Online store prices are outrageously high!

[ForteNightshade]

I think it says more about the state of the industry and players. Getting nickel and dimed and liking it! lol Sad times.

From horse armour to loot boxes to having to pay for a PS5 upgrade and everything in between. People will never learn, apparently. Keep on milking, SE. They want it oh so badly. xD

Would you prefer the alternative of retail prices doubling? Capcom's CEO has gone on record saying he believes video games should be at least $150 if not $200. Do you really believe he's the only publisher with such a sentiment. Before you argue "LOL. No one would pay that price." Maybe, maybe not. But then be prepared for even less content on $60 titles. Instead of the Last of Us being 12-15 hours, it's only 7.

Put simply, the cost of development has skyrocketed over the last decade yet video game retail prices haven't changed. Like it or not, publishers aren't just going to eat those extra costs. They will put them onto the consumer in some capacity. Micro-transactions at least give you the option to opt out. You can play FFXIV without spending a single cent more than the expansion cost and monthly sub. None of this is unique to the gaming industry either. Ten years ago, I could buy a bottle of Pepsi for .99. Now it's 2.49.

On a separate note, nearly every single publisher is offering a free upgrade for PS5 games if you own the PS4 copy. Same thing with X-Box Series X.

[Kes13a]

perhaps people like the OP are right, SE should go to the "cheaper" lottery loot box idea. Instead of being able to get WHAT YOU WANT from the Mog station, SE should go to the "cheaper" lottery loot box idea. they come out with cheap loot boxes that have a ultra slim chance to get the mount from and a whopping HUGE chance to get a lot of garbage dyes or other useless items. for say, $2 each. they could include a token in each box that if you collect say 400 of them you can trade in for the actual item you are looking for, a token that changes every box issuance so you cant use the previous token on the new items.

Sure, you may get lucky with rng and manage to pick up what you actually wanted for $2, but after having experienced that system, I would say on average you are spending closer to $100.

personally speaking, I'll take being about to buy what I want, when I want it, instead of filling my inventory with garbage and possibly STILL not getting what I want before I spend $800 on a virtual item that isnt required to play the game. I know of and have played dying games that use this "cheaper" sounding option. so, be careful what you wish for, since the alternative is far worse than the one you complain about now.

[JamieRose]

perhaps people like the OP are right, SE should go to the "cheaper" lottery loot box idea. Instead of being able to get WHAT YOU WANT from the Mog station, SE should go to the "cheaper" lottery loot box idea. they come out with cheap loot boxes that have a ultra slim chance to get the mount from and a whopping HUGE chance to get a lot of garbage dyes or other useless items. for say, $2 each. they could include a token in each box that if you collect say 400 of them you can trade in for the actual item you are looking for, a token that changes every box issuance so you cant use the previous token on the new items.

Sure, you may get lucky with rng and manage to pick up what you actually wanted for $2, but after having experienced that system, I would say on average you are spending closer to $100.

personally speaking, I'll take being about to buy what I want, when I want it, instead of filling my inventory with garbage and possibly STILL not getting what I want before I spend $800 on a virtual item that isnt required to play the game. I know of and have played dying games that use this "cheaper" sounding option. so, be careful what you wish for, since the alternative is far worse than the one you complain about now.

That's not misrepresenting my argument at all. /s

[TheRealQuah]

What some people don't seem to understand is that SE don't set the prices for items on Mogstation, the market does. You may think that the prices are too high but obviously enough people are buying the product to justify the prices they sell them at.

An external company, or a specific team in SE's financial division will look at previous sales figures, and set the price at what will gain them the most income. The reason a mount is $36 is because that is the figure that will net them the maximum revenue. If they release the next 3 mounts at $36 and they sell half of what they expected, then the price for the next one released will be lower.

Vote with your wallet. This isn't unique to Mogstation, it's something that occurs in every facet of luxury purchases.

[Duskane]

in Aus we have to pay in Euro and a over seas fee
SE hates australia
lovely $47 multi seater chocobo

[Payadopa]

No one was forced to buy that st*pid horse armor DLC, no one is forced to buy a PS5 and/or pay for "upgraded" versions of the already available games. And, most importantly, none of those things are basic needs, so... pay for them if you want AND can, or just don't do it.

And yet there is a forum. That's a really weak point, I'm sorry to say.

And I didn't buy horse armour, yet enough people did, rewarding publishers to push the envelope and twenty odd years later we have the result. Apologists and fanboys who can't part with their money fast enough.

In a game that I -already- paid for. People love to forget the fact that we pay all the time already. /sigh Sad.

[Payadopa]

Would you prefer the alternative of retail prices doubling? Capcom's CEO has gone on record saying he believes video games should be at least $150 if not $200. Do you really believe he's the only publisher with such a sentiment. Before you argue "LOL. No one would pay that price." Maybe, maybe not. But then be prepared for even less content on $60 titles. Instead of the Last of Us being 12-15 hours, it's only 7.

Put simply, the cost of development has skyrocketed over the last decade yet video game retail prices haven't changed. Like it or not, publishers aren't just going to eat those extra costs. They will put them onto the consumer in some capacity. Micro-transactions at least give you the option to opt out. You can play FFXIV without spending a single cent more than the expansion cost and monthly sub. None of this is unique to the gaming industry either. Ten years ago, I could buy a bottle of Pepsi for .99. Now it's 2.49.

On a separate note, nearly every single publisher is offering a free upgrade for PS5 games if you own the PS4 copy. Same thing with X-Box Series X.

You make some fair points.
However, there are a few inaccuracies there.
On you last point you said yourself that -nearly- every publisher does that. So some are pushing the envelope then. That's exactly what I said. Give it another few years and it will become the norm because you're apparently not allowed to speak out against greed.

Publishers also love to say that gaming has gone up in cost, but I'd argue that I, first off, never asked them to make everything photo realistic, nor to spend two thirds of the budget for PR and trailers to generate hype. (That's some real contempt for your audience there, if you think that dangling a few shiny keys in front of them will distract them long enough so they'll forget that the trailer actually didn't contain any gameplay - and preorder. SE certainly is no stranger to that)

And another point in conjunction with my last statement: we're going more and more digital. There are less manufacturing costs. When was the last time as a PC player you even got a disk with your purchase? Weird that publishers never mention that side, too.

And how do you explain indie games like Hollow Knight or Spiritfarer (both damn good btw)?

One could even say this over-reliance on generating ludicrous amounts of money is they reason why this game gets more and more boring. Broadest common denominator. So that Timmy-ten-thumb and Melissa-mindless can sub too. I'm not saying there is no place for them but if you bring pretty much down everything aside from raids to keep them subbed I think there is a problem. The last point is an exaggeration, granted, but I don't think I'm too far off.

I think it boils down to seeing the bigger picture here. No action happens in a vacuum.
I hope I was able to make my points clear, even if it was a bit rambly. ^^

[Jojoya]

In a game that I -already- paid for. People love to forget the fact that we pay all the time already. /sigh Sad.

Do you order an entrée at a restaurant then complain when you have to pay extra to get a beverage, appetizer and/or dessert?

What you're paying for is the entrée. If you want the extras, you need to pay extra.

And how do you explain indie games like Hollow Knight or Spiritfarer (both damn good btw)?

I wasn't aware those are MMOs.

[JTF-Taru]

"Far too expensive" for you. You have the problem. The market is there for people buying it at it's current pricepoint. That is what sets the price, not what you personally want to pay for it. What you are outraged about paying once, EVER for your character, many average people spend on 1-10 minute experiences. You can buy a starbucks drink.. or have a new emote for your character. You can get a pretty nice dinner.. or you can have a 4 person mount that you get to use until you stop your sub. Perspective is important as well

Except provably not. Many other (just as popular) games actually charge MORE for less. Considering FFXIV is mostly designed to have maybe 1 character per server (I'm not saying you can't have alts, just that you can experience pretty much everything the game has to offer on one character), the price per item applying to one character is very reasonable.

But it isn't just me. I'm not the one who started the thread. Nor am I one of the many other people who have all pointed out how over-priced these items are. Plenty of people have pointed this out. So that's not true.

A small number of people being prepared to overpay for something doesn't make a market nor define how the majority think.

The reasons being used to try and defend the prices make no sense. People are saying things like 'I usually buy a Starbucks drink for $6 so paying $6 for an emote (or whatever) is fine. I'll just go without my Starbucks drink for a day.'

But Starbucks is literally the go-to example when people talk about how over-priced street shop drinks are. Defending over-paying for one thing because you usually over-pay for another thing doesn't make it okay.

And the argument that the drinks aren't over-priced as Starbucks is a successful company so the market is happy to pay their prices isn't valid either. There are 7.6 billion people on the planet. Only a tiny minority of those think paying exorbitant prices for a drink is okay. But enough do to keep the company in business. Doesn't stop Starbucks having their deserved reputation for over-priced drinks no matter what the 'market' says.

There is an objective notion of over-pricing and the Mog Station is very much in the same category as Starbucks.

Also it's provable that the items are over-priced. Many, many games give you much more for less money or at least comparable items for less.

[linayar]

Also it's provable that the items are over-priced. Many, many games give you much more for less money or at least comparable items for less.

There are no comparable items. Items in other games are not available in FFXIV, therefore they are not competing in the same market.

Once again:

No competition + enough demand = very reasonable price for them.