Is our sub fee not enought

[Ghishlain]

I couldn't find the statement online after an admittedly cursory search, but I seem to recall somewhere that even Blizzard has stated that without revenue from their cash shop, they would have been forced to raise subscription fees to combat increased technology costs and inflated developer salaries. Customer response to that was overwhelmingly negative, so they took the "optional but costs more at the individual level" approach instead.


Basically, development costs for MMOs have gone up substantially in the past ten years and yet player willingness to spend more than $15 a month has remained very inelastic. For what it's worth, I'd rather pay a higher sub fee, but given the omnipresence of quick-and-dirty freemium games that don't require an initial investment to start up, it seems I'm in the minority.

Just to tack on to this, I'd be curious to see approximately what the operating costs of XIV are. Sure someone could state $15/month X 12 months X 500,000 players = $90,000,000 revenue but if operating and developers costs amount to $88,000,000 (as an extreme example) - it's pretty much not worth it to keep developing and operating FFXIV.

[JunseiKei]

I can understand putting past events items on mog station, but new emote/glamour/mount that goes straight to mogstation while not giving active sub a chance to obtain them in game is just pure greed, and whats even worst is that most item are solely single character, or if u have alt or future alt u will have to buy it again.

The cost of [doing] business. You run into every day as an adult when you have actual responsibilities.

[Jandor]

Have development costs gone up substantially though? People say it a lot but never provide any evidence for it.

I think running servers has actually gotten cheaper, hardware hasn't really gone up in price, wages have remained fairly stagnant across the developed world for the last decade.

[greatestfoe]

it's pretty lame but... i'll probably buy it ;~ ;

[Terathin]

Just came back from a couple year break and honestly I don't mind cash shop items. It's not like they are game breaking or anything. If you want it, just buy it. If you don't, then you are not forced to and it's not going to change your playing experience. Seems like most of these things are made for RP'ers except for the mounts. I played some other sub based MMO's in my absence and some cash shops were involved with those as well. It's never hindered my ability to progress in a subscription based game before and I highly doubt it will here as well. Other than the negativity I have mostly seen on the boards, i'm having a pretty good time being back and I actually thought about buying that fat choco mount once or twice (when I learn to fly).

[JunseiKei]

Collectors Edition Heavensward $129
Collectors Edition Stormblood $199

Whats the next one gonna cost $270?

If it comes with all the stuff FFXV's Ultimate Collector's Edition came with, yes.

[Kaurie]

I couldn't find the statement online after an admittedly cursory search, but I seem to recall somewhere that even Blizzard has stated that without revenue from their cash shop, they would have been forced to raise subscription fees to combat increased technology costs and inflated developer salaries. Customer response to that was overwhelmingly negative, so they took the "optional but costs more at the individual level" approach instead.

Basically, development costs for MMOs have gone up substantially in the past ten years and yet player willingness to spend more than $15 a month has remained very inelastic. For what it's worth, I'd rather pay a higher sub fee, but given the omnipresence of quick-and-dirty freemium games that don't require an initial investment to start up, it seems I'm in the minority.

I think it's important to note that game developers in the US make a bit (27% more in 2010) more than game developers in Japan. The rates in the USA have jumped from 79k to 83k from 2010 to 2014.

I think that Square would benefit well from something similar to the WoW Token - $20 USD to buy a month of game time that you can sell for in-game gil. People who have more money and want gil buy it, others who want to farm gil and less real life money buy it. Everyone's happy. Square Enix gets more money to boot.

Sources:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/1...rage_57590.php

[loreleidiangelo]

Have development costs gone up substantially though? People say it a lot but never provide any evidence for it.

I think running servers has actually gotten cheaper, hardware hasn't really gone up in price, wages have remained fairly stagnant across the developed world for the last decade.

If the 2013 financial reports are to be believed, we might still be paying for 1.0. It put the company over $400 million in the hole. It would take 4 million players buying ARR and HW to make up that cost, ARR AND HW development budgets notwithstanding. It would take around 600,000 players buying both expacs and keeping subbed for the entire duration of both expacs to pay for 1.0's loss to the company, to say nothing of 2.0, 3.0, and now 4.0's dev costs.

This isn't accounting for things like...Mogstation sales, premium streams, physical merchandise sales, CE sales or any revenue generated from commercial crossover events (if any), though. So those things are likely why the game is still considered successful despite not having that 600k player figure I cited above (and hasn't since HW launch, IIRC). It's not perfect computational math, but hopefully it gives a ballpark on exactly how much SE seems to spend as a company in general (FFXV projected budget over 600 mil top kek).

[Shougun]

I think it's important to note that game developers in the US make a bit (27% more in 2010) more than game developers in Japan. The rates in the USA have jumped from 79k to 83k from 2010 to 2014.

I think that Square would benefit well from something similar to the WoW Token - $20 USD to buy a month of game time that you can sell for in-game gil. People who have more money and want gil buy it, others who want to farm gil and less real life money buy it. Everyone's happy. Square Enix gets more money to boot.

Sources:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/1...rage_57590.php

I don't think everyone would see it like that, that's RMT (just not third party RMT).

[SundayTrash]

I think that Square would benefit well from something similar to the WoW Token - $20 USD to buy a month of game time that you can sell for in-game gil. People who have more money and want gil buy it, others who want to farm gil and less real life money buy it. Everyone's happy. Square Enix gets more money to boot[/url]

The game practically have zero gil sink, and there are plenty of ppl that wants to trade their gil for mog station items, lets give gil some value by allowing us to convert it to crysta, this way both side can be happy.