Yeah I think this is the crux of my issue. Like it’s one thing to have a promo for like a stuffed animal, TCG, or the speculated gummy-worm promo coming soon, but an entirely other thing to connect in game rewards to like these larger purchases of items that we all already have and likely enjoy.
I’m biased, but why have this promo for what is essentially overpriced C-to-B tier gaming products when you could connect in-game items to like a collection of WoW lore books, a new WoW hoodie they’ve made, or like a Xalatath art book? Something less expensive and more inclusive for consumers. This isn’t to say that absolutely everyone needs to have a $80 escape keycap… but… not everyone needs an $80… idk, you get my point.
Why spend $160 on a gaming mouse when I can invest that in the stock market at a 9% interest rate… over 20 years… (crunches numbers)… and get about $900 for WoW’s 40th-anniversary mini-fridge collection with the new in-game “FRIDGINATOR” mount and “Lil-Chilly-in-here” Vaultbot-reskin battle-pet??
It’s the large price point and the clearly weaponized FOMO towards some of the most committed WoW players that bugs me the most. Bit of speculation, but if Blizzard released an announcement this week saying that those in-game items will be returning to the store after the SteelSeries event I don’t actually think it would cause that much of a decrease in sales to SteelSeries. I think there’s a healthy scenario where in-store items can be added to promotional events to incentivize people to buy things without the whole FOMO part being a component.
And by the way, I’m not a marketing guru or anything, but having these in-game rewards help promote tech items is a bad thing at a foundational level anyways. This is because if I buy, say, the $150 mouse just for the pet - well now I have to try and resell this mouse to gain back some of what I lost. I think it’s a bad look for SteelSeries to have a non-zero amount of their items flood secondary markets like Ebay, pawn shops, or within gamer networks. Want to try the new SteelSeries collection? Why buy it from the source when you can buy it from 200+ resellers on Ebay racing to get rid of the things - all because (my speculative point here) they solely bought it for in-game reward reasons. Trying to target whales for items like this just doesn’t work in my opinion - whereas it does work for gummy worms or a $40 WoW plushie.
Being a top (checks leaderboards) 700 World pet collector, I mostly care about the mouse but the $160 price tag is way too high and feels like I’m being preyed on. I need some sort of justice so I’ve made a game you can play below:
Dodgy Pharmaceutical? or Gaming Mouse? Challenge
Click spoiler for correct answer:
Aerox 9 — Gaming Mouse!
5-HTP — Pharmaceutical!
VEGCOO C10 — Gaming Mouse!
TMD Touch — Gaming Mouse!
Kenalog-40 — Pharmaceutical!
LexaPRO — Pharmaceutical!
Aria XD7 — Gaming Mouse!
