Double or Triple SC Days?

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Chiss, Jul 24, 2014.

  1. Chiss

    Are these still a thing? I'd love to buy some SC, but i prefer to get them for a killer deal!

    I was hoping there would be one on July 4, but that didn't seem to happen.

    Anyone know if there are plans for one in the future?
  2. LT_Latency

    I don't think so because SC can be used for all sony's games. So I could buy tripple SC here then spend in on EverQuest next when it comes out.

    I think they learned this the last time they had a triple SC event so it went away and they introduced the all access pass
    • Up x 1
  3. Chiss

    There have been quite a few in the past. But yeah, looks like theyve decided to stop :(
  4. miraculousmouse

    I dont think theyll bring back the 2x or 3x sales, but a few months back there was a sale where everything was half off and there were sales where certain commonly used and effective weapons (smgs and heavy specific weapons for example were 99 cents). I hope there will be some end of summer sale, can anyone confirm if there was one last summer?
  5. Degenatron

    Higby stated a while back that SOE was going to go away from 2x and 3x SC sales. Instead, they would offer the savings within the game stores themselves.

    The reasoning, if I remember right was:
    1. They wanted to break the boom and bust cycle of people holding out for those sales.
    2. It helps their accounting department.
    3. It drives people to look at the daily and holiday deals in the game stores.
    4. It gives more power to the individual game teams to offer deals when they want instead of relying of "The Corporate Office" to set up a sale.
    There was a post about it sometime around December.
    • Up x 5
  6. Ronin Oni

    ^Everything he said.

    If you skipped over this for some reason and now reading my post *ignoring the quoted section* go back and read it now.

    Seriously... what's wrong with you? :eek:

    Protip: if you become a member the 1SC sales are practically freebie items, the 99SC sales are still better deals than combining half off + 3x XP before, bundles are better deals now, etc. In short, a stable currency trade allows for far better pricing in games with their sales.
    • Up x 1
  7. Chiss

  8. Stormsinger

    Due to how US tax law functions, any SC (Which is technically owned by SOE) held in any player's account in an unspent state is taxable, and they must pay taxes on it quarterly. Players that hoard SC are decreasing the profit SOE made on that SC purchase, thus, they have stopped doing 2x / 3x sales.

    Which is a shame, since I had $500 I was planning on dropping on SC last Christmas, assuming a 3x sale would occur.
    It didn't, so I ended up blowing it on other random stuff. :p

    I DO recall a Smedly post (recently) that stated they were going to do more SC sales in the future, although most will probably be along the lines of last black friday sale, which I believe was ~30% off.

    Edit:
    Bothered to google it, looks like I was partially wrong
    https://twitter.com/j_smedley/status/421290050421133312

    I hope it actually happens.
    • Up x 1
  9. eatcow0

    They should do a 66% off sale all goods one day (triple sc pretty much) =P
  10. Goretzu



    They've said they won't do them anymore and haven't for over a year now (YMMV).

    The 4th July in-game sale was fairly "meh" to be honest too.

    I wonder if they've finally realised they made MORE MONEY with the extra SC people were buying than they lost with the price reduction (and like you say people just aren't spending that cash on SC without the sales).

    I always thought with the amount they shifted on x2 and x3 sales that it would add up. Of course he might just mean x1.3 sales or something too, I guess.
  11. Stormsinger


    My understanding of the situation is that even though they made MORE money with the double / triple SC sales, the loss of money from taxes on unspent SC looks worse then the lesser overall gain. My knowledge of virtual currency tax law is quite limited, but I think the reasoning was,

    "We would rather get $10 / $20 a few times a year, and have the player spend it, then have someone spend $300 on $600-$900 SC, then have it sit in their account... causing SOE to pay taxes on what is legally $600-$900 4x a year. The player could also potentially quit, not spend it, and leave the balance sitting in their account... triggering tax payments indefinitely. I believe SOE has the legal ability to simply claim that SC back after a certain period of time (They own it, after all) ... but doing so would alienate the customer base to a significant degree.

    Assuming the above is true, it's less a question of maximizing profit, and more a question of reducing risk / potential loss.

    This exchange took place on Jan 9th 2014, supposedly Smedly still thinks there will be 2x / 3x sales in the future, I hope he gets his way, but i'm not holding out waiting for one anymore, I just won't be spending all that much on the game.
    • Up x 1
  12. Goretzu


    That's very interesting.

    I always assumed that SC was basically treated as a once off purchase (like an in-game item or month of a subscription), but if the Taxman does in fact treat it like "banked" currency that probably does throw up a few issues.

    It seems strange though as the customer can't either claim it back nor sell it on as they could a genuine virtual currency.
  13. Flapatax

    They will probably never do another SC sale worth mentioning (minimum of 50% off)--so the only SC I will ever have is the 500/month from membership or giveaways.

    The value just isn't there for me, otherwise. Then again, I'm BR100 with the original red Shank You decal so what do I really need SC for?
  14. McToast

    Moin

    I guess they'll do another SC sale with one of the next SOE releases. I doubt that they won't do sales again, but it's only reasonable to not do them in a predictable pattern. If people know for sure that there will be a sale on holidays they won't buy SC for the regular price.
  15. Ronin Oni

    Actually they were also losing money on Player Studio items.

    If you bought SC on sale, then bought player studio item, SOE would get nothing, if not actually lose money on the transaction, because creator payout doesn't take reduced $ for SC cost into account (it does take into account if the item itself has a lower SC cost for a sale)

    They can afford to do 33% off and still be in the black on Player Studio sales, barely. Not much profit but it's there which is what counts.
  16. Crayv

    I actually kinda prefer the sales they have, I can stretch the SC from my membership further as it wouldn't really be effected by x2/x3 SC days.

    SOE likes it more too since due to the way accounting works they can't regard the money they get from selling SC as spent until the SC is spent. So they would much rather have large sums of SC spent and people effectively clearing out their banked SC than people banking a lot of SC and slowly spending it throughout the months.
  17. Goretzu

    Makes sense too, although given that SC is free (i.e. it costs them nothing), there must be still be an SC discount they can give and not lose out on those.
  18. Ronin Oni

    SC is not free when people buy Player Studio items with it.

    They have to pay out cash to content creators for SC purchases based on SC's full rate, not sale price.

    That's how they lose money.
  19. Goretzu

    Indeed, but I mean the SC doesn't cost them anything to make or produce, so if they are selling Player stuff at a fixed rate then there must be an amount they can reduce it by and not lose money on those, as all they have to cover (relatively) is that cost..... the rest is just not profit.

    Although that may well be a lot lower than 2x or 3x and not get them same sort of uptake.

    It also slightly makes you wonder why they use SC at all for player-made stuff rather than direct buying, although I would suspect there's a Tax reason somewhere in there.
  20. KodiakX

    Don't want us stocking up on yearly 2-3x station cash deals for future games.