Bioware, please explain your price structure

[dracmor]

As the title says.

1. It appears that Bioware has committed to catering to the casual/f2p type player. Yet, at the same time, SWTOR is infamous for its terrible restrictions on free to play, which keeps a lot of casual players from even trying the game. These two concepts seem to be working against each other. Would Bioware care to comment on this?

2. Please explain why you think $15 is the correct price for a single chapter.

 

My humble suggestion:

Go fully free to play - no restrictions.

Charge a set amount per chapter in Cartel Market coins. This cost would be reduced for preferred players and free for subs. Increase the monthly cartel coin allotment for both preferred and subs. This allotment + the reduced chapter cost would be the enticement to go preferred or to sub.

 

Anyway, I think now is the time to comment on the $15 per chapter price point.

Thanks

[MoyaSP]

it's 9 chapters though, so that bit is wrong

 

 

also, you pay nothing to get this game, no box cost, and no sub, so you want people to get more for not having paid anything at all? seems like even less incentive to pay anything at all and just a free ride

[Billupsat]

As the title says.

1. It appears that Bioware has committed to catering to the casual/f2p type player. Yet, at the same time, SWTOR is infamous for its terrible restrictions on free to play, which keeps a lot of casual players from even trying the game. These two concepts seem to be working against each other. Would Bioware care to comment on this?

2. Please explain why you think $15 is the correct price for a single chapter.

 

My humble suggestion:

Go fully free to play - no restrictions.

Charge a set amount per chapter in Cartel Market coins. This cost would be reduced for preferred players and free for subs. Increase the monthly cartel coin allotment for both preferred and subs. This allotment + the reduced chapter cost would be the enticement to go preferred or to sub.

 

Anyway, I think now is the time to comment on the $15 per chapter price point.

Thanks

 

$15 dollars a month in nothing. They could probably relook at their free to play to model, but going fully free to play? I'll pass. Also, their goal is to get people to sub for the new content, selling it on the cartel market defeats that purpose.

[rafter]

2. Please explain why you think $15 is the correct price for a single chapter.

 

Please explain your math. There are nine chapters, as well as a bunch of other stuff in this expansion. $15 is dirt cheap for what we got.

[dr_mike]

Please explain your math.

 

I;m more interested in wondering why the poster is expecting an answer on a player to player driven support forum.

 

Bioware is over there --> http://www.swtor.com/support

[DogMeat]

OP is a Liberal... I want more Free stuff please.

 

$15.00 per month is fair... If you can not afford it, sorry... Then F2P is for you.

 

While I do think Preferred status should get you more quickbars and larger credit account.

[Celeryherring]

I'll go an say that if you're preferred, the restrictions are pretty meaningless for a casual player. If you sub one month and unlock inventory space for a bunch of alts+get all the expacs and chapters, you're golden to enjoy the game for a long time.

[ScarletBlaze]

Just taking your comment that $15.00 is for the chapters (which it is not)

 

There are 9 chapters in this first release so

 

$15.00 divide by 9 Chapters = 1.67 per chapter.

In that scenario pretty cheap if you saying the sub is just for the chapters, (which again it is not)

Edited October 31, 2015 by ScarletBlaze

[Falensawino]

As the title says.

1. It appears that Bioware has committed to catering to the casual/f2p type player. Yet, at the same time, SWTOR is infamous for its terrible restrictions on free to play, which keeps a lot of casual players from even trying the game. These two concepts seem to be working against each other. Would Bioware care to comment on this?

2. Please explain why you think $15 is the correct price for a single chapter.

 

My humble suggestion:

Go fully free to play - no restrictions.

Charge a set amount per chapter in Cartel Market coins. This cost would be reduced for preferred players and free for subs. Increase the monthly cartel coin allotment for both preferred and subs. This allotment + the reduced chapter cost would be the enticement to go preferred or to sub.

 

Anyway, I think now is the time to comment on the $15 per chapter price point.

Thanks

The point is to convert Free2Play into subscribers. Persistent online games are a business, developers always have to focus on monetizing the customer. Converting a free loader into a paying customer, be it cartel coins (account unlocks to improve quality of preferred status) or subscriptions.

[RaiderMid]

Just taking your comment that $15.00 is for the chapters (which it is not)

 

There are 9 chapters in this first release so

 

$15.00 divide by 9 Chapters = 1.67 per chapter.

In that scenario pretty cheap if you saying the sub is just for the chapters, (which again it is not)

 

Sure $15 is a deal on the first 9. Going forward it isn't a good deal if people are subbing just for the chapter stories. Their best bet is to leave and come back after they have release a few new chapters.

[Tessie]

One of the things I appreciate most about 4.0 is that I don't feel like I'm subsidizing the f2p players. I feel that the generous loot drops, including decorations, and the excellent story telling make the price of $15 well worth it for me.

 

I think it is true that 4.0 is being targeted at the more casual, yet paying player. Give the players what they're willing to pay for, at a fair price.

[Ottoattack]

Is kotfe content worth $15? Yes. Is it worth $15 a month for one chapter with no replayability? Absolutely not. The way I look at it I will pay $15 for every 7-8 hours of story, which is consistent with action RPGs like DAI and witcher 3. If this is the path bw will take they better be able to keep up or they should not expect money.

[pegasussgc]

$15 a month isn't just for KoTFE, it's for the full game without restrictions.

[Jerqa]

$15 a month isn't just for KoTFE, it's for the full game without restrictions.

 

It's funny how often people seem to forget this.

[xmarcusprimex]

OP is a Liberal... I want more Free stuff please.

 

Horse*****.

Just as likely a Conservative and trying to horde their own money and feels no obligation to contribute to the wellbeing of the game for others. Or perhaps political cheep shots have no place in this forum.

[EnkiduNineEight]

$15 a month isn't just for KoTFE, it's for the full game without restrictions.

 

Actually, now $15 a month is _specifically_ just for KotFE. You can not progress your quests into KotFE without having a sub. You get everything else (with some restrictions) without a sub. Only way to get KotFE is with a sub.

 

But someone else already rightly pointed out in this thread, any additional chapter content released monthly, requires you to be subbed to receive it. So from here on out, KotFE costs $15 a month. The first chapters were just the hook/incentive as well as the 'free' stuff like speeders and niko okarr junk.

 

BioWare is betting people will be too lazy to unsubscribe and re-subscribe in 7 months (or whatever) when the content is actually 'complete'. They created a horrific grind to fill that time with your sub while waiting for the next hour-ish of content.

 

My wager will be that increasingly people will finish the first nine chapters and unsub and wait for the story to complete, sub once for 15$ a and complete in a weekend. That way they don't pay $15 a month for a game with no real point except to run back and do planetary heroics people were crying about repeating prior to 4.0 so that BioWare caved and gave them 12x experience so they could avoid altogether so that they can get gifts for companions/alliance and do conquest stuff that is not even enabled/working at present.

 

I'm a sucker. I'l likely still give them my sub money because I wanted this game to succeed and I saw my subscription as my donation to that cause.

 

But not everyone is suckers and many are going to switly realize that $15 dollars to get the first chapters, wait X months and then pay $15 to get the next chapters is a far more economical position than paying X * 15$ where the value of X > 1 and the 'value' of the sub has not otherwise been increased. (again, some might argue that since they now have to go repeat content they didn't want to do in the first place, the value of their sub has _decreased_ because it requires undesired activities)

 

If you want it in simple math terms.

 

There are 16 chapters.

9 Chapters are now available for a $15 expense.

Chapters 10-16 (7 chapters) will be available to you once per month for seven months.

You can spend 15*7 for $105 dollars, to get them as they release. In return you get about an hour or so of newcontent one time per month.

 

OR you can spend $15 in 7 months and get at least 7+ hours of content at one time, that you can do in one big block.

 

Which, btw, was what lots of the player base was also using as a justification for wanting 12x XP just so they could follow the story contiguously without the filler crap.

 

So, PAY for filler crap while you wait OR pay a lot less for just what you want some time in the future while you enjoy other things/games/life in the mean time.

 

Heck, if they continue the staged release of content, you may even be benefitted by waiting even longer between subscriptions... Wait till they release about a months worth of story content, resub and play it, then unsub and wait till they have generated another months worth of content.

 

Economically, $30 is cheaper than $120.

Edited October 31, 2015 by EnkiduNineEight

[MSchuyler]

Horse*****.

Just as likely a Conservative and trying to horde their own money and feels no obligation to contribute to the wellbeing of the game for others. Or perhaps political cheep shots have no place in this forum.

 

Then why do you feel compelled to do so yourself?

[MSchuyler]

Actually, now $15 a month is _specifically_ just for KotFE. You can not progress your quests into KotFE without having a sub. You get everything else (with some restrictions) without a sub. Only way to get KotFE is with a sub.

 

No, it's not. The problem with this is that you have an end-game mentality. Your phrase. "You get everything else (with some restrictions)" is vastly understated. I'm happy that people can experience f2p, but it's a far cry from a sub. It's not so much "some" restrictions, but MANY debilitating restrictions. In fact, with f2p you are completely hamstrung in ways too many to list. Which is, of course, quite on purpose as they are hoping the average player would get so frustrated with the limitations that they will spring for a sub. I mean, CCs for an escrow unlock? You're peddling a bicycle instead of driving a Porche.

 

Another way of looking at it is that a sub gives you 24x7 access to ALL the content with NO restrictions for $13-$15 a month. I just paid $16 to go see "The Martian" which was 144 minutes long, so you can get an idea of relative value from that. You are only interested in access to KotFE, but don't forget the 60 levels prior to that. You're not interested, but BW is hoping a whole lot of people are, and BW has made significant changes to the entire game which affects 1-60 to try to bring this about.

 

I'm not claiming BW is succeeding with this strategy, but I think it's fair to say that's the idea. It's not so much about keeping you, who has played all the content multiple times and sees KofTE as the only thing of interest to play as it is attracting new players who want to experience all the content without restrictions and will take a couple of years to do it.

 

Of course, it's a real gamble on BW's part. Will the influx of hoped-for new players be enough to offset the disaffection of players like you (and me) who may quit their subs over these changes, or will the influx of new players fail to materialize and result in a severe net loss for BW? It will take a few months for us to know the answer to that.

Edited October 31, 2015 by MSchuyler

[Faardor]

A NEW subscriber gets way more than KOTFE.

 

Subscriber:

Lvl 1 to 65

access to all daily areas

ilum (? is this f2p locked? not sure)

Makeb / Oricon / CZ / Ziost / SOR Story arcs

9 chapters of KOTFE

Infinite PVP / FP groupfinder use

No credit cap

Normal XP gain

No limit on gear use

access to 3 crafting slots

access to operations without the use of an operations pass

 

etc, etc, etc

 

just listing the biggest things a subscriber gets after being F2P

Remember, these people do / did NOT have to buy ROTHC or SoR

You / They are getting a lot of bang for your buck.

 

But yeah if you dont use artifact gear, dont visit daily worlds, don't reach the credit cap, dont use the groupfinders, dont do operations, dont craft then by all means unsubscribe.

[Pscyon]

Has the price changed since KotFE? I believe it was $15 a month before KotFE, with NO Chapters a month (or Acts for that matter) and long pauses between any kind of new content. I'm no math professor, but I'd say the subscription is getting more worth for the same price.

[DOHboy]

Sure $15 is a deal on the first 9. Going forward it isn't a good deal if people are subbing just for the chapter stories. Their best bet is to leave and come back after they have release a few new chapters.

 

that is upto the individual. for those that never unsub we're constantly getting new updates free. For those that don't sub, they get one month of a fun game, and then rest of the time spent being frustrated with f2p model. Those that sub get the story as soon as it is released. Those that wait have to wait until they feel they are getting more for their sub every other or every 3 months.

[Nightblazer]

Asking more for free basically is just saying " I need a reason to not stay a sub and save $15 a month".

[Leklor]

You're not paying 15$ per chapter.

The 15$ cost includes:

-Any new chapter released.

-Sub status.

-Full PvP and endgame PvE access.

-More character slots.

More things that I'm willing to list.

The 15$ charge is the same as it has ever been, the chapter is just a bonus.

[xmarcusprimex]

Then why do you feel compelled to do so yourself?

 

Balance.

[Qui_Jon]

As the title says.

1. It appears that Bioware has committed to catering to the casual/f2p type player. Yet, at the same time, SWTOR is infamous for its terrible restrictions on free to play, which keeps a lot of casual players from even trying the game. These two concepts seem to be working against each other. Would Bioware care to comment on this?

2. Please explain why you think $15 is the correct price for a single chapter.

 

My humble suggestion:

Go fully free to play - no restrictions.

Charge a set amount per chapter in Cartel Market coins. This cost would be reduced for preferred players and free for subs. Increase the monthly cartel coin allotment for both preferred and subs. This allotment + the reduced chapter cost would be the enticement to go preferred or to sub.

 

Anyway, I think now is the time to comment on the $15 per chapter price point.

Thanks

It more then 15 per chapter. Its 15 per month but the release schedule only says they are planning 7 more chapters for sure spread out in 2016. so its more like 30 a chapter next year. But I say not to look at it by chapter since that is a subjective time of play, but by the experience of what we got so far. This expansion is 9 chapters 8 if you really figure that chapter 9 is complete and utter ******** and not a story chapter at all. But anyway you at most watching all the scenes would take 7-8 hours to go through this hole expansion. So lets even average that to an hour per chapter.

 

Means this whole story line will likely cost you a year of subscriptions time at 15 a moth is 180 dollars for 15 hours of game play. Where a single player RPG, which this game now is, like skyrim or mass effect or witcher would probably give you 2-3 times that for 60 dollars.

 

This game has officially become a cash grab and nothing else. My suggestion to most that want to keep playing is play through the current content then cancel your subs until the end of next summer then come back and just play the rest of the chapters for a one month sub then cancel again.