But it is, the box cost covers the game content for that expansion they just push out the expansion before they are done development/bug fixes.
Clearly it doesnât or it would.
Like I said, donât let the door hit you on your way out.
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Literally every expansion past wrath of the lich king which was 60$ has been at 70$ or higher at launching price.
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I have no issues with subscription fees. When I play 12 hours a week of either WoW, Iâm paying blizzard less than $0.25/ hour (like my taxes I ignorantly imagine itâs going to something that will improve the future).
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Really cuz thatâs the way it works in most games just look at diablo 3, it has patches it has bug fixes and there was only the initial cost of the game and its expansion. Plus like half their wow revenue is from the store and not even from subscriptions.
Most AAA MMOs operate like this, the ones that have a substantial player base that is.
Clearly MMOs are not for you.
Diablo 3, did not have as much content as a single xpac in its first patch.
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Well the cost to play a game(literally any other game) is when you buy it, you donât then also have to pay 45-50$ for two months of game time.
FF14 has a sub fee so no, not any other game.
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The city usually taxes you for trash collection too so its not a similar comparison.
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Diablo is not a persistent world MMO⊠also, none of us own any of our Blizzard games.
Well hereâs your problem. You didnât read the EULA/TOS.
You did not buy a game when you paid for wow. You paid for access to a game service and access to that content.
You own nothing. Services cost what service providers charge and customers are willing to pay.
Read the EULA if you donât believe me. Itâs right there in black and white. Has been for 14 years. LOL
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I think honestly, there is a strong reason why they want to tie the subs together thats not just purely financial.
But lets deal with the financial issue first: At 40 bucks and b2p, they make a decent chunk initially. Players who want to play it are going to pay for the box. Players on the fence and curious MAY pay for it, but will likely be turned off completely. And players who arent particularly interested but just want to see definitely wont bother. Itâs not the same calculus. Youâll see more potential sales initially. But youâll also see far less interest (and possibly declining interest as people drop out once theyve had their fill - it wont just be tourists dropping out after all; plenty of people on these forums are going to drift off after theyve got a couple of characters to the mid 30s wall).
Hooray! stable servers on launch (i hear you all cry). But for every month beyond month 3 the player is playing that game, blizzard are losing money. They have to host the game, manage it and maintain it indefinitely. That requires money. This would work if word of mouth spread and the game saw the kind of hype that original vanilla had. But reallllllistically⊠14 year old game. 14 year old mechanics. 14 year old grinding. Its pretty niche.
Then to entice people theyre going to drop a trial function. But that may do more harm than good. Again, compared to modern wow its time consuming, frustrating, slow, and a little grindy. its a slow burn. You kinda need to experience that gradual build in power and community ties to properly get your head into it.
So truth be told, the only people realistically picking it up after the first big wave will be the occasional convert and multiboxers. (or maybe when it goes on sale they might score a few more pickups).
And thats not really paying for the wages and hosting fees for this project (not to mention any potential ongoing development).
Yes, sure, rationally weâll (on these forums 9 months before release) all be delighted: 40<(15 x however many months of sub). At the least this is a 3-6 month grind. And if you put in the effort to hit 60, chances are youre pretty invested to continue even longer. So 40 bucks is a bargain! But blizzard know this. And so its in their interest to make it part of your wow sub. the core of this game are going to pay their sub anyway. They also treat you to a bonus game you can dip in and out of (depending on your interest) when the other one lags a bit.
Which brings me to the main reason:
By separating the subs or payment model, you can completely ignore whats going on in the main game (or classic), and when you lose interest in it, you are free to wander off to the next single player game or even another mmo. And chances are they might actually lose you. But if they can encourage you instead to stay in house, then your typical cyclical sub might find that the change of pace in classic keeps them under that warcraft umbrella (or vice versa when classic starts feeling a bit of a chore), making them an important target for information pertaining to updates or changes in the games.
Youre still subbed, youre still playing the game. When a new patch for the main game starts hitting the ptr, you might be a little more engaged than were you exclusively tied to classic (and had to pay 15 bucks to reactivate your sub just to âcheck it outâ). With the subs tied, its literally no thing for you to keep up to date with the goings on in the main game, and if it interests you, maybe returning to that shaman you dropped in cataclysm (i mean, lets not forget, we spent YEARS developing those characters, they still have some value to us). And in the other direction, when the content drought begins, or you hit that ilvl wall, with a tied in sub, you can easily bounce across to classic and check it out for a few months. Maybe even give it another go after the opening week chaos. If you had to drop 40 bucks though, youd just drop your sub, go play something else and maybe not even tune in the next time a patch is dropping. (honestly, i could accurately define my interest in wow by my interest in drama time. When im engaged, im loving it. When im playing something else, im completely ignoring it - sorry preach and ghosty and emma).
Without it, theres a decent chance youâll simply move from cycling sub between patches to cycling between expansions. The next natural step is to completely ignore whatâs happening in wow and look at Anthem or RDR2 or whatever else is grabbing the column inches and no longer bother to even tune in to the latest news and updates. Theyve lost you completely.
So thatâs the big reason why theyre tied together. Financials play a part, but the real driving force is keeping those cyclical subs under the wow umbrella long term and invested in not only classic but the main game itself (or, as i keep saying, vice versa). They work symbiotically to keep you within the wow universe.
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Youâre asking Blizzard to make WoW classic a free to play game (without a subscription) but have a one time cost. Lol. Iâm sure you would that. I mean, why pay a subscription when you can pay 60 bucks once and play the game for years on end without ever paying for anything ever again?
Not going to happen. Blizzard wants to make money
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you can buy a wow token from the retail auction house for the cost of in-game gold. it covers a single sub. repeat this as many times you want a sub. so no sub fee in that event.
The simple fact is as much as I love Blizzard and all their games on some level, they are not re-creating Classic just for fun. Most likely weâll see a $30-40 box fee and will need to be subbed to play. Which, to be honest, Iâm cool with. Not because I love to pay money for other stuff I wonât use but just to enjoy the experience again.
I donât think they will do a box cost, they may do some CE type with take home goodies etc but it will probably be like it is now just buy a sub and you get access to the all the xpacs up to legion they will just slap classic on it now.
Iâm not saying they shouldnât give those who are subbed to the modern wow the ability to also play classic for free with their sub. Iâm saying they should give those of us who donât want anything to do with modern wow and modern wowâs subscription model a way to play the game, over watch is just as big if not bigger than wow and they have no sub feeâs and they are making plenty of money from that.
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Overwatch gets its money from in game transactions. Are you wanting that in classic?
It had a sub fee when it was current, should have a sub fee now.
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I would happily buy a collectors edition(provided its not to expensive) if it means not having to deal with a subscription model.
And dasilas modern wow makes most of its money from that anyways so sure I wouldnât mind having that if it meant no sub fees and the only things it would provide were cosmetic only in nature.