Carbuncle mounts have arrived!

[Vstarstruck]

Too much of a cost

[ElazulHP]

For $24 you would think they would have different music than the standard music that almost all mounts use... but NOPE! Kinda sucks :/

[Okamimaru]

First off SE is a company and it's goal is to make money. While the prices are a tad high (is the mount a 2 seater?) People are willing to pay so it's not that bad. People keep saying it should be a reward for content... but then complain there's no content to do....so we should have stuff gated behind nonexistent content? And as for effort required I have to leave my house and go to work for a couple hours to get paid so i can buy it vs. Sitting on my ass for 10mins to acquire the Xmas bear...

[Sakuraluna]

I completely get the argument that these items would never have been created if it wasn't for the purpose of selling them on the cash shop, but if I honestly had to choose, I'd take a couple extra dungeons per patch over a handful of mounts and $18 outfits that I'd have to pay extra for.

Which leads me to this question- wasn't the near-outrageous price tag on these outfits somehow linked with the fact that SE would need permission from the Chinese/Korean companies distributing and running FFXIV in those countries to market their items? Pretty sure there was a copyright argument there, because I gave SE the benefit of the doubt on that for all the Chinese and Korean exclusive dresses and outfits they've added over time, thinking that those were the only ones they'd charge that much for. But oops! It was apparently a new normal. Oh well... fooled twice, shame on me. So I'm waiting for a sale before I touch these or anything else added at nearly $20 a pop.

[CatStarPrime]

My character is too dignified to ride something that cute.

My character is too dignified to ride something that cute.

My character is too dignif oh heck SQUEEEEEEEEEEE Carbuncle awaaaaaaayyyyy!

[Draxxion]

I completely get the argument that these items would never have been created if it wasn't for the purpose of selling them on the cash shop, but if I honestly had to choose, I'd take a couple extra dungeons per patch over a handful of mounts and $18 outfits that I'd have to pay extra for...

Not sure about the last part, but Blizzard also charges $25 per mount so the price is about right, but they could be in the same situation.

What I would argue the time and energy to develop a mount or gear is no where near the same development time it takes to do a dungeon. A mount or gear can be cranked out in less then a day. It is a side project at best and something someone probably did between larger projects for some easy downtime while they gave their brain a little of a rest. A dungeon would take a lot longer to develop by comparison.

I get that people want content, but this would not take away from that.

[Zojha]

A mount or gear can be cranked out in less then a day.

Which then begs the question why it's so costly.

Let's say it takes a person 40 working hours to create, a classic working week. At an hourly wage of 50$ (which is already approaching top end designer wages) you'd need to get 2000$ back from sales to break even, anything more is profit. At a mere 5$ cost, only 400 people would have to buy it ever to break even, anything more is profit. At 25$, 80 people buying will suffice, more is profit.

Yeah, I think it's just the good ole overcharging because whales will be whales.

[Sakuraluna]

Not sure about the last part, but Blizzard also charges $25 per mount so the price is about right, but they could be in the same situation.

What I would argue the time and energy to develop a mount or gear is no where near the same development time it takes to do a dungeon. A mount or gear can be cranked out in less then a day. It is a side project at best and something someone probably did between larger projects for some easy downtime while they gave their brain a little of a rest. A dungeon would take a lot longer to develop by comparison.

I get that people want content, but this would not take away from that.

It has more to do with the price of the outfits than the mounts. The mounts seem to be in a more reasonable price range, but with most outfits in the mogstation priced at around $5 to $15, this was just an argument that would come up every time a Chinese exclusive outfit would get added. I've always had my suspicions but now it's a bit more obvious that it was SE testing the waters with that price range all along.

As far as development of the dungeons go, you're right that it takes more time and energy to build a dungeon map, the mobs and bosses and battle mechanics as well as the rewards. But the devs have even stated that we have a much higher budget for stormblood than we did for HW or ARR. what I don't get is why that budget is going into things like physically relocating the NA datacenter while that in-game content is getting slashed and the energy that would have been put into the rewards gets put into making exclusive cash shop items instead.

I mean, there's likely a good explanation, but I'd rather there be a little more balance of energy being put into the game itself so that there's more going on between patches.

[Glenfiddich]

Just saw a Au Ra on that mount. Paying 24 USD for looking ridiculous is weird. To each his own...

[Nitblade]

No items should ever cost 2x the price of the monthly subscription. I'd buy at a quarter of what they cost. Unless you give me 1 month subs time per item bought at these overly inflated prices