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

[Zaktar]

Ok, the iTunes one is not very effective because there are other platforms.
Imagine all major platforms did "a thing" where they stopped all downloads for MJ at the same time.

You dont understand why is shameless...ok, let me try.
Its the principle of it.
A digital databse is not the same as a physical copy of something.
It takes no storage space and wastes zero resources.

It is at its core "false scarcity"

There is no reason to "stop selling"...no reason at all.
The only reason is hope to sell more copies that you otherwise wouldnt. More money.

And it so happens that in the virtual world is really transparent...because it costs nothing extra to have this products on the store.

I cant explain any better.

It's not a false scarcity, the scarcity is one of opportunity. Check out the concept of opportunity cost; if you're not familiar it can be a paradigm shift for worldview: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o...tunitycost.asp

Your attention is scarce. Your willingness to visit their store, to return, to make purchases, these are scarce. If you see too many substandard goods, your willingness to return to the store decreases. Some folks have argued that businesses can sell all digital goods for all time, but most experienced storefront owners would tell you this is an ineffective strategy which will reduce your overall sales. There is a balance point between offering too much and offering so little that you lose opportunities for sales.

My point is, offering too much can cost you. "No it can't," you may argue. Well that is a belief you are free to adhere to when running your own store, but is not intrinsically evil, scummy, underhanded, or "shameless" to disagree on that point. I look at the swtor cartel coin shop as a blatant example of storefront diarrhea, endless amounts of stuff offered and it all starts looking like crap to me. Honestly I think Blizzard is past this point as well, they should have reduced what they offered a long time ago.

At any rate there is a cost, it isn't free to run a digital storefront, and if your goods don't return enough value, they should be replaced with something which can. Even if it is virtually free, you are losing dollars you could be making by eating up attention bandwidth with crap few people are interested in. Opportunity cost is cost.

Letting people know you're retiring these substandard goods and offering them at a discount is win-win to both consumer and storefront. That folks are outraged by it is baffling.

[belron]

intent is important and malicious intent should and needs to be called out. this is not one of those times this is a sales tactic to boost numbers from old mounts that most dont care about anymore. yes scarcity does drive actions but in a lot of cases that is good legion mage tower, collector edition pets and mounts, the scarab lord are all part of this. another temporary availability is the steam sales but are you going to project malicious intent there? now yes they aren't removing the games after but the same principles of limited time buy now or miss out apply.

blizzard is a company and like all company's they need to make money and you can be happy knowing that this will make it so there are fewer store mounts and pets.

[Deleted]

Music goes in and out of print all the time and can become unavailable in any form. If the Michael Jackson estate does not like the terms under which his music is being streamed they can pull it in a heartbeat. There are artists today who have allowed streaming of only portions of their CD's and some that have never allowed their music to be streamed. In most cases the label owns the copyright and the rights on the material. The idea that something that is being streamed somewhere will always be available as digital inventory is poppycock.

Same for e-books, audiobooks, movies and any other thing you can imagine that can be presented in a digital format. It doesn't mean that they will necessarily be available in a physical form either.

If a game studio does not want their game on Steam it will be pulled from Steam. It's up to the copyright holder pure and simple. Do a search for the terms "Steam" and "Delist". There's a bunch of them that have come and gone for various reasons.

You really do not understand what you are talking about here. Digital content comes and goes and occasionally returns all the time.

There's a long interesting history of the 2013 game Deadpool with Steam that's been de-listed twice.

It's 100% up to the copyright holder whether it be Blizzard, Michael Jackson's estate or anyone else that holds copyright power on IP as to its distribution and availability. They can release or withhold anything they own copyright to at any time without warning.

All your examples had "reasons" behind their actions of removing the IP from virtual stores.
In this case, the "reason" is transparent and clear as water to make a quick buck out of false scarcity.

Unless someone gives a better reason to remove them from the store.
Store clutter....yeah right
Lack of memory space in Blizzard servers...yeah right.

I just dont see it.
All i see is a clear as water false scarcity...and the fact that is so transparent is... :S

[kamuimac]

All your examples had "reasons" behind their actions of removing the IP from virtual stores.
In this case, the "reason" is transparent and clear as water to make a quick buck out of false scarcity.

Unless someone gives a better reason to remove them from the store.
Store clutter....yeah right
Lack of memory space in Blizzard servers...yeah right.

I just dont see it.
All i see is a clear as water false scarcity...and the fact that is so transparent is... :S

the reason is obvious.

they dont sell

so there is no point to keep them there.

those who wanted to buy them done that years ago (myself included)

then everyone else bought them with in game gold in WoD/Legion.

there is no point to keep merchendise that doesnt sell anymore

[Deleted]

the reason is obvious.

they dont sell

so there is no point to keep them there.

those who wanted to buy them done that years ago (myself included)

then everyone else bought them with in game gold in WoD/Legion.

there is no point to keep merchendise that doesnt sell anymore

In physical form yes, i agree with you.
In virtual space? Why?

To make a quick buck.

If i was in need of money i would do the same...just seems out of character from Blizzard.

[ParanoiD84]

Lmao that disclaimer, fucking blizzard. Of course they will bring them back later on all they think about is money.

[SirCowdog]

It's not your account to sell. You're selling access to it and these days, more often than not, these get detected and accounts get closed.
So stop implying the account somehow has "maket value". If you think that, you've seriously misunderstood what "market value" means.

I'd like to take a spin on this:

It's not so much that his account itself has value. What might have "value" is the time he's put into it, and what his characters have in terms of equipment and progression. What cosmetics he's unlocked, etc.

The problem is that any such "value" really only applies to the owner of the account, since they're the only ones with access to it. The trick would be convincing someone else of that value of that access in light of the potential risk of having the account banned or closed or reclaimed in the future.

Buying and selling accounts is a thing that happens. I knew someone back in TBC who sold and reclaimed their account 4 different times to 4 different people, each for around $200. Granted this was a decade ago, and security and detection techniques have advanced since then, as well as mitigating factors like catch-up mechanics and character boosts.

The market for that kind of thing has got to be extremely poor. The only thing a person buying accounts could possibly be interested in would be rare mounts, xmogs, or possibly achievements that aren't available any more.

[MoanaLisa]

The entire discussion about account selling is problematical. It's against the Blizzard TOS; it's against our site rules; and it has nothing at all to do with the original thread topic. Please move on from this or the thread will be closed. Thanks.

[PrairieChicken]

Well it is not a forced scarcity (limits on total amount sold)

[stigz]

People said the same thing when microtransaction pets were introduced 9 years ago. Still waiting for those BiS items to appear on the store.

With how things are going you probably won't be waiting much longer.

But you totally missed the point anyway. Thanks for contributing literally nothing as usual.

[lappee]

But I'm also not going to just shut up about it. The only way for players to get game companies to stop acting the way Blizzard has been recently is to talk about it. Raise awareness. Be vocal. Express displeasure.

Except talking about it doesn't actually change anything, not alone. Companies that exist for profit care only about that, as long as you're willing to pay for their product they're happy - you're doing exactly that as you keep on playing. Quit the game while it "sucks" and tell them why you quit and you might make a difference. Right now you're just a noise overthrown by the sound of cold hard cash, or you can stay the hypocrite you currently are.

[slime]

It took me way too long to get it...

It is their company, they can do whatever they want (even if 100% of players hate it). Your only recourse is to stop playing/paying them.

Complaining, especially here, is dead air. And please stop feeding the piranha-trolls.

[Flarelaine]

Jesus H. Christ, I return from the holidays, and... this shit is still on top? Company offers products you are not interested in. Noted. Move on.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Show them by protesting with your wallets, not ree-ing over this website

[TickTickTick]

People defending blizz here is the perfect example of what's wrong with today's humanity.

Most of the population is either unbelievably dumb, have very basic education or lack any general sense. Such people are so easy to maniuplate, to easy to abuse and so easy to reap any cash off of them that they don't even notice.

Its blizzard basically saying "hey, you dumbass players. Here's a list of digital goods. Digital, as in it doesnt cost us even a penny to have them still in the store. But the quarter is ending and we need money NOW! So we'll feed you a story that we are retiring them, even though it costs us practically nothing to have them still be there. But before we do, we'll give you a 'special sale' and we will put on a big sign saying BUY THEM UNTIL ITS TOO LATE! We know that you are stupid enough to believe it, we know you are stupid enough to buy it even thought you never wanted before and never needed it, we know you are stupid enough to get triggered by this SOON TO NOT BE AVAILABLE and will throw your money this instant cause you feel uneasy about not being able to get it in the future, even though you've had so much time to do that. We picked those exactly, because they dont sell well so we can say we retire them cause they are old (lol). We also picked the least desired items to see how many people will suddenly buy the shit they didnt ever need nor want. Its an experiment, and if it's successful, we'll launch more of those in the future to milk you."

Edit: Below poster is the perfect example of that.

[lappee]

People defending blizz here is the perfect example of what's wrong with today's humanity.

So whats wrong is that people believe in free will, aka don't agree with your views. Gotcha Mr. well educated person.

[SirCowdog]

Show them by protesting with your wallets, not ree-ing over this website

SImply leaving without saying anything doesn't really help address the issue, however. Leaving + explaining why is much more useful.

[Waluigismash]

At first i was like meh, whats the deal? Why do everyone keep shouting at Blizzard for whatever they are doing?

At first, i thought they wanted to make a discount because these mounts sold so bad, and wanted to retire them to add other mounts to the game.

Sure it sucks, but at the same time, its understandable.

Then i noticed that "Get them now, before its too late! >>>>>>>>>>*. That * made me worried.

And oh boy.. i found it. "These items might return in the future."

What the.. What is going ON with gaming companies? I understand why Switch sold so much, its because people are tired of these companies ruining their own image by putting microtransaction, doing questionable choices, adding lootboxes to the game, releasing unfinished games and running out of canvas bags.

[Loveliest]

I don't think it's all that bad, to be fair. It's more like a push if you planned to buy them 'some time in the future'. I don't think anyone who never planned on buying them had their mind changed, right?

[kamuimac]

Remember when a portion of the community was pissed off at the introduction of the Blizzard store and everyone said "Shut up #slipperyslopefallacy". (kinda similar to vanilla and flying but lets ignore that for now)

Enjoy your crappy business tactics.

i wish i wasnt a student who had to be careful with money back then - would definetly instantly buy it on day one just to piss off all nerds ^^