DISCLAIMER
*I understand all Crom Coin prices seen on previous streams etc are not final. * The Battle Pass. I am excited for it, I don’t have a problem with it nor the semi-confirmed price of 1000 Crom Coins (CC).
The Bazaar
As stated the prices are still “placeholder” and I honestly hope so. With as much respect as possible prices seen on the Twitchcon thing for items are quite steep.
The placeholder price for A banner is 500CC which translates to $5.00 USD which translates to half the price in USD to an entire culture pack! Even if the banner is a banner pack with 10 banners it still pales in comparison to half a culture pack DLC. There are more examples (1800CC Black Magic Starter Set etc etc) but I will not drone on with work in progress prices.
Basically the stuff with the current placeholder prices are too expensive when compared to what we would pay for an entire culture pack DLC. And I hope the final prices will bare that in mind when 3.0 gets released.
@Firespark81 Did a video explaining much better the same point along with other interesting views. Please go have a look.
There’s nothing that says we have to compare previous value with what’s currently in the store. They obviously were NOT making enough revenue from the culture packs (DLC) at $10ea. So to me it’s maybe like going to the store, finding a product mispriced or on some super-ultra clearance SALE and then returning some months later and demanding that everything be priced like that. Ummm, no… doesn’t work like that.
And the pricing they have so far seems fine to me. Sure, we all wanna get a great deal but this isn’t about that. This is a virtual store and ANY of the products you buy are worth zero. In fact they have a negative real world value because as soon as you purchase them you have to pay for electricity to use them and they are NOT transferable. We all like to haggle but I don’t think it’s useful in this case.
The new pricing is about what they are expecting will pay their bills and for the active development they have planned. It seems obvious to me that they want only whales to “buy everything” with normal people purchasing only a few items they think they might find useful or interesting.
Again, I believe I must point out, that in game purchased items are entirely at your discretion. If you believe the cost is too much, then, by all means, do not pay it. The proprietors, in this case Funcom, will recognize that items are not selling and will determine either it it is not wanted or it is too expensive.
This is old fashioned capitalism. Prices will be determined by how much the consumers are willing to pay, since nothing here is necessary, and there is no penalty for not having the items.
There will be, of course, those people who will buy everything because they just have to have it, even if they never use it. For them, cost does not matter.
I also think that the prices (shown so far) in the bazaar are too high. However, I also think that the DLC packs were way too cheap! In my opinion, they should meet somewhere in the middle. Over $10 for a few pieces of furniture is bold. 5 dollars for a single banner? That must be a typo! I’m willing to continue supporting Conan Exiles, but I also want to be valued as a customer. I’m willing to pay one dollar for a banner. At the end of the day I still spent a lot more than $10 on a DLC pack and I don’t think that’s a big deal. But if I smell rip-offs, I won’t spend a cent.
I am not upset about the battle pass and store, I’m actually excited for it. However, the criticism of the shown prices are valid. They are showing these placeholder prices to get gamers reaction. If people seem ok with the prices then they will stay the same or be higher. The “you don’t have to buy it” theory isn’t completely valid to me. Because, we just want things to be fairly priced. Its the principle of it. Everyone knows that some battle passes and store prices from games in the past are completely out of line. I will admit the old dlc packs were surprisingly low in cost, but they did kind of show how much the store prices should be in my opinion.
i could see 10-15 on a armor set that i will wear til the end of CE, but for the most part i agree with others here. 18$ for a 3 piece furniture set makes me not want to spend, if everythings fair id buy everything, and thats kinda a fine line, if i wont buy everything because i feel im being ripped off… ill probably buy very little if at all, if i even want to log in. But like every other thread, lets wait and see what prices turn out to be.
Are we forgetting that bazaar items can be put on sale? The price points are ones that I have seen in other stores for battle royals however those were Free2Play so I’m trying to figure out where the sweet spot for pricing will be (how much discount does paying for the game provide the bazaar because it should in some way…maybe even just free crom coin to cover purchases within to keep it simple)
Not to mention if its only a dollar or two, instead of the just the basic 2000+ theres those of us that will buy other items simply because price is fair and we want it all
I think the problem that most people have boils down to the precedent that funcom has already set. They sold an entire cultural pack for 10 bucks American. So that is the expectation regardless if it was “too cheap”. That is the price they set for it. Now if the prices in the bazaar are accurate then that is a mind blowing increase in money required for very little gained.
That is your opinion, and you are entitled to it, but that is all that it is.
No, there is nothing that says we HAVE to. However, 4 years of them already showing that this this WHAT THEY value these things as clearly shows us, the consumers, what the value for them is. So yeah, the value has already been set regardless if you prefer to see it that way or not.
Is it OBVIOUS? I mean in all honesty, is it actually obvious in any way? Just because something changed does not mean it is in any way obvious that they were not making enough revenue in the old system. So unless you can provide the financial report directly from Funcom you have nothing to back your baseless claim.
No, it is more like going to the store, paying a fair market rate for something for 4 years, and then being told “nope, we are now going to seriously raise the prices on EVERYTHING and you have no choice in the matter”. That is the total opposite of what you are saying.
This isn’t about getting a deal. This is about what has been established for the last 4 years and now being told we will have to pay anywhere around 4-6 times that for the same number of pieces (times multipliers are not accurate as we do not yet have all of the numbers). So if you think that is fine, good on you. If other do not, and I get the feeling that the majority of people will likely not, do not attempt to tell them that they are wrong. Because they are not wrong. It is, after all, their OPINION. Just like you thinking this is “fair” is your opinion.
And there in lies the problem. Catering to the whales is the exactly WRONG way to go about your business. If they lowered their prices they would increase the number of sales overall and thus in the long run increase their overall profit. But making it exclusionary for the majority of their players they are reducing the profit margin and causing undue negative feelings towards them as a company. Just look at Magic the Gathering as an example.
I don’t like the idea of buying anything separately. It would be better if we received rewards through the battlepass in the form of some kind of quests, it would be more interesting.
You know i noticed something odd in the video posted above. I was gonna come in and give a specific analysis of what i would and wouldnt buy and compare the prices to perceived value in other games.
But, the 5$ banner? Right next to it there is another banner but a large one for 2.50$. So me thinks the prices definently need another pass.
Im in the camp that wants to whale and buy everything. If the prices feel like a bad deal im not going to do that. Global recession and all that.
Some of the prices looked reasonable. 2.50 for a banner? Kinda steep but ill impulse buy it. 5 bucks for the alchemey set with the handful of decobits? Sure. 18 for what looks like a crafting table skin? Pass. Im assuming that offer is a bundle and contains like a chair, couldren, battle paint and consumables. But 18 is a hard sell on that.
No use speculating i suppose, especilally if the prices are wrong, which the two banners suggest they are. I want to support the game but i dont want to feel like a pay piggie. More modest prices would get more sales.
The problem with the pricing is that, as pointed out in the video, there are examples of items with placeholder prices of 2222 and 9999. Those are typical of placeholders, you just add nonsensical numbers to hold the place of actual numbers that you will determine at a later point. But also what is pointed out is that several of those prices are clearly the save from one stream to the next, which makes you believe that these are, at least at this time, set. They are not placeholder prices, but actual prices of 700, 1100, 500 or the like. So yeah, $18US for an item with maybe a couple “pieces” compared to what they used to sell for $10US for what they used to sell for an average of 100 pieces is a complete and utter rip off no matter how you want to twist reality.
It kind of surprises me a lot of people call things “predatory practises” without even knowing what it actually is… even FireSpark using the term in the wrong way…:
Predatory monetization schemes (e.g., ‘loot boxes’) in video games are purchasing systems that disguise or withhold the long-term cost of the activity until players are already financially and psychologically committed. Such schemes contribute to the increasing similarity of gaming and gambling and the potential for financial harm for those with Internet gaming disorder.
The battle pass isn’t such thing, and especially not the bazaar which FireSpark claims in the video.
People don’t like FOMO, which I can understand, but stop calling it “predatory practises”.
I can’t find anything “predatory” about it, only dislike by some.
Since I just know what kind of reply some people will want to write: yes, I know these are just my personal opinions. I saved you the work of pointing that out. You’re welcome
I really, really hope Funcom isn’t even using that terminology in their planning and discussions. This lingo originates with predatory marketing practices, and is still most widely used to describe, plan, and execute those practices.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not just the lingo I object to. You could use whatever words you want, but if you’re intentionally structuring prices to make it so that buying all content is an extreme – an artificial luxury, if you will – then you’re engaging in predatory marketing.
It is my fervent hope that this is just your individual interpretation and not an actual change in Funcom’s ethics.
I would’ve paid $20 or even $30 for most of the existing DLC packs. But $5 for a single banner would not only be excessive, it would be an excellent indicator that the pricing has gone to the other extreme and that it’s time for me to stop supporting this game financially.
Counterpoint: just because you found one source that defines “predatory” in a specific way, doesn’t mean that there are no other predatory practices.
