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Crown prices are DISGUSTING
FlipFlopFrog
✭✭✭✭
The new house 'Forge master Falls' almost had me returning to ESO. I was sooo close but then.....I looked at the DISGUSTING price...what is with that price-tag man?! Unfurnished 6,200 crowns ($47.98) or furnished 7,800 crowns ($64.98) Why the hell should someone (who may well be paying $14.99 per month anyway for ESO+) pay more money than the base game plus all previous expansions for an in-game house?
Also just to clarify, I'm not against an in game shop if the prices are reasonable...
Also just to clarify, I'm not against an in game shop if the prices are reasonable...
PC EU
69
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zvavi✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Prices are what people are willing to pay. Also, zos needs us to put the eso+ money somewhere...5 -
RefLiberty✭✭✭✭✭
✭It seems that the people are buying, since they are keeping the prices like that.
If there is no market, prices drop, it seems it is not the case.
8 -
Brandathorbel✭✭✭✭✭Yes people buy but what Zos doesn't seem to understand by lowering the price they will probably make more money by selling many many more houses.
then the more people with houses, the more subs get renewed and the more people are in the housing system which means more money with furniture packs and crown furniture.41 -
Magenpie✭✭✭✭✭Yes people buy but what Zos doesn't seem to understand by lowering the price they will probably make more money by selling many many more houses.
then the more people with houses, the more subs get renewed and the more people are in the housing system which means more money with furniture packs and crown furniture.
This is what I believe as well.
I also agree with you, OP. The prices are offensively high.Edited by Magenpie on March 16, 2020 5:01PM25 -
x48rph✭✭✭✭✭
✭Yes people buy but what Zos doesn't seem to understand by lowering the price they will probably make more money by selling many many more houses.
then the more people with houses, the more subs get renewed and the more people are in the housing system which means more money with furniture packs and crown furniture.
This is what I believe as well.
It goes along with there high pressure, buy it before it's gone tactics. You'd think by leaving things in the store and making them cheaper they's sell more but market research show otherwise. By making them limited time, they can in essence create a 'panic' that you got to spend that right now or miss out forever. If it's always there people will second guess it or hold out for a sale but when it's now or never, people just buy right away. It's disgusting but it works as research has proven time and again which is why most games with cash shops do the same thing. Only a strong declining trend in sales would make them rethink it.9 -
Brandathorbel✭✭✭✭✭Yes people buy but what Zos doesn't seem to understand by lowering the price they will probably make more money by selling many many more houses.
then the more people with houses, the more subs get renewed and the more people are in the housing system which means more money with furniture packs and crown furniture.
This is what I believe as well.
It goes along with there high pressure, buy it before it's gone tactics. You'd think by leaving things in the store and making them cheaper they's sell more but market research show otherwise. By making them limited time, they can in essence create a 'panic' that you got to spend that right now or miss out forever. If it's always there people will second guess it or hold out for a sale but when it's now or never, people just buy right away. It's disgusting but it works as research has proven time and again which is why most games with cash shops do the same thing. Only a strong declining trend in sales would make them rethink it.
lets see this market research because i guarantee they do not do any. Right now, they could have one guy spend ten minutes coloring a polar bear skin for warden, put on the crown store for 1k crowns and probably make 300k in a few weeks for ten minutes of work.
the high pressure stuff does not work for things like homes and the majority of players because that price will ALWAYS be out of their comfort range.3 -
noob in denial✭✭✭[snip] Good stuff with reasonable prices always sell more. Just look at.. pretty much everything in the world. Charging premium rarely works and that's usually the exception, like apple products, luxury cars etc etc.
[edited for bashing comment]Edited by ZOS_RogerJ on March 17, 2020 11:53PM5 -
Magenpie✭✭✭✭✭Yes people buy but what Zos doesn't seem to understand by lowering the price they will probably make more money by selling many many more houses.
then the more people with houses, the more subs get renewed and the more people are in the housing system which means more money with furniture packs and crown furniture.
This is what I believe as well.
It goes along with there high pressure, buy it before it's gone tactics. You'd think by leaving things in the store and making them cheaper they's sell more but market research show otherwise. By making them limited time, they can in essence create a 'panic' that you got to spend that right now or miss out forever. If it's always there people will second guess it or hold out for a sale but when it's now or never, people just buy right away. It's disgusting but it works as research has proven time and again which is why most games with cash shops do the same thing. Only a strong declining trend in sales would make them rethink it.
lets see this market research because i guarantee they do not do any. Right now, they could have one guy spend ten minutes coloring a polar bear skin for warden, put on the crown store for 1k crowns and probably make 300k in a few weeks for ten minutes of work.
the high pressure stuff does not work for things like homes and the majority of players because that price will ALWAYS be out of their comfort range.
They could have a combination approach. Off the top of my head, why not a system where if you subscribe to ESO+ you can convert in game gold to crowns, similar to the World of Warcraft WoW Token. If you don't sub, you have to buy everything with cash-to-crowns instead.3 -
Knightpanther✭✭✭✭✭
✭There are a lot of houses and items i would really like and i can afford them, but i will never buy them out of principle.
This is the worst game ive ever seen for trying to rip folks off, i only ever now spend the crowns i earn from eso+.
Be safe5 -
Mix✭✭✭✭✭
✭I bought Forgemaster Falls...with my saved up ESO+ sub crowns. The crown price for this Large house is in-line with the price of the other Large houses of a similar size (there is quite a range of house size within each category lol), so I don't think this price is really unexpected (it would be nice to have more houses with a gold AND crown option though)
I wish there were fewer limited time furniture and housing stuff. I dislike the "buy now' pressure.
I also wish houses were giftable (with furniture in them!) because I tend to have more in-game gold than disposable income.
I do wonder a lot about the price vs. number of sales metric, lower prices but a lot more sales would be more money!
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FierceSam✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭Yes people buy but what Zos doesn't seem to understand by lowering the price they will probably make more money by selling many many more houses.
then the more people with houses, the more subs get renewed and the more people are in the housing system which means more money with furniture packs and crown furniture.
This is what I believe as well.
It goes along with there high pressure, buy it before it's gone tactics. You'd think by leaving things in the store and making them cheaper they's sell more but market research show otherwise. By making them limited time, they can in essence create a 'panic' that you got to spend that right now or miss out forever. If it's always there people will second guess it or hold out for a sale but when it's now or never, people just buy right away. It's disgusting but it works as research has proven time and again which is why most games with cash shops do the same thing. Only a strong declining trend in sales would make them rethink it.
lets see this market research because i guarantee they do not do any. Right now, they could have one guy spend ten minutes coloring a polar bear skin for warden, put on the crown store for 1k crowns and probably make 300k in a few weeks for ten minutes of work.
the high pressure stuff does not work for things like homes and the majority of players because that price will ALWAYS be out of their comfort range.
They could have a combination approach. Off the top of my head, why not a system where if you subscribe to ESO+ you can convert in game gold to crowns, similar to the World of Warcraft WoW Token. If you don't sub, you have to buy everything with cash-to-crowns instead.
ESO+ subscribers already get crowns equivalent to the rough cost of their subscription.
The fundamental philosophy of the Crown Store is that all crowns are bought with cash. It’s all about real money for ZOS.0 -
x48rph✭✭✭✭✭
✭Yes people buy but what Zos doesn't seem to understand by lowering the price they will probably make more money by selling many many more houses.
then the more people with houses, the more subs get renewed and the more people are in the housing system which means more money with furniture packs and crown furniture.
This is what I believe as well.
It goes along with there high pressure, buy it before it's gone tactics. You'd think by leaving things in the store and making them cheaper they's sell more but market research show otherwise. By making them limited time, they can in essence create a 'panic' that you got to spend that right now or miss out forever. If it's always there people will second guess it or hold out for a sale but when it's now or never, people just buy right away. It's disgusting but it works as research has proven time and again which is why most games with cash shops do the same thing. Only a strong declining trend in sales would make them rethink it.
lets see this market research because i guarantee they do not do any. Right now, they could have one guy spend ten minutes coloring a polar bear skin for warden, put on the crown store for 1k crowns and probably make 300k in a few weeks for ten minutes of work.
the high pressure stuff does not work for things like homes and the majority of players because that price will ALWAYS be out of their comfort range.
They don't have to do their own research because it already exists in droves. Why do think every game does limited time, buy it before it's gone tactics? Because it's a lousy sales method? Cause it doesn't work? Cause they'd rather sell less/ No, no, and no, they do it cause it works.
Here, just off a random google search you can find plenty of articles on it.
https://sumo.com/stories/scarcity-marketing
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-science-behind-behavior/201906/why-limited-time-offers-entice-shoppers-buy
https://thrivehive.com/examples-of-limited-time-offers-to-boost-your-sales/
Do i agree it doesn't make sense and I'd love for them to stop, yes, of course , will they stop, doubtful because it works and at the end of the day, the company as a whole is in it to make money.5 -
Magenpie✭✭✭✭✭Yes people buy but what Zos doesn't seem to understand by lowering the price they will probably make more money by selling many many more houses.
then the more people with houses, the more subs get renewed and the more people are in the housing system which means more money with furniture packs and crown furniture.
This is what I believe as well.
It goes along with there high pressure, buy it before it's gone tactics. You'd think by leaving things in the store and making them cheaper they's sell more but market research show otherwise. By making them limited time, they can in essence create a 'panic' that you got to spend that right now or miss out forever. If it's always there people will second guess it or hold out for a sale but when it's now or never, people just buy right away. It's disgusting but it works as research has proven time and again which is why most games with cash shops do the same thing. Only a strong declining trend in sales would make them rethink it.
lets see this market research because i guarantee they do not do any. Right now, they could have one guy spend ten minutes coloring a polar bear skin for warden, put on the crown store for 1k crowns and probably make 300k in a few weeks for ten minutes of work.
the high pressure stuff does not work for things like homes and the majority of players because that price will ALWAYS be out of their comfort range.
They could have a combination approach. Off the top of my head, why not a system where if you subscribe to ESO+ you can convert in game gold to crowns, similar to the World of Warcraft WoW Token. If you don't sub, you have to buy everything with cash-to-crowns instead.
ESO+ subscribers already get crowns equivalent to the rough cost of their subscription.
The fundamental philosophy of the Crown Store is that all crowns are bought with cash. It’s all about real money for ZOS.
I take your point, but I think the OP's annoyance comes from items costing too many Crowns, and Crowns costing too much money, and I personally agree with a couple of other posters saying a reduction in that cost wouldn't necessarily leave ZOS out of pocket. I really don't believe the cost of Crowns, the conversion to Gems, and Crown/Gem cost of items in the store need to be so aggravatingly high/opaque for the game to make money.
I don't begrudge ZOS making money, far from it, I just wish they took a more generous approach to their customers. Perhaps players would feel happier about spending more money. Other mmos manage it.Edited by Magenpie on March 16, 2020 5:40PM4 -
Joy_Division✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Then don't buy it.
Besides, if the actual game isn't attractive enough to play on its own merits, you're probably better off not paying a "reasonable" price for a house.Edited by Joy_Division on March 16, 2020 5:40PMMake Rush of Agony "Monsters only." People should not be consecutively crowd controlled in a PvP setting. Period.5 -
furiouslog✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Yes people buy but what Zos doesn't seem to understand by lowering the price they will probably make more money by selling many many more houses.
then the more people with houses, the more subs get renewed and the more people are in the housing system which means more money with furniture packs and crown furniture.
This has been discussed many times. Aside from development cost, the incremental cost for the house is ZOS's cost to maintain it on their server, which are fixed and unknown to us. Once they cover that, the rest is profit. They have run multiple marketing experiments to predict consumer behavior in response to the price of various digital assets, and optimized their profit around those curves. Early on, I could see negative consumer feedback influencing ZOS's behavior, but at this point, with the data they have available, they are pretty good at figuring out the best price point and retaining perceived value by limiting purchasing access to limited and unpredictable windows while minimizing their operating costs.
Because you don't think the house is worth it, you're not going to buy it. But enough people have purchased houses at that price point that ZOS continues to offer their housing at those prices.
Furthermore, your assumption about housing is not necessarily correct - everyone has a big home available for free through the Elsweyr quest. Has that increased furniture sales to the extent that they can clearly recoup development and operational costs by lowering housing prices? We do not know, but they have those numbers, and if they had an incentive to provide lower cost homes to capture increased furnishing purchases, and if that all ended up being more profitable than what they are currently doing, I assure you that they would already be doing it.
The prices are where they are because their customers have made them profitable at those prices. If you want ZOS's behavior to change, you will need to convince the entire community not to buy the things they want even when they are willing to pay what ZOS is asking for, which will be a difficult task.3 -
Scion_of_Yggdrasil✭✭✭✭✭Lower prices = players buying more houses = a greater need for furniture = more grinding/farming/spending = healthy happy active player base. But no...10
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Magenpie✭✭✭✭✭furiouslog wrote: »Yes people buy but what Zos doesn't seem to understand by lowering the price they will probably make more money by selling many many more houses.
then the more people with houses, the more subs get renewed and the more people are in the housing system which means more money with furniture packs and crown furniture.
This has been discussed many times. Aside from development cost, the incremental cost for the house is ZOS's cost to maintain it on their server, which are fixed and unknown to us. Once they cover that, the rest is profit. They have run multiple marketing experiments to predict consumer behavior in response to the price of various digital assets, and optimized their profit around those curves. Early on, I could see negative consumer feedback influencing ZOS's behavior, but at this point, with the data they have available, they are pretty good at figuring out the best price point and retaining perceived value by limiting purchasing access to limited and unpredictable windows while minimizing their operating costs.
Because you don't think the house is worth it, you're not going to buy it. But enough people have purchased houses at that price point that ZOS continues to offer their housing at those prices.
Furthermore, your assumption about housing is not necessarily correct - everyone has a big home available for free through the Elsweyr quest. Has that increased furniture sales to the extent that they can clearly recoup development and operational costs by lowering housing prices? We do not know, but they have those numbers, and if they had an incentive to provide lower cost homes to capture increased furnishing purchases, and if that all ended up being more profitable than what they are currently doing, I assure you that they would already be doing it.
The prices are where they are because their customers have made them profitable at those prices. If you want ZOS's behavior to change, you will need to convince the entire community not to buy the things they want even when they are willing to pay what ZOS is asking for, which will be a difficult task.
However, customers are also perfectly within their rights to complain about products they use directly to the manufacturers of those products. You're right, we really don't know about costs of servers, profit margins etc etc. But those things don't actually matter, it's not up to customers to worry about a company's bottom line and they are allowed to express annoyance at unreasonably high prices.8 -
Naftal✭✭✭✭✭I've been playing Black Desert Online recently and ESO crown shop and prices look VERY good in comparison.
And in ESO you get crowns with the subscription and can also buy most of the crown stuff with gold through other players.3 -
Klad✭✭✭✭I can go the rest of my time in eso without buying a house as they have little functionality.
If they had a NPC, and a quest system that was based on what type of House you owned I would buy a crap ton of houses.
As it is..it's just a waste of money.
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lemonizzle✭✭✭✭Whales buy multiple 15k crown pixel houses, and in other games, weapon skins and pixel ships for 1-2k dollars. Now that is absurd.5 -
RefLiberty✭✭✭✭✭
✭I can agree with Klad. The housing is not elaborate or interactive enough for me to buy it. I don't see any purpose of it except if you like to move furniture around.
If it was more interactive, like you can plant something that you can harvest later, or feed the fish in ponds that would yield small amount of fish daily, bonus upgrades that can be unlocked with daily quests, interactive armor stands and do on...
Now it is just an expensive instance to do nothing reallyEdited by RefLiberty on March 16, 2020 6:36PM5 -
Jaimeh✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭It seems that the in-game gold option ship has sailed as far as housing is concerned... When was the last time a house was offered for gold? Coldharbour Estate? A long time, in any case. It's really terrible they changed their model, they used to sell houses for gold, get the housing hook going, and now all new releases are crowns only...4 -
Brandathorbel✭✭✭✭✭furiouslog wrote: »Yes people buy but what Zos doesn't seem to understand by lowering the price they will probably make more money by selling many many more houses.
then the more people with houses, the more subs get renewed and the more people are in the housing system which means more money with furniture packs and crown furniture.
This has been discussed many times. Aside from development cost, the incremental cost for the house is ZOS's cost to maintain it on their server, which are fixed and unknown to us. Once they cover that, the rest is profit. They have run multiple marketing experiments to predict consumer behavior in response to the price of various digital assets, and optimized their profit around those curves. Early on, I could see negative consumer feedback influencing ZOS's behavior, but at this point, with the data they have available, they are pretty good at figuring out the best price point and retaining perceived value by limiting purchasing access to limited and unpredictable windows while minimizing their operating costs.
Because you don't think the house is worth it, you're not going to buy it. But enough people have purchased houses at that price point that ZOS continues to offer their housing at those prices.
Furthermore, your assumption about housing is not necessarily correct - everyone has a big home available for free through the Elsweyr quest. Has that increased furniture sales to the extent that they can clearly recoup development and operational costs by lowering housing prices? We do not know, but they have those numbers, and if they had an incentive to provide lower cost homes to capture increased furnishing purchases, and if that all ended up being more profitable than what they are currently doing, I assure you that they would already be doing it.
The prices are where they are because their customers have made them profitable at those prices. If you want ZOS's behavior to change, you will need to convince the entire community not to buy the things they want even when they are willing to pay what ZOS is asking for, which will be a difficult task.
However, customers are also perfectly within their rights to complain about products they use directly to the manufacturers of those products. You're right, we really don't know about costs of servers, profit margins etc etc. But those things don't actually matter, it's not up to customers to worry about a company's bottom line and they are allowed to express annoyance at unreasonably high prices.
that argument they stated is just wrong. The whole game only costs 59 dollars, one house can cost over 100. So one house costs more money to make than an entire game. And server costs, next to nothing.
other mmos do it and do it better than ESO at a fraction of the cost so....Edited by Brandathorbel on March 16, 2020 6:37PM5 -
Brandathorbel✭✭✭✭✭I've been playing Black Desert Online recently and ESO crown shop and prices look VERY good in comparison.
And in ESO you get crowns with the subscription and can also buy most of the crown stuff with gold through other players.
but BDO is free for the most part or only $10. ESO is not.
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L2Pissue✭✭✭✭✭Yes people buy but what Zos doesn't seem to understand by lowering the price they will probably make more money by selling many many more houses.
then the more people with houses, the more subs get renewed and the more people are in the housing system which means more money with furniture packs and crown furniture.
Not everyone who works in marketing is smart3 -
Magenpie✭✭✭✭✭lemonizzle wrote: »Whales buy multiple 15k crown pixel houses, and in other games, weapon skins and pixel ships for 1-2k dollars. Now that is absurd.
But so what? Doesn't mean the rest of us have to sit quietly like good little consumers, and just accept that absurdity (you're right btw.) We are allowed to say if we think prices are unreasonable, or if we don't like the way the cash shop makes us feel about the game.
Would you like cheaper/better/more cosmetic items for more people? You might benefit from that concept too, yes?
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furiouslog✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭However, customers are also perfectly within their rights to complain about products they use directly to the manufacturers of those products. You're right, we really don't know about costs of servers, profit margins etc etc. But those things don't actually matter, it's not up to customers to worry about a company's bottom line and they are allowed to express annoyance at unreasonably high prices.
I'm not arguing your right to complain, I'm arguing that the assumption that ZOS will make more money by lowering prices is flawed. I'd also say that characterizing their prices as "unreasonable" is an opinion with no factual basis, which is furthermore biased since it implies that the price is not "fair" and neither you nor I have the appropriate data to make that determination.2 -
Brandathorbel✭✭✭✭✭furiouslog wrote: »However, customers are also perfectly within their rights to complain about products they use directly to the manufacturers of those products. You're right, we really don't know about costs of servers, profit margins etc etc. But those things don't actually matter, it's not up to customers to worry about a company's bottom line and they are allowed to express annoyance at unreasonably high prices.
I'm not arguing your right to complain, I'm arguing that the assumption that ZOS will make more money by lowering prices is flawed. I'd also say that characterizing their prices as "unreasonable" is an opinion with no factual basis, which is furthermore biased since it implies that the price is not "fair" and neither you nor I have the appropriate data to make that determination.
but it isn't
things that cost 1k or 1.5k crowns. ok. But prices this high changes things drastically. And yes, there is factual basis. In life. People impulse buy things for many reasons, but the most important reason is price, not availability. Availability means squat if the price is way too high.
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Magenpie✭✭✭✭✭furiouslog wrote: »However, customers are also perfectly within their rights to complain about products they use directly to the manufacturers of those products. You're right, we really don't know about costs of servers, profit margins etc etc. But those things don't actually matter, it's not up to customers to worry about a company's bottom line and they are allowed to express annoyance at unreasonably high prices.
I'm not arguing your right to complain, I'm arguing that the assumption that ZOS will make more money by lowering prices is flawed. I'd also say that characterizing their prices as "unreasonable" is an opinion with no factual basis, which is furthermore biased since it implies that the price is not "fair" and neither you nor I have the appropriate data to make that determination.
I agree we don't have the information you describe. Can I ask, what do you mean by 'fairness?' I'm genuinely interested because it can mean a lot of things in terms of retail arrangements.
I think it's important for customers to express their opinions about the pricing of products, and imho, companies are foolish if they don't take note. That doesn't mean they have to do anything about it, of course, but surely it comes down sales gains/losses.
The OP is annoyed at the cost of this particular house and uses good comparisions to show why they think so. Look at it another way, they are saying, 'I would buy this if it were cheaper.' Whatever we imagine about other sales made on that house, it's a sale lost to ZOS.Edited by Magenpie on March 16, 2020 7:04PM1 -
Tandor✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭FlipFlopFrog wrote: »The new house 'Forge master Falls' almost had me returning to ESO. I was sooo close but then.....I looked at the DISGUSTING price...what is with that price-tag man?! Unfurnished 6,200 crowns ($47.98) or furnished 7,800 crowns ($64.98) Why the hell should someone (who may well be paying $14.99 per month anyway for ESO+) pay more money than the base game plus all previous expansions for an in-game house?
Also just to clarify, I'm not against an in game shop if the prices are reasonable...
They won't have to. If someone is an ESO+ member then they can use their free crowns to buy the house. It's one of the advantages of subscribing.
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