Why is WoW $15 a month?

[Utrrabbit]

Once upon a time it was to avoid additional costs and micro transactions and to fund future content updates between paid expansion pack releases.

But then Maplestory came out and the industry went "boy, you can milk a LOT of money from cash shop whales" and like horse armour on consoles pc gaming was never the same. The temptation for money was too much.

You are aware that WoW has the smallest and cheapest store in the industry out of every MMO on the market. While alsk not giving any player power. A lot of the other MMOs have yoy literally buying gear to make your toon stronger.

[Fitsu]

Have you ever give a thought about how f2p online games exist? PoE for example? How can Diablo 3 exist?

PoE (and other F2P games) make absolutely disgusting amounts of money from their in-game shop, have you noticed how basically none of the PoE in-game models look any good? How most default skin spells look kinda medicore? But the shop ones are amazing then there's supporter packs, stash tabs, skin transfers, mystery boxes, deals pushed on league launches etc. If all of WoWs in-game stuff looked medicore to push shop-bought stuff and the shop was to the scale of PoEs then I'd agree with you because your paying a sub but 95% of the graphics design isn't included in that but it's not. It's just got a few mounts that are no better than ones you can get in-game. PoE still exists to make money, they wouldn't continue to upkeep the game like they do for free don't think just cus it's F2P their not profitting from the game.

Diablo 3 I've always argued is a very unique scenario and never understood why so many people complain about it. It got a huge content update for free via a cancelled expansion and even though the content updates it gets per season aren't exactly massive it still gets them. The servers aren't anywhere near the scale of WoW servers but even so you are correct Diablo 3 is a very unique scenario where it gets server upkeep and content updates with zero monitzation beyond the box, I am assuming their doing this to keep some level of interest for Diablo Immortal/Diablo 4.

[Vakna]

Because free to play MMO's are universally unfair and dogshit, no exceptions.

[Lochton]

Your official answer is economics.

Many have added every example to the list.

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Personally, I think its amazing that the price hasn't gone up.

Honestly. Same. And don't you get any ideas, Blizzard. I know you're spying!

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Because free to play MMO's are universally unfair and dogshit, no exceptions.

Yeah. The sad truth.

[DarkAmbient]

If I could 'sub' to single player games for $15 a month instead of paying $60, I would absolutely opt for that in regard to several games. Sure open world games and games built with replayability in mind like BoI or Hades I'd rather purchase once, but many games are linear and charge the same amount. I'd absolutely have saved money just subbing for them when I play them to 100% completion within a month.

But then you wouldn't have paid full price them, whereas one has to pay full price for a WoW expansion and pay the subscription.

[Dequanacus]

But then you wouldn't have paid full price them, whereas one has to pay full price for a WoW expansion and pay the subscription.

I explicitly discussed and responded to that point in my posts prior to the one you quoted so please read and respond to them if you feel they do not adequately answer that.

[DarkAmbient]

How can anyone not understand that the subscription fee is what pays for developer salaries, as well as server maintenance, advertising, and everything else a business needs to run? What, you thought that your one-time fee of $50 is enough to support the world's biggest MMO and the people making it?

You omitted the fact they have a highly lucrative cash shop.

In 2008 blizzard revealed they'd spent a total of $200M running WoW since 2004 - the entire payroll, hardware support, customer service, everything. In today's money that's around $250M, or $62M a year. They probably made close to $200M alone from day one sales of Shadowlands, not to mention all the sales since plus the disgusting amount of money they've made from microtransactions.

The idea that WoW wouldn't exist without the sub fee just doesn't hold up for me. Sure, they'd make less money, but I don't see any evidence that the subscription revenue is necessary for WoW's development.

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I explicitly discussed and responded to that point in my posts prior to the one you quoted so please read and respond to them if you feel they do not adequately answer that.

I have read them. You are simply dismissing or ignoring anything that damages your argument.

[Trend]

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) post it. Thanks.

Can you give an example of what you're looking for? What company issues "official" notices of their pricing justifications? The only thing that comes to my mind would be heavily regulated industries like public utilities. When you go to a movie is there an official explanation for the price? When you want to join a gym to work out are you provided with an official reason you need to pay a membership fee?

Maybe you're just not communicating what you're looking for, but it comes across like you just don't understand very obvious things, such as the fact that an entertainment company can charge whatever they want in whatever manner they want.

[Lochton]

Can you give an example of what you're looking for? What company issues "official" notices of their pricing justifications? The only thing that comes to my mind would be heavily regulated industries like public utilities. When you go to a movie is there an official explanation for the price? When you want to join a gym to work out are you provided with an official reason you need to pay a membership fee?

Maybe you're just not communicating what you're looking for, but it comes across like you just don't understand very obvious things, such as the fact that an entertainment company can charge whatever they want in whatever manner they want.

Sounds like the person wants an official document of company expenses and such, for the rest people have supplied info from the EULA.

[Dequanacus]

I have read them. You are simply dismissing or ignoring anything that damages your argument.

You went out of your way to not quote and respond to any of their reasoning only to assert in an unrelated post that I am disregarding expansions when I explicitly mention them in several posts in the same thread that are publicly available for everyone to read.

Having done that, you now claim that I am the one dismissing and ignoring posts that damage my argument without either explaining why or indicating what posts I am ignoring.

I'm not sure if this is satire or parody or just plain ol 'pretending to be stupid' but this joke practically writes itself. Quote the posts and respond to them if their reasoning doesn't hold up. If you cannot quote and respond to those posts and their reasoning in its entirety, the natural conclusion is that you are arguing in bad faith/trolling

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So is the only response I'm going to get after an entire day just someone doing the ol' "I'm just going to claim you're wrong without challenging/rebutting the reasoning underlying your opinion"?

With how confident people seem about how bad subs are when they don't have to make a supported argument and can simply go "it's bad and it's bad and it's also bad," I thought they'd have an easier time when they actually had to provide counter reasoning to a genuine argument for why subs can be more financially savvy than a one time purchase. Is it really just going to be people desperately trying to avoid having to argue the reasoning I provided while still feeling some urge to claim I am wrong without being able to articulate why?

[Alatie]

I mean what MMORPG has all content for free?

[Lochton]

I mean what MMORPG has all content for free?

None, if I recall. And they never will because, money.

[muto]

If the sub fee was cheaper I probably wouldn’t have canceled my sub. I can no longer justify $15 a month for how lackluster 9.1 is. I was already raid logging for 3 months in Castle Nathria.

[gcsmith]

If the sub fee was cheaper I probably wouldn’t have canceled my sub. I can no longer justify $15 a month for how lackluster 9.1 is. I was already raid logging for 3 months in Castle Nathria.

I mean, you can decide how to spend your money, but even raid logging at $15 a month is cheaper than movies XD

[Lochton]

I mean, you can decide how to spend your money, but even raid logging at $15 a month is cheaper than movies XD

WoW is my cheapest hobby, and as a parent, WoW is among my cheapest expenses for how much I get from it.

For 1 month sub, I can go to McDonalds for a menu, once. I can subscribe to a streaming service but already am for the ones of interest. I cannot buy a game, nor a movie, nor clothing of interest, cinema tickets, or such. I can go to the café for a cup of hot chocolate and a slice of cake.. once.

[DarkAmbient]

I mean what MMORPG has all content for free?

I don't think anyone's arguing that games should be 100% free.

[Hibiki]

I think if we compare amount of content and quality for casuals WoW should cost just 1$ per month. This will be fair price.

[Lochton]

I think if we compare amount of content and quality for casuals WoW should cost just 1$ per month. This will be fair price.

That sounds rather subjective.

[muto]

I mean, you can decide how to spend your money, but even raid logging at $15 a month is cheaper than movies XD

That’s kind of the problem though isn’t it? People think oh 15$ a month isn’t that much, and they’re content with Blizzard making bad design choices, because they know you won’t unsubscribe, because after all 15$ isn’t that much.

[Tic Tacs]

Blizzard has a core playerbase that will pay anything reasonable to play the game because they are "addicted". Other MMOs have to fight for playerbase, best way is to make the game free and charge for bonuses. Granted, you can buy sub using in-game currency but barrier of entry for new players is still a problem - cost of the expansion + monthly fee.

I've played several other free MMOs including Albion Online and EVE Online, these games offer great models and the games don't feel like pay to win because players have an option between real and in-game currency.