Why 14,99 $?

[xanj]

omg this again?

[Yummie]

I suggest you all become Legacy members, this way the game is only 10$ a month, problem sol-oh wait....

[Felis]

if you pay for 6 months it would be only 12,99$/month

[Riviere]

I don't think the OP is saying that it's too expensive or asking for the price to go down, but only asking why is it that almost every MMORPG chooses $14.99 as the monthly fee.

[Taekrys]

I don't think the OP is saying that it's too expensive or asking for the price to go down, but only asking why is it that almost every MMORPG chooses $14.99 as the monthly fee.

Yes, at least the most famous ones. I suppose less famous MMOs in their starting days can try something different (before eventually going F2P). To be precise, my question was also why they can only jump from that to nothing, without even considering lowering gradually before F2P.

And about F2P for FFXIV, while I'm sure implying it will go that way, that's just because P2P MMOs model is deemed to die.
It can take one year, three years or five years, but eventually even WoW itself will go F2P (I think that will happen only after Titan will get out).

I'm not saying this will happen any soon for FFXIV. And after hearing you all out, I'm quite sure it won't.
In fact, I think this angry reaction is very funny, on a psicological level.

I expected people would be happy to spend less. I supposed that, given the chance, most of you would just say "Yeah, that sucks, less would be better. But hey, I want to play so badly that I'm still ok with that."
While you answered, instead, things like "That's exactly what they need to cover their expenses! We know, it's a precise calculation!" or "It's cheap, you dumbass! Don't pay if you don't want! We love SE and we give that little gladly every month!".
It's very... Woah! Most of you actually LOVE paying every month that fee and gets angry if someone talks about paying less. What's more, you hate the idea of the game getting F2P. You DON'T WANT this 14,99 thing to move an inch.

I started asking something that didn't even consider this whole discussion, while you made me discover - going completely out from my argument - that you are *happy* with it and you are ready to defend the choice SE made to take 15$/month from you, with your claws.
And this is actually way more interesting than my original question!

I'm not criticizing now, I'm genuinely curious while asking this: why are you that happy of paying 150$ a year to play this game?
Why do you get angry if someone speaks of paying less (I wasn't, but you thought I did, so that still counts) or even not paying at all?
It is because you don't want to feel tricked in having paid what you paid till now? Or because you are scared that the price lowering would mean this MMO is going to fail?

[silentwindfr]

see it in another sense, let take a game for ps4 it's about 59.99 dollars, right? how many time do you spend for 3 games of ps4 or any other game (exept big thing like skyrim that an ovni) most of the game will give you between 5 at 50 hours. let's be generous this is 3 game at 50 dollar that will offer you 60 hours of play, means 180 hours.

FF14 if you play it 2 hours per day (i'm sure people can often spend a whole lot more) for 150 dollar for one year will offer you 730 hours of play.

well i guess it's make more sense like this. sub for a mmorpg give you more play time than most of the game that come out actually. the rare game that can beat are not legion...

[raelgun]

OP, gaming is also considered a hobby, if people just play this game alone thats fine, at that price, its one of the cheapest hobbies you can have, i also do skiing, care to know how much per year that costs? £600-800 for 1 trip, been invited to a 2nd trip and the price isnt too different. my thoughts is, nothing wrong with the price, just think about things for a second.

[Kimikryo]

P2P deemed to die *looks at lineage, wow, ro1/2, eso, ffxi* .. and a lot more that I can't remember on the top of my head. But I do think Everquest, Eve Online, Terra too still cost something.

those free to play games often have those "buy this now for only 100 bucks and you will be better" so pay to win. I rather pay x $ per month than having to fork out random amounts for gear so I can do stuff.
A reason why I never touched several games that would look awesome otherwise.

I already do "pay to win" at magic in buying good cards, but at least I can resell them for near same amount or more of money. Today nobody will give you money for a sword you could buy for 100 bucks 4 years ago.

[Mezolitik]

Like I said, be thankful. Look at TESO, that game is $60 + a MINIMUM $15 sub fee; Forbes magazine had a field day tearing them a new one over that decision.

This kinda thing continues to strike me as slightly odd.

I've seen reams of stuff tearing TESO to pieces for having a sub fee and a purchase fee, yet the same people don't even acknowledge FFXIV, which has exactly the same payment model AND stands as possibly the only direct competitor to TESO on the PS3/4. They're both around $15 for the basic membership and both require a pre-purchase.

Why is it perfectly acceptable for Squenix to do it but not Zenimax/Bethesda? Don't get me wrong, I have no issue with the model (or the games); it's just that the market seems really biased against TESO.

[Nici]

This kinda thing continues to strike me as slightly odd.

I've seen reams of stuff tearing TESO to pieces for having a sub fee and a purchase fee, yet the same people don't even acknowledge FFXIV, which has exactly the same payment model AND stands as possibly the only direct competitor to TESO on the PS3/4. They're both around $15 for the basic membership and both require a pre-purchase.

Why is it perfectly acceptable for Squenix to do it but not Zenimax/Bethesda? Don't get me wrong, I have no issue with the model (or the games); it's just that the market seems really biased against TESO.

I'd like to think its just the company to "hate on" at the moment, most vocal people are ones that don't think that a TES game should have been given the MMO treatment and should stay a single player experience game.