Why is WoW so expensive compared to other games?

[Deleted]

Simple answer as long people are willing to pay for it then it will stay that way

This. Don't know why it took 3 pages for someone to come with the obvious answer.

[DarkstarG]

The answer is quite simple. Replay value. Most of the games you will spend money on you will play through once or twice and never look at it again. Wow is a bit different.....you are constantly playing a game that is constantly changing. I understand that there is also a sub fee as well.....but the value you get from a game that really never ends is more than worth the investment. The only other games that I could say outweighed the investment were the original counter-strike and day of defeat....both free mods that you got with half-life.

[Bepples]

So you say that $44 per month for three months is a lot. It does SOUND like a lot at first.

Say I buy a 3DS game per month. A 3DS game is worth $60 here in Australia, but I believe the US price is $40 so I will go with that. So after three months I have spent $120 for these three games. Now let's look at the games;

So far I have finished A Link Between Worlds and Luigi's Mansion, having about 15 hours of gameplay on both. I do not have Super Mario 3D land yet but I'd wager I can have that finished within 15 hours of gameplay as well. So for that $120 I get 45 hours of gameplay, or $2.7 per hour of gameplay.

World of Warcraft costs, as you said, $132 if you start the game, buy 3 months of subscription and buy Warlords of Draenor. If you play just 1 hour a day you will get about 90 hours in 3 months. That's $1.5 per hour of gameplay. Unlike conventional games (i.e. the 3DS games mentioned above), MMOs like WoW have the tendency to allow for continuous play; you don't exactly "finish" World of Warcraft so you can easily get many more hours out of WoW in a given amount of time than in another game, because over long periods of time you would have finished whatever other game you were playing but WoW will still be there.

Sure, the gameplay is a lot more fresh when having 3 different games vs. just WoW, but the fact is that each hour of WoW you play comes with a far smaller price tag than hours played of new games you buy every month. If anything, playing WoW and only occasionally buying other games (who really only buys 1 game a month?) is more economical than not playing WoW and buying games more often.

[Ryve]

Oh come on. People pay for stuff all the time that isn't current. It doesn't mean it doesn't have value. Even if you're just talking about games I haven't seen them handing out free copies of Grand Theft Auto IV or Final Fantasy X lately.

How often do you have to put down money for two old games just to play the one you wanted to in the first place?

Find me players joining for the first time to collect the cap from the previous expansions. Most want to play current content. They will explore and faceroll the older content once they get to max level and find that content gets boring fast and there's months until more, still at a monthly fee.

[Raiju]

As a gamer, a MMOs financial success is absolutely meaningless to me as long as the game remains open and playable. Everything else (gameplay, graphics, quality of content, etc, etc) is nothing more than a subjective opinion.

On a side note (not directed at you, Guyviroth), I don't understand why so many in this thread are seemingly pissed off, throwing around insults, and generally butt hurt about a discussion regarding WoW's cost in comparison to other MMO's on the market.

Because your comparison is dishonest and you know it - If someone were to have access to the entire game TODAY, they would not need to buy WoD. If someone were to have access to the entire game in WoD - well everytime a new expansion came out they folded the previous one into the original, so you'll have to make your comparison then.

[Pann]

Because your comparison is dishonest and you know it - If someone were to have access to the entire game TODAY, they would not need to buy WoD. If someone were to have access to the entire game in WoD - well everytime a new expansion came out they folded the previous one into the original, so you'll have to make your comparison then.

They have never added the previous expansion into the Battlechest upon release of a new expansion it has always taken place at least six months after the expansion release.

[Raiju]

They have never added the previous expansion into the Battlechest upon release of a new expansion it has always taken place at least six months after the expansion release.

I'm not sure what your point is. If an expansion is 2 years (hint: they are around that) that means 3/4 of the times you check (INCLUDING NOW) the previous expansion is in the battlechest. On top of this they are more frequently adding offers to halve the price.

[Doctor Amadeus]

Because some people don't have a problem paying a little scratch once a month in exchange for not being nickel and dime'd everywhere they turn, because their player base is poor, and should probably spend more time on things like RL, instead of bitching about 15$ a month.

[Stop Pretending]

Because it's been out for quite some time, and still has a major player base, so they can?

[ringpriest]

Because some people don't have a problem paying a little scratch once a month in exchange for not being nickel and dime'd everywhere they turn, because their player base is poor, and should probably spend more time on things like RL, instead of bitching about 15$ a month.

From elsewhere in this forum, today:

source: http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/3...-wow-services/

We will shortly be adjusting the pound sterling prices of some of the optional services we offer for World of Warcraft. We regularly review our pricing and services around the world to make sure we’re offering what we feel is the best entertainment value for the cost, and the upcoming adjustments are being made with that goal still in mind.

The new prices will take effect on April 30. You can see a breakdown of the changes below:

Name Change .................................................... Current Price: £6 | New Price: £7
Pets ....................................................... Current Price: £9 | New Price: No change
Helms ................................................... Current Price: £10 | New Price: No change
Appearance Change ...................................... Current Price: £12 | New Price: £13
Guild Name Change ....................................... Current Price: £15 | New Price: £17
Character Transfer ........................................ Current Price: £15 | New Price: £17
Race Change ................................................. Current Price: £15 | New Price: £17
Mounts ................................................ Current Price: £17 | New Price: No change
Faction Change ............................................. Current Price: £20 | New Price: £22
Guild Transfer ..................................... Current Price: £25 | New Price: No change
Guild Faction Change ......................... Current Price: £30 | New Price: No change
Level 90 Character Boost .................... Current Price: £40 | New Price: No change
Guild Transfer and Faction Change .... Current Price: £50 | New Price: No change

You were saying?

[shoc]

Battle Chest (20) + Expansion (20) is still cheaper than ESO (60) or WildStar (60). I'd say it's still the cheapest pay to play MMO out right now.

[Airwaves]

Welcome to Australia. The average console game is $120 bucks and you are not far off it.

[Computed Lamb]

Because your comparison is dishonest and you know it - If someone were to have access to the entire game TODAY, they would not need to buy WoD. If someone were to have access to the entire game in WoD - well everytime a new expansion came out they folded the previous one into the original, so you'll have to make your comparison then.

They have never added the previous expansion into the Battlechest upon release of a new expansion it has always taken place at least six months after the expansion release.

This. On day 1 of WoD, the price will be exactly the same as I posted in the OP. Sorry, but my price analysis is spot on.

[Raiju]

Your pricing is dishonest. If someone were to start today they wouldn't have any reason to buy WoD.

[CaptainArlong]

I got more fun and spent more time in Mass Effect 3 multiplayer than I ever did in WoW. I paid $15 for the Digital Collector's Edition from EA, and then EA, the "evilest company in the world" gave all the multiplayer DLC away for free.

So no, Blizzard doesn't offer a bargain for money and entertainment value.

[Sansnom]

WoW costs what it does due to corporate greed. There's no good reason to charge for previous expansions when they're not current.

Also, the "it's great value for the play time" argument is a daft one. A new player probably won't be playing the damn thing 14 hours a day, in fact they may not play it more than 2 hours a week on Saturdays. And comparing the time/cost to a $50 new game also doesn't make much sense, given MMOs are incredibly repetitious and generally with low graphics quality. By the same definition I could take a sandbox game and, playing it similarly to WoW get hundreds of hours out of it.

It is their choice to charge or not. Just because Halo 3 is available does not imply Halo 1 should be free. And Blizzard has been reducing the cost of previous expansion, just like other games.

And "Great value for the play time" is all relative. It is a subscription service, like the internet, phone, TV etc. You pay a fixed fee for a un-metered consumption. How much you consume is your choice. It benefits everyone involved.

WoW is not for everyone. But that does not necessary means it is a bad product.

[Marema]

WoW is not nor has ever been expensive.

I love how people complain about the cost of playing this game and are the same people who have no problem spending a few hundered bucks on a console machine and $50+ on console games.

The idiocy is strong in this thread!

Edit: Also, if you think WoW is expensive then maybe instead of posting on forums complaining about the price you should be out trying to better your financial situation? But that would take effort, I know.

[cuafpr]

b.c. you are buying 10 years worth of a game.... not a new MMO with no xpacs, or some other genre's new AAA game.

[Daws001]

It's one of the cheapest in the industry for the amount of hours you'll get out of it.

That money would get you about 20 hours of standard 60 dollar AAA games these days.

This is how I justify the sub fee. When I'm playing WoW, I'm not playing anything else (iOS games aside). The longest I unsubbed from WoW was 8 months in Cata and during that time I spent hundreds of dollars on PS3 games.

It's actually cheaper for me to play WoW, and have my gaming itch satisfied, then succumb to my console habits.

[mikencarly]

`its not expensive at all thats like saying why do all expansions for almost all mmos ask for money??? cmon now!without that money they can't keep your mmo going fact.