7 replies to this topic

[Lostdragon]

The pricing model for the Unseen is great. If you could buy a "mastery pack" for any mech for $20 I would buy two right now and I bet you'd sell a lot more in general. I would like to try the EXE but I did not get a Wave III pack and I'm not about to spend $55 for one mech ala carte. $20 is a reasonable price for three mechs, and I hope this is the new model going forward.

Also, I'm not interested in hearing how clan mechs should cost more for blah blah blah reasons so stow that talk. The clans and IS are supposed to be balanced 1:1 in this game (supposed to be!!) so I think the pricing should be equivalent and sales would be better for both, especially with the Steam launch supposedly imminent.

[Toothless]

They arent going to change the pricing model.

You can argue all day that they'd sell more by selling for less, but its not going to happen.

[Lostdragon]

ZacharyJ, on 09 November 2015 - 07:37 AM, said:

They arent going to change the pricing model.

You can argue all day that they'd sell more by selling for less, but its not going to happen.

Well they kind of already changed it for the unseen...

[Mawai]

ZacharyJ, on 09 November 2015 - 07:37 AM, said:

They arent going to change the pricing model.

You can argue all day that they'd sell more by selling for less, but its not going to happen.

This is a common argument and to be honest I suspect a common fallacy.

Consider a price point of $20? Would they sell MORE than twice as many at a price point of $10? Personally, I don't think so ... most folks who think $20 is expensive will also think $10 is expensive. Maybe you would get 30 to 50% more sales ... but that is substantially less revenue.

So ... what price point WOULD get a lot more sales? How about $1? Almost everyone would be tempted to spend $1. However, there is transaction fee overhead on this so you would have a lot more fees for so many more transactions. How many more folks would they need to spend $1 in order to make the same amount of money? At least 20 times more people. If they wanted to double their income they would need 40 times.

However, my guess is that a minimum of 5% of active players buy any particular mech pack ... it could be higher though. This means that requiring more than a factor of 20 increase in sales is NOT possible since that would be the entire player base and there are likely at least 10 to 50% of players who will never spend any money on a free to play game.

PGI chose to price mechs in the $5 to $30 range and to have periodic sales. These prices range from the cost of a specialty coffee at Starbucks to a night out at a movie with a drink and popcorn. There are many people who will go out drinking or clubbing with friends on a Saturday night, spend far more, and have less fun and less to show for it than buying a mech in MWO. This the crowd that MWO draws from for income ... folks with some disposable income. There are players who don't have any disposable income, who save their money to afford to put food on the table, or whose allowance doesn't extend to cover digital goods ... but these folks would need such a reduction in pricing that MWO would not be profitable.

The bottom line is that PGI is likely not going to change their pricing model in the long run but they will have sales up to 50% on a semi-regular basis ... so if there is something you really want that you think is too expensive ... save your pennies and buy it on sale.

P.S. The unseen pricing model is the same as that used for the Urbie. I suspect the unseen don't fit well into a standard pack with one of each class so they are trying a single mech release strategy to see if that boosts revenues.

Edited by Mawai, 09 November 2015 - 07:53 AM.

[Simbacca]

I can see reducing a la carte prices for older packs (such as Clan Wave 1 and 2, Resistance 1) to $25 during sale periods to encourage more players to spend real money, instead of only C-Bills.

[Bud Crue]

If they really want to make money:

Sell all in game content on Amazon. That way I could spend on MWO when getting dog food and justify it by saying "well I needed dog food so may as well buy some mechs while I am at it." Or something along those lines.

[P H O X]

At least they should update the Mastery Bundles.....

[Kdogg788]

Mastery bundles should be Hero, Champion, and choice of a third in that chassis.

-k