70 replies to this topic

[Nightshade24]

RoboPatton, on 18 August 2015 - 08:02 PM, said:

I have no idea how this business model works on steam, where people buy FULL GAMES for $5.

PGI better figure something out.

This often only goes if the game is...

A) 5 dollars to begin with, and in some cases this is over priced for some games.
it's a very old game and it's on sale, Age caused the price to lower as more and more better stuff is coming out.
C) the game is bad and/or not popular so it's on a promotion sale.
On top of that, you got option D that could apply to PGI .

D) Steam is so huge that even on some sales that cause them to loose money then gain they still can do it as they are in no shortage of money, also most content is already released for steam and most of the price is just for extra fluff and maintaning serves.

PGI? they are a small indie company that isn't backed up by any triple A companies and only funding they get is from sales of in game content from the small but dedicated fanbase, if the fans didn't exist this game didn't exist, full stop. That isn't a bad thing though, but it is a problem because you do not have 4-8 year olds who would love playing this game nor people in there 50's and onwards who never heard of this game, you also got a bulk of people who never heard of mechwarrior or battletech and there is even battletech/ mechwarrior fans who do not even know this game exists. This game is unknown and very hard and detailed that it often makes most new people overwhelmed and even some old guys from MW2, 3, or 4 are overwhealmed. it took me over a month for my first 300 damage+ game and nearly a half year to at least get multiple kills per day. A few people do not have that patience and obvious a new person who can't even torso turn yet or know what's the problems of overiding shutdown will not spend money in this game

[EgoSlayer]

Mechwarrior Buddah, on 18 August 2015 - 07:57 PM, said:

So that stopped then?

I haven't seen any Gold IS mechs, so it looks stopped. Russ has said in town halls they don't plan on doing anything like that again, but who knows, plans change. Gold Warhammer...?

Edited by EgoSlayer, 18 August 2015 - 08:59 PM.

[MechaBattler]

It's because they know the grind sucks. So they think they'll make more from charging so damn much for everything.

I think they would make more if they slashed the MC cost of regular mechs. There are times when I just need that one more mech and I toy with the idea of buying it with MC. But I just can't justify their borky prices. They should really try for volume of sales. Especially when they go to Steam. They should cut the base price and then ready some sales to make the game as accessible as possible to people willing to pay. VOLUME.

Edited by MechaBattler, 18 August 2015 - 09:13 PM.

[bad arcade kitty]

RoboPatton, on 18 August 2015 - 08:02 PM, said:

I have no idea how this business model works on steam, where people buy FULL GAMES for $5.

PGI better figure something out.

so what? if you play wow you pay 10$ per month, one dota item was sold once for 38000$, lol has 20$ items... it's not something strange for mmo games

[Chuck Jager]

Buy 2 get 1 free or if you do not have the $55 just buy the one. If you see $25 or $55 for something that has zero real life need as expensive, you should not be thinking about it or give some other stuff up.

[Hydrocarbon]

As the age-old saying goes, "if you have to ask, you can't afford it". More true if you complain about the price. I know someone who has >4 gold mechs, yet he's very low-key and enjoys the game for what it is.

Just get gud in other mechs and wait for the c-bills release. All that skill honing will bring in enough c-billz to buy all 3 instantly.

[Troutmonkey]

Hydrocarbon, on 18 August 2015 - 09:48 PM, said:

As the age-old saying goes, "if you have to ask, you can't afford it". More true if you complain about the price. I know someone who has >4 gold mechs, yet he's very low-key and enjoys the game for what it is.

Just get gud in other mechs and wait for the c-bills release. All that skill honing will bring in enough c-billz to buy all 3 instantly.

I've spent plenty on this game, getting a Misery, the Resistance 1 Wrath, and the Urban Mech package.
I was thinking about getting the Ebon Jag, but the prices are stupid. Only the packs make sense, and only if you wanted all of the mechs (and bonuses).
The A Le Carte prices for Wave III are wonky as well. You can buy tier 1 of a package much cheaper than a le carte, or you could buy tier 1 and 2 for almost the same price a 1 a le carte purchase, or you could even buy tier 3 cheaper than 2x a le carte (and miss out on all the bonuses). Theirs no consistency to it at all.
I'd understand maybe some difference in pricing because you want to upsell bundles, but these differences in price are insane and confusing. Can't even argue for pre-order discounts, because the packs don't seem to expire anymore.

Edited by Troutmonkey, 18 August 2015 - 10:12 PM.

[Mechwarrior Buddah]

Nightshade24, on 18 August 2015 - 08:33 PM, said:

This often only goes if the game is...

A) 5 dollars to begin with, and in some cases this is over priced for some games.
it's a very old game and it's on sale, Age caused the price to lower as more and more better stuff is coming out.
C) the game is bad and/or not popular so it's on a promotion sale.
On top of that, you got option D that could apply to PGI .

D) Steam is so huge that even on some sales that cause them to loose money then gain they still can do it as they are in no shortage of money, also most content is already released for steam and most of the price is just for extra fluff and maintaning serves.

PGI? they are a small indie company that isn't backed up by any triple A companies and only funding they get is from sales of in game content from the small but dedicated fanbase, if the fans didn't exist this game didn't exist, full stop. That isn't a bad thing though, but it is a problem because you do not have 4-8 year olds who would love playing this game nor people in there 50's and onwards who never heard of this game, you also got a bulk of people who never heard of mechwarrior or battletech and there is even battletech/ mechwarrior fans who do not even know this game exists. This game is unknown and very hard and detailed that it often makes most new people overwhelmed and even some old guys from MW2, 3, or 4 are overwhealmed. it took me over a month for my first 300 damage+ game and nearly a half year to at least get multiple kills per day. A few people do not have that patience and obvious a new person who can't even torso turn yet or know what's the problems of overiding shutdown will not spend money in this game

Yes but there are definitely new whole games that cost $55 and in this game that same price gets you on chassis.

[STEF_]

To OP:
if you wait a little more, you can have them all for c-bills; that is 0$.

Good grind.

[Nightshade24]

Mechwarrior Buddah, on 18 August 2015 - 10:30 PM, said:

Yes but there are definitely new whole games that cost $55 and in this game that same price gets you on chassis.

yea, in a way...but also, there are games out there for 100-200 dollars, you do not go look at a 50 dollar game and go "oh wow look how cheap it is!", looking at ebon jaguar- quite expensive mech, 55 dollars to get all 3.

But lets look at the cheaper chassis shall we? buying 3 locusts is about 7 dollars to 8 dollars or so. All 6 is around 15 dollars, and including the hero it's slightly less then 30 dollars.


Or you can not pay real money and use c-bills, which is 0 dollars... however that may not be good enough for you.

Let's asume that all games are 10 minutes long.and that you get 80,000 c-bills per game (the average)
480,000 c-bills per hour, 2,880,000 c-bills per 6 hours 11,520,000 c-bilsl per 24 hours (normally spread over a week if your a normal person, could be 3 days for a weekend binge play)

That'll be enough for 1 approximately, for 3 of them it's approximately 72 hours , 3 weeks normal person, about a week for heavy players or less.

Not really that bad. For some games to get a high end 'expensive' (in terms of in game) a grind would take months, if not years to get the end stuff... look at WT, most players up until early 2015 had to spend a year or so to get the jets of there fave nation (that is back then however, today you can strategies with money like a pro and spend 20 dollars and get to the top in 1 week but that's a different story)

however 80 is the average including the noobies and new players... let's look at say.... 100,000 c-bills per game, which is something I get more or less (I get a few 200,000 c-bills per games at times but I will pretend I get 100,000 always).

1 hour of 10 minute games = 600,000 c-bills.
6 hours of 10 minute games = 3,600,000 c-bills
24 hours of 10 minute games =14,400,000 c-bills
22 hours to get 1 ebon jaguar
43 hours to get 2 ebon jaguars
65 hours to get 3 ebon jaguars

a bit less... assuming you got premium time, that is basicly halfed to 32.5 hours for 3 ebon jaguars. And a week premium time isn't that expensive, in this event alone you can get 9 days premium for free just by playing 27 games, which is 270 minutes aka 4.5 hours which still gives you c-bills and cuts into the time... focusing on game mode per game mode and that means the first half hour you already got a day premium.






Math asside = c-bill grinding isn't that costly to begin with, buying the most expensive thing for MC which can be gotten with standard c-bills rather easily isn't that big of a problem.

however I do think prices need to be toned down a bit when Steam release or clan hero mech release occurs. also change the formula for hero mech purchase a little so instead of 375 per 5 tons, it's say... 250? (meaning boars head is over 2000 mc less).

Also they did say buying mechs that are stripped may be a thing, getting a EBJ with barely anythign on it may soon cost only 20 dollars MC for all 3 while the rest has to be C-bills for weapons.

[Troutmonkey]

Stefka Kerensky, on 18 August 2015 - 10:34 PM, said:

To OP:
if you wait a little more, you can have them all for c-bills; that is 0$.

Good grind.

I'm sitting on 70million + CBIlls and have 6 months of premium time sitting there.
I might have been inclined to spend some money to support the game and get early access, but I won't be at the current prices.

[Escef]

Troutmonkey, on 18 August 2015 - 10:10 PM, said:

The A Le Carte prices for Wave III are wonky as well. You can buy tier 1 of a package much cheaper than a le carte, or you could buy tier 1 and 2 for almost the same price a 1 a le carte purchase, or you could even buy tier 3 cheaper than 2x a le carte (and miss out on all the bonuses). Theirs no consistency to it at all.

There's plenty of consistency. If you want a tier 2, 3, or 4 of the mech chassis from the package, but aren't interested in the others, you can save a little cash over the appropriate package to get what you wanted by going a-la-cart.

If you want 2 sets of chassis, aren't interested in the other 2 at all, and at least one of those 2 is the 4th tier chassis, you can save some cash over the package deal by going a-la-cart.

Not saying you have to like the prices, but if it isn't worth the money to you than... *GASP!*... don't buy them! I mean, s***, is this honestly that difficult?

[Mechwarrior Buddah]

Nightshade24, on 19 August 2015 - 12:00 AM, said:

yea, in a way...but also, there are games out there for 100-200 dollars, you do not go look at a 50 dollar game and go "oh wow look how cheap it is!", looking at ebon jaguar- quite expensive mech, 55 dollars to get all 3.

55 to get one chassis... You can get most games when they come out for that price what games are YOU playing that are $200-300 Thats insane to pay, no wonder some ppl dont have an issue with the pricing scheme if youre paying that much for one game.

[Joseph Mallan]

Green Mamba, on 18 August 2015 - 04:43 PM, said:

Their accounting department have crunched the numbers and know the Whales will buy them like they always do.Nostalgia is deadly to the Wallet.Only way to stop them is if PGI reaches the breakpoint of Whale retention and Russ pulls the Plug on the game

Can't the same be said for almost anything we buy? Tennis Shoes, Watches, Jeans, Burgers?

[STEF_]

Troutmonkey, on 19 August 2015 - 12:53 AM, said:

I won't be at the current prices.

^^
totally agree!

[Troutmonkey]

Escef, on 19 August 2015 - 01:08 AM, said:

There's plenty of consistency. If you want a tier 2, 3, or 4 of the mech chassis from the package, but aren't interested in the others, you can save a little cash over the appropriate package to get what you wanted by going a-la-cart.

You only save money if you just want the Gladiator, or just the Ebon Jag so A le carte is very bad value.

Lets say you want any two mech's that isn't the Gladiator from Wave III
Tier 2 : Arctic Cheetah and Shadow Cat (plus bonuses) = $60
Tier 3: Arctic Cheetah and Shadow Cat and Ebon Jag (plus bonuses) = $90
2x A le carte: $100

Or just 3 Shadow Cat variants for MC: ~$76 (vs A le carte for $55)

A le carte and MC prices needed to be dropped in order to better reflect what you're actually getting.
A le carte should have different prices for each chassis, with the Arctic cheetah being the same price as tier one at the very least.

Edited by Troutmonkey, 19 August 2015 - 03:01 AM.

[Lily from animove]

single prices are ofen higher than package prices. It is this way because marketing.

those EBJ sales are not initially meant to be for the Buy them all customers, they are meant for people who buy single chassis.

RoboPatton, on 18 August 2015 - 08:02 PM, said:

I have no idea how this business model works on steam, where people buy FULL GAMES for $5.

PGI better figure something out.

you have not even played many f2p games, hell there are games where you cna get items for more price and less usefulness in total. Many games.

Edited by Lily from animove, 19 August 2015 - 03:12 AM.

[Nightshade24]

Mechwarrior Buddah, on 19 August 2015 - 01:10 AM, said:

55 to get one chassis... You can get most games when they come out for that price what games are YOU playing that are $200-300 Thats insane to pay, no wonder some ppl dont have an issue with the pricing scheme if youre paying that much for one game.

I'm not saying there IS no problem. I'm simply saying it isn't THAT big of a problem.

Of course there are people there who do not care, hell there are guys who own ALL the golden khan mechs while others who own every single mech in game- this includes champions, hero, package, standard, and charity mechs.

I personally do buy some hero mechs, most of the time on a sale, but I still buy them. I got the Misery, hellslinger, jester,sparky, pirates bane, huginn, ember. I got the phoenix package (max tier), wave 2 clans (3rd tier), wave 3 clans (max tier), origins and resistance 2 max tier, and urbanmech first tier. not all of it is my money, hell a solid 1/3rd of it is just gifts, donations, or prizes, but I still spend money on the game none the less.

What I noticed on MW: O when talking to some people is that money does really change depending on the person.
Even though that in USA a McDonnalds burger is nearly 4 times cheeper and here pistachios are 50 USD per KG. (oh, those are the ones still in shells, not the more expensive ones that are already cleaned), however more people here buy stuff from games ie MW: O then some people- who consider 150 mc per mechbay in a sale still to expensive to bother.


Overall, You ignore the fact that I do say that they should lower the prices a little bit.

[Nutlink]

bad arcade kitty, on 18 August 2015 - 09:19 PM, said:

so what? if you play wow you pay 10$ per month, one dota item was sold once for 38000$, lol has 20$ items... it's not something strange for mmo games

Total cost of all MWO mech packs - $910
Total cost of WoW + all expansions on release - $290

To match what you'd have spent on MWO on all the mech packs, from the founders up to the IIC release, would have bought WoW with every expansion and almost 3.5 years of subscription. On top of that WoW has also changed its model. You can buy the base game with most of the expansions....for $20. New players can jump right in and gain access to almost all the content for $20. What would the cost of MWO be if you just bought all the mechs, excluding mech packs and cosmetics?

Your example for DOTA 2 is also an extreme example. I'm sure there's someone in the MWO community who would pay that for a Marauder or Warhammer if they had the chance. Of course, that $38k would be going towards the devs instead of towards a player selling said item to another player, so that's another key difference. Besides, if you want to drag DOTA into it, look at the microtransactions for that game. There isn't much over the $10 mark, and most things go for between $2-6. Are there more expensive items in those games? Sure! But they're the exception, not the rule.

Lily from animove, on 19 August 2015 - 03:10 AM, said:

you have not even played many f2p games, hell there are games where you cna get items for more price and less usefulness in total. Many games.

Looking at the more popular games, like DOTA 2, LoL, and Planetside 2, you can get much, much more for your money than you can with MWO. Even Tribes Ascend didn't feel like it was screwing you for money as bad as MWO does. Games like World of Tanks/Warships/Warplanes and MWO are the exceptions in my experience, but other than the aforementioned games I don't really play too many "free" to play titles.

Edited by Nutlink, 19 August 2015 - 03:53 AM.

[FlipOver]

Troutmonkey, on 18 August 2015 - 04:05 PM, said:

We've known this for ages, but I still don't understand. Why are the prices in this game so screwed up?

Stuff value depends on how much people are willing to spend to get it.

This means they price things up as high as they think it's acceptable and see if any one bites.
If people bite, then the price must be right (or close to it).