Cash shop confirmed

[Jandor]

SE should charge an extra subscription to keep using Sleipnir, say an extra £3 a month otherwise his button becomes grayed out. Then you guys could really show how much you're willing to support SE in this apparent dire time of financial need.

Something something read the ToS.

[Ceol]

Would have liked the minions to be account-wide.

[Menchi]

Or we may have not at all.

Considering we were had a number of the major NPCs obtainable in game for no extra cash price before this cash shop idea happened, I'm pretty certain they would have eventually existed too. That isn't "baseless speculation" it is based on the continual implementation of more NPC mounts... Cash shop reared it's horrible, disgusting head, and now things that SHOULD and WOULD be in game, are now cash shop exclusive, and will remain so, as apparently, enough people are happy to pay EXTRA for things that should be in game.

[Shadex]

If Square is willing to take a hit on player base because they feel that they will make more on cash shop sales than subs lost it proves that they don't give two sniffs about us as players. All we are is money dispensers. Are they a company out to make a profit? Sure. But when you are a company where money is all that matters don't expect loyalty from your customers. In today's saturated MMO market that mentality can be deadly.

[Fellisin]

Considering we were had a number of the major NPCs obtainable in game for no extra cash price before this cash shop idea happened, I'm pretty certain they would have eventually existed too.

Well done on completely missing the point. Sure mounts/minions were added before the cash shop. I never disputed that. They will still be added alongside the cash shop. As was evident by new minions & mount in 2.4 patch alongside the cash shop optionals.

That isn't "baseless speculation" it is based on the continual implementation of more NPC mounts... Cash shop reared it's horrible, disgusting head, and now things that SHOULD and WOULD be in game, are now cash shop exclusive, and will remain so, as apparently, enough people are happy to pay EXTRA for things that should be in game.

No it is baseless speculation.

You do not know what would or should of been in the game. But if a mount/minion was developed for the cash shop, there is no guarantee that mount/minion would of ever appeared in the game with out the cash shop existence. It certainly wouldn't if the driving factor for it development was the cash shop in the first place.

[Starlord]

Actually we are paying the monthly fee for "Access" to the game, not for the content, they might es well not do any content and could charge you monthly. You might wanna read the ToS

So, how about those F2P games that give you access to the game? And some F2P you can get by without buying anything. I honestly think what we pay is more than just the servers. We pay them for their paychecks/servers/funds for the game. Funds for the game is key here, as if we didn't pay them there wouldn't be content ( or a FFXIV for that matter).

So I think what we pay them for is more than just " Accessing the servers", or else we should pay F2P games to access their servers as well (but we don't).

[ErBear]

So, how about those F2P games that give you access to the game? And some F2P you can get by without buying anything. I honestly think what we pay is more than just the servers. We pay them for their paychecks/servers/funds for the game. Funds for the game is key here, as if we didn't pay them there wouldn't be content ( or a FFXIV for that matter).

So I think what we pay them for is more than just " Accessing the servers", or else we should pay F2P games to access their servers as well (but we don't).

^ I'm shocked starlord, really am. Probably the most logical thing in this thread +1.

There is not justification for a cash shop item when they are getting at least a million subs a month. So lets say that they have a million subs at $10 a month. That's at least 10 million dollars a month, what more do they need from this game unless they are preparing it to go f2p.

[Starlord]

^ I'm shocked starlord, really am. Probably the most logical thing in this thread +1.

There is not justification for a cash shop item when they are getting at least a million subs a month. So lets say that they have a million subs at $10 a month. That's at least 10 million dollars a month, what more do they need from this game unless they are preparing it to go f2p.

LOL, I am only stating what I feel is just. We may not agree on alot of things, but this is one thing that will bug me ( I won't quit over it nor will I use the cash shop) but it will still bug me :/. I am a huge SE fan and even I can see double dipping when I see it. As loyal of a fan as I am, this is one thing I won't sit here and say " This can be a good thing". Cash Shop in a P2P environment is just wrong and completely greedy/double dipping.

[polyphonica]

There is not justification for a cash shop item when they are getting at least a million subs a month. So lets say that they have a million subs at $10 a month. That's at least 10 million dollars a month, what more do they need from this game unless they are preparing it to go f2p.

Well, first of all we don't actually know how many concurrent subscriptions they have right now, but that aside, we also can't see their costs. To have a game with major quarterly updates released simultaneously in 5 languages is not cheap, not to mention the on-going service costs, taxes, and administration expenses. As a start, let's say they're paying 500 people at a cost of $80k USD/year average (cost to the business, not salary); that's over 3 million a month in employee costs alone (and they probably need even more people than that to develop and release at this pace).

Basically, it seems like a lot of money (it's way beyond the scope most of us will ever deal with personally), but a project of this scale is not cheap by any means.

[Hurlstone]

Been surprise how little I have seen of the cash shop items in the world. Only one minion and mount during my Lancer FATE grindy. Browsing the shop in question, there is nothing that has yet caught my eye. Will be interesting to see just what vanity items they add in the future. I would like to see some glamor-based gear, perhaps not based on FF characters though...