Zenimax, do you want to earn more money? Here is a tip.

Drachdhar · July 2019

Lower the prices in the Crown Store significantly.
Lower prices means people buy more. When it comes to buying a motif for 5k crowns or getting a "new" game, which is roughly what 5k Crowns is worth, most people would choose a new game if they think about it. Especially since you can fairly often buy a whole set of motifs for 100-200k gold, 5k Crowns equal out to 1.5 million gold (if the in game chat is something to go after).
If Motifs cost 500 to 1k Crowns, that would actually be more worth it for instance.

Not to mention houses that go for as much as 2 NEWLY released games. Race changes that cost at least double what they do in other MMOs.

If you want people to spend their hard earned cash in your Crown Store, it has to be worth it. Cheaper stuff means people buy more.

But then again, I might be wrong and you guys earn a *** from poor fools that spend a 100$ for a house.

Drachdhar · July 2019

Not to mention the extremely greedy pricing on area Skyshards. 800 Crowns for 5+1/3 skill points. It would take someone 20 minutes to an hour at most(if the area is hard to get around in, or plenty distractions) to get them manually.

disintegr8 · July 2019

I just figure that people are buying or the prices would be re-assessed. Some people have more money than sense, as indicated by the going rate for crowns on PS4 NA - 100 gold per 1k crowns. 500k gold to buy 5k crowns is a bargain.

Drachdhar · July 2019

disintegr8 wrote: »

I just figure that people are buying or the prices would be re-assessed. Some people have more money than sense, as indicated by the going rate for crowns on PS4 NA - 100 gold per 1k crowns. 500k gold to buy 5k crowns is a bargain.

300 gold per Crown seems to be the going rate in EU.

Dont_do_drugs · July 2019

i know a better trick.secure server infrastructure so people can login for buying crown items

MagicalLija · July 2019

I really never understood why they made it so expensive, Genuinely if they moved it down to 1000 crowns for the cat merchants and stuff then they'd be getting like a purchase of 5000 crowns : 1000 crowns with like a 3:10 purchase ratio so they would be gaining much more just because more people would actually buy it, I know like 2 friends who have 1 of the cat merchants or merchants in general.

(Obviously I'm just guessing what the ratio would be I'm not an accountant)

Yes they can be useful but id'd rather just have the cosmetic cats following me around, again they'd be making more and pleasing the community SO MUCH

code65536 · July 2019

Or... I dunno... addressing issues to win back the trust and appreciation of their customers? Ah, who am I kidding, that's a crazy and radical idea.

redspecter23 · July 2019

I'm quite positive that ZOS has the best people working in their pricing department. They know without a doubt what is "too much" and what players will actually pay for things. They have complicated algorithms that determine what any given item should be posted for. If something seems too expensive, it's probably there as an outlier so that more reasonably priced items feel like a better deal by comparison. If something feels underpriced, it may be just a method to get a pile of players to open up the crown store interface when they otherwise wouldn't, which gets them acquainted with the system. I guarantee that there is a very good reason that each and every item is priced the way it is, even if some of those prices are, for many people, horrible.

jcf190b14_ESO · July 2019

That's not how the economics work. Proof in point: movie theater snacks. Someone did the math and determined that selling snacks at ludicrous prices was better than selling more snacks for less. I'm sure the same principal applies to cash shop items. If they're making a steady profit, why would they lower the prices? I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying that's how it is and that's more thank likely how it's going to stay.

Slimebrow · July 2019

ZOS know what they are doing. They know it's all overpriced and know people will buy it, even the timed items.

Turelus · July 2019

I don't think ZOS needs help on making money, they're making plenty as it is.

Lowering the prices doesn't help them, not when people are paying the current prices.

Wise_Will · July 2019

it's only 110 - 130 Gold per crown on Xbox EU, so it's not to bad if you buy your crowns with gold, however to buy 6k crowns with irl money to buy the dro'mathra motif is insane.

Marginis · July 2019

There are reasons for the way they do things. Not that I agree with a lot of the practices, but ZOS wouldn't price things the way they do if it didn't work for them.

msalvia · July 2019

Offering an alliance change token would make me open my wallet.

Jhalin · July 2019

jcf190b14_ESO wrote: »

That's not how the economics work. Proof in point: movie theater snacks. Someone did the math and determined that selling snacks at ludicrous prices was better than selling more snacks for less. I'm sure the same principal applies to cash shop items. If they're making a steady profit, why would they lower the prices? I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying that's how it is and that's more thank likely how it's going to stay.

People bring their own snacks to the movies because they’re stupid overpriced

I see it all the time

Drachdhar · July 2019

And I generally

Jhalin wrote: »

jcf190b14_ESO wrote: »

That's not how the economics work. Proof in point: movie theater snacks. Someone did the math and determined that selling snacks at ludicrous prices was better than selling more snacks for less. I'm sure the same principal applies to cash shop items. If they're making a steady profit, why would they lower the prices? I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying that's how it is and that's more thank likely how it's going to stay.

People bring their own snacks to the movies because they’re stupid overpriced

I see it all the time

The same way I wont generally open my wallet to buy stuff in the Crown Store... Nor would most people that arent whales...
No item in the Crown Store is worth it in my opinion, especially not random crates.
I've bought a race change so far, for my own cash... and that hurt abit

Drachdhar · July 2019

Granted, in the end its the players who buy overpriced stuff in ingame stores that are the reason major game companies are so predatory towards their customer base nowadays... and can get away with releasing barely half-finished games.

redlink1979 · July 2019

5k/6k crowns for a motif? Never ever.

Wayshuba · July 2019

jcf190b14_ESO wrote: »

That's not how the economics work. Proof in point: movie theater snacks. Someone did the math and determined that selling snacks at ludicrous prices was better than selling more snacks for less. I'm sure the same principal applies to cash shop items. If they're making a steady profit, why would they lower the prices? I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying that's how it is and that's more thank likely how it's going to stay.

That's not a good analogy.

Movie theater snacks each have a cost associated with purchasing them. So if a move theater pays $1 for a snack they sell for $4, they make $3 in profit. Their profit will always remain at a fixed level because of the cost they have for each one sold.

Digital goods in a store are completely different. There was a cost (in programmers and artists) to produce it. Let's say that cost was $500. That cost doesn't change. So to sell 100 of something at 5,000 Crowns nets you 500,000 Crowns. To lower the price to 1,000 and maybe sell 1,000 of them instead, will net you 1 million Crowns. Meaning you made more profit on the later at a lower price than the former.

I think the reason they make the Crown prices so high is that is will run through your supply much faster and have you purchasing more Crowns again faster.

I still contest that while ZoS is probably making decent money, they have left a LOT on the table due to their very high Crown store pricing. I would be willing to bet if the prices were much more reasonable, they would sell three to ten times the quantity of something they have today.

One area I think they have really shot themselves in the foot and LOST a lot of money is the ludicrous pricing of outfit slots. After someone gets burned with a 1500 Crown purchase to see they literally get one slot, they are done. Had these slots been priced at 150 for one, or 1500 for one account wide, they probably would have seen a massive amount of these slots purchased.

JamilaRaj · July 2019

Wayshuba wrote: »

Digital goods in a store are completely different. There was a cost (in programmers and artists) to produce it. Let's say that cost was $500. That cost doesn't change. So to sell 100 of something at 5,000 Crowns nets you 500,000 Crowns. To lower the price to 1,000 and maybe sell 1,000 of them instead, will net you 1 million Crowns. Meaning you made more profit on the later at a lower price than the former.

For starters, crowns are not profit. Profit is made when players buy crowns, not when they spend crowns. So the question is, would it translate into 1,000,000 sold crowns instead of 500,000? Chances are that at 1,000 crowns per unit, which is within sub stipend, profit would be almost zero, because crown pack sales would be also almost zero, while at 5,000 per unit, most would have to buy a crown pack.
Furthermore, it is possible to do both, sell 5,000 crown item to 100 players and different, 1,000 crown item to 1,000 people. Generally, if you run cash shop game, you run it precisely to allow/coerce players who could spend a lot to do so.
Last but not least, that 5,000 crown item may be Veblen good, i.e. demand driven chiefly by the fact it is expensive.

Jayne_Doe · July 2019

As long as there are players willing to spend real money on crowns in order to buy in-game gold, I don't think anything will change. Prices too expensive? Players just buy the items from another player with gold. Seems to be the case anyway, from all the posts I see about gold to crowns conversion and players encouraging others to just buy crown stuff with gold.

So then, there are players out there spending lots of real money on crowns; otherwise, players wouldn't have anyone to buy crowns items from with gold.

The point of sale is the crowns, folks. As long as they're selling those, then it doesn't really matter what the in-game prices are. In fact, it's probably good for them that they're higher, as players just resort to buying items with gold from players who seem more than willing to continue to buy crowns to sell for gold.

TheShadowScout · July 2019

Drachdhar wrote: »

Lower the prices in the Crown Store significantly.

That's iffy.
At best they will be doing "limited time special offers", like "50% off this and that".

But if they lowered prices in general... can you imagine the cries of the ones who paid full price back in the day? And demand a refund for the crowns they "spent too much"? And since crowns are bought with real money... this is getting dangerously close to lawsuit territory... thus they won't gamble there.

Turelus wrote: »

Lowering the prices doesn't help them, not when people are paying the current prices.

Depends.
I for example will never again pay full price for an outfit slot (did it once back when they first came out, before I noticed it was not account-wide). But... I do get tempted when they are 50% off, and likely will be again the next time they are on sale...

And that is -exactly- how they can do both.
Limited time reduced price offers.
No iffyness, more sales... and the more people buy at those, the more such they will do.

Simple.

Marginis wrote: »

There are reasons for the way they do things.

Yeah.
And we can be -sure- they worked through some spreadsheets of costumer buying patterns before setting those prices at the range their calculations projected as "most profitable" for their business model.
I mean, doesn't every company in the information age? Do market research, and do their utmost to maximize profits, instead of just draw a number from a hat?

Wayshuba · August 2019

JamilaRaj wrote: »

Wayshuba wrote: »

Digital goods in a store are completely different. There was a cost (in programmers and artists) to produce it. Let's say that cost was $500. That cost doesn't change. So to sell 100 of something at 5,000 Crowns nets you 500,000 Crowns. To lower the price to 1,000 and maybe sell 1,000 of them instead, will net you 1 million Crowns. Meaning you made more profit on the later at a lower price than the former.

For starters, crowns are not profit. Profit is made when players buy crowns, not when they spend crowns. So the question is, would it translate into 1,000,000 sold crowns instead of 500,000? Chances are that at 1,000 crowns per unit, which is within sub stipend, profit would be almost zero, because crown pack sales would be also almost zero, while at 5,000 per unit, most would have to buy a crown pack.
Furthermore, it is possible to do both, sell 5,000 crown item to 100 players and different, 1,000 crown item to 1,000 people. Generally, if you run cash shop game, you run it precisely to allow/coerce players who could spend a lot to do so.
Last but not least, that 5,000 crown item may be Veblen good, i.e. demand driven chiefly by the fact it is expensive.

There is no way to earn Crowns without spending money. Yes, they can come from a direct purchase or stipend, but the stipend only comes from spending cash on an ESO Plus membership. So either way, they are cash.

That being said, that may also be the point of the high prices. To make them out of reach of the stipend so you will spend MORE than you membership.

However, a 1,000,00 Crowns is still all paid for by cold hard cash. It doesn't matter if 500,000 came from direct purchases and 500,000 came from stipends - all of those Crowns were paid for with cash.

TelvanniWizard · August 2019

It's not about price for me, but about availability. Nothing I want is available, and when it finally is, it's only for 48 hours or locked behind gambling. I'd happily spend money in the game, but there is nothing for me to buy, it' s all old items not coming back or damm scam crates. If we had a full crown store, with hundreds of things, all the past offered cosmetics at the same time. Sure, people wouldn't rush to buy, moved by scarcity, but they would imo buy more in the end, specially new players.

Banana · September 2019

Normal skin

kinguardian · September 2019

AndrejLeo wrote: »

I really never understood why they made it so expensive, Genuinely if they moved it down to 1000 crowns for the cat merchants and stuff then they'd be getting like a purchase of 5000 crowns : 1000 crowns with like a 3:10 purchase ratio so they would be gaining much more just because more people would actually buy it, I know like 2 friends who have 1 of the cat merchants or merchants in general.

(Obviously I'm just guessing what the ratio would be I'm not an accountant)

Yes they can be useful but id'd rather just have the cosmetic cats following me around, again they'd be making more and pleasing the community SO MUCH

I agree with you. If they would make it cheaper then more people would buy it and they will end up with more profit.

They bank and merchant cats are super cute and I really want them, but I am not going to spent so many crowns on them. And I am not the only one lots of people said f... that.

xMovingTarget · September 2019

If they would actually Fis the damn game instead of adding broken things to a broken base. I am sure people would buy more things.
Right now, I am not willing to pay even a penny on this game. Since everytime I play, I get frustrated over the same damn bug being around since elsweyr launch. Posted about it multple times on the forums, tagging wheeler and gina, Nothing. No word on a fix, no fix, no attempted fix. No money from me.

huntgod_ESO · September 2019

I would obviously love to see more reasonable crown store pricing, but I understand completely why they price as they do.

Once you have established a price equivalency (5000 crowns for a banker as example) you can't then release a different banker at a reduced price, with the same functionality without destabilizing your system. You could maybe work an exchange or reduced price for existing owners, but again that destabilizes your system if you already have reskins in place at a fixed price.

As to determining their prices, that is done with an algorithm as the math would take in way too many variables for an individual to make that call. It chews on the numbers and spits out ideal suggestions to maximize for different scenarios and then a person makes the choice of which to prioritize and that is the pricing scheme they use.

buttaface · September 2019

redspecter23 wrote: »

I'm quite positive... "best people"... I guarantee...

9.5/10

-.5 for a wee bit heavy on the superlatives, but otherwise masterful sarcasm/trolling. Bravo!