Online Store is Getting Worse!

[Jessica_VS]

With inflation as it is, I'm surprised the average price of an item isn't $5,000.

[DatPotato]

So... The price rose, out of nowhere and you guys are fine with it?

Like last set had an extra piece so while being ridiculously expensive it was "understandable"
This one is back to 5 pieces but kept the higher price.

I can't blame SE for that tbh if they have fans that are willing to spend regardless, I don't think I would stop there. I Wonder by how much it's going to rise next time.

[kaynide]

So... The price rose, out of nowhere and you guys are fine with it?.

A merchant has the right to set the prices to whatever they want within their shop. And then adjust based on sales volume. It’s quite simple, if you can’t afford the expensive Mogstation junk, you aren’t their target customer. Personally, I haven’t bought anything because I’m definitely not their target customer…

And if none of their target bite, sure, they can reduce prices to see what maximizes their sales.

[Deveryn]

So... The price rose, out of nowhere and you guys are fine with it?

Like last set had an extra piece so while being ridiculously expensive it was "understandable"
This one is back to 5 pieces but kept the higher price.

I can't blame SE for that tbh if they have fans that are willing to spend regardless, I don't think I would stop there. I Wonder by how much it's going to rise next time.

It's still 6 pieces, even if the hand slot is attached to the loungewear.

So both agree that the cash shop items' prices should be lower because you believe the in-game items' quality is higher. (❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*

Don't put words in my mouth. I wasn't talking price at all, but I think the cash shop is priced appropriately. I'll still wait before buying outfits to let the novelty wear off and eventually catch that sale. Eastern Lord Errant was the one time they got me right away as the BLU stormblood update was around the same time.

They don't slouch on the quality and level of detail for anything. It all comes down to personal preference after that and that's not worth making threads and arguing about.

Looking at the store, it's also worth noting that anything they already made for a character is a few dollars cheaper. They still had to go and make it fit on everyone else.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

I think it looks adorable on Hrothgar
I even love the Cottonball tail

[JamieRose]

A merchant has the right to set the prices to whatever they want within their shop. And then adjust based on sales volume. It’s quite simple, if you can’t afford the expensive Mogstation junk, you aren’t their target customer. Personally, I haven’t bought anything because I’m definitely not their target customer…

And if none of their target bite, sure, they can reduce prices to see what maximizes their sales.

That would make sense in a standard marketplace. In this one, Squeenix is the only seller and thus they overcharge because you can't go buy it from anyone else.

[LianaThorne]

It's still 6 pieces, even if the hand slot is attached to the loungewear.

Just to throw some numbers around, we're basically getting each piece for around $3.60 (double it if you really want to be picky about the gloves attached to the hoodie). A quick look on Sketchfab (a site where you can buy and download 3D models) has hoodies (just the shirt) priced for around $4 or more. This is just how much it costs to make the model + the time invested by the modeler. You have to realize that art is NOT CHEAP and you're getting 6 pieces of clothing for $22, not just "an outfit". That's 6 pieces that had to be designed and made by someone and probably took a few hours of their time to fit to all of the bodies afterwards. That is what you're paying for when you drop $22.

If you don't think it's worth it/dont like the clothes aesthetically/art related activities should be free or dirt cheap...that's your right. But at the same time, don't act like they're raising prices to screw people over when $22 for 6 pieces is pretty reasonable. At least from the viewpoint of someone who has made and sold models before.

[Saraide]

Just to throw some numbers around, we're basically getting each piece for around $3.60 (double it if you really want to be picky about the gloves attached to the hoodie). A quick look on Sketchfab (a site where you can buy and download 3D models) has hoodies (just the shirt) priced for around $4 or more. This is just how much it costs to make the model + the time invested by the modeler. You have to realize that art is NOT CHEAP and you're getting 6 pieces of clothing for $22, not just "an outfit". That's 6 pieces that had to be designed and made by someone and probably took a few hours of their time to fit to all of the bodies afterwards. That is what you're paying for when you drop $22.

If you don't think it's worth it/dont like the clothes aesthetically/art related activities should be free or dirt cheap...that's your right. But at the same time, don't act like they're raising prices to screw people over when $22 for 6 pieces is pretty reasonable. At least from the viewpoint of someone who has made and sold models before.

If the designers were independent artists selling the stuff themselves that would make more sense but this is a huge company selling what the workers there have produced. There is also no question of supplying materials, it's digital. The supply is infinite.

[LianaThorne]

That would make sense in a standard marketplace. In this one, Squeenix is the only seller and thus they overcharge because you can't go buy it from anyone else.

Out of curiosity, what would you price the set at and why? Please refrain from subjective reasoning as well (such as, it's ugly).

[Silverbane]

That would make sense in a standard marketplace. In this one, Squeenix is the only seller and thus they overcharge because you can't go buy it from anyone else.

There's nothing special about SE in that regard: the "standard marketplace" is full of people who are the only original sellers for their product. That's the entire point of patents and copyrights, in fact.

So you can't buy optional items for a SquareEnix game from anyone but SquareEnix: that sounds pretty normal for the game industry. But do they really have a special power to overcharge? No, because you can always go play someone else's game instead.

What they have is a captive market, just like Disney does inside Walt Disney World.
So SE, like Disney, can set the price to anything they like, and you can decide not to buy it, or to not even visit the "amusement park" (as FFXIV has been described by Yoshida-san) if it really bothers you.
It's all standard marketplace behavior ... and SE is nowhere near as bad as Disney.

SE differs from Disney in that the incremental cost of MogStation items is close to zero, whereas the food (for example) at WDW actually costs money to make and serve. So SE has a pretty strong motive to start the product at a high price (because some people don't care much about $22 and love having the latest bling) and then eventually reduce it to, say, $8. Once they sold enough product at $22 to recover the development costs, every $8 sale is nearly $8 in pure profit. Again, standard marketplace behavior - that's why there are bargain bins for DVDs and books, for example. (Last time I checked, BTW, DVDs cost about $3 each to make and distribute).

Also standard is if they don't sell enough product at a high enough price to recover the substantial cost of designing an outfit and then fitting that design to all the different character models, they can lose money on it. That risk is also factored in to the initial and subsequent selling price.