We've all seen by now how cheap WoW can be when ts on sale $20 for the whole set, Catalcysm for $20 and now pets 50% but over the years of these sale im surprised they havn't ever put the subscription fee on sale is there a reason?
We've all seen by now how cheap WoW can be when ts on sale $20 for the whole set, Catalcysm for $20 and now pets 50% but over the years of these sale im surprised they havn't ever put the subscription fee on sale is there a reason?
server costs & profit
I dunno, I still think they make an insane amount of extra money doing name, server and faction changes.
Well why would they? They get so insane amount of money from subscription so they can sell WoW copies on lesser prices and pets etc etc.
They do! If you buy in bulk (6 months, 12 months) it costs less per month.
Games are not necessarily "easier" today. You are just a better player.
It takes more now to impress many gamers than it did 2-5 years ago, because so much has already been seen and done.
Many players expect to be wow'd with every release of a beloved franchise.
These are generally NOT the fault of the developers, but the fault of many players over-hyping and/or setting expectations too high.
Same reason drug dealers will give you a first hit for free but never give you a sale after that.
I don't see them doing a sale on subs because that doesn't really get them new players (new players get a month free when they buy WoW).
However I would like to see them do a sale on server transfers and faction changes.
Sales on expansions get you playing the game and thus make it so you require a subscription. Also, these are one time costs and thus one time income.
Pets are completely optional and are only useful if you are already playing the game and thus have a subscription. Another one time cost and thus one time income.
Subscriptions are required for you to play the game. You can play without the pet, you can even play without the expansions up to a point, but the subscription is a repetitive cost that enables all the other parts to work. It's also the biggest money maker of all the parts. Why would they discount their major profit source unless there were no other way to keep a player?
One time costs are easy to discount as they suffer ever decreasing demand. Once the initial demand for these items decreases discounts can generate additional sales of the one time items where they would otherwise have no value whatsoever. Subscriptions on the other hand have a steady value and constant demand. There is also a net effect to consider. Let's say they offerred a 20% discount on subsciptions changing the sub cost from $15 to $12 per month. At 10 million subs this would be a decrease from 150 million to 120 million dollars in income or a net loss of 30 million. For this to be worthwhile it would have to prevent them from losing 2 million subscriptions. So basically unless they were going to lose 20% of their player base over $3 per month per person (highly unlikely) it would be better for them to lose the subscriptions than discount them.
TL;DR: Discounting subscriptions will almost always result in a net loss, while sales on one time costs to players can result in a net gain.
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Addendum: You also have to consider that the more time and money someone invests in the game, the more likely they will be to keep playing and thus keep subbed. Spending $10 on a digital pet for the game means that if you stop playing the game, you effectively wasted your $10. This makes you feel invested in the game (both in time and money) and thus will cause you to continue playing even if you aren't currently enjoying it because "you've put so much into it".
Last edited by Kissme; 2012-12-04 at 10:34 PM.