PGI/IGP let me summarize this thread for you..
Positives
-You finally are allowing camo paints to be shared on other mechs as well as colours, about damn time.
-You still have single use paint jobs available.
Negatives
-Your Pricing, you completely missed the mark again.
Lets start with skins: 750MC is ludicrousness, why? Lets say most Mechs will have 4 Variants buying the paint job for all 4 once is 300MC. Now not all people will use the same skin on all variants and that is why single use skins are important BUT the idea here should be to try and UPSELL your customer, charge 375-400MC to unlock the skin for all variants of that Mech. This means people are going to be more likely make this purchase as its more "future proof" and will allow some change in their life when they get bored of a paint job but the ability to still change it back if desired.
Colour Pricing: Jebus, seriously 1000MC for a premium colour? That's insane, excessive, crazy - take your pick. The fact that colours are now unlocked permanently is honestly a requirement that should have been in place from the beginning but at this pricing its too much. The current "sale" should be pushed to all colours and made permanent IE drop the MC rates in half, the cbills can remain at what they are currently since that is free money anyways and just takes time to make.
That means 250MC for standard colours 500MC for premium, this would be reasonable pricing and is still twice what you were charging before this change today and the fact that you have added over 100 extra colours is opening more revenue stream for you as its giving people more choice. This is something you can expand in the future with metallic colours, etc. Its not a close ended revenue as there is still room for growth, i have a feeling your marketing people look at this as one time costs and therefore jacked the prices to crazy amounts failing to realize that people will buy colours just to have them if they are priced reasonably.
Finally my last suggestion regarding colours is bundle packs. You can offer 6 colours at the cost of say 5 (2500MC) giving people added discount when buying in bulk but also giving you the chance to bundle less common colours with more popular ones. IE if baby blue isn't selling throw it in a bundle with a 2-3 other colours that are selling, if people are getting something for free they are more likely to buy it even if it isn't something they need right now.
That was the biggest and my only problem with your colour change today: the pricing. Again your marketing/pricing people are the cause of so much uproar because it feels like they fail to actually understand the community/market they are selling too. I don't mean to be negative but this isn't the first time your pricing has been what the community feels is way off of what it should be, granted everyone wants something for free these days but i am pretty sure the pricing model i just laid out would still be profitable for you and good for the community.. it also seems like common sense. Honestly it feels like your prices have either been continuously too high or too low (LOW was when the New Years items came out they were just TOO cheap if you ask me).
If you have any questions/concerns please just ask us for input - I would personally rather help you get it right the first time than see another occurrence of what happened today where a patch is released that serves to anger your
paying beta community. I honestly believe there is room here for you to make money and for the community to be happy, you just need to score that balance.
Oh and yes i have spent around $150 on this game so far so I consider that a pretty decent investment in something which is still a "beta", $60 founder pack and close to $100 of MC reloads already.. and i am willing to spend more, you just need to make me want to spend it and not flip you the bird instead.
Edited by Akai Doragon, 05 February 2013 - 06:29 PM.