If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck its a duck.
Subscribers are down. A lot.
And a 10%+ drop in subs is a 10% drop in gross revenue; an even bigger drop in net revenue (after wage costs etc.)
Forget exchange rates - companies hedge against currency movement all the time (investors don't like surprises). And the impact is small. The drop in subs dwarfs such considerations.
In their last results Activision suggested that the drop was "a typical pre-xpac drop". It wasn't - because Q2 wasn't the pre-xpac quarter. That will be Q3. Subs are down = less revenue. Obvious solution: raise the sub.
If so why just the UK? Why not the rest of the EU and the US? Answer: its a test.
The UK - because it doesn't use the euro - is a "small market". 500k subs maybe? Whatever a big enough number to be reasonable but a small enough number that they are not betting the house on the price hike. It is a risk after all. So:
If the rise in subs results in a "typical of the pre-expansion period" drop in subs expect a price hike elsewhere.
If the rise results in a big drop in subs the price elsewhere probably won't go up - for now.
And if the drop is really small they may go for an even bigger price hike in the EU and, who knows, an even bigger price hike in the US. A step by step approach to establishing what the players will put up with.
At a time when the question of whether the standard subscription price is worth it and when WoW is losing hundreds of thousands of players this seems a surprising move by Blizzard . I guess if you are still loving the game and have played it for a long time then it wont bother you too much but if you are someone that is been on the fence about leaving or coming back for WoD this may give your pause for thought as to whether you wish to play the game in future . I think this will inevitably lead to some people leaving and some not deciding to play again . The question is will the profits made from such a price rise off set the losses from people who don't renew or cancel their subscription .
I had thought about going back for WoD but I didnt like with the price hike of the expansion itself it seemed greedy this further hike of subscription fees has made me decide not to go back at all . For me its about value for money and if I did return to WoW it would have been a game I would play along side other mmos . I would not have spent as much time in it as I once did so even at the old price it would not have got the same value out of it .
I budget myself to how much money I spend on MMOs each month and that money will be not going to Blizzard in the future . Too many other great games out there that are competing for it .
At a time when the question of whether the standard subscription price is worth it and when WoW is losing hundreds of thousands of players this seems a surprising move by Blizzard . I guess if you are still loving the game and have played it for a long time then it wont bother you too much but if you are someone that is been on the fence about leaving or coming back for WoD this may give your pause for thought as to whether you wish to play the game in future . I think this will inevitably lead to some people leaving and some not deciding to play again . The question is will the profits made from such a price rise off set the losses from people who don't renew or cancel their subscription .
I had thought about going back for WoD but I didnt like with the price hike of the expansion itself it seemed greedy this further hike of subscription fees has made me decide not to go back at all . For me its about value for money and if I did return to WoW it would have been a game I would play along side other mmos . I would not have spent as much time in it as I once did so even at the old price it would not have got the same value out of it .
I budget myself to how much money I spend on MMOs each month and that money will be not going to Blizzard in the future . Too many other great games out there that are competing for it .
Seriously? unless you are in the UK you are totally unaffected by this, and if anything the price of the game in the UK has been consistently cheaper than other games, most game subscriptions in the UK cost around £10, WoW was a bit unusual in that they charged a bit less than most other MMO's out there, i don't know if this is because of currency fluctuations, though it wouldn't surprise me as 10 years ago the £ was probably worth quite a bit more than it is now, even so the chances are most players in the UK won't even notice the difference, as its only £1 anyway, the only thing that surprises me is that they are doing this now, and not a couple of years ago, still, i guess for those who keep harping on about how badly WoW is doing this must be something of a smack in the teeth as its just further confirmation that WoW is years away from ever going F2P, if ever
Mamma Mia people were predicting WoW going F2P instead they raise subs lol. Gotta admire the chutzpah
Conspiracy theory suggest that a price hike will squeeze the sub numbers enough to justify a switch to free to play without backlash. They want f2p , but they also don't want to just force it on their loyal base, let's create a legitimate reason for the switch.
This is bullshit. And at the guy saying that this is because the pound is going down, just shows how much you know. The pound has even climbing against both the dollar and the euro. It's actually worth more now than a year ago. Anyway am not playing wow again anyway. I am sick of it by now.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Originally posted by jesteralways Tsk..tsk..tsk..brits..well done not joining eu, as you earn more than eu you are suppose to pay more than eu. good game blizzard.
The UK is in the EU. The £ (GBP not Euro) is stronger than the USD, so should not be going up unless the USD fee also increased. Amazing how some can be so ignorant of the rest of the world.
Its moot anyway, as Blizzard have burnt bridges with their greed prior to this. The constant content droughts between expansions have grown old. Typically we've paid two years’ worth of subscriptions for 2 - 3 content patches per expansion. For many its now not worth playing, no matter what the subscription fee is. The constant greed, lack of content, dumbing down and apparent “incentives” to fiddle their true (quarters) subscription numbers has already done the damage.
Blizzard are quickly becoming (if not already) the new EA. What content they do push out is usually a PoS, based on having to repeat the limited content repeatability against various difficultly levels. Something they apply to pretty much all their games.
Its been said by many that the only thing that will kill WoW is Blizzard. It seems they finally set the catalist, over the past two years.
The pound is actually stronger than the dollar from 1-2 years ago; so it should be cheaper. Also there have been no changes to tax in the UK that would affect the price. So this is pure simple profit making from UK customers.
You're looking at wrong charts. If you looked at the correct charts you could see 3 things:
1. When WoW launched the exchange rate GBP to EUR was more than 1.4, and sub price 8.99 GBP/month was very close to sub price of 12.99 EUR/month
2. Right now the exchange rate GBP to EUR is about 1.25, and sub price 8.99 GBP/month equals only about 11.2 EUR/month
3. After the price change to 9.99 GBP/month it will again be close to the 12.99 EUR/month. Still a bit lower, but as close as you can get in changing the price in 1 GBP increments/decrements
Blizzard is a business, and there's no arguing that they do charge their customers money in order to make a profit, but this price change is something they can legitimately pass as a simple exchange rate correction.
Originally posted by Kyleran Looks totally like an exchange rate adjustment
Does that mean i can get my sub reduced because i pay $16AUD?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't exchange rate adjustment mean that Blizzard would have to increase your monthly price to 16.06 AUD/month so that it would match the US price?
Why don't they adjust the dollar sub. I mean the dollar has gone down a lot in the last 5 or more years. So let's adjust it to 17 cause the dollar has lost so much of its value.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Still keeping it in line with other games. Besides we all know that isn't real money, need to convert to the almighty dollar, jk, don't anyone get their panties in a wad.
At a time when the question of whether the standard subscription price is worth it and when WoW is losing hundreds of thousands of players this seems a surprising move by Blizzard . I guess if you are still loving the game and have played it for a long time then it wont bother you too much but if you are someone that is been on the fence about leaving or coming back for WoD this may give your pause for thought as to whether you wish to play the game in future . I think this will inevitably lead to some people leaving and some not deciding to play again . The question is will the profits made from such a price rise off set the losses from people who don't renew or cancel their subscription .
I had thought about going back for WoD but I didnt like with the price hike of the expansion itself it seemed greedy this further hike of subscription fees has made me decide not to go back at all . For me its about value for money and if I did return to WoW it would have been a game I would play along side other mmos . I would not have spent as much time in it as I once did so even at the old price it would not have got the same value out of it .
I budget myself to how much money I spend on MMOs each month and that money will be not going to Blizzard in the future . Too many other great games out there that are competing for it .
Seriously? unless you are in the UK you are totally unaffected by this, and if anything the price of the game in the UK has been consistently cheaper than other games, most game subscriptions in the UK cost around £10, WoW was a bit unusual in that they charged a bit less than most other MMO's out there, i don't know if this is because of currency fluctuations, though it wouldn't surprise me as 10 years ago the £ was probably worth quite a bit more than it is now, even so the chances are most players in the UK won't even notice the difference, as its only £1 anyway, the only thing that surprises me is that they are doing this now, and not a couple of years ago, still, i guess for those who keep harping on about how badly WoW is doing this must be something of a smack in the teeth as its just further confirmation that WoW is years away from ever going F2P, if ever
Well thats the thing I am in the UK . Most games I have played have been 9 pounds a month not 10 .As I say I budget the amount of money I spend on mmos because of time constraints that I have to play them. I know some gamers will stay subbed to a game they don't play for months but to me thats a waste of money . The fact is I wouldn't play WoW as much as I once did so its worth less to me now than it was when I would have played it 4-5 hours a day its certainly not worth a pound more .
There are other things I would rather spend the money on as well as mmos , Netlfix ,Audible, Marvel Unlimted and Amazon Prime for a start .And there are other mmos that I am enjoying more these days that I can opt to pay a monthly fee for that don't lock me out when I'm not playing it . Free to play isn't really free but its flexible and I like that flexibility . If I don't want to play so much of a certain game in a month I just will drop the sub for that game and pay for one I do want to play a lot of but I am still able to pop back in and play for an hour or two if I want or simply log in and say hello to friends for a chat . It just suits me better .Also many mmos no longer charge for expansions and in some cases like Guild Wars 2 they offer a lot of new extra content regulary without a monthly fee .
I don't suspect WoW will go free to play at least until Blizzard come up with a successor . They have admitted this week they have been discussing a new mmo set in the WoW universe but whether this is a sequel , prequel or something else entirely ( like advanced Dungeons and Dragons to the original sort of thing) remains to be seen . Its probably in the very early stages of planning so it will be a good 5 years away at least . I can't see rises in subscription fees and expansion pack prices will help to stop the general trend of decline of WoW numbers there is too much competition out there now and like it or not many ( if not the majority of gamers ) prefer free to play because the tens of millions of players that play them world wide dwarf those who are playing the likes of WoW , EvE , TESO and FF14.
Heres a list of game fees from wikipedia you will see only a handful are more cost more than WoW you will see most have a similar fee or less so you really should do your homework before commenting .As you will see the cold hard reality of the facts and figures are somewhat different to what you assume.
At a time when the question of whether the standard subscription price is worth it and when WoW is losing hundreds of thousands of players this seems a surprising move by Blizzard . I guess if you are still loving the game and have played it for a long time then it wont bother you too much but if you are someone that is been on the fence about leaving or coming back for WoD this may give your pause for thought as to whether you wish to play the game in future . I think this will inevitably lead to some people leaving and some not deciding to play again . The question is will the profits made from such a price rise off set the losses from people who don't renew or cancel their subscription .
I had thought about going back for WoD but I didnt like with the price hike of the expansion itself it seemed greedy this further hike of subscription fees has made me decide not to go back at all . For me its about value for money and if I did return to WoW it would have been a game I would play along side other mmos . I would not have spent as much time in it as I once did so even at the old price it would not have got the same value out of it .
I budget myself to how much money I spend on MMOs each month and that money will be not going to Blizzard in the future . Too many other great games out there that are competing for it .
Seriously? unless you are in the UK you are totally unaffected by this, and if anything the price of the game in the UK has been consistently cheaper than other games, most game subscriptions in the UK cost around £10, WoW was a bit unusual in that they charged a bit less than most other MMO's out there, i don't know if this is because of currency fluctuations, though it wouldn't surprise me as 10 years ago the £ was probably worth quite a bit more than it is now, even so the chances are most players in the UK won't even notice the difference, as its only £1 anyway, the only thing that surprises me is that they are doing this now, and not a couple of years ago, still, i guess for those who keep harping on about how badly WoW is doing this must be something of a smack in the teeth as its just further confirmation that WoW is years away from ever going F2P, if ever
Well thats the thing I am in the UK . Most games I have played have been 9 pounds a month not 10 .As I say I budget the amount of money I spend on mmos because of time constraints that I have to play them. I know some gamers will stay subbed to a game they don't play for months but to me thats a waste of money . The fact is I wouldn't play WoW as much as I once did so its worth less to me now than it was when I would have played it 4-5 hours a day its certainly not worth a pound more .
There are other things I would rather spend the money on as well as mmos , Netlfix ,Audible, Marvel Unlimted and Amazon Prime for a start .And there are other mmos that I am enjoying more these days that I can opt to pay a monthly fee for that don't lock me out when I'm not playing it . Free to play isn't really free but its flexible and I like that flexibility . If I don't want to play so much of a certain game in a month I just will drop the sub for that game and pay for one I do want to play a lot of but I am still able to pop back in and play for an hour or two if I want or simply log in and say hello to friends for a chat . It just suits me better .Also many mmos no longer charge for expansions and in some cases like Guild Wars 2 they offer a lot of new extra content regulary without a monthly fee .
I don't suspect WoW will go free to play at least until Blizzard come up with a successor . They have admitted this week they have been discussing a new mmo set in the WoW universe but whether this is a sequel , prequel or something else entirely ( like advanced Dungeons and Dragons to the original sort of thing) remains to be seen . Its probably in the very early stages of planning so it will be a good 5 years away at least . I can't see rises in subscription fees and expansion pack prices will help to stop the general trend of decline of WoW numbers there is too much competition out there now and like it or not many ( if not the majority of gamers ) prefer free to play because the tens of millions of players that play them world wide dwarf those who are playing the likes of WoW , EvE , TESO and FF14.
Heres a list of game fees from wikipedia you will see only a handful are more cost more than WoW you will see most have a similar fee or less so you really should do your homework before commenting .As you will see the cold hard reality of the facts and figures are somewhat different to what you assume.
I like how everyone uses the internet as a source of facts... I mean, anyone can make a wiki page... anyone. It's why I always say, make a wiki page and it becomes fact, not fiction.
At a time when the question of whether the standard subscription price is worth it and when WoW is losing hundreds of thousands of players this seems a surprising move by Blizzard . I guess if you are still loving the game and have played it for a long time then it wont bother you too much but if you are someone that is been on the fence about leaving or coming back for WoD this may give your pause for thought as to whether you wish to play the game in future . I think this will inevitably lead to some people leaving and some not deciding to play again . The question is will the profits made from such a price rise off set the losses from people who don't renew or cancel their subscription .
I had thought about going back for WoD but I didnt like with the price hike of the expansion itself it seemed greedy this further hike of subscription fees has made me decide not to go back at all . For me its about value for money and if I did return to WoW it would have been a game I would play along side other mmos . I would not have spent as much time in it as I once did so even at the old price it would not have got the same value out of it .
I budget myself to how much money I spend on MMOs each month and that money will be not going to Blizzard in the future . Too many other great games out there that are competing for it .
Seriously? unless you are in the UK you are totally unaffected by this, and if anything the price of the game in the UK has been consistently cheaper than other games, most game subscriptions in the UK cost around £10, WoW was a bit unusual in that they charged a bit less than most other MMO's out there, i don't know if this is because of currency fluctuations, though it wouldn't surprise me as 10 years ago the £ was probably worth quite a bit more than it is now, even so the chances are most players in the UK won't even notice the difference, as its only £1 anyway, the only thing that surprises me is that they are doing this now, and not a couple of years ago, still, i guess for those who keep harping on about how badly WoW is doing this must be something of a smack in the teeth as its just further confirmation that WoW is years away from ever going F2P, if ever
Well thats the thing I am in the UK . Most games I have played have been 9 pounds a month not 10 .As I say I budget the amount of money I spend on mmos because of time constraints that I have to play them. I know some gamers will stay subbed to a game they don't play for months but to me thats a waste of money . The fact is I wouldn't play WoW as much as I once did so its worth less to me now than it was when I would have played it 4-5 hours a day its certainly not worth a pound more .
There are other things I would rather spend the money on as well as mmos , Netlfix ,Audible, Marvel Unlimted and Amazon Prime for a start .And there are other mmos that I am enjoying more these days that I can opt to pay a monthly fee for that don't lock me out when I'm not playing it . Free to play isn't really free but its flexible and I like that flexibility . If I don't want to play so much of a certain game in a month I just will drop the sub for that game and pay for one I do want to play a lot of but I am still able to pop back in and play for an hour or two if I want or simply log in and say hello to friends for a chat . It just suits me better .Also many mmos no longer charge for expansions and in some cases like Guild Wars 2 they offer a lot of new extra content regulary without a monthly fee .
I don't suspect WoW will go free to play at least until Blizzard come up with a successor . They have admitted this week they have been discussing a new mmo set in the WoW universe but whether this is a sequel , prequel or something else entirely ( like advanced Dungeons and Dragons to the original sort of thing) remains to be seen . Its probably in the very early stages of planning so it will be a good 5 years away at least . I can't see rises in subscription fees and expansion pack prices will help to stop the general trend of decline of WoW numbers there is too much competition out there now and like it or not many ( if not the majority of gamers ) prefer free to play because the tens of millions of players that play them world wide dwarf those who are playing the likes of WoW , EvE , TESO and FF14.
Heres a list of game fees from wikipedia you will see only a handful are more cost more than WoW you will see most have a similar fee or less so you really should do your homework before commenting .As you will see the cold hard reality of the facts and figures are somewhat different to what you assume.
I like how everyone uses the internet as a source of facts... I mean, anyone can make a wiki page... anyone. It's why I always say, make a wiki page and it becomes fact, not fiction.
Well if you doubt those prices then your free to check them against the individual homepages of the games listed . I can vouch that several of those games are have the it right because I pay a subscription to those games .
I challenge you or anyone else out there to find one that is wrong and post it on here . If you are so certain they are fiction and not fact you will be able to prove it .
Even if there is an error I bet its to only one or two games listed on that wiki page and it wont be out by much and my over all argument will still be proven to be correct .
Heres a list of game fees from wikipedia you will see only a handful are more cost more than WoW you will see most have a similar fee or less so you really should do your homework before commenting .As you will see the cold hard reality of the facts and figures are somewhat different to what you assume.
I like how everyone uses the internet as a source of facts... I mean, anyone can make a wiki page... anyone. It's why I always say, make a wiki page and it becomes fact, not fiction.
Well if you doubt those prices then your free to check them against the individual homepages of the games listed . I can vouch that several of those games are have the it right because I pay a subscription to those games .
I challenge you or anyone else out there to find one that is wrong and post it on here . If you are so certain they are fiction and not fact you will be able to prove it .
Challenge accepted:
Tibia's subscription price on official homepage is listed as 8.45€/month, source:
Seems people have realized that you get ripped off no matter whether it's sub, B2P or F2P. If a company thinks they can get away with it (as in, making more money), they'll charge more. They don't care whether someone else dropped the price, if economy is bad or anything. That may determine whether they can get away with it, but they certainly are not saying "hey, game xy has lowered the sub price, we should do so, too". More likely is "hey, game xy has lowered the sub price, people now have more money to pay us".
This is not WoW/Blizzard specific. It's not even MMO or video game specific. If a company can get away with it, they'll rip you off.
I'll wait to the day's end when the moon is high And then I'll rise with the tide with a lust for life, I'll Amass an army, and we'll harness a horde And then we'll limp across the land until we stand at the shore
At a time when the question of whether the standard subscription price is worth it and when WoW is losing hundreds of thousands of players this seems a surprising move by Blizzard . I guess if you are still loving the game and have played it for a long time then it wont bother you too much but if you are someone that is been on the fence about leaving or coming back for WoD this may give your pause for thought as to whether you wish to play the game in future . I think this will inevitably lead to some people leaving and some not deciding to play again . The question is will the profits made from such a price rise off set the losses from people who don't renew or cancel their subscription .
I had thought about going back for WoD but I didnt like with the price hike of the expansion itself it seemed greedy this further hike of subscription fees has made me decide not to go back at all . For me its about value for money and if I did return to WoW it would have been a game I would play along side other mmos . I would not have spent as much time in it as I once did so even at the old price it would not have got the same value out of it .
I budget myself to how much money I spend on MMOs each month and that money will be not going to Blizzard in the future . Too many other great games out there that are competing for it .
Seriously? unless you are in the UK you are totally unaffected by this, and if anything the price of the game in the UK has been consistently cheaper than other games, most game subscriptions in the UK cost around £10, WoW was a bit unusual in that they charged a bit less than most other MMO's out there, i don't know if this is because of currency fluctuations, though it wouldn't surprise me as 10 years ago the £ was probably worth quite a bit more than it is now, even so the chances are most players in the UK won't even notice the difference, as its only £1 anyway, the only thing that surprises me is that they are doing this now, and not a couple of years ago, still, i guess for those who keep harping on about how badly WoW is doing this must be something of a smack in the teeth as its just further confirmation that WoW is years away from ever going F2P, if ever
Well thats the thing I am in the UK . Most games I have played have been 9 pounds a month not 10 .As I say I budget the amount of money I spend on mmos because of time constraints that I have to play them. I know some gamers will stay subbed to a game they don't play for months but to me thats a waste of money . The fact is I wouldn't play WoW as much as I once did so its worth less to me now than it was when I would have played it 4-5 hours a day its certainly not worth a pound more .
There are other things I would rather spend the money on as well as mmos , Netlfix ,Audible, Marvel Unlimted and Amazon Prime for a start .And there are other mmos that I am enjoying more these days that I can opt to pay a monthly fee for that don't lock me out when I'm not playing it . Free to play isn't really free but its flexible and I like that flexibility . If I don't want to play so much of a certain game in a month I just will drop the sub for that game and pay for one I do want to play a lot of but I am still able to pop back in and play for an hour or two if I want or simply log in and say hello to friends for a chat . It just suits me better .Also many mmos no longer charge for expansions and in some cases like Guild Wars 2 they offer a lot of new extra content regulary without a monthly fee .
I don't suspect WoW will go free to play at least until Blizzard come up with a successor . They have admitted this week they have been discussing a new mmo set in the WoW universe but whether this is a sequel , prequel or something else entirely ( like advanced Dungeons and Dragons to the original sort of thing) remains to be seen . Its probably in the very early stages of planning so it will be a good 5 years away at least . I can't see rises in subscription fees and expansion pack prices will help to stop the general trend of decline of WoW numbers there is too much competition out there now and like it or not many ( if not the majority of gamers ) prefer free to play because the tens of millions of players that play them world wide dwarf those who are playing the likes of WoW , EvE , TESO and FF14.
Heres a list of game fees from wikipedia you will see only a handful are more cost more than WoW you will see most have a similar fee or less so you really should do your homework before commenting .As you will see the cold hard reality of the facts and figures are somewhat different to what you assume.
I like how everyone uses the internet as a source of facts... I mean, anyone can make a wiki page... anyone. It's why I always say, make a wiki page and it becomes fact, not fiction.
I like how you talk about stuf you don't know about. YOu don't live in the UK so how would you know how much we are paying. Are you going to tell us that YOU know better than us who pay subs for MMOs? I can tell you that all the MMOs I have played have charged me £8.99. Let's have a look:
WoW - £8.99
SWTOR - £8.99
Age of Conan (when it was p2p) - £8.99
LOTRO (when it was p2p, and after it went f2p) - £8.99
Rift - £8.99
ESO - £8.99
Wildstar - £8.99
EQ 1 and EQ 2 - £8.99
DDO (when it was p2p) - £8.99
FFXIV - basic sub - £7.99, full sub - £8.99
And wikipedia is as accurate as Britannica. Wikipedia is very reliable. You would be hard pressed to find a more reliable source for these kinds of things. I know you can't use wikipedia as a source at uni but the reason is not because of its factual accuracy.
Originally posted by Vrika
Originally posted by greatskys
Originally posted by Pepeq
Originally posted by greatskys
Heres a list of game fees from wikipedia you will see only a handful are more cost more than WoW you will see most have a similar fee or less so you really should do your homework before commenting .As you will see the cold hard reality of the facts and figures are somewhat different to what you assume.
I like how everyone uses the internet as a source of facts... I mean, anyone can make a wiki page... anyone. It's why I always say, make a wiki page and it becomes fact, not fiction.
Well if you doubt those prices then your free to check them against the individual homepages of the games listed . I can vouch that several of those games are have the it right because I pay a subscription to those games .
I challenge you or anyone else out there to find one that is wrong and post it on here . If you are so certain they are fiction and not fact you will be able to prove it .
Challenge accepted:
Tibia's subscription price on official homepage is listed as 8.45€/month, source:
Great. You picked a game which no one has heard of. Is that all you could find? Every single major MMO I have played charged me £8.99. How would YOU know though? Have you ever been billed in the UK? Or are you trying to convince UK people that we were paying different prices. The ONLY MMO I could think of that charged £9.99 was EVE Online. That was the exception to the rule though. And through timecards you could take it down to £8.50-£8.99.
It's again a case of US people being arrogant and ignorant. £8.99 is exactly $15. £9.99 is $16.60. I am sure that if the sub fee for the US was bumped to $16-17, we would hear the outrage.
I don't care anyway as I don't play WoW. It's an ancient game which at this point has run its course. How can BLizzard justify charging you £9.99 where games like FFXIV charge £7.99 or £8.99 monthly and they release 10 times more content than BLizzard. I guess the only thing is that it might set a precedent. I don't want all MMOs to start charging us extra. £9.99 is not $15. £8.99 is $15. But how can we have the injustice of the UK paying the same sub as the US.
EU people already get **** as they pay the equivalent of $17. So why not throw the UK into the mix.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
I don't care anyway as I don't play WoW. It's an ancient game which at this point has run its course. How can BLizzard justify charging you £9.99 where games like FFXIV charge £7.99 or £8.99 monthly and they release 10 times more content than BLizzard. I guess the only thing is that it might set a precedent. I don't want all MMOs to start charging us extra. £9.99 is not $15. £8.99 is $15. But how can we have the injustice of the UK paying the same sub as the US.
EU people already get **** as they pay the equivalent of $17. So why not throw the UK into the mix.
If anarchy Online can charge 20 bucks a month then WOW is even more capable of charging what they feel like because people are ready to spend that amount on WOW.
What is so hard to comprehend here? What does it matter what FFXIV or any other x, y or z MMO charges? they are not even anywhere in competition. WOW players enjoy what they play and could care less what other MMO is charging.
FFXIV can go free tomorrow and yet won't be able to take away anything from WOW.
Great. You picked a game which no one has heard of. Is that all you could find? Every single major MMO I have played charged me £8.99. How would YOU know though? Have you ever been billed in the UK? Or are you trying to convince UK people that we were paying different prices. The ONLY MMO I could think of that charged £9.99 was EVE Online. That was the exception to the rule though. And through timecards you could take it down to £8.50-£8.99.
It's again a case of US people being arrogant and ignorant. £8.99 is exactly $15. £9.99 is $16.60. I am sure that if the sub fee for the US was bumped to $16-17, we would hear the outrage.
I don't care anyway as I don't play WoW. It's an ancient game which at this point has run its course. How can BLizzard justify charging you £9.99 where games like FFXIV charge £7.99 or £8.99 monthly and they release 10 times more content than BLizzard. I guess the only thing is that it might set a precedent. I don't want all MMOs to start charging us extra. £9.99 is not $15. £8.99 is $15. But how can we have the injustice of the UK paying the same sub as the US.
EU people already get **** as they pay the equivalent of $17. So why not throw the UK into the mix.
I dont know about prices in EU or UK so i wont talk about thaat, but i wanted to say that Tibia not an unheard of game. That mmo has been kicking since 1997 and its still there.
Also, maybe it varies per state, but here in New Jersey, USA i have always paid $16 for monthly subscriptions. The game sites always say $14.99 but charge $15.99 with taxes.
I don't care anyway as I don't play WoW. It's an ancient game which at this point has run its course. How can BLizzard justify charging you £9.99 where games like FFXIV charge £7.99 or £8.99 monthly and they release 10 times more content than BLizzard. I guess the only thing is that it might set a precedent. I don't want all MMOs to start charging us extra. £9.99 is not $15. £8.99 is $15. But how can we have the injustice of the UK paying the same sub as the US.
EU people already get **** as they pay the equivalent of $17. So why not throw the UK into the mix.
If anarchy Online can charge 20 bucks a month then WOW is even more capable of charging what they feel like because people are ready to spend that amount on WOW.
What is so hard to comprehend here? What does it matter what FFXIV or any other x, y or z MMO charges? they are not even anywhere in competition. WOW players enjoy what they play and could care less what other MMO is charging.
FFXIV can go free tomorrow and yet won't be able to take away anything from WOW.
This comment was directed at the people who said that other MMOs charge the same. I was just pointing out that WoW used to charge the same but now have increased their sub above what other games charge.
IF WoW started charging its US customers $20, it would be dismissed as it was nothing too?
FFXIV will never go F2P according to its creator. He would rather shut down the game
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
I don't care anyway as I don't play WoW. It's an ancient game which at this point has run its course. How can BLizzard justify charging you £9.99 where games like FFXIV charge £7.99 or £8.99 monthly and they release 10 times more content than BLizzard. I guess the only thing is that it might set a precedent. I don't want all MMOs to start charging us extra. £9.99 is not $15. £8.99 is $15. But how can we have the injustice of the UK paying the same sub as the US.
EU people already get **** as they pay the equivalent of $17. So why not throw the UK into the mix.
If anarchy Online can charge 20 bucks a month then WOW is even more capable of charging what they feel like because people are ready to spend that amount on WOW.
What is so hard to comprehend here? What does it matter what FFXIV or any other x, y or z MMO charges? they are not even anywhere in competition. WOW players enjoy what they play and could care less what other MMO is charging.
FFXIV can go free tomorrow and yet won't be able to take away anything from WOW.
This comment was directed at the people who said that other MMOs charge the same. I was just pointing out that WoW used to charge the same but now have increased their sub above what other games charge.
IF WoW started charging its US customers $20, it would be dismissed as it was nothing too?
FFXIV will never go F2P according to its creator. He would rather shut down the game
Well my comment about Wiki pages was a general comment about people taking anything on the internet as gospel. I never said the information was wrong, you assumed that much all on your very own. Then you went on to bash Americans as a whole because you feel slighted in some way because of such a comment. Not everything said is meant to poke your eyes out with a pitchfork... stop reading it as such. I'm very direct, if I meant something that way, I'd outright spell it out for you.
Blizzard could charge $200 a month... the fact that some people are actually going to pay it has nothing to do with whether we feel the price is fair.
Heres a list of game fees from wikipedia you will see only a handful are more cost more than WoW you will see most have a similar fee or less so you really should do your homework before commenting .As you will see the cold hard reality of the facts and figures are somewhat different to what you assume.
I like how everyone uses the internet as a source of facts... I mean, anyone can make a wiki page... anyone. It's why I always say, make a wiki page and it becomes fact, not fiction.
Well if you doubt those prices then your free to check them against the individual homepages of the games listed . I can vouch that several of those games are have the it right because I pay a subscription to those games .
I challenge you or anyone else out there to find one that is wrong and post it on here . If you are so certain they are fiction and not fact you will be able to prove it .
Challenge accepted:
Tibia's subscription price on official homepage is listed as 8.45€/month, source:
Great. You picked a game which no one has heard of. Is that all you could find? Every single major MMO I have played charged me £8.99. How would YOU know though? Have you ever been billed in the UK? Or are you trying to convince UK people that we were paying different prices. The ONLY MMO I could think of that charged £9.99 was EVE Online. That was the exception to the rule though. And through timecards you could take it down to £8.50-£8.99.
I picked up Tibia because if you try to sort the table using "Monthly subscription available" -column, on second click you'll end up with a list that has Tibia on top. There was no need to look further down the list.
But since you insist, SWTOR sub price 12.99€/month, source:
Comments
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My take:
If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck its a duck.
Subscribers are down. A lot.
And a 10%+ drop in subs is a 10% drop in gross revenue; an even bigger drop in net revenue (after wage costs etc.)
Forget exchange rates - companies hedge against currency movement all the time (investors don't like surprises). And the impact is small. The drop in subs dwarfs such considerations.
In their last results Activision suggested that the drop was "a typical pre-xpac drop". It wasn't - because Q2 wasn't the pre-xpac quarter. That will be Q3. Subs are down = less revenue. Obvious solution: raise the sub.
If so why just the UK? Why not the rest of the EU and the US? Answer: its a test.
The UK - because it doesn't use the euro - is a "small market". 500k subs maybe? Whatever a big enough number to be reasonable but a small enough number that they are not betting the house on the price hike. It is a risk after all. So:
At a time when the question of whether the standard subscription price is worth it and when WoW is losing hundreds of thousands of players this seems a surprising move by Blizzard . I guess if you are still loving the game and have played it for a long time then it wont bother you too much but if you are someone that is been on the fence about leaving or coming back for WoD this may give your pause for thought as to whether you wish to play the game in future . I think this will inevitably lead to some people leaving and some not deciding to play again . The question is will the profits made from such a price rise off set the losses from people who don't renew or cancel their subscription .
I had thought about going back for WoD but I didnt like with the price hike of the expansion itself it seemed greedy this further hike of subscription fees has made me decide not to go back at all . For me its about value for money and if I did return to WoW it would have been a game I would play along side other mmos . I would not have spent as much time in it as I once did so even at the old price it would not have got the same value out of it .
I budget myself to how much money I spend on MMOs each month and that money will be not going to Blizzard in the future . Too many other great games out there that are competing for it .
Seriously? unless you are in the UK you are totally unaffected by this, and if anything the price of the game in the UK has been consistently cheaper than other games, most game subscriptions in the UK cost around £10, WoW was a bit unusual in that they charged a bit less than most other MMO's out there, i don't know if this is because of currency fluctuations, though it wouldn't surprise me as 10 years ago the £ was probably worth quite a bit more than it is now, even so the chances are most players in the UK won't even notice the difference, as its only £1 anyway, the only thing that surprises me is that they are doing this now, and not a couple of years ago, still, i guess for those who keep harping on about how badly WoW is doing this must be something of a smack in the teeth as its just further confirmation that WoW is years away from ever going F2P, if ever
Conspiracy theory suggest that a price hike will squeeze the sub numbers enough to justify a switch to free to play without backlash. They want f2p , but they also don't want to just force it on their loyal base, let's create a legitimate reason for the switch.Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
The UK is in the EU. The £ (GBP not Euro) is stronger than the USD, so should not be going up unless the USD fee also increased. Amazing how some can be so ignorant of the rest of the world.
Its moot anyway, as Blizzard have burnt bridges with their greed prior to this. The constant content droughts between expansions have grown old. Typically we've paid two years’ worth of subscriptions for 2 - 3 content patches per expansion. For many its now not worth playing, no matter what the subscription fee is. The constant greed, lack of content, dumbing down and apparent “incentives” to fiddle their true (quarters) subscription numbers has already done the damage.
Blizzard are quickly becoming (if not already) the new EA. What content they do push out is usually a PoS, based on having to repeat the limited content repeatability against various difficultly levels. Something they apply to pretty much all their games.
Its been said by many that the only thing that will kill WoW is Blizzard. It seems they finally set the catalist, over the past two years.
You're looking at wrong charts. If you looked at the correct charts you could see 3 things:
1. When WoW launched the exchange rate GBP to EUR was more than 1.4, and sub price 8.99 GBP/month was very close to sub price of 12.99 EUR/month
2. Right now the exchange rate GBP to EUR is about 1.25, and sub price 8.99 GBP/month equals only about 11.2 EUR/month
3. After the price change to 9.99 GBP/month it will again be close to the 12.99 EUR/month. Still a bit lower, but as close as you can get in changing the price in 1 GBP increments/decrements
Blizzard is a business, and there's no arguing that they do charge their customers money in order to make a profit, but this price change is something they can legitimately pass as a simple exchange rate correction.
Does that mean i can get my sub reduced because i pay $16AUD?
TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't exchange rate adjustment mean that Blizzard would have to increase your monthly price to 16.06 AUD/month so that it would match the US price?
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Well thats the thing I am in the UK . Most games I have played have been 9 pounds a month not 10 .As I say I budget the amount of money I spend on mmos because of time constraints that I have to play them. I know some gamers will stay subbed to a game they don't play for months but to me thats a waste of money . The fact is I wouldn't play WoW as much as I once did so its worth less to me now than it was when I would have played it 4-5 hours a day its certainly not worth a pound more .
There are other things I would rather spend the money on as well as mmos , Netlfix ,Audible, Marvel Unlimted and Amazon Prime for a start .And there are other mmos that I am enjoying more these days that I can opt to pay a monthly fee for that don't lock me out when I'm not playing it . Free to play isn't really free but its flexible and I like that flexibility . If I don't want to play so much of a certain game in a month I just will drop the sub for that game and pay for one I do want to play a lot of but I am still able to pop back in and play for an hour or two if I want or simply log in and say hello to friends for a chat . It just suits me better .Also many mmos no longer charge for expansions and in some cases like Guild Wars 2 they offer a lot of new extra content regulary without a monthly fee .
I don't suspect WoW will go free to play at least until Blizzard come up with a successor . They have admitted this week they have been discussing a new mmo set in the WoW universe but whether this is a sequel , prequel or something else entirely ( like advanced Dungeons and Dragons to the original sort of thing) remains to be seen . Its probably in the very early stages of planning so it will be a good 5 years away at least . I can't see rises in subscription fees and expansion pack prices will help to stop the general trend of decline of WoW numbers there is too much competition out there now and like it or not many ( if not the majority of gamers ) prefer free to play because the tens of millions of players that play them world wide dwarf those who are playing the likes of WoW , EvE , TESO and FF14.
Heres a list of game fees from wikipedia you will see only a handful are more cost more than WoW you will see most have a similar fee or less so you really should do your homework before commenting .As you will see the cold hard reality of the facts and figures are somewhat different to what you assume.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_massively_multiplayer_online_role-playing_game
I like how everyone uses the internet as a source of facts... I mean, anyone can make a wiki page... anyone. It's why I always say, make a wiki page and it becomes fact, not fiction.
Well if you doubt those prices then your free to check them against the individual homepages of the games listed . I can vouch that several of those games are have the it right because I pay a subscription to those games .
I challenge you or anyone else out there to find one that is wrong and post it on here . If you are so certain they are fiction and not fact you will be able to prove it .
Even if there is an error I bet its to only one or two games listed on that wiki page and it wont be out by much and my over all argument will still be proven to be correct .
Challenge accepted:
Tibia's subscription price on official homepage is listed as 8.45€/month, source:
http://www.tibia.com/abouttibia/?subtopic=premiumfeatures
On that list it says that Tibia costs 7.45€/month.
Btw. also your address to Wikipedia page is wrong, the correct page address is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_massively_multiplayer_online_role-playing_games
Seems people have realized that you get ripped off no matter whether it's sub, B2P or F2P. If a company thinks they can get away with it (as in, making more money), they'll charge more. They don't care whether someone else dropped the price, if economy is bad or anything. That may determine whether they can get away with it, but they certainly are not saying "hey, game xy has lowered the sub price, we should do so, too". More likely is "hey, game xy has lowered the sub price, people now have more money to pay us".
This is not WoW/Blizzard specific. It's not even MMO or video game specific. If a company can get away with it, they'll rip you off.
I'll wait to the day's end when the moon is high
And then I'll rise with the tide with a lust for life, I'll
Amass an army, and we'll harness a horde
And then we'll limp across the land until we stand at the shore
I like how you talk about stuf you don't know about. YOu don't live in the UK so how would you know how much we are paying. Are you going to tell us that YOU know better than us who pay subs for MMOs? I can tell you that all the MMOs I have played have charged me £8.99. Let's have a look:
WoW - £8.99
SWTOR - £8.99
Age of Conan (when it was p2p) - £8.99
LOTRO (when it was p2p, and after it went f2p) - £8.99
Rift - £8.99
ESO - £8.99
Wildstar - £8.99
EQ 1 and EQ 2 - £8.99
DDO (when it was p2p) - £8.99
FFXIV - basic sub - £7.99, full sub - £8.99
And wikipedia is as accurate as Britannica. Wikipedia is very reliable. You would be hard pressed to find a more reliable source for these kinds of things. I know you can't use wikipedia as a source at uni but the reason is not because of its factual accuracy.
Great. You picked a game which no one has heard of. Is that all you could find? Every single major MMO I have played charged me £8.99. How would YOU know though? Have you ever been billed in the UK? Or are you trying to convince UK people that we were paying different prices. The ONLY MMO I could think of that charged £9.99 was EVE Online. That was the exception to the rule though. And through timecards you could take it down to £8.50-£8.99.
It's again a case of US people being arrogant and ignorant. £8.99 is exactly $15. £9.99 is $16.60. I am sure that if the sub fee for the US was bumped to $16-17, we would hear the outrage.
I don't care anyway as I don't play WoW. It's an ancient game which at this point has run its course. How can BLizzard justify charging you £9.99 where games like FFXIV charge £7.99 or £8.99 monthly and they release 10 times more content than BLizzard. I guess the only thing is that it might set a precedent. I don't want all MMOs to start charging us extra. £9.99 is not $15. £8.99 is $15. But how can we have the injustice of the UK paying the same sub as the US.
EU people already get **** as they pay the equivalent of $17. So why not throw the UK into the mix.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
If anarchy Online can charge 20 bucks a month then WOW is even more capable of charging what they feel like because people are ready to spend that amount on WOW.
What is so hard to comprehend here? What does it matter what FFXIV or any other x, y or z MMO charges? they are not even anywhere in competition. WOW players enjoy what they play and could care less what other MMO is charging.
FFXIV can go free tomorrow and yet won't be able to take away anything from WOW.
I dont know about prices in EU or UK so i wont talk about thaat, but i wanted to say that Tibia not an unheard of game. That mmo has been kicking since 1997 and its still there.
Also, maybe it varies per state, but here in New Jersey, USA i have always paid $16 for monthly subscriptions. The game sites always say $14.99 but charge $15.99 with taxes.
This comment was directed at the people who said that other MMOs charge the same. I was just pointing out that WoW used to charge the same but now have increased their sub above what other games charge.
IF WoW started charging its US customers $20, it would be dismissed as it was nothing too?
FFXIV will never go F2P according to its creator. He would rather shut down the game
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Well my comment about Wiki pages was a general comment about people taking anything on the internet as gospel. I never said the information was wrong, you assumed that much all on your very own. Then you went on to bash Americans as a whole because you feel slighted in some way because of such a comment. Not everything said is meant to poke your eyes out with a pitchfork... stop reading it as such. I'm very direct, if I meant something that way, I'd outright spell it out for you.
Blizzard could charge $200 a month... the fact that some people are actually going to pay it has nothing to do with whether we feel the price is fair.
I picked up Tibia because if you try to sort the table using "Monthly subscription available" -column, on second click you'll end up with a list that has Tibia on top. There was no need to look further down the list.
But since you insist, SWTOR sub price 12.99€/month, source:
http://www.swtor.com/info/faq/game#q399960
That Wikipedia article lists that it costs 13.49€/month.
Wow is only game I would pay even double that ammount for month.