Wouldn’t be to much of an issue but like others have pointed out there are a few things we would like looked at and fixed, but there is a gold cost issue as well, not only will we be paying $20 a month but alot of players also buy token for gold runs and most of the time on OCE realms they are far over what NA players pay.
For eg: Glacial Tidestorm OCE: 300k+ NA: 85k+ from asking on multi realms a week ago. The AH mounts are also over priced on OCE realms in most cases as are Mythic+15s.
And with tokens going from $25AUD to $27 for the amount of gold we get for that price i can see a huge decline in sales here in AU.
It will flow onto other things like queue times for both Horde and Alliance ( if there is going to be any Alliance left that is ).
It’s just bad timing.
I mean people get outraged about less. I think that there will be those who may not have that kind of financial leverage to pay more, and they’re fully justified to be angry or unsub. But for those who just wanna be outraged for the sake of it, or based on ‘principle’ then I kinda scratch my head on that one cause in the end I’d always expect a business to choose their profits over their customer welfare.
If the subscription fee actually seemed to have a purpose, I think bringing it in line with the US would be perfectly fine. I’d be like, sure, that’s about how much we should be paying to keep the lights on and keep the servers running, whatever, throw that extra $5 transaction my way.
However, it’s not exactly a big secret that servers (like WoW’s realms) are several orders of magnitude cheaper to run than they were when the game first launched in 2004. What was once a very justified entry fee has increasingly become a mere relic of the past - one we seem to pay more out of tradition than for any actual reason.
So even the ‘cheaper’ price has essentially become free money for Activision-Blizzard. It’s not needed to fund the game - they’re definitely not spending hundreds of dollars, times the number of players on this game every year, to put it politely. So what’s it for?
And if it’s just money in their pockets, with no real purpose beyond being a fee for the sake of a fee, why shouldn’t people be outraged when it’s given a bump? They’re essentially paying more than they used to for no good reason.
We’re talking about a game with a cash shop, here. The subscription fee is essentially just a superfluous relic, one that was necessary back when the game launched almost twenty years ago.
Do I prefer having a sub fee over a waterfall of microtransactions? Yes, but there’s a middle ground, here… Despite my enjoyment of the game, I’m genuinely struggling to come up with a value proposition for a significant portion of my internet bill per month for a single videogame.
I’m just going to repeat that, because I feel it needs repeating. A single videogame.
I think I spend less on registration for my car.
We’re also mad that the Oceanic servers have had some pretty big issues for a long time with zero fixes.
Broken day/night cycle, world events happening at terrible times, warmode balancing is just screwed up, getting shoved on US servers for dungeons and battlegrounds is still a thing.
So basically it’s “pay more for a service that has only gotten worse over the years”
But would you see this as bad timing, bad for PR though?
If the company needs to make up the loss due to currency, they could introduce regional promotions to let those willing spend more, rather than a flat increase for everyone. It just doesn’t feel to be the right year to do this when living cost is going up everywhere but wages don’t.
doesn’t activision not even give a poop about oceanic realms?
There is no “good” time to raise prices, in the end the Australian dollar has been consistently weak globally and will continue to be so for at least another 2 years. So in the end to pay a fair price the sub has to go up.
The exchange rate is higher today than the same time last year. Sure it fluctuates like any exchange rate, but it has generally sat within the 70-75 range for the past 5 years, with the exception of the drop in March which it recovered from.
Exchange rates:
11 Nov 2020: 0.73
11 Nov 2019: 0.68
11 Nov 2018: 0.72
11 Nov 2017: 0.75
11 Nov 2016: 0.74
11 Nov 2015: 0.70
They aren’t adjusting for anything. It’s a quick cash grab.
It’s just as likely that they are using Australia as the test market to see what impact a price increase will have on subs/profits as it is adjusting for any dollar difference.
This isn’t even taking in to account all the other issues OCE players have to deal with and have been ignored for years. First blue post in the OCE forum for 2 years was to announce a price increase.
There are other more effective ways to make quick cash… raising the price of Oceanic (the lowest player base) is not it.
A fair price?
You mean the price dictated Activision?
Activision.
It certainly isn’t going to retain people who are uncertain as to if SLs is going to be worth playing.
On top of the lousy pre-patch there’s going to be some punch back.
Knock on the door
It’s Bornakk!
“I haven’t seen you in ages round these parts, what brings you here?”
“Rents gone up boys”
“Oh”
“Bye”
I am unsure why the company name matters?
Activision or a small indie studio in the end the price of a sub is $15 US and we do not currently exceed that, I mean if the AUD bounces back (it wont) to a point where we are paying $16 USD for the same service I would happily argue for a sub reduction. But till then we are paying the global price which is fair.
Exactly. It boggles the mind how few people can look at xe spending less than 10 seconds of research only to notice the AUD vs USD has been stable for the better part of a decade. The only real drop it had was when it came down from riding high during the US economic crisis.
This is nothing more than a divide and conquer tactic trying to raise the prices and I will be shocked if we don’t see more “currency adjustments” in the next few months in other regions.
You must be trolling by this point.
what about the game cards? do they change?
The outrage can be valid depending on the argument given. Many threads being made however just comes off as whiny. Meanwhile threads like this one.
Brings up actual arguments that everyone should actually support. If you are going to be charged the same amount then you should have access to the same quality of service.
I’m an Aussie, played from Aus and the UK for over 10 years now.
On exclusively US realms.
I didn’t go to Oceanic realms because 150-170ping isn’t that bad and people are well and truly blowing it out of proportion.
I do, and always have had the same level of service, and same quality of service as NA players.
Blizzard installed infrastructure in places to give Oceanic’s 10-14 ping, that wasn’t free for them, nor done out of good will.
It’s not like we’re now paying an extra 15 bucks a month, if running a subscription which most invested in an MMO should, it’s a 75 cent increase.
And still lower than raw USD.
I’m only surprised it didn’t happen sooner.
We had a bump not too long back due to tax reasons and E-commerce being a digital age yet I can hardly call it unjustified.
I might not like it, I don’t have to like it, but I can understand it and see reasons for it.
If Oceanic players want local servers, with local ping times… that means hardware, and staff to maintain it.
I’m a little peeved sure because money is money, but hardly outraged.
$19.95 AUD is $14.48~ USD.
Bringing us mostly in-line with US pricing for a single month of game time, and still being a fraction cheaper.
We can factor in cost of living and what not, but I’m no economist and neither is anyone else on these forums pouring vitriol all over the place.
$103.50 AUD is $75.12~ USD for a 6-month subscription.
Seems pretty normal, could be worse…
For a $500~ USD RTX3070 I’ll be expected to pay $1100+ AUD, which should be $688.49 AUD give or take yet the starting prices will be $809AUD though good luck finding one at an Australian retailer anywhere close to that, so I’ve bigger things to be outraged by with our “Australia tax”.
I dunno 
I don’t know what goes into a decision like this but if it was 1 to 1 before
https://i.postimg.cc/GhPHkwZj/image.png
AUS was paying less so I understand the increase
Any price increase in these times when the game is in its worst state ever is not justified. I didn’t know their sub was cheaper, but let’s face it. This game is basically free to play quality and has been for a while. Paying more just doesn’t make sense.