Crown store pricing

Silufadumar

Like most players of ESO, I love the game. And like most players, I understand that Zos can't 'please all the people all the time', there will always be aspects of the game that some enjoy and others never touch. But one thing I think almost all players agree on, is that the cost of Crown store items is way too high.

ESO is a 'live' game, with a steady stream of new content and updates (loving Summerset by the way), all of which needs to be funded one way or another, the lovely guys and gals that bring us all that great content need paying after all and Zos is a business not a charity.

Having said that, and understanding that costs need to be covered and profit made....

I CANNOT SEE ANY JUSTIFICATION FOR THE PRICES OF CROWN STORE ITEMS!


My perspective comes from being a long time player, an ESO+ member, a minimum wage earner and a consumer of goods from the Crown store. Most of my purchases are Homestead related, with the (very) occasional Crown Crate or other item.

Before someone screams 'Your part of the problem'... STOP! .... No, players who use the Crown store, whether thats to help support the game or just to get that special item for their latest decorating masterpiece, are NOT the problem.

The problem is the highly inflated prices. Sure, those with enough disposable income will pay whatever the asking price is for something they want, but why does Zos focus so much on those with the deepest pockets. So many players simply don't earn enough to pay the prices of the Crown store and many others who can afford to, simply refuse to pay such high prices.

This business practice lends an air of elitism to a game and community that shouldn't be there, it encourages feelings of 'them and us' between the 'have's and have not's'. It creates friction between the player base and Zos, promoting the idea that Zos is just another greedy corporation.

But it doesn't have to be this way.

• Reduce the cost of Crown store items across the board (and I mean by a LOT).

• This will allow more players to buy from the Crown store and buy more often.

• Which will reduce the feeling of elitism due to more players being able to get the items they want.

• That in turn ups the fun factor.

• And lessons negativity towards Zos.

• Zos still gets its profit, because MORE players will buy from the Crown store MORE often.

Please @ZOS_GinaBruno and @ZOS_JessicaFolsom .... can we make the Crown store a place for all of your community to enjoy and not just for the wealthy few.

With kind regards and love for your game.

Aliyavana

There is enough heavy spenders to keep the prices there at sadly

Ley

I've always been surprised at how much they charge for crown store pixels. It's not that I can't afford the items, they're just generally not worth the asking price to me. I'm no market specialist but I suspect that there could be other lucrative approaches.

I would think, with as easy as it is to re-skin existing models for things in the crown store that ZOS would be trying to get as many people as possible to make many small transactions rather than a few people make large transactions. Every month I would dump tons of new items into the crown store that are mostly just re-skinned and/or resized variants of existing models.

For the sake of stability and overall customer satisfaction, I would personally rather sell pixels to 100 people for $5 each, than sell pixels to 50 people for $10 each, or even worse 20 people for $25 each.

adriant1978

Sadly it's difficult for people on the forum to argue when ZOS has both data and market research telling them what sells and for how much. They know their market better than we ever could.

Prices of some things are borderline ridiculous though.

Ravenayle

I completely agree. Even though there are a few who can easily afford the prices, most of us cannot justify it and I believe ZoS in the end would make more money by lowering the prices and selling to a wider consumer base. Plus, more fun for more customers.

Wildberryjack

They'd make more money in the long run by permanently reducing the cost of crowns. People would likely buy more often, and some who won't buy now would. Many have a cut off point they just won't go over, or can't afford to go over. But you get in under that cut off point and they're tossing their spare cash at you instead of saying nope.

Woefulmonkey

@Silufadumar


1. ) Players with subscriptions received 1500 crowns a month (basically they give you 15 ESO dollars for the 15 real dollars you give them).
2. ) Some people are willing to buy items with crowns just to continue to support ESO development since that is obviously going to continued game content development. (They have been releasing new dungeons almost every other month and new expansions once to twice a years... that is a lot )

So the subscriptions 'kick backs' and players who are just willing to spend money on the game regularly keep the prices up.

Could they make more money if they lowered prices?

Maybe but I doubt it. I think the majority of players are not 'long term' players they are short timers who are unlikely to buy items even if they were really cheap.

For 'long timers' who pay for subscriptions and play regularly almost every day, the prices don't feel that high.

Zypheran

adriant1978 wrote: »

Sadly it's difficult for people on the forum to argue when ZOS has both data and market research telling them what sells and for how much. They know their market better than we ever could.

Prices of some things are borderline ridiculous though.

But where would they have gotten data to disprove OPs argument? House pricing has always been ridiculously overpriced. They have never had a sale or a cheap house to test whether the increase in people purchasing at a lower price leads to overall increased revenue. In order to have the market info you speak of, they would need to, just once at least, have a CS house sale and or bring out a CS house for <5000 in order to see how their market responds.
I for one would be very surprised if 50% price slash wouldn't lead to higher overall revenue from increased sales. Remember they are not selling a physical product.
I actually suspect that the issue could be that if they sell more at a cheaper price, then more people will own more homes and this will put strain on servers so they prefer that fewer people will buy at higher prices.

Aurie

1500 crowns per month as an ESO+ member does not go very far. Indeed there are quite a few items in the crown store that cost more than 1500 each. And buying a number of cheaper items soon adds up.

Players who are into housing and decorating are the most likely to spend more crowns, especially given the ludicrous amount of mats needed for crafting furnishing items.

So I would say that a lot ESO+ members probably have to top up their 1500 crowns allowance in order to buy the things they want, or go without.

Turelus

Aliyavana wrote: »

There is enough heavy spenders to keep the prices there at sadly

This. They've crept them up until they found a good base line for what they can get away with for various types of things, now they're normal rather than "too much".

Silufadumar

Thanks for the comments guys.

In general I think a far lower and fairer pricing structure would be better for everyone including Zos.

Lower prices would make the Crown store more accessible and more inviting to more players.

Being able to actually afford items they see, makes more players willing to buy.

More players buying more items more often.... this could only be a good thing, for everyone.