandom. What is even worse, and what drove me to this thread, is I am a diehard BattleTech fan, I want to support the game, but can't for the life of me swallow the pricing scheme. Offer a 120 dollar year long membership that gives me something like 5 bucks a month of MC (which half the time I just spend on cosmetic items anyways), bonus c-bills and exp, and a daily accrual of c-bills I have to log in to collect and not only would you get me hook line and sinker, but I will be glad I could offer the support and feel vested in the game. (probably renewing the next year even if all I do is play an hour or two a week and log in every day to collect c-bills)

[Larrold]

I have seen suggestions to this topic that say to wait for sales, it would have to be a sale offering a massive discount to interest me considering even $15 for a mech is too high. If one would consider how much you are paying to buy only a couple mechs, bays and upgrades, CBill exchanges etc. you realize you exceed the cost of a fully loaded out of box game in no time flat.

I love Mechwarrior and owned every edition and expansion pack available before. I am loving this but some tweaks and adjustments suggested here may be a good way to go to keep people on board and spending longer. Volume of smaller sales will make up for the income lost in a lower number of large sales.

[LordSkippy]

The only time prices are close to reasonable is when things are on sale. Things on sale need to be a bargain, not reasonably priced.

[Enzane]

I agree, MC prices need to drop.

But I don't think PGI has the power to change that model.

My Guess is those MC prices are set by Infinite Games Publishing (IGP). Who are the Publishers.

[Shrike ski]

well honestly they should lower the prices on just about everything and make up the diff in volume (expecially the cockpit items and colors), that being said they should also come up with a MC price system for every item in the game not just c-bills, def for engines, sometimes when you are inspired and really want that piece of equipment you get the impulse buys as well the key is leave the c-bills in place so that you don't look "quite" so money hungry, and newer players have the option to get new equipment for their mechs without having to build up to it by grinding to get that 6 mil c-bill engine, 1.5 mil double heat sinks, ect.... this will make the game more fun for newbies by allowing them to be at least marginally more competitive when starting out.

[DrSlamastika]

I think heros mechs should be a little more expensive.
cose now its not rare, all matches are full of heros and thats not cool . . . They should be more rare.

[Roheryn]

I am stunned at what they charge in this game. Over the course of my founders package and tow MC purchases I spent about $200 on this game.

If mechs/camo/colors where priced more accessibly I would have spent well over $500 at this point, but when I look at how little I would get for that $300 it makes me want to spend nothing.

I will NEVER purchase a mech with MC at the current prices. If they were a 3rd of the cost I would buy 3. I would imagine that an appropriate price reduction would stimulate enough buying from people who feel like I do that they would actually make more money from the game. As it is it simply feels like a ripoff.

Let's see I can buy 2 mechs or I can buy literally any AAA game title I want. That seems bizarre.

[Tezcatli]

Meh. Stopped considering buying anything more after they nerfed C-bill gain. Now I won't pay unless they add something worth coming back to.

[Captain Stiffy]

A REGULAR Atlas DDC costs like 20 dollars.

Who are they kidding? We can't enjoy the fact that MWO has a store until we can actually feel good about paying their prices.

20 freakin dollars for a mech you can get for free with your trial money alone.

Are they actually, certifiably insane?

The problem is the publisher. When the developers make something the publisher probably tells them what to charge based on what it cost. The publisher would probably say "well you need to add more value because this is what we have to charge to get back what it cost you to make it" so the problem squarely rests on the fact that they spend a bazillion dollars developing mechs and not ACTUAL CONTENT to USE THOSE MECHS IN!

[Sir Ratburger]

I agree with you that the pricing is ridiculous, I supported by buying the overlord package but I refuse to pay so much for a single hero mech and colours... especially when the game is lacking in content that actually matters like new modes.

[Zarlaren]

MC prices are through the roof and into outer space to the moon. I don't understand why some mc stuff is so very high. 4.8K for Jester release is a bit much you could of done a release special sale for 25% off for the first couple weeks then drop it off to 3700. You would make more money doing sales at a reduced cost to butter people up for awhile then sky rocket a price to the moon and nobody can afford it expect for the rich.

[Tiamat of the Sea]

I can't really speak to most of the MC prices.

All I know is: I bought three colors and a few one-time camo options, and unless the MC prices on cosmetics go down, I'm not buying any more MC colors and am definitely not ever buying permanent camo options for anything. I bought one Hero 'mech and that's all I'm getting ever unless 'mech MC prices come down at least a bit on a permanent basis. And I think 'mech bay prices are just fine.

How much is that opinion worth?

I'unno. But this topic wants peoples' opinions on MC prices, so there are mine.

Woo.

[OznerpaG]

i'v played the {Scrap} out of this game for the last 6 months and will continue to do so, however the prices of everything are just too high so in spite of having put in $30 into this game a few months ago all i'v bought so far is some mech bays and a month of premium, which i will not do again since +50% CB/XP is a complete waste of the $12/month it costs since the CB nerf. if premium had given 2X CB/XP i would have easily sunk $60+ into the game over the last few months to keep my premium going, but for +50% no freaking way.

it costs PGI NOTHING to give me 2X instead of +50% since they are still receiving $12 from me for the month, but i expect something in return for my $12 instead of a lousy additional 25-50k CB each match. if you arn't paying then grinding is perfectly fine, but if i pay you cash money then i expect the grind to end.


also if PGI wanted to increase the amount of all mechs getting purchased, then ALL mechs purchased with MC should have a permanent +25% CB bonus, not just heros. and in that instance then hero mechs should be bumped up to +50% CB earnings. there has to be a reason for people to purchase mechs outside of the exclusive hero mechs, and a CB bonus would do that very nicely

[Space Beer]

I'm of the same mind as most everyone else here. MC are just too expensive for what you get.

I love to support free to play and will always contribute a small amount. But when that amount becomes too much I find it difficult to give even $15 a month to get very little in return. Yes, $15 a month is what I will pay as there are many other options out there. You don't get much for that in MWO. My entertainment budget allows for much more but this is just one of many games.

I would encourage the BD people at MWO to look at LoL and TF2 for good examples of free-to-play pricing models.

edit: There is a loyalty factor associated with paying as well. If I have a hero mech I paid $10.00 for I am more willing to continue playing and paying. I won't even buy one for $30 so I'm not motivated by my investment to stay around.

Edited by Space Beer, 27 November 2013 - 11:25 AM.

[Seelenlos]

Hi,

didn't read the hole post, but I would pay a monthly fee of 5€ like WoW, for peremium time and so on for permium time and some mechs.
And I would then buy light-med-h-as 3-5-7-10 € (there are plenty of mechs they can build !!!!).

Anything else means not buying good games on Steam-sales, and that I would not pay PGI.
If some remember Moonbreakers: some they they stop developing and the hole money is in trash !

regards

[Steven Dixon]

I voted no simply because I would prefer lower prices (who wouldn't). Not that it matters, it would be foolish for a company to base prices on a forum poll rather than actual data.

Of course the prices aren't that unreasonable considering the competition. Sure you can compair it to games like $60 retail box games or LoL, ect but really this game is based on World of Tanks. And if you look at the pricing of WoTs then MWO's prices are very reasonable and fair.

But having said this I think one of the reasons for LoL's success is their pricing and I think that other F2P games could learn from it. After all these products have a somewhat high fixed cost but an extremely low variable cost (effectively zero). If they had a very large target audience then it would make sense to sell in bulk and charge very low prices (what LoL does), however MWO tends to cater so a somewhat smaller audience of fanatic fans so from an economics perspective it actually makes sense to charge quite a bit for content that is single purchase. Colors cost a lot but you only buy them once and use them over and over. Hero mechs also cost a lot but you also only buy them once. Paint schemes, mech bays and consumables are purchased over and over again so they are actually priced quite cheap because PGI can make money off of them over a long period of time they don't need to front load their profit margin.

Look at it this way, lets say it costs them 100K to make a mech (as an example), they could have only 5k people willing to pay $50 for a mech (which nets them a $150k profit roughly) but lets say 40k people willing to pay $5 for a mech (this would net them $100k profit). In this instance it would seem to make sense to charge $50 for a mech. The magic number is how many more people will buy the product if you lower the price. Often the percentage of people willing to pay in a F2P game is fairly low and it isn't always just price, they are unwilling to spend money weather its $1 or $100, getting them to cross that threshold is often quite important (mech bays serve that goal here). Its of course far more complicated than that but I've already bored anyone who's bothered to read this anyways and I don't have access to PGIs data. I have to assume that PGI's data indicates that the prices that they are charging will maximize their profit and its kinda hard for me to argue against that.

LordSkippy, on 07 October 2013 - 06:33 AM, said:

The only time prices are close to reasonable is when things are on sale. Things on sale need to be a bargain, not reasonably priced.

That's rarely how sales really work. Companies that rely on 'sales' to generate sales ($) almost always overcharge their regular prices to make the 'sale' seem more like a bargain. Its a commonly accepted business practice. If you frequently have a 50% of sale on kids shoes, then your regular price is probably about 50% higher than you otherwise would have charged. Sales aren't supposed to be a bargain they are supposed to seem like a bargain.

Edited by Steven Dixon, 19 January 2014 - 01:54 AM.

[LordSkippy]

Steven Dixon, on 19 January 2014 - 01:47 AM, said:

That's rarely how sales really work. Companies that rely on 'sales' to generate sales ($) almost always overcharge their regular prices to make the 'sale' seem more like a bargain. Its a commonly accepted business practice. If you frequently have a 50% of sale on kids shoes, then your regular price is probably about 50% higher than you otherwise would have charged.

That's not actually true. For the most part, sales are used:

• to bring people into the store and act as a loss leader, hoping to make up the loss with people purchasing additional, non-sale, items
  
• get rid of discontinued items, before selling them in bulk to a discount chain
  
• increase profit by sacrificing some margin in hopes for making more in volume

On occasion, alternate price will be used to change the way price is perceived, like 2/$5 instead of $2.50 each. But in most of those cases, the term "special" is used instead of "sale."

Steven Dixon, on 19 January 2014 - 01:47 AM, said:

Sales aren't supposed to be a bargain they are supposed to seem like a bargain.

Even if that was the case, they are failing with their pricing. The sale prices don't seem like a bargain, they seem like what should be the normal pricing.

[Joseph Mallan]

Karl Streiger, on 27 March 2013 - 02:00 AM, said:

Premium Mech are a to expensive. I got a 30% bonus on cbills...but I'm pretty sure that premium time in the same ammount of time does give you more benefits.

For the price of the pretty baby i got what? 50% cbill bonus for 3 months?...and i can use any mech i want to play
Only advantage of premium mech is that i can not loose that bonus after some time.

Iron Wind Metal is charging $25 for this! I don't think a game toon is worth More than a item i can hold in my hand!

[Fut]

Joseph Mallan, on 20 February 2014 - 06:00 AM, said:

Iron Wind Metal is charging $25 for this! I don't think a game toon is worth More than a item i can hold in my hand!

Jumping Atlas? How is it possible that I've never heard of such a thing before?
Hmm.. Where's the "Ashamed" emote when I need one?

[OldCowboy]

I voted no. Because I do find it crazy expensive. Although I don't think they are wrong for doing it.

Supply and demand man. People are paying, including myself. Also the price is pretty on par with other games. Cheaper actually than some pay to play vanity items.