Originally Posted by
atrixx
I'm one of those that have been playing since around 2006 as well and unsubbed again - I did it during Cata. At some point the game just gets boring and you move on until the next expac. I don't see why people can't just do that without whining about it. With that said...
The Blizzard store items are NEEDED badly for Blizzard right now. A news article out last week highlighted that importance of these microtransactions and Hearthstone to ActiBlizz. They are losing Chinese players in droves right now because the market is so competitive over there. However, those accounts are relatively low revenue accounts. So even though they've lost 4 million players since the peak, it hasn't massively impacted the bottom line. Why? The Blizzard Store. They are able to offset any losses with micro transactions for in game items and services.
We see activity like this happen in many industries. The airlines are the big ones with the ancillary revenue. Your ticket gets your butt on the plane, but in most cases you pay for everything else in an a la carte fashion (Southwest is about the only one that doesn't do that). It is no different here. Your $15 gets your butt through the door but if you want the pretty sparkles and the next over saturated mount, you pay extra.
Heartstone is the next big step for Blizzard moving into the F2P arena. I think they are going to watch it very closely on how the micro transactions work out for it and I wouldn't be shocked if WOW goes F2P with microtrans at some point. I'm think more like a SWTOR model where you have both systems running side by side, but the better revenue stream comes out of breaking things apart.
We can't fault Blizzard for loading down the online store with more options. It is almost clock work - put in a new mount or pet = $5 million (or thereabouts) pay day. This is something the Western customer base has supported so far and it is helping to offset any potential losses from the Eastern customer base. Love it, hate it...its business. Will we ever get to the point where we got F2P and you have to pay $20 for a token to unlock the raids, BGs, or arenas for a month? I doubt it. However I can definitely see it expanded greatly to more transmog gear, tri-spec, player housing/farm 2.0, better bank/repair bots, etc. Nothing that gives anyone a clear advantage in defeating encounters, but pure quality of life enhancements.