PS2 Marketplace- How much would you pay per item?

[Zekeen]

I figured this would be a nice topic to pull up with all of us watching E3 and shouting at our screen "HIGBY!!! TAKE ALL MY MONIES!!!!". So, here is something I'd like to see a discussion on with all of you.

The pricing of items in the PS2 Marketplace.

Now, in most games I have seen, cosmetic items and game items COST A FORTUNE AND A HALF!!! Team Fortress 2 allows people to find any item in the game (except keys), BUT, if you just wanted to buy that item, costs up to 5 dollars for a single digital item. Some people spend hundreds of dollars. When TF2 went F2P, their profits have SKYROCKETED. But, they sell these guns like this for those without patience. In PS2, we can get some items with game cash and pay for them with real cash too, but I suspect Vanity items will be real cosh only.

Now, there is a big split among players - some will spend tons of money for anything because they like the game, some spend a little bit of money if an item is cool and on sale, and some will never spend money. What I'm getting to here is the concept of economics. If you sell an item for a large amount of money, fewer people buy it, if you sell for lower, more people buy it.

If you sell for too low though, you have to sell more variety to keep making money. One one side, too much customization can ruin the look of a game. But if all these looks were similar with various alterations, it keeps the feel of the game and even that is possible.

Most games will sell a costume, or weapon, or item for 5-15$. This is VERY high for a digital item. If cosmetic item was 1-5$, you would have a much larger group of people buying it. There is also the concept of budget. Two players might be willing to pay only 20$ for the items, one will buy only 2 items, but the other will only spend the 20$ for 4 or more items. Thus is the dilemma of knowing.

There is also the idea of bundles and deals as well as SOE market cash sales. If you buy the cash when it's only sale and then grab a bundle when it's on sale, you can get items cheap even if they are expensive.

Now that I've yammered on enough, what prices do you guys think single items should sell for?


Oh, and be aware the game costs money to produce and run (mostly employee salaries, like Hgiby's paycheck!!!). Normal pricing of a MMO is 14.99$ a month.

[james]

In the middle for me, its hard to justify paying much more than 5 or so dollars for an in game item.

[GreatMazinkaise]

I would easily drop $25 on a rainbow paintjob for my Bangbus or a set of longhorn steer horns for my MAX, but apart from that I expect to be paying $5 max on anything cosmetic.

[Razicator]

I would easily drop $25 on a rainbow paintjob for my Bangbus or a set of longhorn steer horns for my MAX, but apart from that I expect to be paying $5 max on anything cosmetic.

Thing is SOE has to think about the maximum overall revenue, not maximum per transaction. Thank god too haha! It's why Valve is making CS:GO only be $15 even though there will be millions who would be willing to pay 30-40 for it.

Honestly, something like a foregrip is not even worth $5 imo, maybe $1-3. If it increases accuracy by like 5%, not much. Something like camos and "bling," like helmet horns and vehicle hood ornaments I'm fine with being $5-15 depending on how great they are.

[Kaw]

I said $5 range.

iirc, LoL skins go from $10-$20. They are clearly pretty successful there, but I have always thought that was completely insane and I have never purchased from them because of it.

[BigBossMonkey]

I'd pay 10-15 bucks for a silly Dukes of Hazard style horn for my Sunderer.

[Atheosim]

I'm on, uh, somewhat of a budget, so naturally I'd prefer items to be in the 1-3$ range, but I'd be willing to pay a maximum of $5.

[Death2All]

Can't justify myself spending more than $3 on something unless it's really, really, really cool.

[Shade Millith]

Like I said before. It depends on the game itself.

If it's going to have regenerating health, infinite ammo coming from light assaults, basically a mismatch of all the bad modern FPS shit, then I'm not going to pay a cent. They don't deserve my money.

If it's good, then I'll buy probably $70-$100 total, what I would for a new release,so probably 3-5 bucks per item.

[Inverness]

I'd pay $10 or more for something special, but $5 seems like something reasonable that I would spend.

Honestly, I've never been one to spend money in cash shops and things, but considering this is PlanetSide 2 we're talking about, I plan to spend quite a bit on various upgrades to help SOE out as much as possible.

[Raka Maru]

Converted to station cash, it's $1 for 100 unless you buy at the 3x sale price, soooo.... I'm going to think in SC.

Full matching gear: 500 - 750
Helm or head: 120 - 250
Shirt: 120 - 250
Pants: 120 - 250
Boots: 120 - 250

Full set of high end gear would be cheaper (750) than cherry picking (1000) if it was priced as above.

I think this would be a fair price.

[Razicator]

Converted to station cash, it's $1 for 100 unless you buy at the 3x sale price, soooo.... I'm going to think in SC.

Full matching gear: 500 - 750
Helm or head: 120 - 250
Shirt: 120 - 250
Pants: 120 - 250
Boots: 120 - 250

Full set of high end gear would be cheaper (750) than cherry picking (1000) if it was priced as above.

I think this would be a fair price.

I'm hoping there will be another double or triple station cash sale soon, I didn't get it last time...

[DashRev]

I'd pay $1-3 for cosmetic items. I'd rather spend smaller individual amounts on a bunch of little stuff than by one or two more expensive items. The unfortunate part is that not a lot of F2P stores offer small but cheap items.

For example if I were outfitting my Mossie I'd spend $1 to make my tracer fire red, $2 to tint my canopy black,, $3 on a different color afterburner, $1 on a decal to put on the side, etc. I'd easily spend that $7 without a second thought but wouldn't put 5-10 dollars down on a single camo pattern, even if its probably a more obvious change aesthetically.

And then given the option I might repeat the process all over again to distinguish my Air-to-Air loadout from my Air-to-Ground.

[Winfernal]

~€15/mo max. if it's a good game. Will not spend money on cosmetic items, it's a waste of money.

Spending money on something you will enjoy in the future, is not wasting money. This is entertainment.

It's like every other thing you do in the world for entertainment.

[Zekeen]

Spending money on something you will enjoy in the future, is not wasting money. This is entertainment.

It's like every other thing you do in the world for entertainment.

Not to mention that the items for vanity are even MORE entertaining since the game is such high end in graphics appeal.

Dunno what else someone would spend 15 bucks on that isn't "wasting". If you buy a booster, you're just buying a temporary that goes away. I think the customization of appearance is much less wasting when it's a permanent addition to a character.

[Coreldan]

I don't care about the per item cost, I personally just try to use the 13€/month or so. If something costs a lot, I can buy it and then not buy anything for a few months.

[Mechzz]

I don't care about the per item cost, I personally just try to use the 13€/month or so. If something costs a lot, I can buy it and then not buy anything for a few months.

This. my plan exactly.

[Redshift]

I'd like to buy a large amount of cheap items, because ultimatly anything less than a pound is a throw away amount, if items cost more you'll have to think about buying them and probably make sensible choices that somethings aren't worth it.

Personally i think they'd make more selling high volumes of cheap shit rather than low volumes of expensive stuff

[Ironside]

Always played subscription based games so the f2p model is new to me,
really wanna see what the subs model offers,
tell you summat though, noway will i be paying 20 quid for a fecking zebra skin ;)

[Coreldan]

noway will i be paying 20 quid for a fecking zebra skin ;)

While neither would I, but I think you shouldnt think about the "true value for an item" in a F2P game. All prices pretty much have some extra in them to cover the development costs and upkeep costs and naturally the profit too.

Some people wont think that Zebra skin is even worth 1 quid :D

[Fafnir]

I'd like to buy a large amount of cheap items, because ultimatly anything less than a pound is a throw away amount, if items cost more you'll have to think about buying them and probably make sensible choices that somethings aren't worth it.

Personally i think they'd make more selling high volumes of cheap shit rather than low volumes of expensive stuff

I agree. There are at last three visual customization options for each class, weapon and vehicle. Not to mention, that some people will defenitely buy more than one camo pattern for fighting on different continents. There will be plenty to buy and if they will keep a throw away price, it will be easy to grab few cheap items without paying attention to their cost.