Blizzard Employ "Forced Scarcity/Temp Availability" Tactics on Digital Goods Now...

[Lochton]

https://www.wowhead.com/news=289324/...u-later-bundle

This limited-time bundle includes all pets, mounts, and helms that are about to enter hibernation in the Blizzard Archive on January 6, 2019. Get them all now, in one fell swoop, before it’s too late!*

Items in the See You Later Bundle will enter hibernation on January 6, 2019 and will no longer be available in the Blizzard® Shop or in-game shop (until further notice). These items may return at some point in the future.

This is a dynamic bundle, which means the bundle’s total price will be reduced if you already own one or more of the items this bundle contains. Log in to see your price.

I am in utter awe of the tone deafness here.

Ends a week after the end of the Q4 financial quarter.

I don't get it. It is basically an offer for a bundle of things you can get before they are taken off the digital store - so, where's the problem again? Any store has to rotate some products now and then.

[Yunaqt]

Fuck it, just milk it. No 70% discount put the price up to $200.

Might get it, it's a pretty tiny amount of gold.

[lolbubble]

Why are they removing the pets?

Do they not have server space?

[Beazy]

Oh shit, they better clean up that binary data in the database taking up 37 megs of space!
GET EM NOW BEFORE WE TRUNCATE TABLE tblSHITNoOneWantsToBuy !!!!!


They are trying to pad Q4 financials so hard its just sad. Really sad to see what has happened to this company.

[Deleted]

Why are they removing the pets?

Do they not have server space?

I just LOL'ed really hard at the idea of not having "server space"

Oh shit, they better clean up that binary data in the database taking up 37 megs of space!
GET EM NOW BEFORE WE TRUNCATE TABLE tblSHITNoOneWantsToBuy !!!!!

I also loled to this

[f4ncybear]

Finally I can free up some Bnet balance to add more tokens in there.

[Araxie]

You are avoiding the question of "why"

Which is a very reasonable question to ask.
There is no reason.
There is no clutter on the shop.
There is no clutter on their system.

This is just Blizzard saying:
-You dont buy this shit? Let me tell you how its done BOYS! BOOM removed from the shop if you dont buy them,

done

The reason "why" is because Blizzard is a business, and this is a way to sell items that have been sitting for quite some time. Stop trying to appear smart by posing the question "why", we all know why. We're not children.

The salt for this is insane though. IT'S A SALE. Don't want them? Do NOT buy them. What's that you say though? You DO want one of those items? Well, you're in luck! They're on sale for dirt cheap now! Don't have the money? Oh well, sorry to hear that, but they will be back! Probably discounted then as well!

Stop getting offended at the fact that a business needs money to operate.

[BananaHandsB]

Oh shit, they better clean up that binary data in the database taking up 37 megs of space!
GET EM NOW BEFORE WE TRUNCATE TABLE tblSHITNoOneWantsToBuy !!!!!


They are trying to pad Q4 financials so hard its just sad. Really sad to see what has happened to this company.

I'm confused would you rather their Q4 report be worse? This has no effect on you. If you don't want to buy them, don't. If people want to spend money on it, and it gives WoW a Q4 boost in sales, that's fantastic. That's good for the game. The more money this game makes, the happier investors will be and the safer this game will be for the long term. We don't want WoW to end up like Heroes and have the game put into maintenance mode.

[dope_danny]

They forgot they are a subscription based game right?

I mean i know the term 'blizzdrone' exists but there cannot be that many people dumb enough to fall for this shit in a game they pay monthly for.

But still yet more stuff easily explained by "our devs mostly play mobile games now over pc" once again. How embarrassing.

[Deleted]

The reason "why" is because Blizzard is a business, and this is a way to sell items that have been sitting for quite some time. Stop trying to appear smart by posing the question "why", we all know why. We're not children.

At least we got that straight.
Its a business tactic, clear as water.

I dont support it though because...it seems cheap to me :S

[Coffeh]

Love the sales pitch.

BUY NOW. YOU'LL NEVER GET ANOTHER CHANCE TO OWN THESE ITEMS!!

..but you might.

[Araxie]

At least we got that straight.
Its a business tactic, clear as water.

I dont support it though because...it seems cheap to me :S

Yes it is. Blizzard doesn't run on wishes and dreams.

That's fine, don't support it if you don't want. No one is forcing you to buy these products.

[BananaHandsB]

At least we got that straight.
Its a business tactic, clear as water.

I dont support it though because...it seems cheap to me :S

How was this not obvious? Like virtually any game, Blizzard has investors to please or risk getting their development scaled down. It's not like the Devs are picking up an extra paycheck from this. It's in no way a pay to win item, so if people feel obligated to get them, that's totally on them and their virtual OCD. And for those people, this is a sweet deal.

[Chloral]

They are clearly in "maximize profit before it's over" mentality since Blizzcon.

They are so out of touch with their consumer base it'shilarious. We all know the money they will make from that is not going anywhere but in the pockets of the fatcats. The developpers/artist are not gonna see any of that money.

[Kyphael]

Why don't they just make the game free to play already and be done with this shit already? Obviously that's the direction it's going, subscription count has been declining and presumably that has continued past BfA's first patch due to negative word of mouth and stupid moves (like this.) Just go F2P already, that'll increase the sub count for sure and then you can push the sale of virtual goods without looking shameless.

[Raven]

But the great thing is, if you dont want those items, you dont have to buy. if you have been thinking of buying something of those, its nice of them to warn before its gone.

So win / win if you want something you can buy it before its gone, and if you dont want anything your not forced to buy it and soon it will be gone.

[Mazinger-Z]

Yes it is. Blizzard doesn't run on wishes and dreams.

That's fine, don't support it if you don't want. No one is forcing you to buy these products.

Did you applaud when Apple put in the anti-suicide nets?

[Eleccybubb]

Why don't they just make the game free to play already and be done with this shit already? Obviously that's the direction it's going, subscription count has been declining and presumably that has continued past BfA's first patch due to negative word of mouth and stupid moves (like this.) Just go F2P already, that'll increase the sub count for sure and then you can push the sale of virtual goods without looking shameless.

No thank you. I'd rather have pushed P2W/P2A stuff in the store because it goes F2P.

The game is a long way away from being in that state.

And "declining" is speculation.

[tacoloco]

The only people who get pissed off about stuff like this are people who are looking for a reason to be pissed off.

- - - Updated - - -

Did you applaud when Apple put in the anti-suicide nets?

Nice cheap shot, sunshine.

[Kyphael]

No thank you. I'd rather have pushed P2W/P2A stuff in the store because it goes F2P.

The game is a long way away from being in that state.

And "declining" is speculation.

Maybe, we don't know for sure, but some signs are glaring. It's all speculative, we have no concrete numbers but the backlash against everything they've been doing can't be good for the company image. Even if they're not in that state, maybe this is where it all begins.