Is the cost of Crown Store items just "Too Damn High" ?

Samsayia · January 2016

YES!

Vox wrote: »

No. If people are willing to spend the money on cosmetic items then I think they should be highly priced (maybe not as much as a DLC for a costume) but certainly a lot more than just £5 worth or something.

I'm sorry but that is just a ridiculous argument.
It has nothing to do about willingness to spend.

It's about "is ZoS making money" off of the cash shop in a way that doesn't off-balance the game somehow. Money that will keep this game going strong. With items as highly priced as they are I doubt they're making what they could be. As I said in my previous post cash shops bank on cosmetics only when it becomes an economy of scale and other people, like Nexon and Valve have proven this. Lots of cheap digital makeup for low prices are pennies that add up to dollars that add up to a ridiculous amount of money.

Releasing one heroic nord armor that doesn't stand up to quality for $20 is asinine and once the "release" period is over I doubt it will continue to sell. Try to look at what Valve did with their hats project or how much money Nexon makes off of color dyes and try to tell me that it's not an economy of scale.

ZoS is doing the cash shop jig wrong

Voxicity · January 2016

NO

sirrmattus wrote: »

Kammakazi wrote: »

Isn't this game 18+?

I assume Zeni assumes that us players have at least income to pay for the game, subbing, and the crown store merchandise.

Why does everybody wanna be so cheap about stuff?

im guessin your a rich kid

Implying you have to be rich to buy ESO crown store items lol

Voxicity · January 2016

NO

Samsayia wrote: »

Vox wrote: »

No. If people are willing to spend the money on cosmetic items then I think they should be highly priced (maybe not as much as a DLC for a costume) but certainly a lot more than just £5 worth or something.

I'm sorry but that is just a ridiculous argument.
It has nothing to do about willingness to spend.

It's about "is ZoS making money" off of the cash shop in a way that doesn't off-balance the game somehow. Money that will keep this game going strong. With items as highly priced as they are I doubt they're making what they could be. As I said in my previous post cash shops bank on cosmetics only when it becomes an economy of scale and other people, like Nexon and Valve have proven this. Lots of cheap digital makeup for low prices are pennies that add up to dollars that add up to a ridiculous amount of money.

Releasing one heroic nord armor that doesn't stand up to quality for $20 is asinine and once the "release" period is over I doubt it will continue to sell. Try to look at what Valve did with their hats project or how much money Nexon makes off of color dyes and try to tell me that it's not an economy of scale.

ZoS is doing the cash shop jig wrong

Yeah the nordic armour wont sell after its 'release period' because it is a limited offer. Please do research before replying and calling my argument out when yours is factually incorrect.

silky_soft · January 2016

YES!

If costume were less I would buy more. But you can't dye them. I like some but not this colors. Would buy if I could customize them.

babylon · January 2016

NO

I'd also like to add I would actually get more costumes if they didn't change the shape of my character's body so weirdly...the dresses look nice, up to the point you try them on and suddenly my character looks 50 plus pounds bigger than she normally looks - like I've been eating pie for the past 3 years.

I only found one dress that doesn't do this, and that one made my character somewhat skinnier in the waist than I would like sooo...something needs to change there with the body deforming issue when wearing costumes.

Can someone get onto this for us? Pass it on to the costume design person.

Artjuh90 · January 2016

Vox wrote: »

Samsayia wrote: »

Vox wrote: »

No. If people are willing to spend the money on cosmetic items then I think they should be highly priced (maybe not as much as a DLC for a costume) but certainly a lot more than just £5 worth or something.

I'm sorry but that is just a ridiculous argument.
It has nothing to do about willingness to spend.

It's about "is ZoS making money" off of the cash shop in a way that doesn't off-balance the game somehow. Money that will keep this game going strong. With items as highly priced as they are I doubt they're making what they could be. As I said in my previous post cash shops bank on cosmetics only when it becomes an economy of scale and other people, like Nexon and Valve have proven this. Lots of cheap digital makeup for low prices are pennies that add up to dollars that add up to a ridiculous amount of money.

Releasing one heroic nord armor that doesn't stand up to quality for $20 is asinine and once the "release" period is over I doubt it will continue to sell. Try to look at what Valve did with their hats project or how much money Nexon makes off of color dyes and try to tell me that it's not an economy of scale.

ZoS is doing the cash shop jig wrong

Yeah the nordic armour wont sell after its 'release period' because it is a limited offer. Please do research before replying and calling my argument out when yours is factually incorrect.

please look back the previous eso live. they actually stated even if a item is limited it does NOT mean it won't return into the crownstore. so your aregument is incorrect sorry.

IcyDeadPeople · January 2016

NO

The only crown store items that interest me are the DLC and Explorer Pack / Imperial upgrades. These all seem reasonably priced.

If they add race change / appearance change / character name change scrolls in the future, I will definitely buy several of these. Hopefully they are not more than 1000-1500 crowns.
.

Elsonso · January 2016

YES!

Vox wrote: »

Samsayia wrote: »

Vox wrote: »

No. If people are willing to spend the money on cosmetic items then I think they should be highly priced (maybe not as much as a DLC for a costume) but certainly a lot more than just £5 worth or something.

I'm sorry but that is just a ridiculous argument.
It has nothing to do about willingness to spend.

It's about "is ZoS making money" off of the cash shop in a way that doesn't off-balance the game somehow. Money that will keep this game going strong. With items as highly priced as they are I doubt they're making what they could be. As I said in my previous post cash shops bank on cosmetics only when it becomes an economy of scale and other people, like Nexon and Valve have proven this. Lots of cheap digital makeup for low prices are pennies that add up to dollars that add up to a ridiculous amount of money.

Releasing one heroic nord armor that doesn't stand up to quality for $20 is asinine and once the "release" period is over I doubt it will continue to sell. Try to look at what Valve did with their hats project or how much money Nexon makes off of color dyes and try to tell me that it's not an economy of scale.

ZoS is doing the cash shop jig wrong

Yeah the nordic armour wont sell after its 'release period' because it is a limited offer. Please do research before replying and calling my argument out when yours is factually incorrect.

Well, is right, though. Sales will plummet next week.

My personal opinion is that the Nedic armor is just fine, and although it is like the trailer armor, it is not really the trailer armor. I think the trailer armor looks better, personally, but the Nedic armor does not look bad. My price point for costumes is 700 Crowns, and not more than 1000 Crowns. I won't be buying it. If the other two are priced similarly, the same applies. The whales will have to make up for my lost sale.

Discord_Days · January 2016

From what I've noticed it seems that most forum users here don't seem to have a gripe with the crown store prices in general, rather seems to be an issue about the nord hero armours price/lack of quality.

As I wrote previously in another post, I don't just buy crowns to just get the rewards (like fancy armours, dresses and pets) but I also do it to give the developers extra money to support the continued development of a game I love. So yes, maybe 1000 crowns for one royal dress is expensive to some, but I think of it as a donation to the developers - the dress is just a bonus for me.

TheCagyLlama · January 2016

NO

tinythinker wrote: »

People buy it. If no one paid 1000 crowns for an extra 10 slots of inventory, that half price special would become the new base price. If people didn't pay 2000-3000 crowns for mounts, the cost would drop. But enough people do buy such things to put little or no pressure on the current prince model.

WAIT Wait wait.....that 1k crowns is just for 10 slots? I assumed it was a full inventory unlock...thats over priced AF

Voxicity · January 2016

NO

Artjuh90 wrote: »

Vox wrote: »

Samsayia wrote: »

Vox wrote: »

No. If people are willing to spend the money on cosmetic items then I think they should be highly priced (maybe not as much as a DLC for a costume) but certainly a lot more than just £5 worth or something.

I'm sorry but that is just a ridiculous argument.
It has nothing to do about willingness to spend.

It's about "is ZoS making money" off of the cash shop in a way that doesn't off-balance the game somehow. Money that will keep this game going strong. With items as highly priced as they are I doubt they're making what they could be. As I said in my previous post cash shops bank on cosmetics only when it becomes an economy of scale and other people, like Nexon and Valve have proven this. Lots of cheap digital makeup for low prices are pennies that add up to dollars that add up to a ridiculous amount of money.

Releasing one heroic nord armor that doesn't stand up to quality for $20 is asinine and once the "release" period is over I doubt it will continue to sell. Try to look at what Valve did with their hats project or how much money Nexon makes off of color dyes and try to tell me that it's not an economy of scale.

ZoS is doing the cash shop jig wrong

Yeah the nordic armour wont sell after its 'release period' because it is a limited offer. Please do research before replying and calling my argument out when yours is factually incorrect.

please look back the previous eso live. they actually stated even if a item is limited it does NOT mean it won't return into the crownstore. so your aregument is incorrect sorry.

Please look back to the previous eso live and listen to their wording correctly. They stated if an item is limited it does not mean it wont return to the crownstore. This does not imply that every single limited item is going to be featured again. Therefore your argument is incorrect too.

babylon · January 2016

NO

TheCagyLlama wrote: »

tinythinker wrote: »

People buy it. If no one paid 1000 crowns for an extra 10 slots of inventory, that half price special would become the new base price. If people didn't pay 2000-3000 crowns for mounts, the cost would drop. But enough people do buy such things to put little or no pressure on the current prince model.

WAIT Wait wait.....that 1k crowns is just for 10 slots? I assumed it was a full inventory unlock...thats over priced AF

It is overpriced - that's my pricing issue with the Crown store - bag/bank space seems completely overpriced both in game with gold and at the Crown store.

Just 10 slots isn't a lot for that amount of gold or real money (Crowns).

Maybe they should next think about selling us a cute little pack guar to follow us around with tons more bag space on it. When we get player housing we could have a stable and keep like 50 of them hanging around

IcyDeadPeople · January 2016

NO

lordrichter wrote: »

My price point for costumes is 700 Crowns, and not more than 1000 Crowns. I won't be buying it. If the other two are priced similarly, the same applies. The whales will have to make up for my lost sale.

The developers have a lot of data on crown store sales after a year, but I imagine they are probably still carefully tracking purchases of new items and adjusting future item pricing accordingly.

These virtual items have high price elasticity of demand (very low price point can result in much higher total revenue because so many more copies are sold), but at the same time some items derive a certain perceived value simply from being priced very high.

An rep from Suntory (Japanese whisky distiller), once told me their best selling whisky is priced much higher in Japan than it is in Hong Kong, despite the additional cost of exporting and shipping to HK. The reason was if the price was too low in Japan, local consumers would perceive it as inferior and sales would plummet.
.

Evergnar · January 2016

YES!

Discord_Days wrote: »

I think some stuff like pets for around 400-500 crowns is a good price!

But one costume for 2000+ isn't.

My thoughts exactly. When I saw the price on the nord costume today I thought, meh I don't think so. I haven't seen a single player wearing one yet either. I think that says something, especially when it's one of ESO's marquee characters and only available for few days.

TheCagyLlama · January 2016

NO

Over all I think its reasonably priced. Some of the mounts could be cheaper, I think 12-15 for mounts, 5 for pets, 5-10 for outfits are the proper price points.

Voxicity · January 2016

NO

I'm glad they hero costumes are expensive. How boring and dull would it be to see everyone and their mother wearing the same costumes?

Discord_Days · January 2016

Evergnar wrote: »

Discord_Days wrote: »

I think some stuff like pets for around 400-500 crowns is a good price!

But one costume for 2000+ isn't.

My thoughts exactly. When I saw the price on the nord costume today I thought, meh I don't think so. I haven't seen a single player wearing one yet either. I think that says something, especially when it's one of ESO's marquee characters and only available for few days.

In the nord hero armour case, I don't even find it good looking or fashionable. I mean if they had a very well made gown with extraordinary touch on detail I might have purchased it for 1500 even if it's just one costume (since you can get 3 decent looking for 700-1000).
But this armour looks very generic to me, trailer or no trailer.

I hope they learned from this mistake

Korah_Eaglecry · January 2016

YES!

ZOS should want the store to be accessible to everyone. The more people participating the more money you can possibly make. But it seems like every month theres another 'limited time only' item being thrown in the store. Which is nice from time to time. But it can become an addictive thing for someone with a personality trait that leads them to collect things and businesses know very well how to trigger this. Theres a point where a company isnt just seeking to make money but setting out to manipulate its consumer/customer base to make more than they normally would. You see this often in F2P/B2P games where a company will hone in on what is known as Whales* and push for them to spend more and more as time progresses. This marketing tactic of releasing 'Limited Time Only' products is tailored exactly to this demographic. Which ends up leaving out a lot of other people otherwise interested and at times willing to spend money. But because they actually live on a budget cant just spend month to month what a Whale can and will.

*Whales are typically the Top 5% of spenders in a F2P/B2P game.

SteveCampsOut · January 2016

YES!

I only spend the crowns I get as a subscriber for the most part and only on stuff like Motif's I don't want to grind or pets and mounts. I don't roll play and if I did there are more than enough free costumes and clothes already for my meager needs.

NewBlacksmurf · January 2016

YES!

I think it's better said that the cost of crowns are too high

Aelthwyn · January 2016

YES!

Most of the crown store prices do not seem worth it to me when I consider what the game means to me (and it's my main form of entertainment, I play many hours a day) and the enjoyment/convenience they would provide in game vs. what else I could get in 'real life' for the same price. As prices stand now I have to reeeeeeeeeally want something, it has to be absolutely Perfect for more than one of my characters, before I'll consider buying it, and I still tend to debate and put it off until I'm in a particularly splurgy mood, such as it's my birthday. As frequent / impulse buys No Way. If it's not absolutely perfect, I'm going to hold off in the hopes of something better coming out, rather than going ahead and getting it just because I kinda like it or it's the best they have at the moment. I'd probably end up spending more over all if the prices were low enough that I didn't stop and think about it every time. I mean... a mount that costs half what I paid for the entire game? you've got to be kidding. Even if I do occasionally break down and buy stuff after thinking about it for months, I don't feel like it was a good deal. The DLC and general upgrade items (not the bag/horse upgrades) seem decent, but most of the costumes, pets, motifs, etc. seem a bit too much, and the consumable things (food/potions) I wouldn't dream of buying.

DragonSamurai360 · January 2016

NO

I wouldn't mind so much about Crown price, if the Crown packs were cheaper. I usually get the 5500 pack when I do buy them, so if they made it cost $29.99 as an example, I would buy it a lot more frequently, thus leading to a lot more Crown Store purchases from me.

NobleNerd · January 2016

YES!

ianock wrote: »

There is a reason things like motifs are have high cost, it's to keep the in game part relevant. If these costs dropped then the in game market would drop significantly.

However things like costumes are pretty expensive, specially if you aren't subbed. But saying that, I work and I spend my money where I want too

Honestly the in game motifs shouldn't even be in the Crown Store. If they want motifs in there then they should create special motifs/items that you can't get in game.

DannyLV702 · January 2016

YES!

I regret not stocking up on on Black Friday

Witar · January 2016

YES!

New 2k nord costume made me cry.

Ashtaris · January 2016

I thought the price of the Nord Hero costume was ridiculous. 2000 crowns for a costume that wasn't really that attractive? The next DLC will be 2000 crowns so I don't see how they could justify charging the same amount for a costume as they do an entire DLC.

However, some items in the crown store are reasonably priced so that's why I didn't participate in the poll. The OP didn't give that as an option.

Mettaricana · January 2016

YES!

NobleNerd wrote: »

Discord_Days wrote: »

I think some stuff like pets for around 400-500 crowns is a good price!

But one costume for 2000+ isn't.

Yes, I agree that things like pets seem to be an okay price, but $50.00 for motifs, costumes for $20.00 and more just is way too much.

ZOS really needs to start adding more unique to the store items and not re-offering stuff that is just earned in game (i.e. Vamp/WW bites).... Try and be original with what is in your store!

20 $ should have been three fates costume pack! Motifs I'd say need to drop to 3k crowns tops

Leeric · January 2016

YES!

When a costume costs as much as the DLC, then its to high. lol anyone who bought that is ruining gaming.
Oh and for all the suckers, youll be able to buy it again, Just like everything else that was for a "limited time".

Korah_Eaglecry · January 2016

YES!

There just doesnt seem to be any sort of consistency to the pricing. The DLCs bounce around even though they should probably be a flat rate if theyre adding a new zone. The costumes pricing seems odd too, youll get a three pack for 700 but a single costume can jump between 500 and 1000 and upwards of 2k for LTO items like the Nord Hero Armor. It should scale from single items that are common being the cheapest, with more detailed single costumes costing a little more and the three packs costing slightly more than that. With the LTO items coming in around 1.5k to 1.7k.

Pets seem a little more consistent when it comes to pricing so theres not really anything to say about them.

Mounts are another oddity with no real indicator of why one might be as cheap as 900 while another might be 1.3k. Especially when most are just reskins of the same item. Then theres the odd ones that jump up to 2.5k. Why is a mount, that youll end up spending close to 6 months upgrading, costing a quarter of a hundred dollars? Theres no reason why something like this should be more expensive then a DLC purchase. Especially when its a reskin of another item that is cheaper (Im looking at you Senche Leopards and Bear Mounts).

The same for the Motifs. They can be twice the price of a single DLC. I dont mind them being pricey but aside from the 'its for convenience' argument. There doesnt seem to be a very good marketing reason for it. The players that will spend months in game hunting down the pages will continue to do so. At this point the asking price is either going to push people to make other purchases, wait months to actually make a purchase or just go without.

ZOS might be seeing quite a bit of purchases going on with multiple platforms buying in. But theyre limiting the demographics they can reach and provide a service to by being so inconsistent with their pricing. Im willing to bet they would see more consistent and recurring sales month to month if they did a better job with structuring their pricing of items and services.

Aside from the very cheap aesthetics and occasional utility item. Most of the store is tailored towards the Whales. Leaving quite a gap between the average paying customers wants and interests and the whales.

MarrazzMist · January 2016

NO

I have no problem with costs as I don't buy much. Few cheap costumes and a baby netch

I kind of like that I can't or ain't willing to buy everything, thus items I do buy feel more special.

It would be interesting, if the trend was, that DLCs are cheaper and "luxury items" more expensive. But the cost of Thieves Guild DLC is propably due it being simply smaller DLC.