How to add value to your monthly subscription?

[Sacae]

Money doesn't bring happiness, but what we buy with money should.

That being said, I feel like a lot of players are complaining about the value of their monthly subscription (content offered/$).
While at first glance the only solution would seem to be “churning out more content,” there are other ways to increase the value of a subscription (think Amazon Prime: video, twitch, music, books, online storage...).

FFXIV offered ingame items based on the number of monthly payments paid (these items are now offered with achievement points), and SE was not starving because of it.
Therefore my suggestion is to offer a certain percentage of cashback that can be used for purchases in the online store (for example $3 for every month paid).

What do you think?

3 dollars cashback is 25% of a basic sub. You're suggesting they give away 20-25% of their income from subscribers.

[lolnotacat]

3 dollars cashback is 25% of a basic sub. You're suggesting they give away 20-25% of their income from subscribers.

That's not accounting for purchases that wouldn't have otherwise have been made without the cashback. 25% income also assumes everyone will make a purchase, they won't. In fact the majority won't. It's about finding a balance. Would getting players who wouldn't have otherwise have bought something from the store offset the loss from subscription revenue? It's a pretty complex problem which I obviously can't answer since I don't have access to their data, but I will say that lots companies will dedicate BI and marketing teams to determine the ROI for questions like that so it's not unfeasible.

But to answer the OP, most of stuff like that I think can be seen by customers in two ways.

1. An extra value proposition for customers.
2. A cheap attempt to increase or maintain revenue.

If goodwill is high, most people will see it as option 1. If it's low, most will see it as option 2. Personally, I'd see it as option 2 because I don't want a Twitch sub (I don't use Twitch) or more crap from the stores. I want more engaging content in-game.