Little comment on current Crown "so called" sale.

EffBie

Once upon a time the biggest package of Crowns you could buy was 5500. They cost £23.99 which meant each crown cost 0.44p There were regular real sales where the price came down to £14.99 which meant each crown cost 0.26p or about a 40% reduction. I was very happy to buy at this price.

Now I can buy 21,000 crowns in bulk. This so called 20% off sale allows me to buy 21,000 at £87.99 which means each crown costs 0.42p

Oh look! the current sale price for buying in massive bulk of 21,000 crowns is the same as the old normal price for buying a sensible moderate quantity of 5500 crowns

Price of crowns has gone up by 20% Spend to achieve best price has gone up by nearly a factor of 5 Sales are not really sales

I won't be buying any more crowns until prices come down to about around 0.30p per crown, or around £60 to £65 per 21,000 crowns. I get a few monthly with ESO in any case.

[Edit to remove bashing]

Aliyavana

They are just testing the waters to see if enough players buy at lower discounts, they will probably keep or revert back to old prices depending on their success

SosRuvaak

Aliyavana wrote: »

They are just testing the waters to see if enough players buy at lower discounts, they will probably keep or revert back to old prices depending on their success

yea but these tests shouldn't be happening in the first place.

woufff

I will for sure not buy any crowns at these prices, I call this a (very bad) joke.

Mureel

Aliyavana wrote: »

They are just testing the waters to see if enough players buy at lower discounts, they will probably keep or revert back to old prices depending on their success

There are a lot of people with more money than sense- so I'd prepare myself to accept that this is the new normal.

As long as it's going this way: I've bought my last pack of crowns. I will just save up my + ones from now on.

maroite

Checked today and for NA/US people, the 21000 pack is still listed as "Best Value" despite the 14000 pack having a very marginal (decimals) increase in crowns per dollar ratio. It was something like 140 crowns per USD for both the 21000 and 14000 packs.

Bigevilpeter

Yup was really waiting from crown sale, but when i saw only 20% discount I was like pass, im not buying huge bundles for that price

ArvenAldmeri

I was always buying crowns when I had the luxury to spend money. However I dont have that and wont have it anytime in the near (couple years) future. So buying crown for the price they put it for "sale" is a joke to me. Not gonna even bother until the sale is 40-50% like it was in past sales. 20% is just not worth it. Its still freaking 100 euro for the big pack, which is waaaaay over the board for what you can actually buy with it in the game.

Chickenstein

Same here. When I saw the mail going "crown sale" I was kinda excited. Then read on ... uhhh 20%? Well ... I guess some "opportunities" are not really a big deal to pass on.

JasonSilverSpring

EffBie wrote: »

Once upon a time the biggest package of Crowns you could buy was 5500. They cost £23.99 which meant each crown cost 0.44p There were regular real sales where the price came down to £14.99 which meant each crown cost 0.26p or about a 40% reduction. I was very happy to buy at this price.

Now I can buy 21,000 crowns in bulk. This so called 20% off sale allows me to buy 21,000 at £87.99 which means each crown costs 0.42p

Oh look! the current sale price for buying in massive bulk of 21,000 crowns is the same as the old normal price for buying a sensible moderate quantity of 5500 crowns

Price of crowns has gone up by 20% Spend to achieve best price has gone up by nearly a factor of 5 Sales are not really sales

I won't be buying any more crowns until prices come down to about around 0.30p per crown, or around £60 to £65 per 21,000 crowns. I get a few monthly with ESO in any case.

That is true in your region because ZOS raised the base price a while back due to currency conversion rates (their stated reason, not out to debate whether that was the true reason or not). But, at least in US dollars the base price did not change so this 20% discount is still a discount, just not as large as prior sales.

I suspect part of it is testing the waters so to speak, but I suspect it is more likely that ZOS has data on the rate of crown purchases and sees some drop off, but not enough of one for them to lower the prices as much. Also, with Summerset coming up and new or returning players coming on board, perhaps a 20% sale will be sufficient for their goals.

They might sale less crowns, but they might well make more revenue from the lower sales at the higher price than the more discounted price. They will definitely have the data at the end of this sale. If it worked in their favor we might see less (or no) 50% off sales. If not, we will likely see the return of the 50% sale.

I don't get all the money-grabbing and greedy comments though. This is a business with a goal of making a profit. If they don't make the appropriate return, they will abandon the game. I am not saying that they are scraping by but a company is not out to just make a little profit. They want to maximize their profit. I want ESO to remain profitable so that it continues to be maintained and expanded. Yes, there is a balance of not overcharging your customers to the point that they leave; hopefully ZOS is good at maintaining that balance with all their customers (not just the ones that post on the forums).

Chickenstein

JasonSilverSpring wrote: »

I don't get all the money-grabbing and greedy comments though. This is a business with a goal of making a profit. If they don't make the appropriate return, they will abandon the game. I am not saying that they are scraping by but a company is not out to just make a little profit. They want to maximize their profit. I want ESO to remain profitable so that it continues to be maintained and expanded. Yes, there is a balance of not overcharging your customers to the point that they leave; hopefully ZOS is good at maintaining that balance with all their customers (not just the ones that post on the forums).

While I don't share the money-grabbing view either, it's highly disputable what actually maximizes profit, and absolutely legit to discuss exactly that.

Seeing that we're talking about virtual goods here ... I was happy to buy mounts at a less steep rate; however, lately I have the feeling that in-game items tend to get more expensive (or are rarely if ever discounted), while having less crown sales on the other side. I sank quite a bit of money in crowns in the past, but will stop doing so at that rate for sure. It's not about critizing greed, it's about passing a personal limit (like paying 25 Euros for a virtual mount I already have dozens of).

JasonSilverSpring

Chickenstein wrote: »

JasonSilverSpring wrote: »

I don't get all the money-grabbing and greedy comments though. This is a business with a goal of making a profit. If they don't make the appropriate return, they will abandon the game. I am not saying that they are scraping by but a company is not out to just make a little profit. They want to maximize their profit. I want ESO to remain profitable so that it continues to be maintained and expanded. Yes, there is a balance of not overcharging your customers to the point that they leave; hopefully ZOS is good at maintaining that balance with all their customers (not just the ones that post on the forums).

While I don't share the money-grabbing view either, it's highly disputable what actually maximizes profit, and absolutely legit to discuss exactly that.

Seeing that we're talking about virtual goods here ... I was happy to buy mounts at a less steep rate; however, lately I have the feeling that in-game items tend to get more expensive (or are rarely if ever discounted), while having less crown sales on the other side. I sank quite a bit of money in crowns in the past, but will stop doing so at that rate for sure. It's not about critizing greed, it's about passing a personal limit (like paying 25 Euros for a virtual mount I already have dozens of).

Well, the thing is that if others are willing to buy crowns at only 20% off or even full price and buy those expensive mounts then ZOS still earns more despite losing your purchase.

I have reduced my buying of crown store items as well and fortunately still have some crowns left from the last sale. Time will tell if enough people are holding back like we are.

Tabbycat

Please don't be mad at me.

I did buy some of these crowns but I had intended to buy them anyway.

There were some mounts/pets/costumes that I wanted to buy before they took them out of the regular crown store to stuff into gamble crates.

I saved a little bit of money I wasn't expecting to and while it wasn't a huge amount it was still nice.

Pixel_Zealot

I'm not really concerned about crown prices, more about what you can do with them.

When a Coldharbour "house" is the same price as a game with 30-60hours of guaranteed fun.
WHY *** WOULD I SPEND THAT MUCH MONEY ON CROWNS TO GET THAT HOUSE?

Bam_Bam

Think it's finally starting to dawn on people that we are geting fleeced at just about every single turn. Crown crates and throttling the life out of the RNG attached to them. increasing the price of crowns. Mark my words - subscriptions will be going up eventually. There are a whole bunch of new games on the horizon plus there are lots other games around. ...

ESO's marketing team need to be really careful. Loyalty works both ways and when its only players are demostrating that, it won't take much for them to walk away. If Zenimax manage to lose the player base - they'd only have themselves to blame.

Nyladreas

In my opinion...

Crowns are highly overpriced even at 50% discount...
This 20% we have now is either a really bad joke or someone at ZOS was really high.

Honestly, Zos, if you had the crowns at 50% of their current value as a regular price. Your profits would skyrocket. Right now half of the population doesn't want it or even can't afford it.

Paying as much money as some households spend monthly on their food, just to get a few crowns really, is really not a good way to go for most players.

ThyIronFist

There will be new stuff and also new items in the crown crates in Summerset and that's why they are baiting people into buying crowns with this so-called sale.

It makes me sad to see that this actually used to be subscription only and there was no constant crown store and crown crates shoved into your face, the signs were there when ESO became buy to play, it happens with every game - they call it "buy to play" while severely limiting the player (no craft bag, no access to DLC, etc) and still force players to have a subscription while constantly shoving this crap into everyones faces while the game itself still suffers from severe issues after 4 years.

What a joke and what a shame.

BUT THEY R A BUSINESS THEY HAF TO MAEK MONEIS HURR DURR HOW DARE U CRITIZE ZOS HURR BEST MMO 2018

Prof_Bawbag

Bethesda did this with their Fallout season pass. Now when it's on sale, it's on sale at the old regular full price. Some folk still argue that's a bargain. Lmfao.

huntgod_ESO

When did they raise the price of crowns? For example when did the 5500 crown packs go from $23.99 to $39.99?

It is weird for a company to increase the cost of their game currency, normally you make that correction in the item pricing.

Prof_Bawbag

The increase is 2 pronged. Almost everything in the CS has increased in price and coupled with the crown increase, they've basically *** us over twice.

Tyralbin

What I don't like is the lack of transparency. At least be open and let us know there has been a price hike before offering at a discounted price.

If there was an announcement then it was not made clear enough. They could post announcements like they do with the new crown store items in a popup box.

Or at least add the info on the launcher. Or send out an email with pricing info.

I should not have search for this stuff.

I even don't mind the prices going up as I understand that costs do increase; but please don't hide stuff just alienates the community.

N00BxV1

I was planning to drop a couple hundred on the next crown sale, but since it’s only 20% decided to instead buy a few full games and some herb. There’s just nothing in the crown store that I’m willing to pay listed price for.

elijafire

ThyIronFist wrote: »

BUT THEY R A BUSINESS THEY HAF TO MAEK MONEIS HURR DURR HOW DARE U CRITIZE ZOS HURR BEST MMO 2018

Epic lol!

I am a business man. All of my clients are ecstatic about my service, you know why? It's expectations. I set their expectations then provide a quality service. I always meet or exceed those set expectations.

Maybe ZoS can learn from my business model and lets hope they aren't going by the greedy corporate entity old boys crony capitalistic model so elaborately described by Thyironfist here

esotoon

huntgod_ESO wrote: »

When did they raise the price of crowns? For example when did the 5500 crown packs go from $23.99 to $39.99?

It is weird for a company to increase the cost of their game currency, normally you make that correction in the item pricing.

Last September, they readjusted Crown Prices in many Countries. The official reason being due to fluctuations in local currencies.

They also introduced larger packs, meaning to get the same price per Crown after bulk discount, you needed to buy bigger packs than before.

In the UK for instance, this time last year a pack of 5500 crowns at full price was £23.99. Due to the changes in Crown Prices and pack sizes, a pack of 5500 crowns in this latest 20% off sale is £23.99.

So for a lot of people, it feels like they are double dipping.


.

mb10

Don't you all have enough mounts, outfits and pets by now?
Stop feeding into this BS

JasonSilverSpring

Nyladreas wrote: »

In my opinion...

Crowns are highly overpriced even at 50% discount...
This 20% we have now is either a really bad joke or someone at ZOS was really high.

Honestly, Zos, if you had the crowns at 50% of their current value as a regular price. Your profits would skyrocket. Right now half of the population doesn't want it or even can't afford it.

Paying as much money as some households spend monthly on their food, just to get a few crowns really, is really not a good way to go for most players.

Where is your hard data to prove the statement I made bold above? It is easy to say that, but you have no data to back it up. First, the forum users are likely a small subset of ESO players. For their profit to skyrocket at a permanent 50% discount users would need to buy well more than twice as many crowns as they buy now. Sure, maybe some on these forums would, but where is your proof that most would?

ZOS has the data on how much the sales spike when they do sales. I am sure they are not perfect, but they have a lot more data than we do to use to make those decisions.

There are obviously people playing this game at many different income levels, but we have no idea how many players there are that are financially comfortable and able/willing to spend on the crown store at current price levels. Based on the number of apex and even apex radiant mounts I see there are definitely some that can afford the current prices.

It is one thing to complain about pricing. I agree the prices have gotten too high for my taste and I don't like all the limited time offers or apex radiant mounts, but to make such claims about how ZOS should change their business model based on no facts is not constructive.

Peekachu99

“Best value” has always been the 5500 packs—at least on PS4. I don’t know why the others are even listed when anyone with rudimentary math skills can see they’re less crown per dollar.

Tyrion87

huntgod_ESO wrote: »

It is weird for a company to increase the cost of their game currency, normally you make that correction in the item pricing.

Actually they did both of these things... They increased the price of crown packs some time ago in many countries (including mine) and at the same time you can see a trend of more and more expensive items in the crown store. Example? Just look at the Fang Lair Courser mount - it is a DLC themed mount (Dragon Bones DLC) and costs 3000 crowns if you decide to buy it separately. Now look back at the other DLC themed mounts released in the past - camel (Thieves Guild DLC), wolf (Dark Brotherhood DLC), bear (Orsinium DLC) - they all cost 1800 crowns. Another example is the recent Lustrous Nix-Ox Fabricant Steed which is just a more sophisticated recolor of the mount we all got for free and costs 3500 crowns (for no reason).

So yeah... the prices of both the crown packs and the crown store items increased. And since the system is based on two-time purchases (at first crowns and then crown store items) all this is very shady and deceptive.

Tyralbin

Well, I bet this has something to do with gifting.

Are they expecting more crown purchases?

I am going to be running guild lottos with gifts as a prize which I will use my own saved crowns to buy the gift. I was even thinking of purchasing more crowns in the future if the lotto was successful in building the guild coffers. Now I am not so sure.

So the crowns are not just for cosmetics as some have stated they can be used to buy DLCs or other game enhancing packages.

Do not equate crown purchases and crown crate purchases as the same thing. They are completely different.

danno8

Nyladreas wrote: »

In my opinion...
Honestly, Zos, if you had the crowns at 50% of their current value as a regular price. Your profits would skyrocket. Right now half of the population doesn't want it or even can't afford it.

If you run the math on your statement, their profits would only be the same...

Smasherx74

We need to boycott crown sales and force them to lower the prices.

Enough community feedback can make this happen. Easily.