I am very disappointed with the cash shop in PS2.

Don't buy it then...or do what the smart ones amongst us do. But station cash on Triple Station Cash days (or Quadruple if you buy Walmart cards). That way a $7 unlock actually ends up costing you $1.75. If you can wait...buy them when they're on sale or as part of a bundle for 50% off, to make it even less than $1 to unlock. Or...ignore buying. Just grind it out.

You don't have to pay anything. It's an option. Don't like it...don't buy it. As a PS1 vet, I'd be upset that the game is F2P at all. But it's also good because it means a constant stream of cannon fodder for me.

I feel as though Steam and TF2 have proven that you can make more money overall by making things cheap and appealing to a larger number of players rather than getting more money from fewer players. When the prices seem cheap people will buy crap that they'll probably never use just because of the price. Like getting several guns for multiple classes or weapons for vehicles you rarely pilot. More people might even be inclined to buy stuff on multiple characters if they don't feel like they've invested a small fortune into their first one already. I know personally if unlimited use camos had been 2$ regular price instead of 5$, I'd have impulse purchased several by now during moments of weakness. Instead I have 1 because at 5$ it's a lot harder to "go nuts" without being very aware of how much money I'm spending on a relatively useless skin.

some of you gamers are so ungrateful. You'd only be happy if it was completely free. It doesnt take a genius to figure out that the $7 is not the "value" of the gun, but basically your optional donation to keep the game running.

Its the same reason why popcorn at a theater is $10. Of course a bag of popcorn isnt worth $10, but the theater wouldn't make any money if it wasnt so expensive. Either they overcharge you for optional treats or ticket prices would be through the roof.

I'd be in a rage if PS2 was a $60 game that i already paid for and THEN they were asking me to pay $7 for a gun. Or a fighting game where they charged me for alt outfits (SF4) That would be ridiculous. I would never buy a weapon for a game like D3, not even at $1. This is not that scenario.

Do you work for SOE?...do you know their balance sheet on cash shop purchases?.....you talk about whats been proven over and over in other games ...do you have full data on detailed surveys done on how much these games make compared to PS2? ...your post means nothing as it is totally devoid of facts. Present it as an opinion of course....but dont keep saying whats been proven as if you have all the information ot make such statements

What you need to remember is valve do not have the overheads that SOE have ....so they can make a profit with people spending £1 on a funny hat....SOE have to run huge server farms as it is a MMOFPS ...TF2/BF/COD can run on a PC server.

It really comes down to time saving. 1000 certs is what, about 60 hours of game play? More if you don't have membership and so forth?

If you think about it, purchasing the dead critical weapons of PS2, even at full price would put the game cost at around $40. Pretty good value, especially if you purchased your SC during the sale.

If you can't see it as a good purchase for the cost of a coffee, then I can only indicate the issue lies within you. SOE's pricing is steep, but fair for all involved. You want it sooner? You're going to pay for it to save yourself time and also keep SOE going financially. You don't want it? Don't buy it and don't complain about the time it will take to farm it.

Since most responses are walls of text, I'm going to keep this short and sweet.

SC sales happen ALL the time - as do daily weapons, etc.
SC has been around for a while thanks to all the other F2P Sony games.
Wait for a 2x or 3x SC Purchase

I just dropped $50 (essentially the cost of the game) on SC This weekend... with the 3x it was technically $150.. I purchased all the guns I wanted, camo & stuff on sale, and I still have about 5000 SC left over.


If you enjoy Planetside 2, then you'll be playing it for a long time, and $50 isn't much of a setback for a game you could be playing years from now.

This^ the money isn't just about buying one gun...it funds the game ...it allows those of us who can afford to pay something to choose how much we want to contribute in order to keep this game alive, it allows those that can't afford to pay to also play, so those of us that do pay have plenty of people to shoot at.....people keep comparing it to BF/TF2/COD...those are not MMOFPS....and do not cost anyhting like the same amount of money to run and maintain.

The f2p Business model (that's right, Business not charity) suits me these days, as I choose the amount I wish to spend, and decide what the game is worth to me,

if the game isn't very good, I had the chance to play a demo with no cash loss, if it's fairly good I'll spend a little cash until I have more of an idea how much time I'll put into it, if it feels like a game I'm sticking with for a while, I'll spend a bit more. For me this usually works out far cheaper than a retail boxed MMO, and I get to play far more games through the year, with the occasional good game (like this currently) that I put a fair amount of time into and feel that I'm getting a solid game for a good price.

I'm actually very disappointed now how many people have missed the point. "It all comes down to time saving", despite the fact that I pointed out in my original post and many others afterwards my stance; time is of the essence for me and this is why the f2p option would not have been an option to me.

Then there was that another guy claiming how ungrateful we are. How the cost is what it is because it's a way to support the game. How many gamers do you really know, who purchase stuff because they feel like supporting the game? Such scene only exists for small time developers / dev teams. SOE (which gets most likely 90-99% of the cash) is not a dev team at all. Hell, by your logic, they could raise the prices by an infinite amount. "It's just a way to support the game".

And here's a funny fact; prices like these just drive customers away and thus less people sneakingly support SOE (which in turn means that PS2 becomes less profitable). And I believe that it's already less profitable for them with these prices. Though then again, Sony has been screwed in every area of their company. The newest playstation, should it not support used games without an "unlock cost", is just another proof about this.

So anyone with the argument "do you work for sony? how would you know?" the answer is; Just look at them, for gods sake. Nothing they have done lately has worked out for them. And Planetside 2 will just be turned into another example.

And I'm mad because the developers of PS2 don't deserve that fate. How would you guys feel, years of work straight to the trash bin, because a company got greedy?

Of course they couldnt raise prices an infinite amount. how did you come to that conclusion? I wouldnt pay $100 for a gun, because it just wouldnt be worth my money, the same reason i wouldnt subscribe to ANY mmo for $15 a month. Very few games these days are worth over $30 to me, so i am also a CHEAP gamer, yet i think SoE practices are fair.

exactly, thats why they need to make the purchases somewhat enticing . if all they did was charge for useless camo, many gamers (myself included) would probably just skip making any kind of purchase.

Do you really think that anyone complaining about this games prices would just "donate" money to keep the game running? Chances are they would justify not paying anything by complaining about "tank spam" or something small, while they still log 100 hrs enjoying themselves.

I assume the average gamer will focus on 1 or 2 classes. Thats can amount to 100+ hours of playtime on an MMO. i see no problem buying the few guns to flesh out those classes. Ive spent $25 so far, and it took me 2 weeks to even buy a gun because i was doing well enough with stock.

I think SoE is smart enough to know the sweet spot for these prices. If anything, they are getting the most out of early adopters. You misers can wait until 3xSC days or just cert your weapons.
I really dont see how you cant see that this is a Win/Win situation.

People only spend what they want to spend, no big news there.

I myself bought the Alpha pack along with a 6 month sub and spend 20 bucks during the 3x SC on the 21st Dec.

By now I've used up most of the SC I had and I don't feel even slightly cheated, I bought the Lynx, Zephyr, Dalton, HE prowler main gun, AV secondary for prowler, skull helmets for LA and engineer, composite armor, etc...

I could've just played the game and gotten all of that with only a fraction of the SC cost by spending certs instead but I didn't feel like waiting. And that's what I paid money for, I value my gaming time.

Welcome to f2p model games. I have spent around 70 dollars total. However, most games cost 60 on a console + any expansions which may raise it up more.