New Mogstation Items (Magitek mount recolours inc.)

[zosia]

Except the cost of storage and servers has dropped significantly since then too? The MMO market is also far larger than it was backin the day, that's why we aren't being charged $25+ a month. You know why AAA games still cost $60 even though their budgets are significantly higher than ever before? They sell far, far more copies. Let's take Bethesda for example, Morrowind has sold around 4 million copies over the span of what now, a little over 13 years. Fallout 4 has sold 12 million in the span on a month, at its full price. We aren't being charged more because they're making more, simple as that. FFXIV has sold 5 million copies on its own, sure it doesn't match up to the behemoth that is WoW, but WoW got lucky in that they released a fantastic and casual (at the time) game. According to a quick Google search, FFXI had 500,000 at its peak, that's the average we have in FFXIV at all times. Pair that up with retainers, fantasias, server transfers, name changes, and other services, and you get very large profit margins. Cash shop onto that? You're practically printing money... to burn on 10 year projects cough FFXV cough.

The cost of storage has decreased, but inflation has also increased the cost of goods and services from the turn of the millennia. In addition to inflation, costs of production and advertising have sky rocketed.

Using http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc....998&year2=2015, you can see that buying power has decreased by a factor of 1/4 since 1998. That means that a dollar back then is worth a dollar and a quarter now. Our subs, just by inflation, should be around $20.00. That's just looking at inflation. It's not a fart stretch that $25 is a realistic price for a sub when you consider the increased costs in development and getting your game noticed.

You know what would happen if they charged $15? People wouldn't subscribe, simple as that. They'd move to WoW, or whatever other option there is, or quit playing MMOs altogether. I'm not a pro cash shop person, I've spent a bit here and there (mostly) on Fantasia though. I'm fine with the services, fine with just about everything on there except NPC clothing (just a personal problem), but it has nothing to do with MMO costs rising. SE is so cheap that they refuse to give Yoshida a proper team, he's stated many times that his development team is far smaller than traditional ones. You could make that argument about other MMOs, sure. SWTOR has around 800+ people working on it, and it shows. Huge worlds, entirely voice acted, better cutscenes, nicer visuals, etc (the actual MMO is lacking though), but for FFXIV? Not a chance.

I agree, I agree that if SE charged more than $15, that they would lose subscribers. That's why we have a cash shop, to off-set the financial needs of the dev team.

Personally, I'm fine with it, as long as they don't add new items that took actual development time. I seen people posting that it's pathetic that they're selling pre existing items and not new ones and I'm thinking, "What?". Maybe I'm looking at their posts wrong, but it seems like they want to take dev. time away from the game, and pour it into new items for the cash shop... why, to justify spending your money? Would you not prefer the new items go into the game? I'm glad that the new mounts are obtainable in game, or through recruit-a-friend. Every mount model is obtainable in-game, apart from Sleipnir, and so far they haven't pulled another Sleipnir so we're relatively safe. The problem will start being a problem when they do something similar to Sleipnir, or rather, an entirely new mount similar to WoW. WoW's most recent mount cost $30 I believe, what a joke.

I agree

Edit: Also, where did you get the $25 from? I'm not 100% sure if it's accurate, but the inflation calculator I used suggests a little over $17

See above.

Indeed, I absolutely agree with you on the fact that there are no free lunches in this world. Which is why, they are not getting one from me. Over 8€ for a rehue? It's not a reasonable price.

So many entitled people in this thread? Again I absolutely agree with you. People are entitled to voice their opinion and voice their feedback. Especially considering the FFXIV community tends to be very loyal compared to other communities.

We're not expecting "free lunches", but after spending over 150€ in this videogame, I think customers deserve a bit more respect and not get ripped off with an 8€ rehue + monthly retainer subscription over "server issues".

Now excuse me while I go read articles on the interwebz to "get lernd" on how to better spend 8€.

MMO's are one of the few markets where you can literally buy endless hours of entertainment for your measly sub fee. If you're bent out of shape over a re-skinned mount for eight euros, you have bigger issues than I am unqualified to address. Let the people with the appreciation for the mount and/or the extra cash to subsidize your sub fee.

You are excused.

[Serret]

(...)

"You have bigger issues" - Turning to personal attacks will not make your argument right

The problem is not how much it costs. It's whether the price is fair or not.
If I turn into one of my company's loyal customers that are basically "paying the bread I eat" and decide to charge them nearly the same price as a complex item for a simple one they'll tell me I'm out of my mind, I'll lose years of trust I've built with them and they'll turn to the competition.
I don't see how it's any different here. Monetization doesn't justify everything. Customer trust is equally important to keeping your reputation and to keep them coming back and bringing more along with them.

I'm not complaining against the cash shop though I'd say my opinion on it sits in the limbo considering we are paying a monthly sub and every single expansion. But they have been mostly fair with their model so far. Fantasia pricing for example is spot on and I think that's what gets people using them so often compared to other games where the fantasia equivalent cost 3-4 times more.
I do however reserve the right to voice my opinion and give my feedback, when after spending quite a bit of money in this game to support the devs I see something that simply isn't fairly priced as is the case with the rehues.

[zosia]

"You have bigger issues" - Turning to personal attacks will not make your argument right

If you think that was a personal attack, I would hate to live with you. It's called hyperbole -____________________- jfc

The problem is not how much it costs. It's whether the price is fair or not.
If I turn into one of my company's loyal customers that are basically "paying the bread I eat" and decide to charge them nearly the same price as a complex item for a simple one they'll tell me I'm out of my mind, I'll lose years of trust I've built with them and they'll turn to the competition.
I don't see how it's any different here. Monetization doesn't justify everything. Customer trust is equally important to keeping your reputation and to keep them coming back and bringing more along with them.

FFXIV is not a humongous game, it's not raking in the cash and it's still using a 15 year old pricing model. Since when has it been fair for a business to lock in it's prices for fifteen years? You're asking a lot of a company you're so loyal to in taking a financial hit so you can keep your comfy $15 a month sub. That's why you're entitled.

I am probably one of SE's biggest critics on this forum and even I understand that yoshida and Co. have bills to pay and a roof to keep over their heads. I rather the cash shop exists so that way the dev team is funded properly and not funded based on a fifteen year old pricing model. You're working adult I imagine. When budgets are underfunded, what happens? People don't get raises, they get pay cuts and in the worst scenarios they get laid off. I am a loyal SE customer too and I remember what my ff11 sub cost me for three characters back in 2003. It's about the same as I am paying now for this game.

I'm not complaining against the cash shop though I'd say my opinion on it sits in the limbo considering we are paying a monthly sub and every single expansion. But they have been mostly fair with their model so far. Fantasia pricing for example is spot on and I think that's what gets people using them so often compared to other games where the fantasia equivalent cost 3-4 times more.
I do however reserve the right to voice my opinion and give my feedback, when after spending quite a bit of money in this game to support the devs I see something that simply isn't fairly priced as is the case with the rehues.

Then what would have been a fair price?

Here are the angry people and here they are when they end up paying ;3

nice, lol

[Colorful]

snip

It's not FFXIV, but I believe it applies to FFXIV even more so to FFXIV. The developers of SWTOR said that with 500,000 subscribers they could not only maintain the game (including development costs), but they would also be making a substantial profit but "nothing to write home about". FFXIV's team is far smaller than SWTOR's was at the time, they are raking in money but given they're a business that tries to maximize profits, they're going to attempt to make more. FFXIV has approximately 600,000-700,000 subscribers, the substantial profit just got quite a bit larger. I believe Yoshida himself said 400,000 was enough to maintain the game and make a good enough profit for SE to keep the game running, less than SWTOR even.

[zosia]

It's not FFXIV, but I believe it applies to FFXIV even more so to FFXIV. The developers of SWTOR said that with 500,000 subscribers they could not only maintain the game (including development costs), but they would also be making a substantial profit but "nothing to write home about". FFXIV's team is far smaller than SWTOR's was at the time, they are raking in money but given they're a business that tries to maximize profits, they're going to attempt to make more. FFXIV has approximately 600,000-700,000 subscribers, the substantial profit just got quite a bit larger. I believe Yoshida himself said 400,000 was enough to maintain the game and make a good enough profit for SE to keep the game running, less than SWTOR even.

Was that statement before or after it went F2P or Freemium? I don't really keep up with SWTOR. I can see F2P/Freemium pairing well with that statement, but I am curious to know if that holds true for a pure subscription model.

We also know that SE the company is siphoning money from this game for other projects, so I don't know how much that impacts the budget of FFXIV.