Did I say so ? There is no indication for anything in a fictional construct. Not for you staying AllAccess neither going FTP or to stop playing. Its all pure speculation because you cannot know what decision you would had made if you won't had bought the lifetime account. All you can do is to speculate, creating a hypothesis, a theory, an assumption, a fiction. It just does not matter what would had happened instead but from the psychological perspective it for sure does give you better feelings if you think that you saved much money because you believe that you would had stayed AllAcess. However you would had saved much more money if you would had quit or going FTP instead. But that might give you not so good feelings so you wil ltend to believe the other more comfortable theory but fact is that none of them are true and just theoretical possibilities in the quantum field of the past. You are tricking yourself if you believe that your assumption is the reality.
I don't they'll be available for a loooong time. It looks like they only offered the lifetime subs to acquire capital to launch that battle royale game that failed miserably.
Maybe in part, and I do mean maybe. The figure usually quoted for the lifetime subs. was $1,800,000. That much money would be huge for me and my family, but for a game company it is not really that much cash. The costs of developing a game, even a cheap one, can easily run into the tens of millions. I suspect, absent any actual proof, that there are parts of this story that are not publicly known. I haven't thought about it for a good long while and now I am intrigued. As window dressing it is a pittance. Got to be more to the story.
You are also incorrect to assume that anyone spent more on EQ and Daybreak than they would have without the Lifetime Subscription. The majority of the people who made a point to get Lifetime subscriptions did so to save money, not spend more. Daybreak undoubtedly lost more than they made. after the 3rd year. Especially, when you consider that they have potentially paid out up to $1.44 million just in Daybreak cash over the past 4 years to Lifetime Subscribers. Even if you cut that amount in half you still have them paying out $720,000 from the 500 Daybreak cash. They undeniably have lost money on that. You only play a few months a year on average. But I would wager that prior to buying the Lifetime Subscription that you did not unsub during the months that you were not subscribed. I suppose if you were just using Krono for them, that would be viable, but I doubt that most people do that. Futher there is no evidence to suggest that any Lifetime Subscription holders are going to spend the money they save on Daybreak products.
Nice thought, but there’s massive amounts of information behind in-game spending patterns that conflict your assumption. People that spend, don’t stop spending. There’s very few people with that kind of discipline. The Daybreak cash is to get you to open the store every month and trigger your fear of missing out with deals and trigger you to spend more. Maybe you’ll get that mount or illusion, if you just buy one more pack or crate. For me, I only subscribe month to month prior to the Lifetime subscription. I like that I don’t see 6 accounts being billed for a month. It works out for me, but DPG won the monetary value side so far.
For one thing you can't compare 'PlanetSide2 Arena' to the cost of developing an actual game from scratch. They used their already existing game (PS2) and modded it with a ruleset. It didn't cost that much to make a stone cold failure. Set out to 'not try hard' and you aren't likely to succeed. That is not how it works. It costs them nothing to give you free DBC. People saving free money for months to buy something are Penny Pinchers, they aren't ever going to spend big on the game. Throwing them a bone makes them feel like they 'gamed the system'. Which is exactly what the Penny Pincher is all about. Whales have money and are going to spend it at the drop of a hat. If they want it, they get it. They don't save free coins, they use them to defray a tiny bit of their expense (helping to reduce buyer's remorse). People on the fence about buying things get a monthly reminder about the marketplace even existing. Just like any fast food chain or other big business, they give away freebies just to get you in the door. Once you use your freebie, you buy more than you would have if you didn't have a reason to walk in the door. They ain't losing money on the marketplace. They manage it terribly, and could make more. But they sure aren't losing a penny on it. This guy gets it.
Did I forget to mention? When you use 400 of your free 500 on a weapon or shield ornament, and then wear it around in-game, that is free advertising from a player in-game, not a company advertising to customers. These days big game companies pay 'influencers' money to advertise their product. In EQ you buy them free advertising, and have less 'free money' to spend afterward. Or you just buy a bag and contribute to the in-game economy. <shrug> they benefit both ways, no downside.
There is no such information supporting any of those things within EQ or with regards to those who purchased Lifetime Subscriptions for Daybreak All Access. Just because a person had a subscription for EQ and buys expansions, in no way means that they would spend on anything else. Further there is no support for the assertion that people who went from a monthly or annual subscription to a Lifetime Subscription would purchase anything exceeding what they got for free. Many people even at the time that the Lifetime Subscriptions went live already had a significant amount of DC built up from having never used it in the first place. On top of that, depending on when their subscription had been set to renew, they got the full amount of that subscription's worth of DC paid out in a lump sum, and got to claim more under the lifetime subscription from then onwards. If people want the mount or illusion from the crates or prizes, then they buy them in the bazaar. You can find almost all of them for less than 2 million plat, most in the 200k-500k range, which is not hard to come by for long time players who would have made a point to buy the lifetime subscriptions. The average people who buy lifetime subscriptions are not the ones with a fear of missing out, they are in fact the opposite. They are savers. They bought the Lifetime subscription because they were confident that EQ would continue for more than 3 years and like to save money rather than spend it. They go into the Marketplace every month to save the free 500 DC rather than it go to waste. People who did month-to-month subscriptions rather than annual subscriptions, are spenders and don't care about saving money, and even moreso for someone who is doing it for multiple accounts. Your spending on EQ might have stayed the same, but your average Lifetime Subscription user spending went down by the subscription cost that they spent per year. What I said is exactly how it works. Are you thinking that no one uses the free 500 DC? Because that is the only way that it costs them nothing. Anything that is bought with that 500 DC would have otherwise required a purchase of an equal amount DC to be made. The monthly and yearly subscriptions make more money than they lose by giving out the 500 DC a month. But the Lifetime subscriptions only lost money because nothing was recurring. After the lifetime subscribers passed their break even dates, the company has been losing money on those subscribers, period. The savers don't feel like they have gamed the system. They simply feel like they are saving money, which they are, as they are getting the same out of the game as they did before but paying less. Savers before the Lifetime Subscription would pay for their sub + the expansion; most make a point of claiming the 500 DC on the off chance that something might actually show up in the Marketplace that they would consider purchasing. The Savers after their Lifetime Subscription pay for the expansion and still claim the 500 DC on the off chance that something might show up that they would consider purchasing. Their spending on EQ, after they bought the Lifetime subscription, went down by the amount that they spent a year on that subscription. Now, the average spenders feel like they have gamed the system. They get can get to spend the the same as they did before the Lifetime subscription but get more out of it. I would argue that these people make up the smallest amount of those who got Lifetime Subscriptions. The Lifetime Subscriptions were announced and launched after Christmas and sold out in just a few days. It is a safe bet that the spenders didn't have the extra money after Christmas to spend $300 per account on at the drop of a hat. The whales are the smallest of these groups, especially in EQ. As you stated, the whales don't care, but even the Whales are not spending a subscription worth of extra money to Daybreak. The Whales who have Lifetime Subscriptions are probably the least likely to ever spend the same amount of money as they would have without it. The whales buy whatever they want regardless, so the would have spent the same above what the cost of their subscription + expansion -500DC per month would be regardless. So now they are just spending above the cost of the expansion - 500DC per month; and Daybreak is simply losing out of the subscription money. Also, maybe you forget that the reason why they started the whole pop-up discounts when you claim the 500 DC is because the majority of people were claiming their DC and not spending it, and that was a huge negative mark on their books. People had 10,000+ DC and never bothered to spend it on anything. Some Lifetime Subscribers had up to another 6k that after they got their lump sum of DC from the balance of their yearly sub. It was not a matter of people forgetting about the Marketplace and not spending anything. It was simply that there was nothing in the Marketplace that most people wanted to bother with. The biggest reason for the keyrings and new TS Depot having slots is to have something to sell that people might actually pay for and regularly consume the 500 free DC and possibly more. Because most players do not buy in the Marketplace even though they are regularly claiming their 500 DC.
I'm aware this thread is about Lifetime subs. I'm not speaking to that. I'm speaking only to your assertion they lose money on the 'Free DBC' or Marketplace. You're wrong. I was all over the thread with several others where we discussed and researched California tax law. Which has changed since the issue you incorrectly recall. They never lost money, they had to DEFER claiming it on taxes (called realizing profit), until the DBC was spent. California law, years ago, didn't allow them to claim the profit from ALL, but only a portion of the profit in a year that had yet to be realized. That tax law was changed years ago. Even if the issue hadn't been fixed for them, simple solutions are simple. They could just stop giving out free cash. Pretty sure it's self evident they don't 'lose' a penny on it. But, you know, have it your way.
I got five lifetime accounts and I did not spend the savings on EQ. Can't speak for all but the few others I know personally didn't take the savings and spend more on EQ in other ways. I suspect that for folks who do not box and play one account or two they might spend the extra on EQ. Think it all depends on their RL situation. People buying an expansion for each of multiple accounts would probably be more likely to just keep their savings. EQ overall probably has a higher number of box accounts then many newer games I suspect. And as for the free Daybreak cash yes its to get you into buying marketplace items in the hopes folks will buy even more daybreak cash. I have bought daybreak cash in the past but it wasn't because I saved more on the lifetime subs. In my case I would have spent it anyway but mostly I just let the cash build up and then spend it. I have never worried about missing out on deals though except when they had a subscription sale in the marketplace and of course the lifetime subs. Didn't miss either except I meant to get six lifetime subs and missed one account which was my fault.
In other words, you are talking about about something that has absolutely nothing to do with anything that I said and nothing to do with this thread. Because everything I said was explicitly within the context of Lifetime Subscriptions, and in that context, I am correct in what I said. I am not wrong or misremembering anything. California tax law has nothing to do with anything that I said. You are conflating issues to fit your narrative. There may well have been some such California Tax law, that weirdly prevented them from realizing profits on DBC that they sold until it was spent in game (which makes no sense since the profit is realized when they make the transaction and deliver the item to the buyer). Now what the company could realize until the DBC was spent is the loss from giving it away that would have been a business expense. That loss, they would use to defray taxes both state and federal. California had and has stupid and weird tax laws, but those being changed does not change the federal ones that are still the same. They still cannot realize the losses until the DBC is spent and that is completely why they started and still do the deals to get people to instantly. They get some tax benefit from the losses, but that is only in so much as their tax rate, 21% federal, 8.84% California. Not that much in the grand scheme of things considering the time and resources involved in keeping track of it all to be able to claim it. They explicitly did lose money, and they continue to lose money. They make use of the losses to defray their taxes to some degree, but not enough to cover the money they lost. They continue to give the free DBC, because it allows people to justify the cost being what it is. People would be harder to justify maintaining the subscription without it. Since it is a part of the subscription, they cannot remove it from the Lifetime Subscriptions. But it is a loss.
Ok to remind you, or maybe you never saw the threads that inform me. You should look up '$20 use it or lose it' and 'Free SC, Tax, Gift Cards'. The issue they were having years ago, that you misunderstand, came down to 'People were stockpiling SC and not spending it'. This is a fact Smed stated. Period. In the tax thread we figured out that California tax law (back then) treated Virtual Currencies purchased within software like Gift Cards. The company was restricted from claiming all of gift cards sold as actual profit until they are redeemed. But you can't ever do anything with SC but spend it, you can't come back years later and demand cash value, it has no cash value. So the law was changed, because yes, it made no sense in the online, virtual world context. Back then Smed made an announcement they were going to switch from $5/month to $20/month "Use It Or Lose It". That's right, they were losing so much money on that free SC they wanted to give people $20 per month! Look up that thread, it proves you're wrong about all this. It proves: -Their problem was everybody NOT spending their free money. Hence solution:" Use it or lose it" -They can give away as much as they want, it doesn't cost them, and what you can buy doesn't 'hurt' the game. No downside. -They were PROFITING, because they were chomping at the bit to claim those PROFITS on their taxes! And THAT proves: -Free coins are NOT an incentive to the vast majority of players to sub. -They lose nothing giving free coin. You're simply wrong. But I'll go ahead and entertain (rhetorically) the idea if you were right. -"They can't stop giving free coins or they'd lose subs." (if you don't believe Smed, read this thread about how much people care about free coins) -"They have to keep eating the loss of free coin to Lifetime Subs." (there is no scenario where free coin is a loss) If they are locked into a 'losing' proposition, that's a pretty pathetic business model. Even IF you were right, it costs them to give free coins but they 'have to' to make it up on subs. That makes it a cost of doing business. They are still profiting in your formulation and are thus 'losing' nothing, it's simply a cost of doing business. There is no scenario where they are LOSING money by giving free coins. Maybe it's a cost, but you don't know that. I know they haven't removed it all these years. Either they can't (because they aren't even in control of their own business), or they have chosen not to. Oracle says: "They don't lose a penny giving free coins."
I just realized you may not be aware, SC/DB coins have a hidden 'value' behind them, for accounting purposes. The free coins they give you have absolutely 0 value. Anything you buy with the free coins does not benefit DB, or have any effect on their accounting. If you buy a Player Studio item with free coin, nobody gets anything, 0 to them 0 to me. If you bought coin during a 50% off sale, each of those coins is worth half a penny. The main issue they were having back then is all the sale SC people would buy and not spend. Back in those days there was real cash floating around, and they wanted it on the books as profit to help with getting the sale done. If you stockpile or spend your FREE coin does not matter to them, it doesn't change their bottom line one penny. Edit: (that's wrong/not the best way to say it) The other detail is, a marketplace purchase is drawn from your lowest value coin FIRST. So if you don't spend the free, you never redeem the 50%, and if you don't redeem those you don't get to the 100%. So they have an incentive to get you to spend those free coins. But it's not a big priority for them. Peoples spending habits take care of themselves. And they still spend real money on marketplace items, even Player Studio items. Second Edit: Actually maybe I was right at first. They don't need you to spend at all, because the tax law changed, they profit when you buy the coin, not when you spend it. So yeah, stockpile all you want. Spend the free coin all you want. Still same result. It doesn't hurt them one penny to give free coins.
You cannot come back years later and demand cash value for gift cards either. You can only use them as they were intended. Just like with SC. Any law changed was done so not because of something making sense, they were changed due to people asking for it to be changed. Further, the change was requested because they company was being forced to wait till the outstanding SC and later DbC was spent to claim the loss. The loss is still there. They gave away something that they sell at a value, the item not having an intrinsic value does not matter. Nothing in EQ has an innate value, but it all does have a monetary value that can be attached to it, especially SC/DbC.
