Online store prices are outrageously high!

[Anya_Synia]

I first want to say I have no issues with the pricing of the Mog Station, its luxury items in the end and having them at that price makes it feel like a bit of a treat when you do buy it.

You can however absolutely compare with WoW, both FFXIV and WoW are MMOs and provide similar services. Just because someone doesn't intend to quit FFXIV doesn't mean they cant compare. Comparisons provide good discussion points in general, it's a bit narrow minded to say you cant compare.

[Krotoan]

I first want to say I have no issues with the pricing of the Mog Station, its luxury items in the end and having them at that price makes it feel like a bit of a treat when you do buy it.

You can however absolutely compare with WoW, both FFXIV and WoW are MMOs and provide similar services. Just because someone doesn't intend to quit FFXIV doesn't mean they cant compare. Comparisons provide good discussion points in general, it's a bit narrow minded to say you cant compare.

I think it would be better to say IF you compare you have to consider the difference between a wow character and a FFXIV character. Inventories, job swapping, visibility and usefullness etc etc.

Also comparing a AAA studio to say.. a free-to-play dollshop grindfest by some tiny studio needs adjustment for what the studio has invested, costs to run and advertise and such.

[linayar]

You can however absolutely compare with WoW, both FFXIV and WoW are MMOs and provide similar services. Just because someone doesn't intend to quit FFXIV doesn't mean they cant compare. Comparisons provide good discussion points in general, it's a bit narrow minded to say you cant compare.

It's not narrow-minded, just being realistic.

It's why people have long discussions and think they're going over good discussion points and then nothing changes in the game and they blame devs for not listening when all their talking points are irrelevant.

Here's the real talking point for the Online Store prices: SE offers optional items for sale and enough people buy them regularly to make them want to offer more items for sale. In the meantime, SE also offers enough in game to satisfy enough people that don't want to buy from the Online Store.

Everything else is superfluous and doesn't actually touch the main point. Sure, you can have fun comparing WoW and FFXIV if you want*, but if you're not addressing the real point, pages and pages of "good discussion" mean nothing.

* I say this as someone who likes to compare WoW and FFXIV when I think it's appropriate, because I do think comparisons can be made, obviously.

[Anya_Synia]

OP was complaining about Mog station being overpriced, comparing prices with other mmos is relevant and comparing is a simple way to prove or go against their point.

[JTF-Taru]

snip

Aside from not being relevant (or wholly true), none of that has anything to do with the point I made which was you don't need a majority to buy to keep a site like the Mog Station going. Nothing you say negates that. The majority do not (usually) dictate whether a site stays open or not. A small minority can do that quite easily. And because the site only sells virtual products, the costs are so much lower – again nothing you have said disproves that.

Sounds like it's not over priced then, cause they're still willing to buy things.

I pointed out people buy from the Mog Station who openly acknowledge it's over-priced. How does your comment make any sense in reply to that? If someone openly admits they are over-paying for something who are you to tell them they aren't? You're literally telling people what they think now.

I'm responding to the OP who was whining about how something is too costly and that it should be on sale more often. You came in and tried to argue that they ARE too expensive. Do you remember that part? Sure you're posting in the thread and contributing and I wouldn't dream of telling you to stop giving your opinion.. but I will give mine back.

It's not an opinion. It simply is expensive for DLC. Just because you want something to be true, doesn't mean it is. There are thousands of games online with DLC. That's how people have an objective notion of what something costs.

By you. Great. This doesn't mean they're wrong.. or right really.. just that you cannot accept them.

Actually it is you who has repeatedly demonstrated you cannot accept that what you are writing isn't true. I (and others) have replied directly to every point you have raised with specific examples that disprove your claims. Conversely, when you reply, you rarely reply directly to any point people make, you simply ignore everything that disproves what you want to believe and you keep trying to change the subject. Your opinions do not outrank the evidence of thousands (or millions) of specific global examples that prove the opposite of what you claim.

And comparing very different things with a few similarities is a bad comparison.

It doesn't matter what you compare. The concept applies to everything on the planet. FFXIV isn't a one-off exception. How does a world-wide concept of something like products being viewed as over-priced suddenly not exist in a niche field such as a video game you like?

[JTF-Taru]

snip

Ignoring the fact, you have no idea what the specific financial aspects of every SE division and website are, your comment doesn't relate to what I said and isn't even true.

You initially said that if a market supports prices, that means the items aren't over-priced. That was disproved with the Starbucks example which shows companies can have a reputation for selling over-priced goods while staying in business and making profit. When I gave you that example, instead of acknowledging that, you just tried to change the subject to ‘the market supporting the company’.

Do you acknowledge now that companies can stay in business yet still have a reputation for selling over-priced goods? Or are you still claiming that if a company is in business, that means its products can’t be over-priced as the market is happy with them?

And even your new 'point' isn't valid. Many people in the market wait for a sale, many don't buy at all, many will buy less than they would otherwise and so on.

Plus many companies subsidise one part of their business with another. For example, in this day and age, many parts of companies run at a loss for one reason or another. The market has nothing to do with anything there.

Just because a company hasn't gone bust, doesn't mean their business model is good or right or couldn't be improved and just because a website has certain prices, doesn’t mean the market has determined that or everyone agrees with it.

Another example would be that some companies deliberately keep prices high to make items exclusive. There are many reasons why a company sells at specific prices – the market often has nothing to do with it.

Regarding SE, the indication here is that they don’t really care what the market thinks – otherwise they would have dropped a load of prices.

I don't have an aversion to hearing complaints about the price, I'm here, like you, to discuss my POV on how they're wrong. I also like to point out to people that they're being very silly about reasonable prices by providing perspective on what they pay every day/week/month for far less value.

You aren't providing perspective. You’re just copying and pasting the same flawed arguments that were dealt with pages ago. Once again, if Starbucks rips you off for $6 for a drink, that doesn’t make paying $30 for a DLC video game graphic acceptable. They are both bad.

At this point, you’re just posting the same stuff repeatedly using slightly different words. Nothing is going to change. If something you said wasn’t accurate on page 14, people aren’t going to accept it on page 17, 20 or 108. Posting the same stuff is just going to get the same replies which makes for a low quality thread full of redundancy.

You wouldn't behave like this with a cereal company or a lawnmower company selling over-priced products. You have to ask yourself why you're doing it over a video game.

[Jojoya]

Regarding SE, the indication here is that they don’t really care what the market thinks – otherwise they would have dropped a load of prices.

What is the market? FFXIV DLC. DLC from other games can't be used in FFXIV just as FFXIV DLC can't be used in those games. Their DLC belong to separate markets specific to their games.

Who is competing in the FFXIV DLC market? Just SE. No one else can make authorized DLC for the game.

If players are buying the DLC at the current price structure, then SE has no reason to change the prices because the market is good as is. If players stop buying, then they would have reason to change.

You wouldn't behave like this with a cereal company or a lawnmower company selling over-priced products. You have to ask yourself why you're doing it over a video game.

And those are businesses with direct competition for their specific products. Multiple companies make lawnmowers. Multiple companies make corn flakes. They need to adjust their pricing to stay competitive.

SE is the only company making FFXIV and authorized FFXIV DLC. I can't go to Blizzard, Xenimax, NCSoft, etc. to get FFXIV or FFXIV DLC. That leaves SE free to set whatever pricing they want because they have no direct competition for FFXIV DLC sales.

If you don't feel like you're getting good value for your money with FFXIV, why are you playing the game instead of moving to a different game that is a better value?

[demonette]

Lol I can't believe this thread is still going. It's really simple. There is enough demand for the items at this price, otherwise they would be lower. SE has statistics on their own store, you don't. You don't NEED these items. If you want them that bad go get a job or something. QED

[Melichoir]

Ignoring the fact, you have no idea what the specific financial aspects of every SE division and website are, your comment doesn't relate to what I said and isn't even true.

You initially said that if a market supports prices, that means the items aren't over-priced. That was disproved with the Starbucks example which shows companies can have a reputation for selling over-priced goods while staying in business and making profit. When I gave you that example, instead of acknowledging that, you just tried to change the subject to ‘the market supporting the company’.

No, they are more or less right with some exceptions. The market will ultimately dictate the pricepoint of a product, but that will depend on many factors - one being perception of it's worth. The example of starbucks doesnt quite work because the issue is two fold. The first one is that while the market may understand the pricepoint is high for what it is, they perceive the quality or reputation of Starbucks (more subjective and intangible factors) to be the factor that helps justify the price point. The other factor is market competition. Starbucks may be overpriced for a cup of coffee, but that depends on what teh competitors also provide. A gourmet coffee shop is gonna sell possibly the same drink at higher pricepoint or same pricepoint but less quantity, giving hte perception that Starbucks pricing is still 'relatively' cheap compared to the competition. The only thing that gets 'cheaper' would be businesses not known for selling coffee.

So for example I could go to Mickey D's for a cup of coffee, but they are not known for their coffee. Theyre a burger joint, and one that is typically seen as the bargain barrel one. So public perception is that yeah, coffee there is gonna be cheaper than starbucks because it is cheaper quality from a place that isnt known for it. Comparatively, if I go to a small hole in the wall coffee shop that sells exquisite coffee, I may pay 6 or so dollars for a 12 oz coffee where at starbucks I may only pay 3 or 4. I understand the quality is better at the hole in the wall, and if I really want to have that quality Ill pay, but if I want something that is just 'good', the starbucks option is plenty fine.

This doesnt work when there are two factors - Drastically overpriced without a reputation to back it, or the lack of market competition (aka a monopoly). If McDonald's sold coffee for $15 a pop, people would say "get out of here", because it's just 'McDonald's Coffee and isnt worth that much." Could be the finest coffee ever, but McDonald's does not have that reputation so the price point wont float (not unless they want to weather months for word of mouth to overtake skepticism). Conversely, if Starbucks is the only place you can get coffee at all, they can charge exorbitant pricing simply because theyre the only game in town. Limited supply for a high demand essentially.

Do you acknowledge now that companies can stay in business yet still have a reputation for selling over-priced goods? Or are you still claiming that if a company is in business, that means its products can’t be over-priced as the market is happy with them?

Youre oversimplifying the situation. A company can, for a period of time, survive on overpricing. In fact I would argue that companies try to do this as much as possible to maximize profits. It is not, however, sustainable long term. If a company is in business and generating profit, that means that they found a sweet spot in the market that the pricepoint is high enough but not to high that you shut out customers completely.

As a point, if mogstation sold a mount for $500, you might get a few buyers, but it wouldnt be a long term business strat. Itll end up shutting down the company cause its to pricey for most people. So much so that the whales wont even really go in on it.

And speaking of whales, youll notice that SE targets a pretty broad audience and tailors their price points to fit a target. Keep standard items relatively cheap (dyes, holiday glamours, etc) and keep some pricier stuff that whales would probably go for (mounts, custom glamours). It's a something for everyone mentality. The shop isnt designed to appeal to only whales as that would generate them less money overall. It is sometimes straight up better to maximize customer numbers instead of just going for whales, because of the whale market is hyper limited (and even whales have upper limits on pricing) then you will not generate as much money as putting out a cheaper more affordable item with a smaller profit per product but with a vastly higher consumer base. It is better to make a dollar off 1000 people than it is to make 100 dollars off 2 people.

And even your new 'point' isn't valid. Many people in the market wait for a sale, many don't buy at all, many will buy less than they would otherwise and so on.

Except even with sale prices, they still have to generate a profit on it. It is just a smaller margin than normal. All that sales do is alter the 'tiers' of items. Items that would likely get picked up by whales are now more readily available to the standard user as it 'feels' like the right price now. Then there is also the mental trick behind it - Lower the pricepoint so it seems like a steal, inclining people to buy more. The thing a lot of people dont get is that a large swath of people are actually more likely to spend more money overall when theres a sale then when there isnt. This occurs simply because people tend to 'stock up' and buy big because they perceive an opportunity to get things cheaper. This is where the balancing act for a company comes in. If I can drop 30% off a product but get you to spend more overall that offsets the mark down, I come out better.

Plus many companies subsidise one part of their business with another. For example, in this day and age, many parts of companies run at a loss for one reason or another. The market has nothing to do with anything there.

Just because a company hasn't gone bust, doesn't mean their business model is good or right or couldn't be improved and just because a website has certain prices, doesn’t mean the market has determined that or everyone agrees with it.

Yes and no. Yes companies may subsidize divisions or projects with revenue from other sectors, but they do that either for publicity reasons, where it is understood that keeping it open would generate the company overall better profits, even if that one sector isnt performing well, or that they think the investment is worthwhile. Successful companies will cut the fat after a certain point if there is no benefit from it. In this case, SE isnt going to keep something open for years and years if the cost of it is drastically more expensive than the return.

Another example would be that some companies deliberately keep prices high to make items exclusive. There are many reasons why a company sells at specific prices – the market often has nothing to do with it.

Making something exclusive alters market perception of it and it's worth. So it very much does involve the market input about it. If SE sold a standard chocobo at $300, no ones gonna buy it cause you get it for free in game. It's not exclusive in any way. Now if they make a custom mount with a limited amount of availability....thats a different story.

Regarding SE, the indication here is that they don’t really care what the market thinks – otherwise they would have dropped a load of prices.

This is conjecture. You dont know what the sales are for SE regarding Mogstation products. It is a lot more reasonable to assume that prices dont go down overtime because they generate a decent profit than it is to say SE keeps a shop open that is a net drain on the companies finances, and keeps stocking it with things are a net loss to the company as a whole. There doesnt seem to be anything If to be gained from keeping it up in that case. If we take YoshiP at his word and the new NA datacenters were funded by Mogstation sales, it seems to point more towards the store generating profit and therefore the pricepoints are working well enough.

You aren't providing perspective. You’re just copying and pasting the same flawed arguments that were dealt with pages ago. Once again, if Starbucks rips you off for $6 for a drink, that doesn’t make paying $30 for a DLC video game graphic acceptable. They are both bad.

This is an oversimplification. Ill pay $30 for DLC if I think it's worth it. If I dont, I dont buy. If enough people have my perspective, theyve overshot their market and are losing out. But if pricing remains stable, it means there's a large enough market that suggest the price is a fair exchange.

You wouldn't behave like this with a cereal company or a lawnmower company selling over-priced products. You have to ask yourself why you're doing it over a video game.

This all boils down to what we as individuals find worthwhile. If a box of cereal, or a lawnmower exceeds my expectation of what it is for hte cost, Ill get it. I would buy a box of $30 cereal, but that cereal better be the best damn thing since grilled cheese sandwiches. It better be made with the finest ingredients and taste like perfection.

If you dont think it's worth the price, that's fine. I or others might. That is up for us to decide. And just because we dont agree with your position doesnt mean we just giving things a pass.

[Haruka_R]

Lol I can't believe this thread is still going. It's really simple. There is enough demand for the items at this price, otherwise they would be lower. SE has statistics on their own store, you don't. You don't NEED these items. If you want them that bad go get a job or something. QED

Thank you.