Station Access price going up... again?

I was looking through some Vanguard forums and noticed this... so i thought I'd check out the knowledge base where they mentioned they saw it... (Clicky!)

"Station Access and All-Access are the same plan, it was renamed with the release of EverQuest II. It costs *$24.99 per month and includes access to the following:

Station Pass (Infantry, Cosmic Rift, Tanarus)
EverQuest (SOE servers only)
EverQuest Online Adventures (US NTSC version only)
EverQuest II
Star Wars Galaxies
PlanetSide
The Matrix Online
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes

To activate a Station Access Subscription go here:
http://station-access.station.sony.com/

To activate Station Access through the EverQuest II game client:

1. Launch EverQuest II, and enter your Station Name and Password and click Login
2. Click on My Account
3. Select the EverQuest II view/edit button under billing
4. At the subscription details window click on Edit Subscription
5. Choose the payment method as Credit Card.
6. Choose Station Access at the bottom for 24.99 or another payment plan if you do not want Station Access
7. If you want the Station Access to take affect immediately choose Option 1, otherwise select option 2
8. Click Update Station Player Features with the features you want selected, uncheck all the boxes if you do not want any of these services
9. Accept the EULA
10. Enter the billing details and hit submit
11. Submit the updated billing from the confirmation page, If you chose option 1 we will attempt to charge your card at this time.

All subscription requests take effect at the end of your current billing cycle if you chose option 2. You will be able to access EverQuest II until your subscription expires. If you cancel EverQuest II during your free 30-day subscription, your account will not be charged and will expire at the end of the trial period. We cannot offer refunds for any subscriptions you have already purchased after your free 30-day subscription.

*$29.99 per month as of April 2nd, 2007."

I havn't seen any official announcements on this, but the knowledge base page was updated today with that additional part which I bolded. So... now it'll be cheaper to just get 2 accounts than it would to get the extra slots on station access? Heh...

I don't see anything about it on the main Station Access pages yet, but it'll probably be coming soon.


EDIT: Heh... shortly after I posted this, they updated the page again and took out the price increase information.
Hehe It was re-edited again at 5:52pm pacific. =P go figure.

If you buy the Station Access for the current price and receive the free 4 character slots in EQ2, then cancel, do you lose the slots and characters? I'd assume so, but just curious if anyone knows for sure. I want the access pass for Vanguard once I update my video card. But, I'm not going to keep it if the upgrade doesn't help with performance.

Spyderbite@Venekor wrote:

They won't be deleted, but only the 6 most recent characters will be available to play. if you delete one you'll get access to the next most recent, etc.

Oddly enough... it looks like right after I posted this they removed that price increase information... Heh.

So [I cannot control my vocabulary]! Is the price going up or not? I have been thinking about upgrading to Station Access as I have all 6 character slots full in EQ2 and one day, I'd like to try/play Vanguard...

However, the price of $29.99 is damned steep for playing just one game (EQ2 w/ 4 extra slots). In fact, I wouldn't unless I knew with absolute certainty that I was going to play Vanguard and get some use out of it (i.e. not play it for 1 hour a month or something silly)...

I already have all EQ2 Expansions and Adventure Packs (bought separately) so I don't get anything there either with the Station Access.

So SOE, is the price of Station Access going up in the near future? Please give your user-base some warning and not just increase the price. Better yet, give your existing users 2 extra slots for free (applies to both non-station access accounts and those who do -- so 8-slot accounts and 12 slot accounts). I've seen posts around on the old forums talking about how there are issues at this time with increasing the amount of slots to each account holder. Ummm.. Well.... Fix it. Simple.

Grimdeath wrote:

Ya know the station access is not just about extra character slots. It gives you access to a bunch of other games.

Mysteran@Antonia Bayle wrote:

[p] Early release of April Fools day joke? [/p][p]You know how touchy we players are about the price of the game .. [/p][p]-----[/p][p]They would have to add in another big game (though they are adding in that Pirates game, i guess) AND add in EQ/EQ2players access for free AND add in at least 1 other character slot to really justify another $5.00 for most gamers. [/p]

Mysteran@Antonia Bayle wrote:

ever hear of a little somethign called a TYPO ? i mean cmon man not everythign is nessisarly doom and gloom and corporate america out to get ya

bensilvi wrote:

Station Access -is- about the extra character slots for me.. none of the other games interest me.. just extra slots.. if they gave me an option with just more slots at a reasonable price I would do that.

If it honestly does go up to $29.99, then it becomes cost effective for me to drop it and turn back on my second account and have 12 characters instead of 10...

the only way they could pull that off is by raising the price of the base sub too..and if it comes down to it.. while I like eq2, I have a comfort zone on what I want to pay.. and $30 bucks is way outside it..

Hmmm, 30bucks is a bit spendy for my monthly entertainment ... but I dont do anything else. Guess I will see how it goes. Would be nice if they increase number of slots /shrug

I don't think the point of an April's fools joke would be to make people mad, and it's a month early, so I doubt it's that. I play Vanguard and EQ2. Many people are playing only 2 games, and besides the additional character slots, there is no longer an incentive. I haven't played EQ1 in a long time, and sadly, I don't have time to play more than 2. If the price were to go above $30, then we'd have a problem because I'd be paying more for extra character slots. I hope they add some extra features along with the price increase. 2 more character slots maybe. I hope they distract me from this price increase by posting and announcing their press release for Rise of Kunark, please?

Watch them increase the price to offset teh number of cancelled accounts recently...Nice...

*sigh* Well, I'm not going to be signing up fr Station Pass until they clear this up. We already pay 22.99 AUS just for our monthly sub and adding 30 bucks US (which will be around 40 AUS) for Station Pass is just out of the question. I only wanted the stupid thing for extra char slots and if they're gonna do something as stupid as that then I can do without.

[p]I've been hearing this rumor of a price increase for a couple of months. I had hope that it wasn't true. /sigh They raised it to 24.99 right when they announced VG. I thought that the price increase for having VG. Well crap, I can't really see myself paying 30 buck to play both VG and EQ2. That's pretty much full price for both games. I'm afraid that my career is over in EQ2 if the price increase goes into effect. I'm not playing it enough to justify paying full price.[/p]

Maybe could get a longer period than a monthly access plan? What's the longest they do? If you can afford it in one hit anyway. Not sure I could at the moment as my phone bill just got in and nearly gave me a heart attack.

[p]Seeing this makes me glad we dropped station pass. They already get double from my household since Hurk and I both play. So if they'd raise the price to $30 a month I'd have to say no go. It already annoys me they don't offer some discount plan for multiple accounts, but that is something none of them do. [/p]

I'm wondering or not if i agree with ya stella. I really only play EQ2 and VG and on the Station pass i save a great deal of money for both games, but bringing the price to 30 it'd be hardly any different from paying for both of them seperatly, and i don't have time for a third game. i barely make time for the two of these. In the long run it would only save a few extra bucks.

[p]$29.99 per month is the price of two games. Since most people don't play more than two games this new price would seriously devalue the advantage of having the station access.[/p][p] In fact I hope SOE realises that if anything this will give people incentive to choose a game outside of the station pass & SOE as their second game since the cost would be the same.[/p][p] I would much prefer to have DAOC or maybe even Warhammer or Age of Conan when they are released as my second game instead of EQ2 (I primarily play Vanguard). But I keep EQ2 as my second game becuase its cost effective to pay for the station access and save 5 bucks. For those of us with multiple accounts for our family members 5 bucks each adds up to a nice savings.[/p][p] Once station access goes up to $29.99 then i can still keep Vanguard and drop EQ2 for DAOC, COH, WOW or anything else since there is no longer a price advantage to sticking with SOE games only.[/p][p] Remember SOE once you take away the advantage you have for playing SOE games only people will be more inclined to try other games that your not going to make money off of. [/p][p] Considering that some games depend on the access membership to survive (Matrix online, SWG, PLanetside) they will suffer the most when people start to cancel and try out more modern games from other companies since they no longer have the discount that justified keeping them around. [/p]

Station Pass was the last price increase they had for any of their Sub plans; which was IIRC last year or so. It seems a bit soon for them to be looking at another price increase. In fact, I would expect we'll see single-game subprice increases first; we are coming due for that IMO. They may not do that too soon though, since the current price point is what a lot of the other games have settled on too; they would have a harder time increasing the single-game subscription price than they would've before WoW and company came out. Moving the basic price from 15$ isn't going to be easy (especially since they'll probably be aiming for a 19.99$ pricepoint)

I play both EQ2 and VG fairly regularly, so this makes no difference to me. However, I know a lot of folks who pay for the extra char slots, ability to see your goodies offline, etc. It's like Ariven said, if you're going to be paying the price of two subscriptions, it makes little to no sense to only get 10 char slots if you can get 12 for the same price. As it is, it's fairly close to $30 already, but because it's not actually $30, it makes it justifiable as to why you can keep it. Raising it to the cost of 2 subscriptions sort of defeats the purpose of having a plan designed to reward you for playing multiple games from the same company.

[p]I wouldn't bee too surprised if they bumped up the price. We may see the station access pass boosted up to $50 before SoE feels it's at a level they can still make a quote "Profit". [/p][p]I don't play EQOA or SWG but have accounts that I want to maintain which is why I have the Station Access Pass. The biggest bonus is if I want to add another game I don't have too much to fear since I pay a 1 time a month fee. [/p][p]It would be nice for an SoE representative to come in and say how much does it cost to do A-Z. After that they can answer how much of a price increase we will see for the SoE Station Access pass before they consider it acceptable. [/p][p]If they raise it to $100 dollars and I have only 3 active games that cost me 40-$48 bucks a month i'll cancel my access pass forgoing my 4 extra character slots. [/p]