Increased prices on blizzard paid services

[Deleted]

The fact that Blizzard raised the price of race changes just before they upgrade the character models and change racials leads me to believe that Jabba the Hutt is running Blizzard at the moment.

[Pandapuncher]

Mark up the price on the most commonly used services. Sounds like a smart business move.

I feel like you don't completely grasp how business works

- - - Updated - - -

The fact that Blizzard raised the price of race changes just before they upgrade the character models and change racials leads me to believe that Jabba the Hutt is running Blizzard at the moment.

^ .

- - - Updated - - -

I would say expect more of this. I wouldn't be surprised if the euro-prices and $-prices also went up.

It is all about what we are willing to be put up with.
Maximizing profit is a normal thing for any company and the question is not what the service costs (or is worth actually), the real question is what the customer is willing to pay for it.

I already only wait for the 50% off sales to do any payed services.

[ringpriest]

The fact that Blizzard raised the price of race changes just before they upgrade the character models and change racials leads me to believe that Jabba the Hutt is running Blizzard at the moment.

It reminds me of the "sale" on Realm Transfers two months before officially announcing Connected Realms.

[melodramocracy]

Fairly inaccurate number. There's been over a million bot accounts banned over the time-span of mop alone.

+ WoW gets around 200k new players per quarter on average. So debunking your 6 million even further.

Now that's how you spin, ladies and gentlemen.

Also, it's highly entertaining that someone in this thread thinks that electronic transactions are individually double checked by a person.

What REALLY happens is that when you request a name change:

Sidney the chiselmaster runs to the warehouse in the basement of Blizzards headquarters, where stone tablets are kept, each engraved with the name of a player. After a search that involves multiple forklifts and about 2 kilometers of walking, he finds yours, and promptly shatters it with a sledge hammer.

He then sends a wire via Western Union to Randall at the quarry, to cut a new stone for you. This is cut, sent to the washing department to be cleaned and prepped for engraving. Sidney then completes the job, placing it nice and neatly back where your prior one was.

You don't even want to KNOW what's involved with a race change. That they can get these tasks done within an hour is a testament to the sheer coordination of the dozens of folks involved in it, on a 24/7 basis.

[Sildor]

The sub fee is still about 10-20% cheaper in Pound Sterling than other currencies, so you have no reason to complain.

[Saxtorph]

Absolutely moronic changes; but I have no doubt that people will defend them. Even taking into account current inflation;

Defend them? No, but your apparent belief that prices should never increases simply because you say so is laughable.

[Deleted]

i love how they make it sound like a good thing. Like this is awesome guys, one euro moar!

I totally feel like I'm getting more entertainment value now they've made the services more expensive.

[Deficineiron]

Now that's how you spin, ladies and gentlemen.

Also, it's highly entertaining that someone in this thread thinks that electronic transactions are individually double checked by a person.

What REALLY happens is that when you request a name change:

Sidney the chiselmaster runs to the warehouse in the basement of Blizzards headquarters, where stone tablets are kept, each engraved with the name of a player. After a search that involves multiple forklifts and about 2 kilometers of walking, he finds yours, and promptly shatters it with a sledge hammer.

He then sends a wire via Western Union to Randall at the quarry, to cut a new stone for you. This is cut, sent to the washing department to be cleaned and prepped for engraving. Sidney then completes the job, placing it nice and neatly back where your prior one was.

You don't even want to KNOW what's involved with a race change. That they can get these tasks done within an hour is a testament to the sheer coordination of the dozens of folks involved in it, on a 24/7 basis.

The real tragic loser in this situation is Blizzard. It is obvious that these services are loss-leaders for blizzard.

[Deleted]

Haha. And another `get ready` for freemium. Its so obvious. Along with the character boost, the cashshop integrated in the UI, etc. WoW will go with a freemium model within the next 1-2 years.

[Huehuecoyotl]

Haha. And another `get ready` for freemium. Its so obvious. Along with the character boost, the cashshop integrated in the UI, etc. WoW will go with a freemium model within the next 1-2 years.

Why go freemium when they have a set of players that are happy to pay box price, subscription and micro-transactions? As long as there are enough customers willing to fork over three lots of money for one lot of content (or less, as it is at the moment!) then they will carry on milking. They would be fools not to.

[Elian]

with Titan delayed/canceled how else are they going to make money? WOW? that's right, keep milking wow.

[The Flavour Cat]

Completely unnecessary changes. They just added the 'Skip 90% of our content come WoD' button the Blizzard Store, so why increase more prices when they'll surely be making more money from the boosts? There's also a new horse mount most likely coming from RaF, so even more green will be lining their pockets. The greedy Blizzard suits know no limits.

[Deleted]

The sub fee is still about 10-20% cheaper in Pound Sterling than other currencies, so you have no reason to complain.

Its not. an changes in he value of currency shouldnt be a model to increase the price for some people. What you are saying is because the £ is stronger than the euro and $ that GBP should cost more. Which is bullshit

[Itisamuh]

What is the current price on Pluto?

OT: The wording of the post annoys me. "Best entertainment value" is just a sucker punch. It's like saying their services are so valuable that we aren't paying enough for them

This is the vibe I got as well. I am trying to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they are trying to make the price value more equal between regions (no idea) rather than just raising prices for the hell of it. These services are already over priced as it is. Quite frankly they should be free since we already pay a subscription that seemingly covers absolutely nothing except the ability to log in. These guys know how to milk...

[Raven]

There is a significant difference between wanting to earn money for your company in an understandable and legit way, and then flat out trying to push the price while it's being defended by customers who seemingly lack any sense of logic.

I would understand a price raise, if the product was being improved so I as a customer got equal value for the increase in cost (this is not the case), I would understand the cost increase if there was significant expenses associated with said product, but since it's been the exact same virtual product and been automated for years, we can't chuck it up to that either.., so what is it that is driving the increase in cost with nothing being added to the product?

You can speculate and add everything together if you like, Ceo's and shareholders "needing" their "standard" bonuses resulting in a hole that must be covered by someone, and that someone is always the people at the bottom of the ladder (No exceptions), could also be that they vastly underestimated the amount of players using the feature of character boosting and see this as an easy attachment to it, resulting in greater revenue despite loss in subscription numbers.
Could also be that because of dwindling subscription numbers they need to get that revenue loss covered partially / fully by introducing this taxation on the rest of the player base (We don't know what number of players using XYZ features at any given time, so speculation again)

It could be all of the above, pure greed to fill the pockets or an attempt to increase revenue to increase spending on features to WoW we still don't know about, or some other project they are working on, or something entirely different.

Personally I don't care which it is, if I don't see any shred of evidence that a product changes or the cost associated with a product increase making it perfectly acceptable in my eyes to increase the cost, then I will simply not use the product.
It boils down to pretty common logic, would you accept that they suddenly charged 5£ extra per month for your subscription if nothing significantly changed?

And what is not legit ? its still legit if they so would decide to raise the cost to £100, they would loose alot of people doing so, but its their product and they are free to charge whatever they want for it.

First its only £1, but just for argument sake, yes if i still feel i could afford it and i feel i still got my money´s worth out of the game i would accept a £5 raise, and if i feel its not worth it or i can´t afford it i would just quit.

[Awbee]

Whaaaat. If anything, these were all ridiculously overpriced already, especially for a game that already has a damn sub fee. Most of these do not require any time or work. Wtf?

Guess Bobby Kotick needs a new island mansion?

[Deleted]

Completely unnecessary changes. They just added the 'Skip 90% of our content come WoD' button the Blizzard Store, so why increase more prices when they'll surely be making more money from the boosts? There's also a new horse mount most likely coming from RaF, so even more green will be lining their pockets. The greedy Blizzard suits know no limits.

They are trying to make the most money out of all the race changes and cosmetic changes that will take place after the new race models go live.

[Marema]

Gotta love how people complain about the price for something that is completely optional. It could triple in price; who cares? Don't use the service. Thinking is hard.

[York]

Gotta love how people complain about the price for something that is completely optional. It could triple in price; who cares? Don't use the service. Thinking is hard.

The point is that people would like to be able to use the service, optional or not, but this dissuades them further from doing so. It's just a disappointment. Thinking is real hard on your part, eh?

[kidgamer]

Have you been to the grocery store lately? Or bought a tank of gas, or been seen a doctor? Seems like the price for everything has gone up recently (some dramatically so- Hi2uHealthcare). Just be glad Blizzard hasn't increased the monthly sub fee.