And the milking of EU continues

[Mystrome]

How much is "waaaaay cheaper"?

Blizzard store per month:

€12,99 for a 1-month sub
€11,99 per month for a 3-month sub
€10,99 per month for a 6-month sub

Online 3rd party: €20,98 for a 60-day card (€10,49 per month)

Edit: 4,5% to 19% cheaper

And that's just a Dutch online shop. I would be surprised if there aren't any cheaper out there.

[Deleted]

£2.50 a week is a single pint of beer, hardly what I would call price gouging.

Where are you still buying pints for £2.50?

[Noctifer616]

They actually did a few years ago, 1 month sub went from €11,99 to €12,99

Nope. Back in 2006 the price was the same as it is today for Euros.

[Deleted]

Where are you still buying pints for £2.50?

Pretty much anywhere outside of London or Weatherspoons, the smaller pubs usually charge less.

[Aevic]

indeed, why isn't the US sub going up to $16.67, thats what £9.99 gets you.

I'm fine with paying 63 cents more. But the value of my dollar hasn't dropped in recent years either.

[GarGar]

The GBP has not been in decline for a while.. wish people would stop pushing this incorrect information. It has been gaining up until today's dip.

I'd be interested in your source for this? I'm not talking day to day, but year to year over a decade in relation to the US dollar (since Blizzard is a US company).

[PickleballAce]

It costs more money to ship the pixels from Irvine, California to Europe.

[Deleted]

I'd be interested in your source for this? I'm not talking day to day, but year to year over a decade in relation to the US dollar (since Blizzard is a US company).

Does thee BBC count if so Does the BBC count if so then this will show you that the UK economy has increased.

[snuzzle]

Well hang on isn't there that thing where you just buy it at us.battle.net and then gift it to your EU accounts?

I know lots of friends got themselves "free" upgrade to deluxe edition WoD or something recent at least, simply by paying in dollars and gifting it to themselves. The price of DE in dollars = price of normal version in ££.

Silly Blizzard.

People shouldn't have to do this, though. If the currency conversion causes the subscribers to have to pay more in their native currency than it would if they were paying with the game's native currency (US dollars since it's a US game) then there's something wrong. I figured they were upping it because £9.99 was closer to the $15 I pay due to currency conversion. If that's not the case, this price increase makes no sense.

[TheTaurenOrc]

£2.50 a week is a single pint of beer, hardly what I would call price gouging.

Jesus only £2.50 a pint!? What cat piss are you drinking.

[PickleballAce]

You pay more but it comes with universal healthcare for your toons.

[GarGar]

Does the BBC count if so then this will show you that the UK economy has increased.

The BBC is certainly a good source, but I'm not sure what this particular news story has to do with historical exchange rates over the past decade? Sure, the economy has gotten better over the last few quarters. So has much of the rest of the world. My point is, the GBP is worth less now against the USD than it was a decade ago, so that coupled with inflation means they've double dipped in losses for UK subs during that time.

[Deleted]

People shouldn't have to do this, though. If the currency conversion causes the subscribers to have to pay more in their native currency than it would if they were paying with the game's native currency (US dollars since it's a US game) then there's something wrong. I figured they were upping it because £9.99 was closer to the $15 I pay due to currency conversion. If that's not the case, this price increase makes no sense.

$15.00 converts into £8.98 and £9.99 converts into $16.68.
$15.00 converts into 11.20 Euros and 12 Euros converts into $16.08.
So using your logic Blizzard is scamming all of Europe.

[Deleted]

I'd be interested in your source for this? I'm not talking day to day, but year to year over a decade in relation to the US dollar (since Blizzard is a US company).

Year to year over a decade isnt really something you can factor in as the prices have never changed on either side. If we look at YTD compared to 2013 the GBP is stronger than it was. Hell its stronger than it was 4 years ago. The same changes also occur for the Euro, although relatively speaking they are on average static.

Also including a decade includes a major global recession,.. but to my point, Your own source shows average growth of the GBP against the US Dollar for over a year. Which is why i called you original statement out as incorrect. Also back when 2006 on-wards, the US financial market had already started to collapse leaving a very very weak $ Its why you cant really factor in that data.

[Deleted]

Again, the claim to pay most attention to is Morhaime’s about year-on-year revenue being up. That’s what matters to investors, less so subscriber numbers. If Blizzard can keep WoW revenues up and deliver profits that surpass expectations, the game’s in no danger of disappearing anytime soon. That said, the clock is ticking for the company to unveil its long-rumored, still-running-silent Next Big Thing, be that a new MMO (the so-called new IP, once codenamed “Titan,” and as of August 2013 developmentally rebooted), or something else entirely.......from this months TIME

No wonder UK punters are getting upset

[Deleted]

The BBC is certainly a good source, but I'm not sure what this particular news story has to do with historical exchange rates over the past decade? Sure, the economy has gotten better over the last few quarters. So has much of the rest of the world. My point is, the GBP is worth less now against the USD than it was a decade ago, so that coupled with inflation means they've double dipped in losses for UK subs during that time.

If we use Snuzzles logic both the Euro and the Pound should drop in price or not change at all if the subscription fee were to stay at $15.00 but as it should go up to $19.00 the price of subscription for the UK should rise to £11.38 and the Euro should increase into 14.19 Euros.

In other words everyone in Europe and the USA should be paying more.

[GarGar]

If we use Snuzzles logic both the Euro and the Pound should drop in price or not change at all if the subscription fee were to stay at $15.00 but as it should go up to $19.00 the price of subscription for the UK should rise to £11.38 and the Euro should increase into 14.19 Euros.

In other words everyone in Europe and the USA should be paying more.

With this I agree. And just to make it a nice round number, make it $20 and the equivalent for GBP and EUR.

[TylerWildstar]

Personally, my (likely misguided) take on the matter is that blizzard is trying to even out what they get from western consumers. With a 20% VAT in the UK, Blizz only gets the equivalent of $12.50 american. This change brings it up to $13.94 american. Not blizz's fault that the UK has a massive amount of sales tax. Even Tennessee, the highest sales tax (equivalent to VAT) in the USA, is 9.45%, which if blizzard priced to end at $15, ends up being ~13.75 going to blizzard.

[Deleted]

Someone should tell Blizzard this.

[Noctifer616]

Again, the claim to pay most attention to is Morhaime’s about year-on-year revenue being up.

GAAP YoY revenue was down, the number he spoke about was non-GAAP.

If Blizzard can keep WoW revenues up and deliver profits that surpass expectations, the game’s in no danger of disappearing anytime soon. That said, the clock is ticking for the company to unveil its long-rumored, still-running-silent Next Big Thing, be that a new MMO (the so-called new IP, once codenamed “Titan,” and as of August 2013 developmentally rebooted), or something else entirely.......from this months TIME

Titan won't be coming anytime soon, and with Hearthstone being a massive success, D3 shipping a ton of units, WoD pre-sales looking strong, there really isn't much too worry for Blizzard.

42% of the revenue generated by Blizzard last quarter wasn't from WoW.