169 replies to this topic

[Kyrie]

I am expecting the pricing model to evolve as the game reaches towards completion (integrating CW). Likely to be a lot of redesign of the whole economy as well as the cash store. Keep in mind we basically have about 33% of the game at the moment IMHO...

[Basch]

I for one dont like the pricing and have a few fixes that would make it loads better while still making money for the IGP. With the paint, it would be sold at the same price but its unlocked for that mech class EX:buy red, you get red for all your catapults. or keep the same model but drop it to 75-100 mc? all the trinkets should be no more than 100 mc. As for mechs, drop each mech by 750mc and i feel that would make it a fair price since that should be their main selling point.

[Mechwarrior Buddah]

Dunno; it seems to me when a game/company is in trouble they try to price gouge their way out and it just gets them in more trouble as they dont figure ut they can make way more by charging less till its too late and theyve lost 20% of their company - see CCP and Incarna

[MustrumRidcully]

Almeras, on 11 December 2012 - 04:40 PM, said:

(I did try looking for a thread with a similar nature but search only found very old threads)

Talk with others it seems I'm not alone in thinking MC's are over priced.

Stack them high and sell them cheap should be PGI's mantra. It costs them nothing to issue MC, much better to have 100 causal customers spending $5 than one die hard spending $25.

Diablo3 AH (loot breaking issue aside) is a good example of a player balanced economy. Unobtainium weapons can be had for the price of a mars bar or a billion hours of farming gold, guess which I felt was better value? And because I felt it was such great bang for buck I spent $40 on my alts, wife and friends characters.

MWO on the other hand I'd rather grind because MC doesn't buy much convenience at all. Add to that you need to by x3 of every chassis your looking at a serious amount of cash. In fact the amount there are asking makes my wallet snap shut.

I love MWO, I do use cash shops, I have a disposable income with pressure on my free time. I'm based in the UK which gives me a favourable exchange rate. I'm probably who you had in mind when talking about a cash shop. But other than the founders pack why aren't I spending?

Bottom line no one likes to feel short changed or over charged. This isn't an attack lots of businesses fall into the same pricing trap, it does take allot of guts to drop your prices and go the volume route.

I generallyl think so. At first I really didn't want to spend any money on in-game shops, but eventually, it "came easy" and was just a bit of hobby investment. Wher eothers would buy 25 $ on beer and other alcohol on their weekend, I would maybe spend 25 $ a month on a computer game.

But MW:O makes me extremely stingy with my money. I did actually buy some MC, but currently, I can't quitebring myself to spend it in game, and I don't think I'll buy anything new anytime soon, simply because ther e isn't a good reason to spend the MC I already have.

Edited by MustrumRidcully, 12 December 2012 - 02:02 AM.

[Gnuz]

Mechwarrior Buddah, on 11 December 2012 - 04:44 PM, said:

Ilya Muromets $29.95 yeah.,... bit overpriced

*Maybe*, if it came with a tabletop mini delivered by courier. I dunno what PGI are thinking atm.

[Wizard Steve]

Almeras, on 11 December 2012 - 04:40 PM, said:

(I did try looking for a thread with a similar nature but search only found very old threads)

So you thought it was time to go over all the same tired old arguments again?

Anyhoo, in before this-discussion-is-meaningless-without-data.

[TheCaptainJZ]

I dunno. Canadian prices are higher overall than in the U.S. Maybe the pricing is perfectly normal to them. Some people think they are out of money, but its known that they made a lot from the founders program, and they've got to know that a lot more people will buy things if they were cheaper.

I'm guessing they have enough people buying things to make them happy. The other part of it is, I'm guessing they also want these buy-ons to be uncommon or even rare to see. If everyone has it, it looses its appeal.

[OVBlueGhost]

I joined just before open beta, faced the grind and got myself a kitted out jenner just in time for the reset. Doh!

Realized I'd need more mech bays anyway so bought 7$ MC and a fresh jenner. Hurrah, spent the rest on mech bays.
Then cammo came out and I thought, hey what the hell I've got enough I'll just unlock dazzle camo for my jenner.

Now I find out that I can't mess around with that jenners camo without having to re-buy it later, so I'll not be spending any more money in game till that changes. Every mech will be pc gamer grey from here on out, old school ninja camo .

Personally I think valve do F2P best see dota2, no advantage at all, lots and lots of cusomizing of the look and create a market allowing them to earn $ from the player made creations.

ps. if anyone wants a dota2 key I think I have a couple left.

Edited by OVBlueGhost, 12 December 2012 - 02:43 AM.

[Almeras]

I'm a returning PGI customer who wanted to give some feedback and discuss calmly with others their thoughts were. I want to spend some money with PGI (3x stalkers and 2x ravens, probably some xp>gxp too) I'm asking that PGI reconsider their price point.

What is the data you want? I have none other than my personal opinion, pgi would have the data but there is no reason for them to release that to us.

Wizard Steve, on 12 December 2012 - 02:10 AM, said:

So you thought it was time to go over all the same tired old arguments again?

Anyhoo, in before this-discussion-is-meaningless-without-data.

[PurpleNinja]

Agreed.
I probably will not spend any money at this rate.

[Gorstagg]

I'm assuming at some point PGI will learn about the Steam effect. That reducing the prices by a significant margin, results in upwards of 40x the revenue anticipated. For example they did some early sales, with those really amazing price drops.. and where they figured it would take 4 people per sale to equal a single standard purchase, so they anticipated modest returns... they were blown away by the actual sales, that again were selling and reaping benefits upwards of 40x more than than if they were selling the full priced version... that same thought would work here.

Sell the items at much reduced prices, so that the buyer can make quick realistic impulse buys that don't hammer the wallet, and people WILL buy stuff.

The hero mech's shouldn't be more than about $10-$12 each. As they are earnable in the game. But this $30 bucks for a mech is just really out there.

I'm assuming PGI will learn from their mistakes. But it will take them some time.. and money and if they really want the money, they'll reduce the price schemes quite a bit... and then the flood of cash will become a torrent!

[MustrumRidcully]

Blowing 15 $ on micro-transactions isn't a big deal for many players. But they want something in return .. And a non-reusable paint scheme or a hero mech isn't enough. 3 reuable paint schemes and 3 mechs could be.

[Wizard Steve]

Almeras, on 12 December 2012 - 02:45 AM, said:

What is the data you want? I have none other than my personal opinion, pgi would have the data but there is no reason for them to release that to us.

Which is precisely why discussing whether a different pricing model would generate more or less revenue is pointless.

We can discuss whether we individually consider the current prices to be value for money. That's a perfectly legitimate conversation to have as the only relevant data are our own opinions but hell, that's been done to death too.

I'm sure PGI/IGP are listening to our feedback and will no doubt take it into account when setting prices for new items/services. Hell, they might even change existing prices and refund people the difference for past transactions but I just very much doubt it.

But, like double heat sinks and trial mech grinds and the XP system, this dead horse has been flogged enough. Unless someone actually has something new to say, I see no value in polluting the forums with yet another contentless thread.

[BloodyDziq]

at current prices I'm not spending $1 on this game

[Kaijin]

ExplodedZombie, on 11 December 2012 - 04:55 PM, said:

Just stock up on MC when it's on sale. That is what most people do when the game sells credits for discount instead of items.

Except MC doesn't go on sale. The infamous 'Black Friday' sale saw no change in MC prices, only offering a slight increase in MC obtained if one purchased at the two highest levels (at least $50).

Rate of exchange is ridiculous. Will not be buying any MC unless pricing becomes reasonable.

[Wizard Steve]

Kaijin, on 12 December 2012 - 03:25 AM, said:

slight

20%

[Apoc1138]

Seraphims Blood, on 12 December 2012 - 03:15 AM, said:

at current prices I'm not spending $1 on this game

coming from a person that has already spent $120 on this game... that is very unlikely to be entirely true, I am guessing you are still sitting on both premium time and a bulk load of your founders MC... but when you premium time runs out you'll be forced to start using MC to buy premium time and once that happens it's a slippery slope

as for me - I've spent about 5k MC out of my founders, but I already bought $50 / 14400MC in the black friday sale ready to buy 1 years Premium plus mechbays and such and possibly a hero mech if they release one I like the look of
when I run out of MC, if there's another sale or something I really want then I'll buy more MC, but I probably won't spend much more than $100 per year / $10 per month effectively

the most I'll spend on paint is $0.50 - $1 per mech (125 / 250MC), so I won't be buying patterns, just using the free ones that become available however they do (e.g. loyalty points, promotions etc.)

Edited by Apoc1138, 12 December 2012 - 04:00 AM.

[Ghogiel]

I expect at some point an MC only 'save' button, and another tab that has stored camospecs for that variant

If they added that option and just threw 500MC at people who spent over 1200MC on camospecs thus far, I mean 500MC is pittance to people who have shot over 1kMC on paints, their bank roll is in the thousands. So it's more of a token offering, that they'll probably use on that new button to save out 3 or so of their camospecs that they have already bought anyway. So that they can go in and spend more MC on camospecs for those same damn mechs.

Edited by Ghogiel, 12 December 2012 - 04:03 AM.

[Jetfire]

Mech pricing seems fine, it is the vanity items that seem over priced. $20-30 for a Hero Mech with a lifetime bonus is a pretty good deal when you consider it is a F2P game. I mean a pack of Magic cards runs $3.50 and you would have to open an average of 8 packs to get a Mythic rare. So it is roughly in line with other pay to collect games that are successful.

However Paint needs to be MC to unlock colors and patterns, CB only to repaint.

Vanity items need to be in the 50 cent to 2 dollar range, especially if you expect me to deck all my mechs in banners and bobbleheads. They need to be impulse buys, ie, micro... transactions. If it costs more than a bottle of soda, I am pretty sure you can cease thinking of it as "micro".

[OVBlueGhost]

Ghogiel, on 12 December 2012 - 04:00 AM, said:

I expect at some point an MC only 'save' button, and another tab that has stored camospecs for that variant.

They can't really do this unless they change the model from renting camo-specs to unlocking them. Which they should do, although it will **** off anyone who's previously rented a camo-spec unless they've recorded previous purchases.