While your Australian example is true, it is incorrect for NZ and CA who both have the distinction of paying more than $15 USD. The NZ rate is $17.94 USD and CA rate (for game-time, not subs) is $17.29 USD. The CA price hike in general is causing speculation that a US price hike is imminent.
And employee salaries have gone up as have distribution costs (Apple and Amazon in particular are seemingly gouging game companies in general, not just ActiBlizz). Is your salary the same as it was 16 years ago?
Most of those F2P games are P2W as you canât progress competitively without buying powerful gear in the cash shop. The day Blizz puts gear directly for sale in the cash shop is the day Iâm out. There are F2P exceptions, but probably less than a half-dozen that hold a candle to WoW (Iâve heard people defend ESO, but I didnât care for that game despite far superior graphics).
3 Likes
the minority of opinions arenât really important. Corp decisions are driven on what impacts âmost customersâ. So the minority just cry and complain, and they should just not play the game since they donât get their way. I bet you grew up winning trophies for participation your entire life, huh? You sound like a real winner.
I was playing mmos before you head of them sonny. And no, I didnât grow up in a coddling country like America.
True.
Itâs actually pretty amazing the subscription has remained untouched.
its just a weird time to hit the populace with a price hike when youre already filthy rich 
wouldve went smoother pre-covid imo
Sub prices are static in a lot of regions, just the token/gametime cost has gone up. They make more money from all the in game selling this way with all the whales that buy tokens for cash to turn into gold.
I cant speak for most casual players, but for this casual player, endgame is an afterthought. Maybe a heroic dungeon if i need to do it for a questline.
Not really concerned about being at top tier in anything right now, hence the casual part of the title.
Ya but itâd also be lower cost for quality. But we pay anyways bc weâre addicts.
What price increase?
1 Like
Ouch, not the snippet I would want associated with me.
Theyâll course correct with a bigger in-game shop.
$15 a month is expensive, even less if you do the 6 month sub? $39.99 for an entire expansion. SO EXPENSIVE LOL⌠Most new games cost $60 and last 20-40 hours. WoW lasts forever and is the cost of one movie ticket every month. Saying this game is expensive is pretty funny.
2 Likes
For the content you get, yes it is. People love to just mention subs and not the cost of the actual expansion. So far SL has cost most people aroud $85. You buy the expansion for the content, then you pay $15 to actually get access to that content. You then get to repeat that same content you just purchased on higher levels of difficulty for months on end.
Are you talking about the U.S. or about the exchange rate adjustments?
Exchange rate isnât the only factor. Cost of doing business in the foreign country is another.
This seems like a stretch as the base price is $39.99 and people that paid for Heroic or Epic additions clearly felt that the extra cosmetics/mounts were worth the added cost. This whole discussion centers around people that canât handle an added cost of $2-4/month and the most logical assumption is that those folks would have chosen the base game since they have limited entertainment budgets.
Elder-Scrolls Online started with a monthly feeâthey couldnât retain the critical mass of players they wanted and went F2P⌠to me thatâs a death-knell (and I thought ESOâs graphics were FAR superior, but the game play felt lacking with the exception of the big PvP battles in the central zone).
I played a pure F2P called Perfect World International and it was just a Chinese-made grind-fest with actual gear-power for sale locked behind random loot boxes in their cash shop. Again better graphics but imagine hunters having to pay cash to gamble for a chance at the most powerful pets or warriors needed a particular sword for a +20% attack power boost that you gamble for with cashâI left with a sour taste in my mouth.
I played Jedi Fallen Order (clearly not an MMO), paid $60 and got about 45 hours of playtimeâit was excellent and I would highly recommend it, but even at $80 for the Epic edition and $13/mo for 6-month subs, I easily get 1,000 hours of entertainment out of WoW in a year for about $240 if I get in 20 hours a week. Thatâs $4.65/week, so less than $10 for two weeks which is what I got out of Fallen Order for $60âseems like a bargain because even though Fallen Order is a single-player game, to me itâs about the entertainment value and no competing MMO has offered me near the entertainment WoW does; your mileage may vary of course.
It has to do with the currency exchanges, AUD,CAD,BRL to USD.
If that was the case then CAD should be at about $15 USD, but after exchange theyâre paying $17.31 USD. AUD (and probably BRL) are in line with US after exchange, but Canada and New Zealand have the unfortunate distinction of paying more after exchange than most everyone else.
I thought this was explained by Blizz as to why itâs like this? Should be in the blue post announcements.
And the Canadian price is ONLY for game time. NOT subscriptions.
ESO went to consoles to increase the number of players and they seem to be doing okay. Itâll be interesting to see what Microsoft does with the game longer term.