Cash shop pricing is getting a bit much...

[Vstarstruck]

Well, considering SE is making far more money off of monthly subscriptions as opposed to cash shop purchases, you unsubbing hurts them far more than you not buying a fire footwheels mount for your character. But you seem to still be subbed, so SE is still making profit off of you.

Nope, you get 14 days, I am not subbed, once that time runs out in a few hours, day at most, you never see me again till they change their ways.

[HyoMinPark]

Nope, you get 14 days, I am not subbed, once that time runs out in a few hours, day at most, you never see me again till they change their ways.

I’m well aware of the 14 day limit, thank you.

I really hate to break it to you, but the cash shop isn’t going anywhere. So I’m afraid you’re just out of luck then. Why continue to fight with people in a game that you no longer play about topics that no longer concern you? Or do you just like to argue for the sake of arguing? Your attitude does nothing for your arguments, in case you have not yet realized that.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

They are not our friends, we dont get our share from this. We are paying them money to use something they produce and thus have the right to write when it goes a way we dont like. EA also only wants to make money so why complain when they introduce lootboxes..I mean you dont need them right and maybe those items would not exist without the lootbox. Yet lootboxes are probably one of the biggest cancer of the current gaming industry and EA rightfully got a lot of rage for that. Or would SE suddenly be bad if they decide to put the cash shop items behind lootboxes? And if so why? I mean its still just a mount that you dont need and if thats too much money thanks to RNG you simply dont need to buy them. (Yes it might a bit too much but its just funny to me how lootboxes are like the devil [and I do dislike it] but milking us in a sub MMO with cash shop sales is fine.

Star Wars: Battlefront, at release, necessitated 4,000 hours of gameplay or $2,000 if you wanted to progress. Lootboxes were literally built into the progression system. You either grinded for a pittance or paid money. Taking it a step further, EA purposely restricted credits in an effort to force people into purchasing lootboxes. The equivalent to Battlefront would be SE making gear progression stretch the length of an expansion, unless you pay money on a 1% chance drop for your bis. If you opt out, you will be grinding for longer than Book phase Zeta relics.

Comparing the two only shows you have researched just how scummy EA was. SE may be greedy, but nowhere close to the levels of EA or Activision—the latter of whom patterned a matchmaking system designed to exploit people by pitting them against far superior players in the hopes they'll buy an updated weapon. And should they relent, the matchmaking system will pit them against newbies so they feel their purchase justified. That's the level of deceit we're dealing. Hardly on the same level as three exclusive cash shop mounts in ten months time.

[Remedi]

You forgot about the flier about destiny 2 searching devs that would be interested in making everything based around the lootbox shop

[Krotoan]

For some glamour or mounts are important. (I mean would people really farm content that much if it did not have glamour or mounts in it?) I for example would have loved to have the carbuncle as a mount but the only way to get one of them is to pay. I would be way less annoyed if cash shop only had either re-colored versions of existing mounts or old event items. But exclusive items in a game that we already pay monthly for is just bad imo. I am fine if they put the stuff from the other versions in the cash shop too, if they costs real money over there but its getting really annoying to see unique mounts only in there. And then the stuff does cost quite a bit. These are only digital goods. After they are created you kinda dont need more money to sell it. Just a one time creation and you are done. Sell one mount for 10 Dollars to 500 people and you earned 5000 $. Have 1000 people and you are already earning 10.000 $. Isnt that enough? I mean they are probably earning quite a lot of money from all the service changes and Fantasia..shouldnt that be more than enough to finance the cash shop?

In the end I am quite sure that if some real life goods suddenly cost a lot more people would also be annoyed and complain about it. Its kinda the same here. Would be interesting to know if they would earn more if they decrease the price or if that would hurt them.

Those exclusive items are there for the express reason that people are willing to pay for them. If the shop didn't happen, you wouldn't even have the opportunity to desire those items. If you'd rather they just never existed then fine, but coveting them and complaining they cost money is very silly.

A digital book still costs money per copy even though it's not on paper and costs nothing to reproduce. A song costs nothing to duplicate file wise but you still pay per song on itunes. Same concept. You are paying for the use of a digital item on your account. People don't produce a product just to recoup costs and make a tiny profit afterwards, digital or otherwise. The shop and the game and the company will always want more money, you're just going to have to reconcile that in your head.

Real life goods DO sometimes suddenly cost more. Or they just cost more to begin with simply because of demand. Example: Supreme Clothing. check that out, it's insane.
The company has done their research on what people are willing to pay for things and is pricing the goods to sell at an optimal amount and rate. They know what to expect at a lower price and a higher price and have carefully thought it out. I highly doubt they'd prefer to have the same amount of money dragged out over more sales and possibly taxed more.

Would you be fine if they would sell unique (and maybe highly requested) mounts for 200$? Because I am quite sure that there are still people that would buy that and you also only need a couple of buyers to get some money. I mean the market is buying it right? The problem with it being profitable is that a digital good cant just run out and does not have much cost after the creation. So even if they sold something overpriced they will probably still make profit.

Profit? for a little while sure, but something that prohibitive won't sell WELL and consistently. They'll make a little money from people with a lot of disposable income but it'll taper off quick. Better to make it an accessible price so that at least a certain percentage of the new user base will always keep buying things. Once again, they're not pricing arbitrarily, they've done the market research.

Yes SE once stated that they only exist because of the cash shop (I think) but is that really true? I mean no company would just go out of their way and tell us that these might have been rewards for content but instead they put it behind a paywall because they would get money from that..so it might be that we would not get everything from the cash shop but I doubt that each item would not exist. There is no fact for that. We simply dont know. (And honestly if they dont exist we would not be much angered because we would not know that it could have existed.)

It's true, they might be lying. There is, as you said though, the chance they'll be caught in their lie and lose face in a major way. That risk isn't worth it in my opinion, it would destroy player loyalty.

[MiraKershaw]

Comparing the two only shows you have researched just how scummy EA was. SE may be greedy, but nowhere close to the levels of EA or Activision—the latter of whom patterned a matchmaking system designed to exploit people by pitting them against far superior players in the hopes they'll buy an updated weapon.

That's what you think , that's how EA started it a simple cash shop with stuff you can just ignore, no push back, no fighting just shut up and accept it mentality people defending them saying it's not bad then boom it's where it is now, saying SE is greedy is just pretty much confirming this will be the path they will take sooner than later because people keep telling them it's ok it's ok it's only optional , buying Gil is only optional you can make Gil in game! Buying gear is only optional you can get gear within the game.

[Avatre]

Hi Pot, meet Kettle.

Was wondering if someone would say it before I got to it.

[HyoMinPark]

That's what you think , that's how EA started it a simple cash shop with stuff you can just ignore, no push back, no fighting just shut up and accept it mentality people defending them saying it's not bad then boom it's where it is now, saying SE is greedy is just pretty much confirming this will be the path they will take sooner than later because people keep telling them it's ok it's ok it's only optional , buying Gil is only optional you can make Gil in game! Buying gear is only optional you can get gear within the game.

Unless you have absolute and definitive proof that SE's cash shop is going to go the actual route of pay-to-win in order to progress your character with no other reasonable alternative (keep in mind that EA had no reasonable alternative: it was either lootboxes or spend thousands of hours attempting to catch up, a near impossible feat), all you are doing is doomsaying with your post. One reason people can't take posts like yours seriously is because of the doomsaying and the "slippery slope" logic.

SE doesn't seem like a moronic company; it would only take them five minutes of research to see the backlash they would receive for ever implementing actual pay-to-win features like EA-esque lootboxes.

[polyphonica]

That's what you think , that's how EA started it a simple cash shop with stuff you can just ignore, no push back, no fighting just shut up and accept it mentality people defending them saying it's not bad then boom it's where it is now, saying SE is greedy is just pretty much confirming this will be the path they will take sooner than later because people keep telling them it's ok it's ok it's only optional , buying Gil is only optional you can make Gil in game! Buying gear is only optional you can get gear within the game.

Just want to say, it's certainly not because there was a "no push back, no fighting just shut up and accept it mentality." The EA forums have been replete with customers angry about EA's greed for well over a decade, and they've been voted multiple times as one of the worst companies, long before this SWB2 saga. People have always been seething with rage about this with them. And yet, people still bought it. A lot of people still bought it. Because despite the angry rage on the forums and social media, the average person didn't see the big deal (and they just dismissed it as angry people on forums), until it got to the point where it was clear and obvious for all to see. Then the tide turned and a lot of people (millions of them) stopped buying.

Basically, you can't artificially force the tipping point to happen earlier than it will. Some people might think they're seers who know exactly where all this is going and are just trying to stop it before it's too late, but it's not like this happens in isolation either. The entire rest of the industry sees what's happened to EA, sees what's happening in EU and elsewhere about lootboxes, and they're figuring out where the line is. The line will probably end up further than some people wish it were -- the people who think there should be no optional items and everything should be included in the sub price won't win that fight -- but it's not inevitable that we'll end up in the nightmare scenario either. And even if we did, it won't be because "if only someone had spoken up sooner!" It'll be because the majority's actions didn't line up with the protests anyway.

[XiXiQ]

as far as lines go - they already crossed that with the last Hildebrand quest. In-game reward for the quest was zero - now go and buy the outfit on the cash shop. I do agree, they are having a lend of us with the prices. I'm getting sick of the pay to play to pay mentality. They shouldn't be releasing any new "optional" items exclusive to the cash shop without providing a way to earn them in game, and they never should have. (this might be as simple as trading in-game tokens or points or providing new related quests, whatever.) They have now stepped WAY over the mark with the app - you pay the normal subscription, then pay for the app - to get the opportunity to pay to access the things the app provides? I'm getting dizzy.