Why is WoW $15 a month?

[sanaubia]

Because people are addicted and they pay no matter how bad the product is

[Stevano]

We pay a box price for the games, we pay € 13,- a month and they put in a game-store with better mounts than in the game itself. On top of that, we got no new content for 8 months straight and what we got is not that big of a deal to say the least. They need to either stop putting ridiculous overpriced items, or rather items at all, in the in-game store, start pumping out more content or just stop this € 13,- sub price.

[Zuvio]

We pay a box price for the games, we pay € 13,- a month and they put in a game-store with better mounts than in the game itself. On top of that, we got no new content for 8 months straight and what we got is not that big of a deal to say the least. They need to either stop putting ridiculous overpriced items, or rather items at all, in the in-game store, start pumping out more content or just stop this € 13,- sub price.

Or you need to stop paying the money if you are so unhappy about the state of the game.

[WowIsDead64]

That wasn't always the case though. A sub fee didn't mean nothing else would be charged and even WoW sold with a CE that locked in-game stuff behind an extra pay wall. Then you have the TCG Loot cards that not only required a subscription fee but a third party companies licensed product. The amusing part is that the F2P model often includes subscriptions. And they make those subscriptions advantagous to have. It is just people like you who some how get tricked by the perception of "Free" that you don't see they use a model you dislike.

So don't make this about the "good old days" or anything else. It is all about you, and others, not being able to pay for free. Also e-bay banned sales of "in-game items" in 2007 though there was a lawsuit in 2001 over sales of Everquest stuff https://www.theregister.com/2001/01/...n_threat_over/.

Do you remember Entropa Universe? While it was "free" it was limited with out paying and that was essentially a subscription fee. It also had people spending thousands of dollars on virtual real estate and allowed people to cash out money earned in-game. It launched around 2002.

I don't talk about how it was. I talk more about how it was supposed to be back then. Because answer to that "Why do we pay sub fee" question has always been "To avoid DLC/F2P mess". This argument "It was like this in the past" is actually very flawed, because we talk about how it should have been - not how it actually was. Nothing is perfect. Yeah, there were things like TCG. But at the same time this thing had zero impact on me.

Overall pricing models are:
1) Buy full product as whole aka B2P - may not be suitable for all players due to being too expensive. Imagine, that you need to pay full 420$ price at once to play new Wow xpack. Devs need to constantly produce more content to get profit.
2) Buy some parts of product aka DLC - good thing in theory, because player doesn't need to buy content, he doesn't need. But devs exploit it via splitting whole game into small pieces and try to simulate semi-sub-fee. Devs need to constantly produce more content to get profit.
3) Sub fee aka P2P - you pay some fixed price, no matter if you consume enough content to justify it or not, and have full access to everything in game. It's better for devs, because they always can invest money in server maintainance and new content.
4) F2P - access to game is free, microtransactions are used instead. Good in theory, but devs also exploit it too much in order to increase profits via making game without them maximally inconvenient or even humiliating. Overall "Free players are just extra load on our servers, so we don't need them, so you either pay or GTFO" model works here.

And sub fee has always been considered to be overpriced, but at the same time it was about "If you don't want 1, 2 or 4 to happen - just pay it and be happy". But when devs start to mix all 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the same game - sub fee just loses it's purpose. For example why should you pay anything for game, if it shows annoying ads anyway?

P.S. And overall. It's me, who should decide, what pricing model is suitable for me or not - not devs. Because they're prejudiced. Whole problem with current IT industry actually happen because it's big companies, who decide everything on behalf of us and we are just forced to accept it.

[Kauko]

It is sad that for most other "free" mmos, you basically have to pay sub + use the ingame shop... So if you put all things together, then WoW is ok. Some people just don't get it. They see some mmo is f2p and the assume thats it...

[Stevano]

Or you need to stop paying the money if you are so unhappy about the state of the game.

I have for a long time already :') Just hoping for a miracle that will never happen.

[Lathspell]

FF14 has content updates virtually every 3-4months except during covid for their price. Their updates usually include not only new raids, but minigames, cinematics, HAIRSTYLES!!, models etc etc.

Personally I like the GW2 and ESO models. GW2 you buy the content you have the content and ESO you buy it you keep it OR you can basically rent everything for a sub AND the sub gives you equal shop credit sort of like a cover price that gives drink tickets.

FF14 is CHEAPER than wow and puts out content more often. I think WoW should be at most like 11-12 dollars. I can give them the BoTD because CoVID delayed most other developers patches/expansions so can't really hate on shadowlands/9.1 delay. but 14.99 is still a crazy price.

If you buy 6 month sub it's 12.99.

[Ivarr]

One benefit to a subscription model is that it excludes a lot of people who would only play it for free. You can say the WoW community is toxic, but it'd be nothing compared to what it would be if it were entirely F2P.

- - - Updated - - -

If you buy 6 month sub it's 12.99.

There's the Catch 22. If everyone bought 6 month subscriptions then Blizzard would only have to entice the players once every 6 months with content.

[MoanaLisa]

Why does the subscription exist? Does anyone really know?

It makes a profit. A big one, apparently.

It also still exists because a sufficient number of people are willing to pay a premium to play the game.

[Queendom]

Strange ques

But, they need content updates or no one will play

If you refer to this patch timeline, you'll see that WoW basically ceased to had regular content updates in 2006.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

[Zantera]

Never had an issue with the subscription model honestly. Aside from the 9 hours I get from raiding every week, I probably end up in total with 20-25 hours in a week.. let's say 25 for example, that's potentially up to 100 hours in a month. For 15€ or whatever that's not too bad. I went to see Black Widow in the cinema yesterday and just the ticket alone was something like 25€ for IMAX for a 2 hour 15 min movie. Thats not even counting an additional 5-10€ on popcorn and a drink.

Yeah I know a lot of games don't have a subscription model but considering WoW is an MMORPG and the way it's designed with raiding being something you always do, I don't really mind it that much.

[VinceVega]

Why does the subscription exist? Does anyone really know?

I understand you don't have to play if you don't want to. But, I'm genuinely asking. I don't understand why it exists.

I understand it provides more income for them and people pay it. They're also not the only game doing it. FF14 does for example.

It made sense to me in 2004, when it was assumed it was helping to pay for the servers, which were "special" to accommodate the massive populations and remarkable for the time. It was also assumed it would be to pay for steady content updates.

But, they need content updates or no one will play, which makes it kind of weird that we're funding them monthly in part to make content, they need to make anyway to keep people playing to buy store mounts, services, and keep interest in the game for future box sales.

Am I missing something? Is it really just to access the game? Does it make sense?

Update:

We’ve gotten an answer that claims it’s in the EULA that you’re paying to access to the game. I haven’t verified that, but I’ll assume for now it’s true.

We haven’t gotten an official answer as to “why” we’re paying monthly for access to the game yet.

If anyone has anything solid (not your opinion) such as, but not limited to, dev interview, official posts, even dev Twitter post, post it.

Thanks.

If people pay it why shouldn't they ask for it?
No matter what you think of wow. Most people playing it are getting more than their moneys worth.

You can ask that question of anything. You pay to access the game.

You are asking for a answer from blizz why they want the monthly fee. What do you expect? Blizzard did this to make money. They can make more of it via the sub. Sure the inital price of the expansion is probably enough to keep the game going but i highly doubt you would get that much content then.

Look at ANY Multiplayer game (even SP sometimes) who do not have a sub. They make due via an ingame shop where they probably make even more than from a sub. Path of Exile for example. FF14 is even worse as they have the sub and an extensive shop. Wows ingame shop is rather tame by industry standarts.

Just because the Servers aren't as expensive anymore does not mean running an Online Multiplayer games is cheap. Just look at bug fixing (and yeah someone will bitch for what i say next, i don't care so save it) a single player can wait quite some time to fix bugs. Stellaris for example. Bugs tend to be in the game for a long time until they patch it. In wow they fix real bugs (not blance stuff) quite fast. Most of the time by the next reset if it is something bigger. Or they apply a quick fix if it is something smaller. YOu cannot do that with a small team. The human resources is probably the biggest monesink for them. And yes they fired many people but not in the dev departments.

[Morgaith]

It's a relic from the past for when mmos cost a lot to run. Blizzard wants all the money they can from all possible sources no matter what gets lost in the progress of doing so.
The only devils advocate i can for it is that having a constant source of income from subs means that there's a larger incentive to keep people hooked and playing instead of hooking whales with gambling mechanics like every other game does.

[Amnaught]

You paid full price for the expansions, subsciption for the patches.

So since patch 9.1 took seven months, that makes it worth 105 dollars on top of the 50 i paid for the entire rest of the expansion?

- - - Updated - - -

I'm not sure what about your post challenges what I said. You assumedly play WoW longer than you would a normal full price game and if you are not playing it constantly, you would not pay the sub.
If you're spending as much time in a month playing WoW as you would playing a game you would pay $60 for, you're saving $45 having only paid your sub. If you're not playing WoW long enough to where you would get more time played out of a $60 game, you shouldn't pay for the sub of a game you're not playing. It's just basic logic.

- $50 for an expansion is already comparable to a full game. The sub is on top of that. Youre not saving anything.

- If you throw away every game you buy after the first month, feel free to send them my way instead.

- - - Updated - - -

Because you assumedly play it longer than you would a normal full price game as otherwise you wouldn't have a reason to be paying monthly?

I've played Noita for months and paid significantly less. Skyrim for almost a decade now. It's definitely not about time spent ingame. I pay more for WoW because it doesnt break my bank. The value is not arguably close, any game with a one-time cost is going to have *way* more value. Theyre charging a premium for the name and it shows. It's dumb.

[Kumorii]

There's the Catch 22. If everyone bought 6 month subscriptions then Blizzard would only have to entice the players once every 6 months with content.

and if they did only that people would stop paying for 6 months subs... it's not a lifetime commitment.

[Appelgren]

Because they can. They can because the game is still superior to everything else in the genre. When it becomes less popular it will be removed.
Simple as that.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Regardless of the narrative direction of the story, and the certain gameplay "features" that have dragged on for many expansions that turn a lot of players away, WoW's overall quality is still superior to that of other games of the same or similar genre.

[Xilurm]

So since patch 9.1 took seven months, that makes it worth 105 dollars on top of the 50 i paid for the entire rest of the expansion?

Yep. But that's your fault. You could've stopped at any time.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

OP, it's like this:

You: "Why?"
Blizzard: "Because."
You: "Because why?"
Blizzard: "Because reasons."


Do yourself a favor: quit your day job, apply for a position within Blizzard Entertainment, attain position, spend some years climbing the corporate ladder, find your answer, report back to us.

[justandulas]

Yes, you are missing something. Download ESO and check how in-game shop in buy to play MMO looks like.

That argument has no merit considering both ff14 and WoW have cash shops that are arguably just as greedy if not worse