I am shocked and outraged by the massive price differences I’ve noticed between the “Justinian’s Gift” and “Justinian’s Legacy” products. As a loyal player who has supported your games for years, I feel completely ripped off when I see how much more I have to pay if I purchase these products through the Battle.net client on PC compared to the mobile version.
Price Differences:
Justinian’s Gift:
PC Version: €119.99
Mobile Version: €93.99
Difference: €26.00 (approximately 21.67% more expensive on PC)
Justinian’s Legacy:
PC Version: €239.99
Mobile Version: €187.99
Difference: €52.00 (approximately 21.67% more expensive on PC)
This raises the question: Is it really Blizzard’s intention to disadvantage loyal PC players like this? We’re not talking about a few cents here, but significant price differences of over 20%!
How is it possible that I have to pay significantly more for the exact same product on PC? To me, this feels like a deliberate rip-off or even an attempt to systematically take advantage of customers. I expect a company like Blizzard, which constantly speaks of customer loyalty and fairness, to explain and address this practice as soon as possible.
This is not how you show appreciation for your customers.
The issue is that the publisher sells their own virtual products at a higher price than another provider who sells them in the Apple Store or Google Store. This is incomprehensible.
You might have misunderstood the post. Please read it again and look at the table. We are not talking about Google Play or Apple Play being more expensive. No, we are talking about the publisher on Battle.net offering their virtual goods 22% more expensive.
That would be a valid explanation if the prices on the mobile app stores were higher than they are on PC. The issue being reported in this thread, however, is that the prices on the PC shop are higher than the prices on the mobile app stores.
Blizzard are charging customers more on PC (where they get 100% of the sale price) than they are on mobile (where they get less than 100% of the sale price), i.e. they’re keeping 100% of a higher price (on PC) than keeping less than 100% of a lower price (on mobile).
On the iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and macOS App Store, Apple charges a 30% fee for apps and in-app purchases. However, the fee doesn’t apply to free apps.
So, let’s use the OP’s figures…
On the iStore, Justinian’s Gift costs €93.99
That means Apple take 30% of the €93.99, i.e. €28.20
This means Blizzard receives €65.79
On the PC, Justinian’s Gift costs €119.99
On PC, it’s their own store, there’s no-one else taking a cut.
This means Blizzard receives €119.99
This means they receive approximately 82% more money for selling the same thing on their own store to PC customers than they do for selling it to mobile customers on Apple’s store.
Okay, look at the UK pricing then.
The price is £99.99 on both the PC and the app stores.
There’s no difference in taxes.
There’s no difference in location.
There’s no difference in the credit card processing costs.
On the Apple store for iPhones, the price the customer pays is £99.99
After Apple’s 30% cut, Blizzard gets 70% of this, i.e. £69.99
On the Blizzard store for PC, the price the customer pays is £99.99
Blizzard gets 100% if this, i.e. £99.99
They’re earning around 43% more on PC sales than on iPhone sales, in the same country, under the same tax regime, with the same credit-card processing costs.
I was forwarded here by the support agents - thanks for confirming that there was indeed an error on your side.
Would be great to hear about the reimbursement for those of us who bought it day 1 with the ridiculous price difference