These numbers are also assuming all 10,000 of those lifetime subs are still playing and would be buying that monthly sub. No one but Darkpaw internals have access to those numbers, but I have a strong suspicion the actual number falls a fair amount short of 10,000
I said it at the time of the lifetime memberships that while it was awesome for the 10,000 who signed up.... a couple years down the road, it would be terrible for the business. I said it then, and it is showing now. There is what, 60k active accounts in EQ? And potentially 16% of that is on a lifetime sub that (outside or an expansion purchase) is generating zero dollars for the company? I don't know about you all, but sitting there and knowing that 16% of my customer base is now free rolling my game would make the businessman in me irate with anger.
Well the real question is what is the retention rate of those people, do some of those people only log in now because they do have a lifetime sub. What is the value of the players with the lifetime sub in keeping other players playing the game. Its the same with FTP, without FTP would there be less people to play with and how would that effect player retention in the paid player base. Surely not all 10k of those accounts are not still actively logging in every week. Some might only login now because they have the lifetime sub, what % of people with lifetime subs buy expansions vs the % of players that don’t. Do players with lifetime subs on average spend more on daybreak cash than other people. It’s more complicated than is Lifetimesub < annual sub/years Also there was the opportunity cost of having that 3 million, what did they spend it on etc. When you’re an armchair accountant on the outside looking in it might look simple and maybe it is that simple but sometimes you need cash for an investment opportunity and since they were pivoting to sell maybe they couldn’t take on additional liabilities in the form of a bank loan. Things are not always as simple as they seem.
It’s because you don’t recognize how to actually do business in the modern gaming space. The people willing to drop $300 aren’t your thrifty shoppers. They spend the $300 upfront and feel the pain momentarily. Now, they find themselves with extra money and addicts will find a way to spend more than they saved by adding another account, expansion upgrades, etc. On top of that you locked them into a sunk cost fallacy where they will be less likely to jump to another game. It’s important to always remember players are content in MMORPGs. Quests, zones, missions, raids have no value without players. Players generate revenue indirectly and directly.
Regarding sales, I think we should just accept this as the norm for now. To Skrab's point DBG probably recognizes that EQ has a dedicated player base that will habitually spend $X.00 over a period of time and they'll periodically spend $X.00 more times if you don't give as much with each purchase... I admittedly bought Lifetime subscriptions across accounts yet I'm still spending at least the same amount each year. Sales for EQ Live is tricky because there is only so much you can buy on Live servers' Marketplace, while with EQ TLP servers most people refresh & start over every year. With Live, we have finite worthwhile purchases, there isn't much left I want to buy beyond heritage crates & it wouldn't be in DBG's interest to give Live whales a discount on RNG. (RNG sales behavior is often budget based.) The bag sales are clearly oriented towards the TLP audience. There's little loss to DBG because at this point the usual heavy "current" TLP spenders would've bought their bags, & they're trying to get people that spend less to pull the trigger and buy. DBG also has to worry about the TLP player base a little more because each year's refresh makes it easier for a TLP player to switch games & come back later, whereas the catchup in EQ Live is tedious & therefore deters departure. Whatever they're doing with EQ probably is working compared to the other franchises. The last public figures that compared the DBG franchises actually had EQ on top in terms of EBITDA (essentially profit.) Q3'20 YTD Franchise EBITDA (essentially profit) as a share of DBG 1) Everquest 43% (EQ I 30%, EQ II 13%) 2) DC Universe Online 28% 3) Lord of the Rings Online 15% 4) Dungeons & Dragons Online 10% 5) Planetside 2 6% https://www.enadglobal7.com/wp-cont...entation-Dec-2020-Acquires-Daybreak-Games.pdf Slide 16 So EQ I & II basically made up 43% of DBG's profit. That's actually really impressive when you consider that last year DBG was expected to be ~62% of EG7's EBITDA, slide 23 (again we'll loosely say "profit" for none accountants). So we can ballpark that in 2020 the EQ franchise made up about 20-25% of EG7's profit, that's impressive when you consider that's from a portfolio of about 18 IPs. To digress, my point is, I'm not shocked about EQ's sales have become milder because EQ's profitability is comparatively good compared to it's peers in the EG7 portfolio. That's just business, you run promos for the products where you aren't doing as well, at least when it makes sense. I wanted a better sale too, deep down inside I was still hoping to see a flash heritage crate sale... but I'm still happy with things because as I've said on other threads we still have relatively well engaged devs & community relations/customer service staff. I'm not always happy with changes being made, but I appreciate the changes are generally driven by community feedback. We're clearly not getting a traditional sale anytime soon, but maybe we can try to advocate the Devs experiment with something like other games mission passes where if you do stuff or are active enough over the set of a few months you get some cosmetics/goodies, with the option to pay for more goodies.
Most items in the db store are overpriced. Not having real sales means many players won't bite, and that is lost revenue.
As a lifetime member I feel that I actually have lots of extra money (although I don't really) that I would spend in the marketplace. But no sales mean no purchases for me. I mean we all want the biggest bang for the buck. There are many of us who do NOT want bags or play on the TLP. Just put in the LON packs again, the freakin frostfell familiars, endless turkeys etc. These are all part of the history of the game. They are missing out on a lot of profit by not offering these pixels for us to blow money on. Who ever is in charge of marketplace needs to wake up. I doubt he is being restricted by the higher ups, I feel he (whoever he/she/it is) just doesn't pay attention. No paper certification of achievement for that person.
As a live player I am perfectly happy about not being regarding as "milkable". The less RMT the better. Imho the only thing that should be purchasable should be cosmetic fluff, just to make sure that there is an equal playing field regardless of real-life income. I think capitalistic greed and RMT is bad for the longterm health of the gaming industry. MMOs are about adventure and human relations. Computer games is an artform, a storytelling medium and entertainment, too much focus on RMT is against the spirit of computer games imho. If DBG wants to go all in on RMT they should just start a casino...
The "Big Bags Sale" used to be amazing for those 30 some slot bags. Now we have 44 slot bags from standard kill achievements. I dont recall the price they want for those 30s, but they are no longer big bags. If they were 50 slot bags? Maybe 60? IMO --> The price for those "Big Bags" should be considerably less than a Krono, for the biggest pack combo they offer. Considering for less than 100k on most servers, you can have 10x 20 slot bags that will easily hold over any main until they get those kill achievement bags.
I've always felt negative about so-called microtransactions but it doesn't matter. What game publishers found out was that people would buy in, whales became a thing, minnows in numbers account for even more (not more than whales, just more money) and that is that. It's not going away. Instead, the envelope gets pushed as far as the market will bear. There is a casino. It's loot boxes but they are called Heritage Crates because they are and plus loot boxes became a negative term. Ultimately, if people want and buy these things it is hard to fault companies for serving them up. They are after all in the business of making money first and foremost. By itself I wouldn't call that wrong. In the end all of this is still a personal choice. Anyone can choose to opt out. Do I like it myself? Hell no but I don't matter. I had a hard time with that for quite a while but I am getting used to the idea. It's a good thing because used to it or not, nothing on this earth is changing on my account. I have to confess, I went nuts over perks but in the end I just opted out and now I don't care anymore. I should not have cared to begin with. It doesn't really matter. It does not affect me unless I let it. Hopefully, I will remember this and do better next time they introduce whatever the next monetization thing is. You know there will be one. It's just a matter of time. That's what the people at the top who own all these games are all about.
If I had my way (I won't but if I did!) we'd see a semi-annual DBC sale, summer and winter would be nice and then I could buy whatever I might want to at a discount that way. I will never spend the kind of money they want for bags myself and although I am on live with my alt army I could use some big ones. It hardly cripples me though. My main gets first dibs on good stuff from expansion packs or whatnot and the rest of the crew gets whatever they get. I don't think I saw this mentioned but the company knows very well what sells well and what does not and how much they are making on each item. The decisions they make are informed by this data. All manner of speculation about what they should do, what the results of their actions cause, etc. is not informed by the congregate data. It's only personal views and opinions. For example, I just said I ain't buying those expensive bags! That's nice but it doesn't matter. They already know what matters. They aren't stupid. This game would not even be running today if they were as dumb as players so often suggest. All that said, I reserve the right to be grumpy about what I don't like but I will try to temper it some.
