Is the only way to purchase the xpac with a credit card? Or will station cash be able to be used for this purchase at some point?
Seeing as I had bought SC on three accounts in readiness to buy expansion and then they changed the rules, I am unlikely to lay down more.
In the fine print, it says they can change the rules... I know it sucks but the alternative is to take a huge hit on revenue from poor management. I hope someone got fired for that screw up but in the end I dont want some huge mistake to damage the game I do want to play.
It was no mistake. They made a lot of revenue from it in a short period of time. They likely will lose revenue from the decision to end it though. Enough so that expansions and sub time for SC will make a come back this coming year. You can count on it.
Source? So Sony sold something for 45 bucks...people used triple cash to buy it for 15 bucks...and Sony made money? I want to live in your world
The source is Smed's twitter account. Go search it for the pertinent info, it's still there, exactly as he stated it. A whole lot of people are still subscribed, and got expansions thanks to those deals, who otherwise would be long gone from this game. None of them got it for free, they all paid money for it. That is money SoE got that would otherwise have been lost entirely. That most definitely qualifies as making money. The FTP model is essentially going from $45 to $0 in your example. Yet, it's also making them money. It's not often about putting the highest price tag on an item to make the most money. Smed definitely understands that.
Doesn't your example, though, not take into account the people who were already paying full price, would have continued to pay full price but took advantage of 1/3rd and 1/2 off deals?
Absolutely. But neither side has access to those factual numbers. Me personally, I now have 3 accounts instead of 1 because of this. One of which I still pay full price for. The other 2 were added only because of these deals. So they got a net gain out of me.
I went from 2 accounts to 3 accounts because of promos during house of thule, I then went from 3 account to 5 accounts solely because of the deals during alaris.
I added accounts as well due to the Triple station cash and subs deals. Much easier to box my own army than to work some one unpredictable into my valued playtime to farm augs, exp and questing. Not exactly what I think any of us really want for the long term, but this is the reality of more and more players who are serious about the game. It was definitely a mistake. Once the repercussions are fully felt, it will be realized as a mistake or error. Im still wondering how much I will have to pay for the collectors edition since Im at the SOE Live event now. I guess I will just have to ask the panels tomorrow. Plus all of us here at the SOE Live event should be auto invited to BETA.. still haven't gotten my second email confirming I am in.
