I Think Early Access Pays For Itself

Community General Discussion
1

It’s $89.99 but includes a month of game time, so realistically it’s $74.99. The base game is $49.99 so a $25 difference.

Which means you need to earn approximately two WoW tokens during early access for that $25 to essentially be refunded to you in game time. Tokens normally go for 180,000g to 300,000g although they do peak at new expansion releases.

We will be able to gather ore, herbs and cloth during early access and the first 2-3 days of an expansion always have 500-1000% material costs on the AH. I think it’s entirely possible to gather ~400-500,000g in the early access before the bulk of players pour in, with substantially less competition, simultaneously profiting off of the spike in demand.

Should be pretty easy work gathering even a million gold worth of mats in 3 days, and you were probably going to do that anyway so the opportunity cost is low. They will just be worth more on literally release day rather than 3 days after.

2

since your second point in your case was wow tokens the rest doesn’t really matter does it?

3

I don’t understand. Gold is worth actual US dollars. I bought Diablo 4 with WoW gold. And, naturally, many people buy the subscription with WoW gold.

If early access allows you to earn substantially more gold due to the headstart, that gold translates directly to dollars and cents.

1 Like
4

You understood enough to instantly reply to me as if you had that copypaste ready.

5

For you to be able to buy a token someone has to sell it. Never forget that.

6

Of course, they sell like hot cakes on a new expansion launch. All these professions to max, crafts to order, new gear to enchant, consumables to buy etc.

It aligns perfectly with the same early-expansion demand that launches AH prices for gathered materials into the stratosphere. It is short lived, but dependable.

I do believe that if you compared the 3 day headstart of gathering to the 3 days after official launch of gathering that the AH prices will likely be substantially different, perhaps even by several hundred percent, ergo facilitating the early access essentially paying for itself with no other change in personal player behavior.

7

Have you actually gathered 500k worth of mats in 3 days before. Even at inflated prices, I can’t imagine even rare-ish mats selling for more than 100g. And you’ll only be getting R1s.

8

Some of my stuff right now is selling for 30-100g. The first day of an expansion? Yeah. Easily. I made 800,000g-ish the first week of Dragonflight and I did not have a 3 day headstart on, what, 50% of the population?

9

Even if you factor in a 50% sale the price works out.
Base: 49.99
Mount: 12.50
Pet: 7.50
Month gametime: 14.99

So realistically, the stuff in the Epic edition not even counting the toy/hearthstone/transmog would be $84.98 with a pet/mount sale in the shop, and $104.98 without.