Official Discussion Thread for "New Ragebound Crown Crates"

SkaraMinoc

Way too many conspiracy theories in this thread regarding the gifting bug.

As far as pricing goes, keep in mind that demand for crown crates is driving this decision.

• For many players, this is a free cosmetic as part of 25 crates they will already buy.
• For some players, the addition of a cosmetic is enough motivation to buy 25 crates instead of 15. It's a "step up" option. The value here is determined by the cost of 10 extra crates + cosmetic.
• For some players, the cosmetic is what they primarily want but they also want a few things from the crates.

I do empathize with players that only want the cosmetic and don't want anything from the crates.

Gadamlub14_ESO

I miss the days when Bethesda was laughed out of the room for 5$ horse armour.

SkaraMinoc

Gadamlub14_ESO wrote: »

I miss the days when Bethesda was laughed out of the room for 5$ horse armour.

It was $2.50 actually. I remember when that happened. It's funny because we were selling cosmetics for $10 to $25 way back in 2003 on Ultima Online emulated shards. Sort of a "we were doing it before anyone else" type of thing. Then Bethesda releases the horse armor pack for a mere $2.50 and it was this huge controversy.

A_Cats_Tail

Why are people so emotionally invested in useless cosmetics? Who cares if they lock some polymorph behind even $1,000 - it has absolutely no impact on the gameplay itself. The bug hindering crates from being gifted is undoubtedly problematic but people calling a cosmetic locked behind $$ predatory is laughable

Soarora

A_Cats_Tail wrote: »

Why are people so emotionally invested in useless cosmetics? Who cares if they lock some polymorph behind even $1,000 - it has absolutely no impact on the gameplay itself. The bug hindering crates from being gifted is undoubtedly problematic but people calling a cosmetic locked behind $$ predatory is laughable

The problem isn't so much that it's a high price for a polymorph but that it's a high price for a polymorph that was widely popular. If this decision is unrelated to the polymorph's popularity, then that's one thing, but if it's in conjunction with the popularity that's something else.

Animar111

Loads of players have asked if they can buy directly for what they want.

And here it is if you want it buy no gambling just a direct sale and you get crown crates for free Awesome 🤩

A_Cats_Tail

Soarora wrote: »

A_Cats_Tail wrote: »

Why are people so emotionally invested in useless cosmetics? Who cares if they lock some polymorph behind even $1,000 - it has absolutely no impact on the gameplay itself. The bug hindering crates from being gifted is undoubtedly problematic but people calling a cosmetic locked behind $$ predatory is laughable

The problem isn't so much that it's a high price for a polymorph but that it's a high price for a polymorph that was widely popular. If this decision is unrelated to the polymorph's popularity, then that's one thing, but if it's in conjunction with the popularity that's something else.

Realistically speaking they can charge whatever amount they deem fit for the polymorph especially if it's in high demand. If anything, what's questionable is the amount of people willing to spend $60-$75 for a cosmetic in the first place. If there wasn't a demand then ZOS wouldn't be charging the amount that they are . Some people just lack the self restraint when it comes to "extravagant" spending

Elsonso

SkaraMinoc wrote: »

As far as pricing goes, keep in mind that demand for crown crates is driving this decision.

I would tend to agree, however, perhaps not in the same manner you are thinking.

popshotbrob14_ESO

Livvy wrote: »

Soarora wrote: »

Livvy wrote: »

Jaimeh wrote: »

metheglyn wrote: »

Is it unfortunate? Sure. Is it disappointing? Absolutely.

Animar111 wrote: »

Loads of players have asked if they can buy directly for what they want.

And here it is if you want it buy no gambling just a direct sale and you get crown crates for free Awesome 🤩

So this is officially the most expensive cosmetic item in ESO by far, since the crown crates are 'free'. Cool.

Soarora

A_Cats_Tail wrote: »

Soarora wrote: »

A_Cats_Tail wrote: »

Why are people so emotionally invested in useless cosmetics? Who cares if they lock some polymorph behind even $1,000 - it has absolutely no impact on the gameplay itself. The bug hindering crates from being gifted is undoubtedly problematic but people calling a cosmetic locked behind $$ predatory is laughable

The problem isn't so much that it's a high price for a polymorph but that it's a high price for a polymorph that was widely popular. If this decision is unrelated to the polymorph's popularity, then that's one thing, but if it's in conjunction with the popularity that's something else.

Realistically speaking they can charge whatever amount they deem fit for the polymorph especially if it's in high demand. If anything, what's questionable is the amount of people willing to spend $60-$75 for a cosmetic in the first place. If there wasn't a demand then ZOS wouldn't be charging the amount that they are . Some people just lack the self restraint when it comes to "extravagant" spending

Oh absolutely. There comes a point that the blame is on the people buying it. What makes this a bad move in my opinion is because it’s a new system and because it’s something highly wanted (like dangling a carrot)... and because lots of people are already mad at zos for a lot of reasons. When it comes to something like Skyrim being re-released over and over and over again the only people I blame are the people who keep buying it.

thegreatme

KENDALLPOP wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi all, just to follow up here. As noted in the article, "Note that the Shade polymorph is automatically unlocked and added to your collectibles when you acquire this one-off bundle (25 Ragebound Crate Bundle) and is not included in the crates themselves."

We are actively trying to get crown crate gifting back up, but our team is still working through some issues related to gifting. As for feedback around the Shade Polymorph being tied to the Ragebound Crate bundle, we will submit any and all feedback related to this to the team. We know this is new, so your feedback is appreciated here. Thanks all.

Locking a highly anticipated polymorph behind a large crown crate purchase is the absolute worst sort of FOMO marketing and you won't get good feedback from it.

As React mentioned above, weird how gifting ONLY crates is broke for these new crates...??? Nothing else is broke but crates? Suuuuuuure....

Trying to say that sort of bug is a secret conspiracy by ZoS to push crate sales is absolutely stupid.

The people who can't/won't buy crates with real world money and get crates by paying other players with gold are likely STILL not going to buy crates with their own money, which HURTS ZoS's profit margin, not helps it. Gifted crates still make ZoS just as much (or more) money than otherwise.

I don't agree with a lot of things ZoS says/does as a company, but lets be fair here. There's literally no financial gain for ZoS by blocking crate gifting and "pretending its a bug". There's a lot of financial gain for ZoS to have/allow crate gifting because the people selling crates to other people for gold are still sending money to ZoS. Gifted crates aren't free, someone still has to pay for them.

The fact people want to say ZoS would intentionally gut their own sales potential to market to people who don't spend their own money on crates anyway and won't EVER spend their own money on crates is entirely ludicrous lol

React

thegreatme wrote: »

KENDALLPOP wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi all, just to follow up here. As noted in the article, "Note that the Shade polymorph is automatically unlocked and added to your collectibles when you acquire this one-off bundle (25 Ragebound Crate Bundle) and is not included in the crates themselves."

We are actively trying to get crown crate gifting back up, but our team is still working through some issues related to gifting. As for feedback around the Shade Polymorph being tied to the Ragebound Crate bundle, we will submit any and all feedback related to this to the team. We know this is new, so your feedback is appreciated here. Thanks all.

Locking a highly anticipated polymorph behind a large crown crate purchase is the absolute worst sort of FOMO marketing and you won't get good feedback from it.

As React mentioned above, weird how gifting ONLY crates is broke for these new crates...??? Nothing else is broke but crates? Suuuuuuure....

Trying to say that sort of bug is a secret conspiracy by ZoS to push crate sales is absolutely stupid.

The people who can't/won't buy crates with real world money and get crates by paying other players with gold are likely STILL not going to buy crates with their own money, which HURTS ZoS's profit margin, not helps it. Gifted crates still make ZoS just as much (or more) money than otherwise.

I don't agree with a lot of things ZoS says/does as a company, but lets be fair here. There's literally no financial gain for ZoS by blocking crate gifting and "pretending its a bug". There's a lot of financial gain for ZoS to have/allow crate gifting because the people selling crates to other people for gold are still sending money to ZoS. Gifted crates aren't free, someone still has to pay for them.

The fact people want to say ZoS would intentionally gut their own sales potential to market to people who don't spend their own money on crates anyway and won't EVER spend their own money on crates is entirely ludicrous lol

Kevin seems to be pretty adamant that it is a bug. I'll take him at his word even though I have no reason historically to believe a single statement from zenimax. However..

You are totally incorrect about there being no financial gain possible from this. There are millions of crowns in circulation that were purchased with Argentinian and Venezuelan dollars, for literal pennies compared to the U.S pricing before they were adjusted, and those cannot be used to gift this crown bundle due to this bug.

Hexvaldr

As someone whose main character is Reachfolk (along with 5 others who are also Reachfolk), I am super excited for this!

Marcusorion1

To be fair, if the marketing department did not try new avenues of revenue it would possibly be a bigger concern. I have no doubt the 'failure to be able to gift' is not intentional as it a direct negative to the bottom line. Likely due to an internal process that does seem to miss such things on occasion.

The lack of clarity in the announcement - especially with a new form of "packaging" and price bump - again, see above.

I will wait and see what things really look like in game and with zero expectations from the crates themselves, decide if the new skin is of that value to me. I'm happy for those looking forward to it

Animar111

@ZOS_Kevin will there be eso+ members discount on the 25 crate bundle…..?

SkaraMinoc

React wrote: »

thegreatme wrote: »

KENDALLPOP wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi all, just to follow up here. As noted in the article, "Note that the Shade polymorph is automatically unlocked and added to your collectibles when you acquire this one-off bundle (25 Ragebound Crate Bundle) and is not included in the crates themselves."

We are actively trying to get crown crate gifting back up, but our team is still working through some issues related to gifting. As for feedback around the Shade Polymorph being tied to the Ragebound Crate bundle, we will submit any and all feedback related to this to the team. We know this is new, so your feedback is appreciated here. Thanks all.

Locking a highly anticipated polymorph behind a large crown crate purchase is the absolute worst sort of FOMO marketing and you won't get good feedback from it.

As React mentioned above, weird how gifting ONLY crates is broke for these new crates...??? Nothing else is broke but crates? Suuuuuuure....

Trying to say that sort of bug is a secret conspiracy by ZoS to push crate sales is absolutely stupid.

The people who can't/won't buy crates with real world money and get crates by paying other players with gold are likely STILL not going to buy crates with their own money, which HURTS ZoS's profit margin, not helps it. Gifted crates still make ZoS just as much (or more) money than otherwise.

I don't agree with a lot of things ZoS says/does as a company, but lets be fair here. There's literally no financial gain for ZoS by blocking crate gifting and "pretending its a bug". There's a lot of financial gain for ZoS to have/allow crate gifting because the people selling crates to other people for gold are still sending money to ZoS. Gifted crates aren't free, someone still has to pay for them.

The fact people want to say ZoS would intentionally gut their own sales potential to market to people who don't spend their own money on crates anyway and won't EVER spend their own money on crates is entirely ludicrous lol

Kevin seems to be pretty adamant that it is a bug. I'll take him at his word even though I have no reason historically to believe a single statement from zenimax. However..

You are totally incorrect about there being no financial gain possible from this. There are millions of crowns in circulation that were purchased with Argentinian and Venezuelan dollars, for literal pennies compared to the U.S pricing before they were adjusted, and those cannot be used to gift this crown bundle due to this bug.

Deceptively introducing a bug to try and generate additional revenue in a very limited timeframe and then lying to players about it doesn't make sense. The liability and ethics would be a huge red flag and bubble up to senior leadership which would never greenlight something like this. Not to mention the math doesn't add up since hundreds of players want to buy and sell crowns this week at regular prices and are unable to do so. ZOS is losing money right now due to this bug.

Also, millions of crowns isn't exactly that much. The top whales purchase over 1 million crowns for around $5k USD once or twice a year. Then they'll sell that for gold or stock up on crown crates to buy all the Radiant Apex mounts.

React

SkaraMinoc wrote: »

React wrote: »

thegreatme wrote: »

KENDALLPOP wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi all, just to follow up here. As noted in the article, "Note that the Shade polymorph is automatically unlocked and added to your collectibles when you acquire this one-off bundle (25 Ragebound Crate Bundle) and is not included in the crates themselves."

We are actively trying to get crown crate gifting back up, but our team is still working through some issues related to gifting. As for feedback around the Shade Polymorph being tied to the Ragebound Crate bundle, we will submit any and all feedback related to this to the team. We know this is new, so your feedback is appreciated here. Thanks all.

Locking a highly anticipated polymorph behind a large crown crate purchase is the absolute worst sort of FOMO marketing and you won't get good feedback from it.

As React mentioned above, weird how gifting ONLY crates is broke for these new crates...??? Nothing else is broke but crates? Suuuuuuure....

Trying to say that sort of bug is a secret conspiracy by ZoS to push crate sales is absolutely stupid.

The people who can't/won't buy crates with real world money and get crates by paying other players with gold are likely STILL not going to buy crates with their own money, which HURTS ZoS's profit margin, not helps it. Gifted crates still make ZoS just as much (or more) money than otherwise.

I don't agree with a lot of things ZoS says/does as a company, but lets be fair here. There's literally no financial gain for ZoS by blocking crate gifting and "pretending its a bug". There's a lot of financial gain for ZoS to have/allow crate gifting because the people selling crates to other people for gold are still sending money to ZoS. Gifted crates aren't free, someone still has to pay for them.

The fact people want to say ZoS would intentionally gut their own sales potential to market to people who don't spend their own money on crates anyway and won't EVER spend their own money on crates is entirely ludicrous lol

Kevin seems to be pretty adamant that it is a bug. I'll take him at his word even though I have no reason historically to believe a single statement from zenimax. However..

You are totally incorrect about there being no financial gain possible from this. There are millions of crowns in circulation that were purchased with Argentinian and Venezuelan dollars, for literal pennies compared to the U.S pricing before they were adjusted, and those cannot be used to gift this crown bundle due to this bug.

Deceptively introducing a bug to try and generate additional revenue in a very limited timeframe and then lying to players about it doesn't make sense. The liability and ethics would be a huge red flag and bubble up to senior leadership which would never greenlight something like this. Not to mention the math doesn't add up since hundreds of players want to buy and sell crowns this week at regular prices and are unable to do so. ZOS is losing money right now due to this bug.

Also, millions of crowns isn't exactly that much. The top whales purchase over 1 million crowns for around $5k USD once or twice a year. Then they'll sell that for gold or stock up on crown crates to buy all the Radiant Apex mounts.

Honestly, nothing this company does makes sense. The way they've lied to us for years about a myriad of things has brought my opinion of them as low as it can possibly go, and personally I would not put anything past them.

But like I said, I'll take Kevin's word for it this time. I was just pointing out that regardless of it being a bug or not, there is potential for financial gain via newly purchased crowns that wouldn't have been purchased if gifting was available, the same way there is potential for financial loss through players not purchasing the bundle to gift. It's not like we have the metrics to definitively say that one is greater than the other.

Anyways, between the combat bugs and the crown store bugs, they really aren't making good on their promise to "do better" this year 😎

red_emu

The most anticipated cosmetic locked behind a massive price tag? That's ZOS in a nutshell 😂

Could have at least given us "a chance" to unlock it:

25 crates bundle - 100% chance
15 crates bundle - 35% chance
4 crates bundle - 5% chance
1 crate bundle - 1% chance

Ekzorka

I remember how a crown gem exclusives started the same way. Someone liked the overrated mount (600 gems for 100 gems model quality), and then it became commonplace.

RedRoomGaming

Wolf_Eye wrote: »

RedRoomGaming wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

RedRoomGaming wrote: »

The one time deal getting the polymorph I get, but once you buy the 25 crates can you get them again? Like say I wanted to buy 100 crates for myself could I do that?

likely no, since the polymorph is directly added to collections, it doesnt all the sudden become a runebox that you can trade if you already had it

I didn’t mean anything like that, what I meant was since the polymorph is a one time thing, are they 25 crates a one time purchase or can we buy more of them? Or once you’ve bought them you can only do the 15 unless gifting gets fixed

In the official article, it says "we’re also introducing a new 25-crate bundle as a one-time purchase ". So I'm assuming you can only buy the 25 pack once.
~

So why are people getting so upset about gifting? You bought it for yourself but then want to gift your friend so they get the polymorph but **poof** it’s gone because you can’t purchase it anymore.

Also I get where everyone is annoyed because the polymorph looks amazing and people who can’t afford it won’t be able to get it. Still, once you buy 1 round of 25 crates that’s it. You can’t gift or buy again

Faulgor

I remember when the community raged against any cash shop at all.
I even remember when Gina said the cash shop pop-up when logging in was not intended and wouldn't be as in-your-face in the future.

They'll just continue to shift the base line of acceptable monetization until the servers shut down.

If you don't like this, you'll just be replaced by new players that are fine with it. That's how it has been from the start.

FluffyBird

Faulgor wrote: »

They'll just continue to shift the base line of acceptable monetization until the servers shut down.

This. And this is what I disliked about ESO monetization so much, the "let's see how much you want this shiny" approach. Coupled with poor game quality in certain areas and poor communication, this just motivates me to spend money and time elsewhere.

FluffyBird

Or maybe they are trying to compensate for the loss of profit from a certain country where ESO purchases are no longer available

Faulgor

FluffyBird wrote: »

Faulgor wrote: »

They'll just continue to shift the base line of acceptable monetization until the servers shut down.

This. And this is what I disliked about ESO monetization so much, the "let's see how much you want this shiny" approach. Coupled with poor game quality in certain areas and poor communication, this just motivates me to spend money and time elsewhere.

Really hurts to know all that work on the cash shop could be put to use on the game itself. Which is why I was always against the change from P2P to B2P - when you stop charging for the content itself, you have to nickle and dime everything else, and the rewards for the content inevitably diminish because they compete with the cash shop.
There's a reason why they've been giving away DLCs a couple of times, yet sit on crown crates like a mother hen. The former is just the lure to get you to spend money on the real content - shiny shiny shiny cosmetics.

James-Wayne

If this new crown crate is going to go the way I think it is they deserve all the hate they are about to get....

thankfully Starfield is out this year so I can go clear my head of all these greedy tactics they have been introducing into the game of late, its wrecking the game.

Elsonso

red_emu wrote: »

The most anticipated cosmetic locked behind a massive price tag? That's ZOS in a nutshell 😂

Could have at least given us "a chance" to unlock it:

25 crates bundle - 100% chance
15 crates bundle - 35% chance
4 crates bundle - 5% chance
1 crate bundle - 1% chance

I respectfully recommend that they don't do this. The Crown-based RNG needs to be limited to the contents of the crates. It would be better to just put the polymorph into the loot boxes as a random drop. Even better to just sell it for Crowns directly in the Crown store.

Grizzbeorn

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Dojohoda wrote: »

Question about the bolded part above. (and assuming gifting will be fixed)
Since the polymorph is unlocked upon crate bundle purchase; in the case of gifting, who receives the polymorph?
__The person who bought the 25 Ragebound Crate Bundle as a gift to someone else?
or
__The person who receives the gift?

The person being gifted the crates should receive the polymorph.

"Should," or will?

Gadamlub14_ESO

James-Wayne wrote: »

If this new crown crate is going to go the way I think it is they deserve all the hate they are about to get....

thankfully Starfield is out this year so I can go clear my head of all these greedy tactics they have been introducing into the game of late, its wrecking the game.

Remember creation club and fallout 76s monetization which was based off the practices started here?

It will be the same in star field and in es6.

Kallykat

SkaraMinoc wrote: »

Way too many conspiracy theories in this thread regarding the gifting bug.

As far as pricing goes, keep in mind that demand for crown crates is driving this decision.

• For many players, this is a free cosmetic as part of 25 crates they will already buy.
• For some players, the addition of a cosmetic is enough motivation to buy 25 crates instead of 15. It's a "step up" option. The value here is determined by the cost of 10 extra crates + cosmetic.
• For some players, the cosmetic is what they primarily want but they also want a few things from the crates.

I do empathize with players that only want the cosmetic and don't want anything from the crates.

I am of this camp. I usually buy 2 15-crate packs when the new crate comes out anyway. I'm still leery about how much the bundle will cost, but if it's a reasonable jump from the 15-crate pack, then it might be like a free or cheap polymorph thrown in on top of what I was going to buy anyway. Personally, I'd prefer this (if the price is right) to putting it at the mount tier in the crates, which has been happening lately with costumes and skins.

I realize it's more difficult to swallow for people who don't already purchase crates, and the timing of the gifting bug doesn't help. I do think it's a bug though.

I wonder if this would have gone down smoother if they had simultaneously made it a limited time offer for crown gems, even at a high price? That way there would at least be a second option for those who don't/can't afford to purchase crowns.

blktauna

James-Wayne wrote: »

If this new crown crate is going to go the way I think it is they deserve all the hate they are about to get....

thankfully Starfield is out this year so I can go clear my head of all these greedy tactics they have been introducing into the game of late, its wrecking the game.

Dude, Starfield, assuming it actually lands this year, will be exactly the same. Prepare yourself for that now.