Cash monies

Fanglord · 2012-05-21, 08:50 AM

In regards to cash shop pricing, I really hope there is a buy all (core side grades) bundle for like £40/50, or at least major bundles of £10/15 for each class. My reasoning is that is the price of an average title these days, infact slightly high for a PC game at least, so it makes sense at least to me that the core items (excluding cosmetic for those of you who will immediately scream server costs :P).

This still leaves the devs room to develop expansions they can sell, theres still cosmetic items to sell ect. I just think it would be a shame if they went the way of tribes where the premium cost is the price of a full game yet still doesnt unlock all the basic items (great game btw, just bad microtransactioning).

Had a quick search, an the cash shop threads didnt really answer my specific question.

your guys thought on how you think it would be fair to price a f2p game :P

Kipper · 2012-05-21, 09:00 AM

We don't know much about what will be on the shop at what price at the moment, but what we do know is that the game is also free to download, in addition to being free to play.

So any cash you spend to get quicker unlocks on sidegrades will be most welcome I'm sure, but you'll be able to earn all of those items in time without spending a penny.

Works great for SOE either way, because to earn them will mean more time spent in-game, which means you are effectively being sold as other peoples content; full servers make for a better experience and a better experience makes more money!

Fanglord · 2012-05-21, 09:10 AM

I get the free to play model, that wasn't really my point. SOE have to make money on this, its a fact; Sony wouldn't be funding it otherwise. Whilst free to play is essentially free to play and I trust that the basic weapons/armors will be sufficient to have fun in game, but from a devs point of view they want to sell stuff to make money back on their game.

I was just saying that I hope there is a fairly priced option to unlock the majority of the game with out spending 2 days to unlock one weapon not including upgrades ect.

CutterJohn · 2012-05-22, 12:20 AM

PS2 is an MMO, so $100 or so isn't going to cut it. Realize thats less than what PS1 would have made off of you in 4 months(including box price). People who have played for years have paid hundreds to SOE. No doubt there have been a few with continual subscriptions over the past 8 years, and thats nearly $1500.

I agree that tribes was rather egregiously priced for what it was, a simple arena based shooter. Frankly, I hate non mmo f2p games. Just pay your $50 and be done with it already.

Sledgecrushr · 2012-05-22, 12:30 AM

Fang I think you are right about the bundles. Its a way to get a larger amount of cash up front and quickly. In fact I am absolutely dieing to hear some specifics of what they are going to offer in the cash shop. Well we have heard a couple of things like side grades for weapons and different colored headlights for your tanks but I want to know more of whats to come from this area of the game.

Immigrant · 2012-05-22, 09:52 AM

Originally Posted by elfailo

What Hi-Rez are doing is bad for the entire industry. They promised "F2P, not P2W", but what they're doing is INTENTIONALLY releasing overpowered weapons every time, hoping for an early wave of gold purchases, and then slightly nerfing them later on.

Word. I just hope SOE will deliver on their "business model" promises for PS2 in contrast to them (Hi-Rez).

Senyu · 2012-05-22, 11:51 AM

I kinda hope that the game requires box price. Honestly if the game is going to deliver what they promise then they could at least get income to start them off with a box price. After that cash shop without selling direct power. And if their were sanctuaries still I'd be okay with having giant monitors showing ads. I always thought that was kinda cool.

Immigrant · 2012-05-22, 02:03 PM

Originally Posted by Senyu

I kinda hope that the game requires box price. Honestly if the game is going to deliver what they promise then they could at least get income to start them off with a box price. After that cash shop without selling direct power. And if their were sanctuaries still I'd be okay with having giant monitors showing ads. I always thought that was kinda cool.

I would be willing to pay if the game delivers. However it's a f2p world out there now (and SOE is aware of that). Also they need constant stream of new players to serve as cannon fodder for the paying customers. Anyway I would need at least 2 weeks free trial before giving any money at all since I don't like some of the stuff I've seen/heard recently and would like to be sure what will the final effects on gameplay be. Never buy a cat in a bag.

Kipper · 2012-05-22, 02:15 PM

I don't think I'm imagining this - but pretty sure its been said that there will be an optional subscription, so you can gain XP faster for unlocks, no doubt you will be able to get an extra share of empire resources too or train certs that much faster - anything that helps you get ahead without directly giving you power over a free user is fine by me. Most people will probably do that for a little while.

I'm fairly sure there'll be a good selection of cosmetic items to cash in on everyone's immediate desire to create the character they want to play; as well as a release of new ones every few weeks.

I wouldn't worry about bundles - I'm not in any other station cash games, but I'd be reasonably confident in saying they'll either offer discounts for bulk purchases of station cash, or reduced prices on bundles of different in-game stuff and other special offers -just the same as any other type of shop, online or offline.

infy · 2012-05-22, 02:16 PM

get rich or die tryin'

Shogun · 2012-05-22, 02:58 PM

i really hope they get the pricing right.

in startrek online a good ship costs around 20 bucks. that´s the price i normally pay for a full boxed game, where i even get something physical. i don´t buy the 60 bucks games until they drop in price (only very anticipated games get me to pay more, last one was portal 2)
and now a game wants me to pay 20 bucks for a single ingame item? no chance.
i was fine with paying the ps1 sub (until they announced to put ads into the game but keeping the sub unaltered)
so i hope the gameplay changing items are not too expensive.
and cosmetic items on a stupidly high price are a nogo as well. monocle anyone?

Ruffdog · 2012-05-22, 04:06 PM

I like what Basti said in the May PSU community night:

Spend all your money on cosmetic stuff. Sidegrades? Nah just play some more

Fanglord · 2012-05-22, 04:22 PM

Originally Posted by CutterJohn

PS2 is an MMO, so $100 or so isn't going to cut it. Realize thats less than what PS1 would have made off of you in 4 months(including box price). People who have played for years have paid hundreds to SOE. No doubt there have been a few with continual subscriptions over the past 8 years, and thats nearly $1500.

I agree that tribes was rather egregiously priced for what it was, a simple arena based shooter. Frankly, I hate non mmo f2p games. Just pay your $50 and be done with it already.

I get what your saying, but its kinda the wrong way to look at it. We have been royally boned with subscription prices until now. The cost of server prices has reduced significantly that 'maintenance cost' is no long a factoring reason for a subscription. Just look to guild wars and guild wars 2; they are MMO's with all the same requirements as PS2 but are b2p and they seem pretty popular.

If there is a standard game bundle (or smaller but less pricey ect) along with all the cosmetics ect they will make more than enough money back and will give them the incentive to keep the game fair, upto date and fun because its the expansions that will be were the money is. It absurd that people expect to pay thousands of pounds/dollars on single games.

Its time that the power went back to the player base, and I hope PS2 devs deliver on this with their payment plan cus so far it looks awesome.

Tatwi · 2012-05-22, 05:05 PM

I hope there are constant discounts and deals on gaming hardware when you spend X amount of Station Cash. I mean, I love my Core2 Q8200 / GTS450 system, but if I got a discount on something better, how could my wife argue with that?

Xyntech · 2012-05-22, 06:25 PM

Originally Posted by Ruffdog

I like what Basti said in the May PSU community night:

Spend all your money on cosmetic stuff. Sidegrades? Nah just play some more

probably what i'll do. what good is that sidegrade if i'm ass at the game? i'll unlock it eventually. just buy some cool cosmetics to look good and pay the bills