Blizzard Gets Microtransactions
Though I consider name changes and the like to be a lesser form of microtransactions, Blizzard has crossed into the real world of microtransactions by selling in-game pets. While donating half of the proceeds from the Pandaren Monk pet (and only that pet) is a nice gesture, it’s an obvious gimmick. $10 also seems a bit steep. I predict more than a few parents glaring angrily in the direction of Blizzard for that price tag when their kids beg them for the cute pets. More than anything, I’m looking forward to seeing player reactions.
I bought my own little KT yesterday. I have no problem with it as long as it stays fluff and vanity stuff.
The price is kind of steep though.
I agreed with Darren (TCSG) when he went off the deep end about 10$ for a mount so, IMO, this is even worse. 10$ for something that trails along behind you offering no real value or gameplay?
Pass.
Maybe if these pets offered something more (like the Squire can) or if there was a tamigochi-type game play added for having one, I might consider it for my son (if he asked). With the addition of mini-games for a pet, I’d view it more like new content that just something trailing you…
Meh.
I expect to see a number of pets released in the $1-$3 price range. When you pay $40 for an expansion, $10 for a single pet is not a model that will likely bring a huge windfall. Starting off with the premium $10 point for two highly desirable pets is akin to walking into CostCo and seeing the beautiful TVs in the thousands. You’re not going to buy those too often, but it makes springing for the $12 pack of underwear mentally easier.
Just be grateful your only having to pay $10. In the UK and Europe we’re expected to pay the equivilent of $15! That’s more than the standard monthly subscription! It’s insane.
I take this as a sure sign that WoW is not growing anymore and they don’t expect to gain more users. This is also a sign that the China issue is going to affect them more than they like. As I explained on another site, public companies are all about growth and losing the Chinese income is going to hurt. Expect to see a lot more stuff being offered in the cash store.
I think if anyone can get away with charging a subscription and having an item shop, it’s Blizzard. WoW is getting long in the tooth, it’s not growing, so time to milk the game for all its worth on its decline. For people working at Bioware/EA, it’s time to do the happy dance.
Saw this and died a little more inside. I’m all for companies finding alternative revenue streams to ensure their success, but it really feels like WOW is approaching the point of ‘jumping the shark’ and Blizz is trying to milk it for everything it’s worth while it’s at the peak. Too much commercialization, even for items that don’t impact your in-game competativeness, really turns me off. This coming from an active WOW player, not a bitter-quitter who likes to beat-up on games they’ve left.
Vald
As you mentioned, Brian, Blizzard is the best candidate for a company to get away with both a subscription fee and microtransactions. They have a lot of goodwill built up. They’ve been purging some of that goodwill over the past couple years, but they’re still sitting in the B/B+ range of goodwill, which is higher than I’d give most companies.
If we saw a new MMO come out the doors with microtransactions and a standard subscription fee in the western market, they’d never make it unless they, too, had an awful lot of goodwill built up (hello, Bioware). Blizzard and SOE could release the exact same game with the exact same microtransactions and subscription fee and the Blizzard game would do twice as well, if not more.
That’s the always-underestimated power of goodwill.
Although I love Pandarens as much as the next girl, and would like to own the monk pet, but the $10, which are actually $15 for me here in Europe, is very excessive. So I won’t be getting one. Then again I stopped playing wow a bit ago and so far I haven’t really seen any new stuff being presented that’s interesting enough to resubscribe.
Also, even if they state that half the money goes to charity. With 7.5€ i can buy a lot of food and donate it directly to charity.
In my previous comment i meant 7.5 us dolars, not euros.
I guess they saw SOE being able to pull it off and decided that they can do same thing
IMHO it’s kinda bad for genre in general, more and more companies only try to milk people for as much $$$ as possible loosing idea of game =/
I agree with Brian and Ryan (hey, that sounds cool! We could make a song!). Possibly WoW is not growing as fast as it did and, somehow, Blizzard has built up a lot of good will.
Regarding their increasing item selling bussiness, I just believe it is normal. Every big IP has its own merchandising. Why shouldn’t WoW have its own? Some could say “It’s not the same buying a Star Wars tee-shirt and a in-game pet”. I feel this is quite similar, though. Because of the nature of a film, you cannot wear your tee-shirt inside the movie, but WoW is a game. Why should the merchandising be limited to out-game use?
In their last Blizzcon, they had an online streaming TV channel. If you subscribed (something near 25€ here in Europe, I remember) you could follow the event through that channel… and you would be given a cool pet (a murloc dressed as a Starcraft marine). My girlfriend bought immediately the subscription and she never connected to that TV channel. She only wanted the pet.
There is an obvious strong demand for in-game items in WoW, and as far as I understand, people do not want them to obtain gameplay advantages. Possibly, that would be seen as a kind of cheating (something like power-levelling?): you are better than me because you paid money, not because of your skill. That would be bad for the people and bad for the game, I think, and I do not believe Blizzard is going that way, they know very well their bussiness.
What do people want, then? I think people simply crave for cool way to customize their PCs. There are more and more high level players. Most of the people I play with have 3 to 5 level 80 PCs. They have no more game to play. These players are clearly in Nick Yee’s casual stage. All is about social features for them now, until a new expansion is released (that is, until more new and exciting gameplay is available).
What’s the conclusion? Blizzard always have listened to their players, so, once more, I feel that they might be just giving them what they are asking for. In Cataclysm, their new expansion, they are modifying a lot of the basic stats of the characters (spell power, attack power, etc). I have heard many bad prognostications about that: “They are going to regret that” and so.
Regarding that, I only can say: “Maybe you are right. But you didn’t know what a MMORPG was a couple of years ago, and you only know today because of Blizzard. Are you going to tell them how to run their bussiness?”
Let’s wait and see. I’d love being surprised again by those guys.