Why are we charged for expansions?

[Deleted]

We pay subscription fees to be allowed to play the game we've bought on blizzard's servers (not that anyone else is allowed to run wow servers).

We pay for expansions for the new content we get in them.

[Regalbeast]

It's only $40....and because they can?

[Frozen Death Knight]

Why do they need investors if they have all this money coming in already? GREED, that's it, pure and simple. Corporations exist to extract money out of people, there is no other reason for their existence. Is this a good thing? I'd say no.

They exist because they provide services people are willing to pay for. "If you're good at something, never do it for free."

So you're going to be completely anti-corporation just because they want to earn more money for their services? There are areas where I think companies can go too far with their desire to earn money, but if it was not for corporations, in the first place, you would not be able to live the way you live today. Computers? Would not exist in our homes if it was not for companies providing this service by using their vast resources and organizations.

This could be applied to pretty much everything from electricity to housing to food stores. Capitalism helped form modern society because of its power to provide services people want. Does the system have its issues? Sure, but there is no reason to be totally against some of the driving forces unless you want to go back to an age where your entire community was the village/city you lived in without the luxuries of modern technology.

[Gsara]

i think you will find thats a monopoly working for you. one of the things that have to be managed within a capitalist structure because they are an unavoidable but unwanted by-product of capitalism (one of its flaws, if you will).

in fact, if Blizzard existed in any field outside of MMOs, they would have been investigated and probably forced to break up in some way by now. that would have been tricky, to say the least.

Here ya go since you have no idea what a monopoly is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/monopoly

Blizzard isnt even close to being the only company in the world making video games.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

$15/month - Server operation fees, CS salaries, dev salaries, patch costs.

$30/expansion - Dev salaries, liscensing fees

[Gsara]

Blizzard spends under 3% of their earnings from SUBSCRIPTIONS ALONE! on running servers and server maintainence etc...
15x10million = 150 million
150,000 dollars a day on servers x30 for 30 days a month. 4.5 million....so 4.5 million out of 150 million a month = 4.5m / 150m 0.03 x100 to make a percentage = 3% dead on. Thats not including race changes / faction changes etc etc. Yea they are raking in revenue dude...

Except not all 10m players pay 15 a month. Only the US and Europe pay 15 a month but that can be cheaper as well. Look at your battlenet account and go to subscriptions options, you'll notice that it gets cheaper per month with multiple month subs.ie. 12 month = about 8 dollars US per month. Asian countries pay my the hour. I believe when I lived in China for 6 months I payed roughly 6 dollars US(roughly) the entire month, but that goes to the 9 directly and they pay Blizzard the fee's themselves.
Its still alot of money I agree, but really 15 a month(at most) for the sub fee isnt really anything at all to a lot of people. If they want to charge for things they can, it's still my choice to pay or not.

[MasterHamster]

You pay a fee to be allowed to have an account which can connect to their servers.
That's it.

[Megadeth]

cuz they're money hungry bastards, that's why.

[Joodoc]

Our $15 subscription fee is paid so that the WoW devs develop new content for us. However currently, all the WoW devs are working on MoP, which we are expected to pay for. If you are subscribing to WoW right now, all of that money is being used to develop content that we are going to have to pay for. Why should a game with a subscription fee charge for expansions when subscription fees should pay for content development?

technology costs, and you aren't paying for future content, you are paying for past content. currently your monthly fee is mostly goign to the content you are currently playing, not the expansion coming up. when you are a month or so until the next content patch(pre expac being next one) then you start paying for the future one.

[Aquamonkey]

Except not all 10m players pay 15 a month. Only the US and Europe pay 15 a month but that can be cheaper as well. Look at your battlenet account and go to subscriptions options, you'll notice that it gets cheaper per month with multiple month subs.ie. 12 month = about 8 dollars US per month. Asian countries pay my the hour. I believe when I lived in China for 6 months I payed roughly 6 dollars US(roughly) the entire month, but that goes to the 9 directly and they pay Blizzard the fee's themselves.
Its still alot of money I agree, but really 15 a month(at most) for the sub fee isnt really anything at all to a lot of people. If they want to charge for things they can, it's still my choice to pay or not.

IDK where in the US you are where they have $8/mo for 12mo, but my Bnet account only shows the longest plan as 6 mo at $13/mo.

[Joodoc]

The OP has a point. We Pay 15/month so they keep developing content. We are now stuck with DS for a long time now and we don't get any content in the mean time. So why do they charge us EXTRA for that one compilation of content?

They can release the expansion over patches.

F.E.

Patch 5.0: MoP event and other class/ui changes etc.
x weeks
Patch 5.1: Zone a & b unlocked; you can start to level + pet battles + new race/class
x weeks
Patch 5.2: Zone c & d unlocked; more levels. throw some dailies in there for a special mount + rep for factions which can be useful when hit max level.
x weeks
Patch 5.3: zone e & f unlocked; you can now reach the max level and you unlock your special mount + some raids + the tillers dailies.
x weeks
Patch 5.4: Raid content + dungeons
x weeks
patch 5.5: end raid + dungeons

ta da!

no need to pay for an expansion.


Or They can make a small 'voucher' which they can sell for 9.99 euros to unlock the continent + pandaren and monk and give you a pet along with it.
As for CE; you'd get the above + OST + Guide for the whole Continent + extra's.

just my thoughts

because the number of months you go without new content longer than inbetween normal major content patches is not near long enough to make up for the amount of content added each expansion. you would be looking at like a year longer break until MoP comes out. since peopel wouldn't pay that the entire tiem, they charge for the expansion

[Deleted]

Why do they need investors if they have all this money coming in already? GREED, that's it, pure and simple. Corporations exist to extract money out of people, there is no other reason for their existence. Is this a good thing? I'd say no.

It's also greedy that you want to get a huge upgrade to your game for free. 'Greed' can be applied to any transaction of goods, depending on your point of view.

[Deleted]

Your subscription fee pays for access to the servers. You don't pay, you don't have access. Simple. As.

You want the freshest plethora of game-wide content. You pay an additional fee.

Much like you don't pay your Cable TV subscription fee you don't get your Cable TV channels. You want additional channel packages you pay an additional fee.

You don't pay your insurance. You're no longer covered by your insurance. You want additional coverage you pay an additional fee.

Welcome to basic business - the practice of selling goods. Not exactly a hard one to get your head around.

Whether or not your subscription is providing you value for money and is a worthwhile continued investment is ultimately a decision you have to make.

[Deleted]

Blizzard want money? isnt it very clear?

[Deleted]

What a lot of people aren't willing to accept here is just how profitable Blizzard-Activision is and how little of that profit is funnelled back into WoW-development.

[mordale]

cause the monthly fee is mostly spent on keeping the servers going, and not just the WoW servers i mean all the battle.net systems.

monthly fee is you buying time to play, expacs are you buying the content.

[Nigeldruid]

Because people are willing to pay. It's as simple as that. They don't need the money to run the servers. They don't need the money to develop the content. Monthly fee or expansion cost would more than cover this on their own. But as long as people are willing to pay the price, it's going to be there. It's the same reason server transfers and race changes costs money. Because we are willing to pay. It's the same reason store bought pets and mounts exists. Because we are willing to pay.

I agree that we should be paying enough already, but as long as we do pay, why would they stop us? We are the reason expansions costs money. If we think it's wrong, we should stop following their business model, and switch supplier.

[Polarthief]

Running servers and paying for customer service isn't cheap.

It sure as hell doesn't cost 150m as well

[Deleted]

Simple question, why not?

The answer to your question: because they earn money.

[killidan]

Our $15 subscription fee is paid so that the WoW devs develop new content for us. However currently, all the WoW devs are working on MoP, which we are expected to pay for. If you are subscribing to WoW right now, all of that money is being used to develop content that we are going to have to pay for. Why should a game with a subscription fee charge for expansions when subscription fees should pay for content development?

They charge as they please and spend the money as they please. You have no right to question what they do with the money. You pay to play or to access new expansion content, once you pay it's their money.