You are looking at it the wrong way. Since this is the first cosmetic bit if they charged say 5 bucks for it people would not make such a big deal about it. And because they wouldn't make such a big deal about it would allow them to release more cosmetic gear in the future for 5 bucks. People spend more money in the long run if they spend it in small amounts. Blizzard would make more money in the long run if they do it in small amounts. The is how all other in game stores work.
Aye mate
They give you no extra stats, so it's not.
You don't think their sales department figured out the best price point possible? They didn't do it for $25. It's only $15. Why do you think $5 is the mark? Because that's good for you? If you want a lot of people to have it why not charge $0.50? Bottom line is that number isn't arbitrary, they knew it was the highest they could go before they would make less money by turning people away.
You may think it's cheap, but the vast majority think it's way overpriced, even to the point of ridiculousness. Ergo, Blizzard's public image suffers.
Yes, there will be few people who are willing to pay that 15$. Sure, Blizzard's revenue will surge momentarily, but I believe that in the long run the influence will be negative.
Right now on steam you can get dues ex human revolution for 3 dollars.
The helm is 5 times that amount
Those items probably cost like 1000$ to create. Maybe a week from an
artist to create it and fit it to all player models.
It still costs 1/4 of a full Triple A title which cost like 10 000 000$ to create.
I don't understand how you can think that's a good price for it. Even if the game
would be free to play it would still be a huge rip off. Insanely shitty value for money.
Every model, animation, texture, particle effect etc. they put to the cash shop is one
asset that's not in the text scenario, dungeon or raid.
So basically you pay for the content with your subscription fee which they then put to
the cash shop so they can rip you off because Vivendi wants more money.
Sounds pretty fair! Right...?
If it goes down a pretty substantial amount, say like more than it has in previous declines, then I think we are safe to say that it could very well be one of the reasons.
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A lot of people just quit and never post on the forums, which is why yes, we can't just only judge the forums like you said.