Is the Blizzcon stream too expensive?

[Hairyseaward]

I don't see how anyone can compare movie prices to this. Movies at least have an original story and they put some effort into the production. Something like gravity or 12 years you can see that they spend months laboring of the details. Blizzcon by contrast is just a bunch of developers standing in front of a crowd talking off the cuff an answering the audiences dumb questions. It is more like paying $40 to watch cspan. The only reason to pay for it is if you want the pet

[McNeil]

Blizzard charging way more money than it should've been? Nothing new, just look at how expensive they sell their pets and mounts in the Store, the price of freaking huge DLC's from other games...

Just be more patient and wait to watch it for free, ain't that hard

[wombinator04]

I think it is, but it doesn't mean they don't have a right to make it expensive.

Also people still havnt realized just how much money it costs to put on an event like Blizzcon? Millions.
They lose a lot of money every Blizzcon they put on, hope you realize that.

Article is a bit old, but still true: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/bli.../1100-6228656/

[Seefer]

I would love to get the blizzcon stream this year but $40 for 2 days of video and only part of it I'm interested in (the WoW expansion) so that only adds up to maybe 3 hours of news I want, 3 hours for $40? I'm not going to buy that. Maybe Blizzard should split the show and offer 3-4 viewing options at say $15 each.

You pay about the same for 2 days of video as you day for a full year+ worth of gaming, would you rather buy the expansion or blizzcon stream for $40? Also consider that videos and news covering the event will be released right after and sometimes even during the event. What do you guys think? Should they split the show up into a WoW, SC2, D3 and other (stuff like heroes of the storm, hearthstone and contests) streams? how much should individual streams be? Is $40 too much considering the expansions offer more and sometimes for less?

2 days worth of Blizzcon + all the in game goodies.........no it's not too much.

[owbu]

Worth is an entirely subjective matter. Depending on your intrest in seeing it the second its out and in the best quality available and your budget it is either too expensive for you or it isnt.

The intresting question would be: Would more than double the people (no idea how much the bandwidth acutally costs, I guess its not a big factor) buy it for 20$.
I personally dont think so (I mostly encountered "I NEED THIS dont care how much it is!" and "meh, I´ll see it, when I see it" people).

[Zaqwert]

No. Nobody is forcing anyone to purchase it.

Pretty terrible logic. So if Blizzard was charging $100,000 for the stream you would say it's not too expensive, because nobody is forcing you to buy it?

When somebody says something is "too expensive" what they mean is that in their judgement you are getting much less value for the item than what you are paying for it.

[Sanguinare]

With the speed blizzcon sells out at. The price set for it is way to cheap SO share holders see that as a big loss the stream is a way that they can keep the price down and the size and still look ok on the books. as for counting it marketing the problem with that is it is not at best the opening is but guess what that is free. and the a la carte out look i just hate over all but I only want SC:LOV news no I only want WOW news no i only want D3:ROS news is not a good thing to make a system like that work the parts added together need to be more then the whole and you are dropping art,Q&As and lore panels

$40 is high but DirectTV needs to get it's cut and it lets you watch 2 things that are happening at the same time and you get it all.
$ ebay the normal tickets are at $300 to $700 for the event tickets. so that is a lot cheaper.
$ and just the ingame pets are $15 so if you do that split it is $15 for pet $15 for the stream you are just crying that it is all or nothing but even with that the opening is the only part most want or the SC2 matches but if you are in to the SC2 part the same place you watch your other matches will have it too.

[ATZenith]

Hoping to find a stream that is streaming the stream rofl.

[Skorpionss]

yeah I think they should have tiered tickets... the premium ticket which is this one that gets you all the goodies, a deluxe ticket that gets you the stream and a reward at your choice from the premium rewards, and the standard ticket that only gets you the stream... I want to watch it but I really don't care for the extras like wow pet, sc2 portrait, d3 banner or hearthstone card ... so I won't shell out 40$ to watch it... if it was just the stream for 10$ I would probably already have it ... and I know a lot of people like me ...

[Anjerith]

No, it is not too expensive given the only other way to witness the event (if you want to) is to buy a ticket, airfare and hotel - not to mention food and knickknacks you may want to pickup.

In comparison to that, and I have paid for it all in the past so my opinion on this is actually valid, $40 is not even pocket change.

This comes down to "I want something for nothing". While this is a fun view to have, the reality is that using the Anaheim convention center requires years of advanced planning and a Huge amount of monetary and time investment. Blizzard does not make money on this event, at the 2010 con, they lost money on it. And don't start with "well their game makes money so everything else they do should be free!". That is called bad business practices and NO company, regardless of how profitable a single product line is, can survive long on handing out freebies to events that cost them millions to host.

[Skorpionss]

It's not expensive - Just get a job. You get 2 days!

A new movie cost anywhere between $30-60 +++ Deluxe editions costing in the hundreds. And they last like 2 hours.

You'll get like 8-10 hours worth of content for $40.

Yeah well not every1 lives in the USA mate... $40 is a lot for where I live where the average monthly income is around $300... a new movie costs me $10-$15 if I also buy a big size taco&coke menu ... at the cinema ofc... in stores it's usually even less except deluxe editions or bundles...

- - - Updated - - -

No, it is not too expensive given the only other way to witness the event (if you want to) is to buy a ticket, airfare and hotel - not to mention food and knickknacks you may want to pickup.

eh there have always been ways of watching it :P it's just harder to pull off and they don't always work... I know I watched the Blizzcon where they announced wrath for free with something I found on 4chan ...

[Anjerith]

eh there have always been ways of watching it :P it's just harder to pull off and they don't always work... I know I watched the Blizzcon where they announced wrath for free with something I found on 4chan ...

I was of course referring to legitimate ways.

[Existenz99]

I was of course referring to legitimate ways.

Number of legitimate ways to watch the Stream: 1 - Paying for it.

[Promark]

Guess how many videos would be up if nobody paid for the stream?

Probably several. It's possible you might have missed it, but many models of phones now have the ability to record video and connect to the internet.

[Deleted]

Why should it be free is it some kind of charity event from a non-profit NGO or what? No it isn't, its from a commercial entity. They can ask whatever they want for the stream. If the market decides it costs too much the price will have to adjust. The only sensible thing to do in such a case is not pay for it (and maybe campaign for others not to pay). But just because you campaign does not mean you are in the right.

Theres a lot of costs attached you can be assured people like GC get paid to be there. The streamers, renting the convention center, the administrative side, the broadcaster/technical side, broadcaster hosts, lots of transportation and also planning and desigining the shows both ahead costs a lot of time (and therefore money, and products will ALWAYS be delayed due to this) from the Blizzard employees themselves.

So those who say it should be free they're simply clueless. We can argue about the price, thats a matter of supply & demand. The material is gonna be released soon after BlizzCon anyway, so its more of a luxuary front seat you are paying for.

[evilgnomey]

This comes down to "I want something for nothing".

I never said I wanted it for free, I have given alternate pricing ideas they could take to make it more appealing to players of one of their franchises though. All I sai was that $40 for the 3 or so hours I wanted to watch was a bit much in my eyes.

[Kathranis]

Yeah, the Blizzcon stream is too expensive. Or, more accurately, all Pay-Per-View events are too expensive. Doesn't matter if it's a concert or a sporting event or whatever, DirecTV charges a lot for these PPV events because people pay for it.

I don't think the cost is on par with the quality of what you're getting, but this is a world where a PPV season ticket for sporting events costs something like $300.

$40 for two days worth of coverage on multiple channels isn't terrible, considering. It's still more than I'm willing to spend, but it is what it is. Plus, you get the in-game items, so whatever. There was a time when getting a Blizzcon pet would cost you an arm and leg because only attendees got them. So yeah, could be worse.

Besides, the opening ceremony is free to watch, and that's going to have what we all really want to see (the announcement trailers). Everything else will be covered extensively by websites and blogs and interviews and press kits and the official website, all of which are free to the public.

[TylerGamer84]

I don't think it's to much. You spend so much more actually going. Tickets, gas, food, lodging, and other expenses. Plus there's travel time and waiting in line possibly missing some panels and/or finals because the schedules may conflict. For $40 I get to see everything that matters, I get the in-game stuff and I don't have to go across the country. So I'm fine with it.

[cFortyfive]

Don't know. It's obviously not much money but it seems way overpriced for what you receive as it's just slightly more than a glorified publicity gimmick.

[evilgnomey]

Probably several. It's possible you might have missed it, but many models of phones now have the ability to record video and connect to the internet.

There are videos of the first few blizzcons despite them never streaming them.