26 replies to this topic

[LordBraxton]

I want to give PGI the benefit of the doubt here. Can somebody explain why PGI needs to charge hundreds of dollars for mech expansions to be a successful business? How do other small studios make money off their games when they charge $20-$40, and then release new content in $15 packs a couple times a year? Why are PGI prices 10x the norm? The only other games that do this are WoT\Warthunder. I want to know why these games have to charge these prices to succeed. PGI is the only mech-crack dealer in town, so they don't really have to compete with anyone else's prices.

[Rizzelbizzeg]

100 tons of steel, myomer muscles, and ablative armor is not cheap

[LordKnightFandragon]

Pricing model: If you want it bad enough, you will pay up!

[LordBraxton]

Rizzelbizzeg, on 15 January 2015 - 08:06 AM, said:

100 tons of steel, myomer muscles, and ablative armor is not cheap

This is cute, and nor is 100 hours of paid programmer labor, but I want someone who understands the programming\game design fields to explain to me why creating assets on the cryengine costs so much money compared to normal games.

LordKnightFandragon, on 15 January 2015 - 08:10 AM, said:

Pricing model: If you want it bad enough, you will pay up!

I hope this isn't the case, because if PGI really loved battletech like they claim, why would they treat the fanbase so cruelly, as to push the envelope and set new and terrifying pricing standards for, lets be honest, mediocre quality content. We can't even get inverse kinematics back after 2+ years. We've seen about 2 map-packs worth of maps, and one beta expansion called Community warfare. We've also seen about 5 or 6 DLC packs worth of mechs in the past couple years. This could easily cost ~$150 of paid DLC for a normal game. In MWO it's closer to $1000+

Edited by LordBraxton, 15 January 2015 - 08:13 AM.

[LordKnightFandragon]

LordBraxton, on 15 January 2015 - 08:11 AM, said:

I hope this isn't the case, because if PGI really loved battletech like they claim, why would they treat the fanbase to cruelly, as to push the envelope and set new and terrifying pricing standards for, lets be honest, mediocre quality content. We can't even get inverse kinematics back after 2+ years.

Idk, they do also live in Canada, their stuff seems to be a fair bit more then stuff in the US. So it kinda makes sense their real money content costs a derpy amount. For them its prolly normal. Ofc, 500 for the gold Mechs...that was a bit much...

But the in game Cbill gain, that is the impression I get.....cuz we have had our income destroyed. Used to make a good portion of cbills pretty quick, now it kinda trickles in.

[Mercules]

LordBraxton, on 15 January 2015 - 08:11 AM, said:

I hope this isn't the case, because if PGI really loved battletech like they claim, why would they treat the fanbase so cruelly, as to push the envelope and set new and terrifying pricing standards for, lets be honest, mediocre quality content. We can't even get inverse kinematics back after 2+ years. We've seen about 2 map-packs worth of maps, and one beta expansion called Community warfare. We've also seen about 5 or 6 DLC packs worth of mechs in the past couple years. This could easily cost ~$150 of paid DLC for a normal game. In MWO it's closer to $1000+

Those other games don't have to pay for an IP license for one thing. That also means they don't have a ready stock of IP fan(atics) who would be willing to pay a good deal just to play their game. Sure we are fools but most of the Battletech/table top wargame crew are fools with expendable income.

[Cion]

You answered yourself. Russ has stated several times that he compares MWO to World of Tanks, and mimics their pricing model.

That's why.

[Rizzelbizzeg]

I'm pretty sure you already hit the nail on the head in your OP

LordBraxton, on 15 January 2015 - 07:58 AM, said:

<snip>
PGI is the only mech-crack dealer in town, so they don't really have to compete with anyone else's prices.

That and the fact that people have already paid these prices and it's working, no need to change it now.

Edited by Rizzelbizzeg, 15 January 2015 - 08:26 AM.

[BourbonFaucet]

LordBraxton, on 15 January 2015 - 07:58 AM, said:

I want to give PGI the benefit of the doubt here. Can somebody explain why PGI needs to charge hundreds of dollars for mech expansions to be a successful business? How do other small studios make money off their games when they charge $20-$40, and then release new content in $15 packs a couple times a year? Why are PGI prices 10x the norm? The only other games that do this are WoT\Warthunder. I want to know why these games have to charge these prices to succeed. PGI is the only mech-crack dealer in town, so they don't really have to compete with anyone else's prices.

All right, here goes.

Basically, from what I've heard, the pricing model is geared to be similar to other vehicular arena combat games, aka World Of Tanks, Warthunder, etc.

Those game feature overpriced packs, premium units, and the need to buy bays for the new units. Not paying money results in a terrifying grind for the most part, and paying money just once on a package tends to leave you behind later.

The reason why it's so infuriating here is because Mechwarrior is a niche game. Tons of people are going to like tanks, aircraft, and a whole bunch of other stuff like that because it's mainstream. Giant stompy robots are really not popular enough of a genre to support a similar pricing model.

[Rhaythe]

The alternative is this game nickles-and-dimes you for *everything*. At least, if you want to be a non-paying player, you can still get a lot from this game. Especially given all the events they've had lately where mechbays come as rewards.

[Saiphas Cain]

It's an early access format basically. Those with the means and desire will spend, those without will wait. The new mechs do not contain any form of combat advantage apart from being an unknown so it's not paying for power. Battlemech combat is somewhat obtuse and doesn't attract the kind of historical enthusiasts that WoT and War Thunder does. They have to get the money somehow. I share your fears that this seems more like relying on "the whales" for your cashflow as discussed by Extra Credits in one of their free to play episodes but it is what it is for now.

[Davers]

LordBraxton, on 15 January 2015 - 07:58 AM, said:

I want to give PGI the benefit of the doubt here. Can somebody explain why PGI needs to charge hundreds of dollars for mech expansions to be a successful business? How do other small studios make money off their games when they charge $20-$40, and then release new content in $15 packs a couple times a year? Why are PGI prices 10x the norm? The only other games that do this are WoT\Warthunder. I want to know why these games have to charge these prices to succeed. PGI is the only mech-crack dealer in town, so they don't really have to compete with anyone else's prices.

They charge hundreds of dollars for mechs that will be available for Cbills, eventually. You are paying for early access, a few mechs with Cbill boosters, and all the PT and swag that comes with it. And people, many people, pay it. Trust me, if PGI was making tons of money off camo patterns then we would see more of them being made. But when was the last new camo pattern that wasn't tied into a mech package?

[FupDup]

[Void2258]

I'm hoping that now that IGP is out of the picture there will be some moderation of the pricing. IGP was known for forcing PGI to work only on things with immediate monetary returns. That's why UI2.0 went so badly (they were only able to get IGP to let them use a couple people on it) and why CW, even in its current **** state, took so long. IGP wanted PGI to work only on mech packs and other items with immediate return on investment; they didn't care about long term game health.

[wanderer]

Why? Because PGI got potty-trained in transactions to frontload the money, rather than sensibly scale cosmetic transactions at lower prices (like paints, FFS.).

Remember that IGP, of the "buy-it-and-we'll-just-abandon-ship-with-our-money" MechWarrior Tactics was the ones who taught PGI pricing models.

[Basskicker]

I look at it like this, at least for the Resistance packages, look at what you get for your money. 12 mechs, 4 of which are practically hero mechs, 60 days of premium time, premium faction based colors, and other stuff but its mostly just fluff. Its a pretty good deal if especially if you are going to buy MC for premium time anyways.

Edit: I will say that when I first seen those gold mechs pop up for sale christmas time of 2013 it kind of irked me a little bit.

Edited by Basskicker, 15 January 2015 - 10:08 AM.

[Agent 0 Fortune]

We just recently got Gold lasers, although they are clan only.
But we have had access to Gold consumables for a long time,
And then there were the Gold mechs, although they were sadly just Gold color, not Gold quality.
I am holding out for Gold AC ammo, I hear it is coming soon.

Edited by Agent 0 Fortune, 15 January 2015 - 10:09 AM.

[Xetelian]

I've looked at the WoT *** and they have 5$ and 35$ planes or tanks. While you don't need 3 of them there you do here and a tiered mech pack 12 mechs with cockpit items and paints =120$ WOWz

[Otto Cannon]

1) Battletech has been around a long time, so many fans are old enough to have plenty of spending money.

2) Nobody else apart from PGI is allowed to make Battletech games at the moment.

3) PGI are not very good at making games, so MWO isn't high enough quality to attract large numbers of non-fans.

The result of these factors is that the game is played by a relatively small number of people who tend to be fans of Battletech with lots of money. There aren't enough players for low prices to fund the game, so we have high prices and a steep grind that's designed to discourage us from buying things with C-bills and take the short cut instead.

At this stage there's nothing realistically that can be done to reduce prices, so you can either grind, pay lots, or stop playing. Sadly all my friends chose the latter option last year, but there seem to be just enough people who choose to pay for the game to keep it going a while longer.

[Mister Blastman]

You don't have to pay the extra money. Set a ceiling and stick to it. My ceiling for games is sixty bucks. Leave it at that and wait for an expansion pack with, you know, content like lots of maps, art assets (i.e. stuff that populates maps), robots, weapons, single player, extensive online game modes, etc. (note these are mutually inclusive i.e. an expansion isn't comprised of just one of the above, it contains a minimum of four to five with at a minimum, either 8 - 15 maps -or- the lesser of 8 maps and exceptional game modes)

In other words. Play as much as you want. Pay as much as you want. But you don't have to pay too much if you don't want to.