New Set Costs; Too High?

Community Discussion
1

Am I alone in thinking $100 (I am Canadian) is a lot for pixels four times a year?

I feel they would sell a lot more bundles if they docked the price by 1/3. Personally, I would either buy the mega bundle or nothing. If they dropped the mega to the standard cost (standard is $63 CAD) and then the standard cost to ~$45, I feel their sales would be a lot higher.

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2

No, you can spend $10 after release. A couple of drops in money would not matter.

3

It’s 3 times a year.

April, August, December

$66.95 AUD and $109.95 AUD for me.

Is it a lot of money? Well value is going to mean different things to different people. For example, do you have any other hobbies? Do you currently play other consoles and games? Maybe this year it doesn’t help with PS5 and Series X set to come out around November making the last expansion bundles difficult to buy as well as a console.

Another consideration is how often do you play the game? Is it worth it for the amount of time you put in?

4

I love CCG, especially digital ones where you don’t have to worry to maintain your cards in “near mint” condition. I spend at least $50 per preorder of every expansion.

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5

It is a lot of money. If I could buy Kel’thuzad plus the card back with cash and nothing other than those two items, I might do that. I can always get the actual cards with gold.

6

Yeah, but they want people to hard-commit if they want certain hero portraits.

I’m still on my personal protest against Blizzard for the Blitzchung shenanigans and still see no reason to switch my battlenet name back to what it was nor give them one cent more of my money for the forseeable future.

Saving gold for the overpriced-as-hell Tavern Pass when it comes time and I have enough dust saved up that anything I REALLY want from this upcoming expansion I’ll just immediately craft and carry on with dailies as normal to fill in my collection. I play less and less of the main game as time goes on anyway so I’m in no particular rush.

7

It’s not that it’s overpriced. It’s overpriced for what you receive. For that amount of money, you should be able to choose the class you want to buy cards from.

8

There is no requirement to buy anything.
Some people choose to buy the “big” pre-release bundle for (in my part of the world) € 80. Some people prefer the “small” bundle for € 50. There are those who even prefer to buy both, for € 130. And then there are those who buy neither and just pick up the exact amount of card packs they want / can afford, for the euros they can spare, after release.
Or you can choose to play for free, and pay absolutely nothing.

Just because there is an offer right now (with, admittedly, a better than normal “bang for your buck” proposition) doesn’t mean you HAVE to take it.

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9

I am quite sure Activision is competent enough to calculate which price brings them the greatest profit. Why would they choose any other after all? That’s how bussiness works. If you buy at current prices, it is YOUR fault they are that high.

The only way to lower the prices of bundles and packs is if enough people stop buying for the current prices. Simple as that.

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10

My only concern is that the price will drive players away… Because they get fed up with the cost to maintain and keep up with standard…

If this game bleeds players, then the quality for the rest of us playing, is deminished…

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11

but they didnt increase the price

and they improved the bundle instead

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12

Depends on what you’re doing in the game.

Casually playing now and then? Don’t buy the bundles, just buy a few packs here or there (with or without gold, it’s your call).

Hardcore player maintaining legend each month? I guess maybe then it’s worth the bundle, since it’s a little under $1/pack. Although, depending on what class/style you prefer playing, you could probably just dust a lot of cards to craft the ones you need to save money.

Either way, you don’t need to buy the bundles to play HS.

TLDR:

Don’t like the price? Don’t buy it.

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13

Because you don’t own anything at the end of the day. Will never be able to sell them for profit.

14

Also true of most cards from a CCG.

15

Price is pretty standard for this type of game. Only thing i dislike is that i can’t just buy the hero portrait separately.

16

Even when adjusted for the local price, the 55 pack bundle costs $40 US. The previous expansion, Descent of Dragons had 60 pack bundle for the same price locally and in US dollars.

Will Blizzard actually hear us out and either reduce the ridiculously inflated prices so as to align the prices of both bundles with the previous expansions? Seriously, for a digitally non-tradable card game, Hearthstone has an incredibly high maintenance expenses. As a disgruntled wild player, I really cannot get behind these prices because for half the price I would be paying for these bundles, I could pay 4/5 of a month’s rent.

Companies such as Intel and Blizzard have been baffling me recently with their stingy and uncalled for decisions despite their financial situations, their value estimations and whatnot, because apparently whatever projections or indicators that they have are pointing to lower profits. Otherwise, why would they run the risk of agitating their playerbase and make them hate their game and themselves?

17

You and the minority still don’t understand. A friend of mine earns $2000 a month but still blow big money of $500 a year on HS.

18

What’s to understand here? That some people enjoy Hearthstone enough to the point that they can shill out one fourth of their salary? Thanks, genius.

For some people, some games are people’s sole entertainment venues. And earning 2000, when adjusted for inflation of the USD economy and the finances of the country that s/he lives in, may or may not be too much money. 2000 USD a month in my country would put you way above the middle-class as the minimum wage here is around the ballpark of 350 USD.

But I digress, the point of my reply wasn’t that Blizzard owes anyone anything. I was only pointing out the FACT that Blizzard/Activision has gotten more and more stingy. Last time I checked, printing out digital cards was not really that expensive. Designing? Sure.

We’re never going to reach the same level in a conversation, anyhow. Waste of time this forum I tell you.

19

In my country, which IS US, the situation is different. It is like the minimum requirement of being CLOSE to middle class. And my any means my friend has a family, a house with furnitures while he still blows money on CCGs, because he likes WoW and MTG. Blizzard has actually gotten friendlier for new players when the old players are getting less value. They are focusing new players a lot during AoO and on the preoder of SA.

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20

Let me list a few things that have changed since I started playing. Then please explain to me how these align with your (and I quote) “FACT”.

  1. Daily quests: Were 40 / 60 gold, plus I think one for 100 gold. All 40 g have been increased to 50 gold. All requirements have been lowered. New 80 gold quest introduced. More 100 gold quests introduced. Quests for classic packs introduced.
  2. Tavern Brawl. Did not exist. On introduction, the “pack for your first win” was labelled as temporary to celebrate the introduction of Tavern Brawl. It’s now permanent.
  3. Giveaways during expansion release. They gave nothing or perhaps just three packs when I started playing. Now it’s usually between 6 to 10 packs, often with a few free cards thrown in too.
  4. General giveaways. For instance Twitch drops a few times per year. Packs for things such as “pick your champion”. Simple login rewards “just because”. Periods with higher than normal rewards for your daily quests. All these things did not happen when I started playing.
  5. Random card generation. Used to be completely random, except for the (undocumented and unverified) pity timer. Duplicate legendary protection got introduced, then later expanded to duplicate/triplicate protection for all rarities, and with a subtle rule change that allows you to dust unwanted cards immediately and still be sure you won’t find them again until you have found all others. This has reduced the number of packs you need in order to get the cards you need.
  6. End of month rewards were changed with the last expansion. The new system is much more beneficial for people with incomplete collection. While, admittedly, being less beneficial for people who already have a full collection but are trying to get as many golden cards as possible. (So yes, you might argue that this change actively encourages players to spend less money on the game).
  7. More frequent balance adjustments. When I started playing, that happened perhaps once or twice per year. Now we typically see at least one and often more rounds of balance changes in every expansion. And every time that happens, you can dust the affected cards for full dust value. (This has in the past been rumoured as the reason why Blizzard hardly ever nerfed cards).
  8. New players receive a nice amount of packs as they advance through the new player ranks. They also receive a custom made deck. Returning players (after a long enough absence) also get this deck, together with three special quests for a total of 9 extra packs. I think those returning player quests have been around for a long time already, but all others have been introduced in the past one or two years.
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