Navid A1, on 03 February 2016 - 08:40 PM, said:
seems like they are actively trying to find that critical point in the community... to offer the least possible content for the most possible price. That is what a salesman should do actually... but there is a limit to how far you can push.
Entirely true, they will find out the easy way or the hard way during the overall product lifecycle.
I dont give PGI as much credit as to knowing exactly what they were selling. Currently, with the unseens, sure. More experience with the Balance(yeah, dont laugh) and the overall CW-less meta.
Clan Invasion had the best 'value' but also many sub-standard mechs which some like the Summoner are still not that great. Also Invasion HAD to be big. IGP debacle and players were getting weary.
I would say they were shooting in the dark but had to deliver lots of new shiny to keep players.
Worked...but not the most elegant move. Could have been the end for PGI just as easily.
Resistance 1 is overall ok. Wave 2 had one really good mech, and one really bad. Wave 3 had 2 goods, one Lore sale, and one that might be fixed by quirks. Resistance 2 was overall ok.
Urbie showed people would pay for 1 single chassis. Wave of the future in a joke package. Funny that.
Origins was meh though potentially game breaking. Jenner llc disapoint. HBK with some structure could be great. But still early to tell overall performance.
Now, the Unseens, this is how they will go, because of the Urbie.
Formula would likely be Russ asking 'Hey what mech from lore do you want to see?' and there will be a poll. Poof! That mech will be up in a package. Then tease visually - one of PGI's strong points. Then release tiered pack with 2-3 upsale options.
And also think about what else there will be to sell, 'poke-mech' wise after all the main unseens are sold?
Will they have to advance the timeline? Introduce new tech that will need balance?
How hard and fast should PGI push them? Too fast players will get burned out, too slow players lose interest. Right now they have many new Steam players, likely wise to be more aggressive. I dont know the retention of Steam players, dont know if PGI knows either. MWO has an unusual format compared to other games.
So i dont think the whole story is told just comparing the individual packs now to Clan Invasion.
Overall, i can give them a pass on being more aggro on maximizing profit on individual pack salesIF that money goes to developing CW-balance-maps-modes/etc. And developments have been encouraging though a bit slow.
If all they do is sell packs and no development, ill be out. No regrets.