Price changes on EU

[chronia]

This is not reasonable.

Using "inflation" as an argument for raising prices for video games is complete BS. Tools become smarter, processing power becomes more available, etc.

Most likely, they are increasing prices because the profits have been dwindling. The increase has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with "inflation".

Well ofcourse they do this to keep up their profits, they are a business after all.

But is it really that weird or unheard of that a company after some 10 years raises a few prices to get them more in line with their offerings at the other side of the pond?

And surely inflation won't be the biggest factor, but after 10 years you cannot fully discount it either, i feel that the biggest driving factor here is currency exchange though, when Blizzard set most of these prices Euro to Dollar was 1 to 1,25 to 1,30 now its 1 - 1,07 (last time i checked yesterday) which is a huge fall for the Euro compared to the Dollar. And since Blizzard counts in Dollars the last few years they have gotten alot less dollars for their euro's which hurt their margin i reckon. If you look at the financial statements you can also see that profit margins are dropping year after year, in 2012 Activision Blizzard had a turnover of around 4.5 billion dollar (hope i say it right) with a profit of 1.15 billion dollar, in 2016 they had a turnover of more than 6 billion dollar with a profit of around 900 million, thats a big decrease of profit margin in just 4 years.

If they would bump prices every year by these amounts, surely it would be unreasonable, but one price raise in 10 years, i personally don't think its unreasonable, i even expected it to happen alot earlier.

Tech companies like Samsung, Apple, Nvidia, Intel to name a few all bump prices nearly every year the last few years atleast in Europe (when ever the newest generation comes out) i find that a lot more unreasonable than this price raise.

[Deleted]

Nice an increase in price on services they already automated long ago, Blizzard taking advantage of gamers once again.

Stop acting like this is exclusive to Blizzard :/ Prices go up constantly all over the place. Christ, Nintendo are selling new games for £60.

[blacki84]

Most services are bumped by 5 euros (the forum post is on blue tracker). At least we can pay with tokens I guess.

that is why they'll increas the prices....for those who are unable/unwilling to spend gold to buy their services; they milk 'em with ca$h

[Deleted]

At least start doing different prices for EU zones 1, 2 and 3 like most other services do, because if this is ridiculous on rich countries imagine on countries that have a 7 to 8 hundred euro average national wage.

Europe isn't just Germany and its cousins...

German Income is going lower and lower it ranks about Mid i say

[DarkAmbient]

Dude you can't be serious...

It really is quite pathetic to see people defending being charged more for something that's already too expensive. You have to wonder if they'd pay even more if Blizzard allowed them to do it.

[Zoibert the Bear]

It really is quite pathetic to see people defending being charged more for something that's already too expensive. You have to wonder if they'd pay even more if Blizzard allowed them to do it.

People seem to like spending money.

In-Game Service Price Updates

- All services now allow donations to be attached along with the base price (which we just increased by $5 because Bill Gates wants to tax robots).
- The smallest amount you can donate is $20 (per transaction)
- Payments with a donation will be processed with the highest priority.
- Payments with no associated donation may not be processed at all.
- Users may optionally pay a flat rate of $500 a week to get a 10% discount on all services.

[Lochton]

People threw tantrums when the subscription price rose for the first time in 10 years.
They haven't been doing it every year like many providers of other services, such as utilities.
Just another "reason" for people who want to bash blizzard to do just that.
Grow up people.

Amen, mate. Really, it isn't like it's a stranglehold change every time. They have to adjust for the economy.

[Magneto]

i was told that prodigies of economy spend their spare time playing mmo's but actually reading and seeing it whilst feeling their digital presence makes me feel so grateful and small.

[Smetz]

Do you honestly think Blizzard isn't doing fine? I'm dying here. Give me an O2 mask please!

Yes they are doing fine, What I meant was that their competition isn't increasing prices for automated services despite the euro being weak.

[Deleted]

Glad I have already moved all my characters from the PvP-RP realm to a PvE-RP realm, and will probably not need any more paid boosts.

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German Income is going lower and lower it ranks about Mid i say

This is qute right, while Germany is doing well financially as a country, the mid income and wealth distribution is often less good as in other EU countries.

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People talking about inflation.

Look at other MMO's, they are f2p so their cash comes from people doing race changes and whatnot.. And they have the option cheaper, why? Because its all 100% automated, takes no manpower.

Lower price, people buy it more often because "hmm, its only 10euro, I can change my race" is more likely to happen more times in a year than "Hmm, it is 25euro after all, Meh Ill buy game X instead"

Well, I guess they have a matrix with different break-even points depending on price of a service and an estimate of how many people would be willing to use the service at this price. Of course, I don't know how their estimates look like, but use of such a matrix to calculate break-even-points is quite common.

[Deleted]

This is not reasonable.

Using "inflation" as an argument for raising prices for video games is complete BS. Tools become smarter, processing power becomes more available, etc.

Most likely, they are increasing prices because the profits have been dwindling. The increase has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with "inflation".

Do you think the people actually working at Blizzard earn exactly the same now that they earned 10 years ago? Some of the fixed costs might have gone down because of more efficient tools and less cost per processing power, but the salary cost is the biggest chunk in the majority of companies, especially in the gaming industry.

That combined with WoW being the CashCow (look it up, if you don't know what it means: BCG Matrix), the standard business practice is to keep it alive while milking as much profit out of it as possible.

It really amazes me how many people actually seem to think that a game is developed because the developers want to be nice to people. It's an immensely huge industry that is looking to make profit, just like any other industry / company... What would you do if it was your company?

[voidillusion]

But but but guys it's Blizzard! They're a corporation and they need to make money and shareholders and yadda yadda yadda.... no? This game has been a cash cow for years, rehashed content, less actual content but with scalling to give the illusion that less is more, pruning, removal of this removal of that, every thing points that they want to do less for more. And now this, business as usual folks, nothing to see here, move along.

[rda]

Do you think the people actually working at Blizzard earn exactly the same now that they earned 10 years ago? Some of the fixed costs might have gone down because of more efficient tools and less cost per processing power, but the salary cost is the biggest chunk in the majority of companies, especially in the gaming industry.

The number of people required to produce the same amount of content goes down significantly over time, so unless you are innovating heavily or like tripling the amount of content you are doing per year, you don't need the same amount of people, you can move the people you have onto new projects. And Blizzard haven't been doing much innovation at all, the game is stale and has been stale for years.

If they were pushing the edge, adding tons of new and ambitious systems, taking big bets backed up by heavy exploratory development, it would have been different. But they are doing nothing of the sort, they are doing the same old quests and the same old dungeons, moving around the same old talents, etc.

[Bigbazz]

These services are daylight robbery to begin with.

[Alexeht]

They could probably get away with even greater price increases. It's not like their fanbase will stop playing just b/c the sub they are paying has become more expensive by 10 euros, so I find the price increase very moderate.

20%+ price increase = moderate. No wonder they have bad times in Greece if people cannot even count.

Amen, mate. Really, it isn't like it's a stranglehold change every time. They have to adjust for the economy.

And you just copy wrong and useless information which have no merit. As many people said here inflation is one thing, other is that technology is much cheaper than 10 years ago, so they should drop prices instead rising them ...

[Deleted]

Lower the price = more people pay for them happily, the step to spend money lowers greatly
Raise the price = Majority laughs at the huge prices and doesnt touch them ever.

The system is already automated. Theres no true cost behind it. Its 99.9% profit that goes to somewhere else. People need to stop arguing that it costs them money to do this particular thing.

Like what? Are you are going to argue that everytime data is transferred from server A to B costs 25 euros? You might wanna think about how internet works. Making this comment would probably cost 10 euros with that logic.
Or streaming from netflix would cost 250 euros, that movie is probably 1000 times larger than data of your characters textfile.

[Lochton]

And you just copy wrong and useless information which have no merit. As many people said here inflation is one thing, other is that technology is much cheaper than 10 years ago, so they should drop prices instead rising them ...

Nothing to do with the tech or development of, it is a business afterall, and you've all proven willing to pay the price. As well, adjustment is needed for currency/market.

[Deleted]

Nothing to do with the tech or development of, it is a business afterall, and you've all proven willing to pay the price. As well, adjustment is needed for currency/market.

There is no "adjustment" needed in any way shape or form, if this was an free to play MMO you might have had a point, but as this is a subscription based MMO the rest should be free, even the expansions.

[Lochton]

There is no "adjustment" needed in any way shape or form, if this was an free to play MMO you might have had a point, but as this is a subscription based MMO the rest should be free, even the expansions.

This old trope again.

Then go play a free to play game, or go play Gui-.. no wait, they charge as well. Go play ArcheAge, no wait, they charge as well. How about Star W-.. Nope, as well.

In the end, it is a business and they see the store going fine and they do need to adjust now and then. It isn't really that often and this topic appears when they do. And your argument appears whenever anything about subscription of services appear.

[chronia]

20%+ price increase = moderate. No wonder they have bad times in Greece if people cannot even count.



And you just copy wrong and useless information which have no merit. As many people said here inflation is one thing, other is that technology is much cheaper than 10 years ago, so they should drop prices instead rising them ...

I wonder how many companies there are that lower prices (and thus margins) when their margins are already dropping very hard to a level that some would consider calling unhealthy.

Look at 2012 where Activision Blizzard had the following profit margins 32%,17%, 26% en 20% for Q1,Q2,Q3 and Q4, these were healthy margins ranging from good to very good, now look at 2016 where the margins have dropped to 23,8,12 and 12% for Q1,Q2,Q3 and Q4 thats quite a big drop in margins, that some ppl would call something to watch out for.