Therein lies the rub. The reasonable price is the price that an individual is willing to pay and therefor does so and less. Anything a cent higher is unreasonable. For that individual and that individual only.
What is unreasonably priced at $15 for someone, another will purchase and may consider $20 to be unreasonable where another may pay up to $25. And then you have some who would think the same item is unreasonably priced at $5.
No one is more correct than the other.
Thus the standard lays at the seller and how much they intend to make. And thus they need to determine if they are selling enough units and also meeting said goals. Then determine if they need to sell more units or raise or lower prices based on market expectations.
While feedback from us is ‘kind of’ useful. When we say we will buy something for a lower price doesn’t mean we will. For example, I’ve stated in the forums, and during beta testing feedback that I think the prices in the bazaar should be 30% lower. However there is no guarantee that -I- will buy such items for 30% cheaper. What use is it to them if they lower prices and I have no intention on buying the items anyway? Because in my personal case, I’ll be honest, I still probably wouldn’t.
Now FC has to navigate the tricky predictions of how large of the portion of us who aren’t buying would actually buy at a lower price. If its enough to push them to their goals, they’ve made a good choice. If not, and they are meeting goals at the current prices, then it makes no sense to lower. There is no guarantee that there will be enough extra buyers in the future to increase profits by the same amount or more than the profits they would lose at the current prices of those who ARE buying.
In my opinion and my opinion only, it would make sense to eventually lower current item prices. The idea is everyone who is willing to purchase them at their current prices will have all done so. With only the occasional new player who hasn’t purchased the item being left out of those who have yet bought said items that would pay those prices.
And when that time comes around those items would stand to make money if lowered for those who might buy them. But at the same time a sufficient amount of time must pass so that those who did buy them at the current prices don’t simply wish to wait in the future when new items come out for them to be offered at lower prices. If said time is not sufficient, then they would lose money in future sales as previously earlier adopters simply manage enough patience to wait for a lower price.
But this would take a large amount of time, such around 12-18 months or longer after the item is initially available. They have extended this time by not quite making the items available all the time (not quite FOMO, but a similar strategy). So unlike a game on Steam, you can’t expect a sale in a 6-12 month time frame, but something closer to twice that, or even longer.
If the prices are lowered in Chapter 3, we will have information that will lead us to believe that they might not be meeting goals and feel the need to sell more units and have data that believes that more units sold will result in more revenue. If they do not lower prices (they actually raised prices in Chapter 2 compared to the first), then we can infer that they believe they are simply meeting the goals they have set from themselves and do not wish to take the gamble outlined above.
I would point out that raising, lowering, or maintaining prices is a gamble in itself. There is no surefire way to ensure goals are met and maintained. They can only hope they have enough data to make an informed decision.
Like I said, feedback from us ‘kind of’ helps. But our word is not a guarantee. Keeping our wallets closed but continuing to play, speaks very loudly. Especially inbetween chapters and major sales on various platforms. If the same 10,000-12,000 play on an every day basis but don’t spend money, then there is potential lost. If a quarter of the players stop playing, but the whales keep buying enough to make goals, whats to make them think they will lose money in the next quarter if all they have to do is keep the big spenders happy?
You could argue that even with the numbers up, the whales can keep it afloat by keeping the goals met. And that is unfortunately true. But questions may arise among those who make decisions of why the rest aren’t buying in as well? They do have an idea of who is buying and who isn’t. And it wouldn’t be too far fetched to suggest that the average spent per person isn’t some sort of consideration.
Again this is just my opinion, and others may have different ones. But I don’t believe its too far off the mark. And I believe in this notion enough to remain patient and continue to not purchase items until I do see something that I want enough to purchase at the price that would be low enough to for me to consider doing so.
But at this time I cannot with any guarantee say, “I would buy X item that is available, at Y price.” This is NOT a guarantee I will make, and I do not believe I am alone in this. This is something FC will have to contend with. Just because others may say they will buy an item at a certain price doesn’t meant that they or many others, will.
just like you can decide to not buy and post any feedback here.