Platinum Doesn't Buy Very Much, Does It?

[NotaCobra]

Also, you don't compare this to LoL or TF2 or DotA or anything as popular.

Those games have much bigger playerbases meaning that their revenue wont be as effected when reducing prices, as  games with smaller playerbases.

Because of that they can play the waiting game and either keep the low prices or revert them back to higher ones.

Running on from this idea;

keep in mind how expensive Riot points are in LoL, a champion can cost more than $10, and it represents a longer time investment than a warframe does.

TF2 was originally a $50 game, it only went free after half a decade.

and DotA had a garunteed fanbase before it was made, and is backed by one of the wealthiest digital distributors EVER.

Edited May 22, 2013 by NotaCobra

[Guest]

The prices definitely need to be changed, 300+ Plat for a frame or 225 for a simple weapon is insane. I've said it a few times now but DE wants people to be making impulse purchases and you do that with seemingly very cheap prices.

 

Look at Loki, Excalibur and Volt. Those three frames are 75 Platinum each. A measly 75 Plat for a frame, a slot and an installed Orokin Reactor, that's a steal. I think we can all guarantee those are some of the highest selling items in the market. The same with Orokin Catalysts and Reactors themselves which are a tiny 20 Platinum.

 

Based on this, I'd say the ideal Warframe prices would be around 75-150 Platinum, and weapons should be probably around 50-100. If DE wants to charge ludicrous prices for things, they can do that with cosmetics like the Dagger Axe skins and such.

[MisterG]

I definitely agree that the prices are too high, especially compared to pretty much all other "free to play games".

It seems to be artificially high, as there isn't too much content, so people would burn out so much quicker if it was more affordable ? maybe?

I think the best thing to do is just give you more platinum for your money.

Currently the shop prices seem to be right for 500 platinum for $10/£7, but at 170 for $10/£7 it's was more than I'm comfortable paying - The founders pack seemed much farer, though you can only get it once

If you buy the lowest pack, you can only just buy a cheap warframe, and the next one up doesn't buy you one at all.

The game is great fun to just "play", co-op is awesome, though I'd love a higher number of players (even if half start in a different area and you meet up for the boss)

But please consider giving us more platinum for our cash.

[Fortune_Silver]

The prices definitely need to be changed, 300+ Plat for a frame or 225 for a simple weapon is insane. I've said it a few times now but DE wants people to be making impulse purchases and you do that with seemingly very cheap prices.

 

Look at Loki, Excalibur and Volt. Those three frames are 75 Platinum each. A measly 75 Plat for a frame, a slot and an installed Orokin Reactor, that's a steal. I think we can all guarantee those are some of the highest selling items in the market. The same with Orokin Catalysts and Reactors themselves which are a tiny 20 Platinum.

 

Based on this, I'd say the ideal Warframe prices would be around 75-150 Platinum, and weapons should be probably around 50-100. If DE wants to charge ludicrous prices for things, they can do that with cosmetics like the Dagger Axe skins and such.

i agree. nice pricing suggestions to. very reasonable.

[Althix]

@ op. do you really need something else than slots for warframes, weapons and potatoes?

colors is nice. few days ago i saw a cute pink shade with dome wings and a tail.

 

platinum gives you comfort. and so far i would rather buy plat for my warframe account than buy yet another half made bs from ea.

[VER1]

Yes the prices of certan things are meant to be a rip off to deter you for buying.

 

BUT.

 

Because there are always people who are impatient, need the newest and the latest to feel good about themselves and people with more money than sense, DE are smart enough to make money off those people.

 

All the necessary items for the game e.g. weapons & warframes can be attained through patience and actually playing the game.

On the other hand there are some vanity items which are of an exuberant price like the colour pack and the avatars but they are not necessary to purchase to have nice things.

[KvotheTheArcane1]

See, he has the right idea. no, he doesn't

 

Nothing I said is beside the point. The community may prefer a different game but the mindset is the same. If they have money they'll pay generously, if they don't they'll only pay for necessities like potatoes and weapon/warframe slots. Well, I think (thought) so, because the main issue is the crafting right now

 

Also you do realize that you've written my argument for me.

The RL cash price of a weapon/warframe is almost even too low for the amount of farming one has to do to get it "for free". Not really, the farming can take a few hours, especially for alloy plate, which is VERY hard to get early on (compared to other mats)

There wouldn't be a need to play the game and farm for the items if they were all available cheap. true, but it wouldn't hurt if new players could get weapons a little easier (i.e. not farming for several hours)

 

Again, those that have the money and the right mindset will pay for whatever they want. Those that don't wont pay for what they don't need even if the prices were lowered. not all will, but some will.

I for one have enough money to buy myself every warframe and all the little gadgets like helms and colors and custom wpn skins, but I wont. good for you.

I wont do it no matter what because I see it as a waste of money, specially the warframes since they can be obtained by actually playing the game. and REASONABLELY resource wise. I'd expect them to take a bit of time/mats, which they do, but I could spend quite a bit of time doing the same amount of farming for a few of the weapons as I would for a new warframe, and that's not even for the "best" guns.

 

Also, you don't compare this to LoL or TF2 or DotA or anything as popular. why not? They should strive to be just as successful

Those games have much bigger playerbases meaning that their revenue wont be as effected when reducing prices, as  games with smaller playerbases.

Because of that they can play the waiting game and either keep the low prices or revert them back to higher ones. right it's not a big deal for them, but if warframe loses enough potential players, the game dies, where as TF2, DOTA, LoL, etc have enough people to take some hits (in terms of paying customers) but my point was HOW they did it. (i.e. reasonablely) You can buy the champion in LoL, with the IGC (in game cash, so I don't have to type it out fyi), but you don't have to, but it shortens the farming by a lot, and it costs a reasonable amount.

 

$10 in LoL gets you on of the most expensive champions, with a bit left over (405). The same 10$ here in warframe won't get you an expensive warframe, you get 170 plat, and so you can pick from ~5 warframes I think, probably not even that. (therefore LoL has a better price system, and doesn't suffer for it)

 

$10 in TF2 will get you any weapon (which is a poor buy) but will also get you a wide array of cosmetic items, with only like 5 items being priced at $20 (that are cosmetic, ignoring the gift piles/etc) and they STILL make money because people buy the cosmetic items, even though the weapons are easily gained (anyone who wants a weapon can pay 1 scrap, or two other random weapons, for it. (not counting resins obv) OR you can craft it yourself, either randomly using tokens, or follow a specific blueprint.

 

TF2 has a better CRAFTING system, and is still doing damn fine

 

Raising the amount of plat a package gives won't kill warframe, or put DE in the red, it'll probably help them tbh, as the best deals available are the master and grand master packs, but not everyone wants to plop $100+ bucks down.

[DeadlyNerd]

snip

Some of your replies actually confirmed what I already wrote so please reread some lines if you want to counter argue.

 

As for LoL,TF,DotA etc.

LoL has over 100(I have no idea tbh) champions, they can afford to price them at $10. Same with TF2 items, there are probably hundreds each priced at a couple euros, for us in Europe.

 

F2P games like Warframe are hype driven, not economy driven. If the game is fun and has a replay value, people will play it longer. If it doesn't they'll just play for a short amount of time and stop because they lost nothing as it's a F2P game.

Those that come as tourists will NEVER buy anything unless they like the gameplay. If they do like the gameplay then they'll be separated into those that have money and those that don't, and then we're at what my previous argument said.

 

I'm not trying to convince anyone that DE pricings are fair, but that there's absolutely NOTHING you can do and whine about that will change their minds about their economy model.

You may be able to do so for game features but not something that they paid a professional for, and brings them bread money.

[KvotheTheArcane1]

Some of your replies actually confirmed what I already wrote so please reread some lines if you want to counter argue. such as....?

 

As for LoL,TF,DotA etc.

LoL has over 100(I have no idea tbh) champions, they can afford to price them at $10. Same with TF2 items, there are probably hundreds each priced at a couple euros, for us in Europe. and that justify's a warframe costing anywhere from $5 to ~$30?

 

F2P games like Warframe are hype driven, not economy driven. If the game is fun and has a replay value, people will play it longer. If it doesn't they'll just play for a short amount of time and stop because they lost nothing as it's a F2P game. yup

 

Those that come as tourists will NEVER buy anything unless they like the gameplay. If they do like the gameplay then they'll be separated into those that have money and those that don't, and then we're at what my previous argument said. but, if they play the game they can see what the prices get them. $5 gets them a color palette, some slots, 3 orokin reactors/catas, 1 warframe (I think), and some other minor stuff like avatar packs, or mod packs.

 

I'm not trying to convince anyone that DE pricings are fair, but that there's absolutely NOTHING you can do and whine about that will change their minds about their economy model. maybe, maybe not, perhaps if DE sees enough people saying "it's not fair" and SUPPORTING why with reasons, facts, and examples, they might change their mind (agreed, mindless whining won't get anything done except people telling you to stop whining (if they're nice).)

You may be able to do so for game features but not something that they paid a professional for, and brings them bread money.

[Ganpot]

I propose a semi-scientific approach, which will hopefully help both players and the developers. 

 

Step 1: Approximately every two weeks, quietly lower the prices of warframes and weapons by 5-7%.  Do not announce this as a sale, and do not state whether this is permanent or not (people will buy things more often during sales, which will distort the data).  Monitor sales figures closely. 

Step 2: Repeat the above step until the prices reside at 25-30% off of the starting prices.  At this point, wait 2-4 weeks to accumulate a large number of sales figures. 

Step 3-A: If net profits have increased because more people are buying the goods at a lower price point, then continue to slowly lower prices until net profits begin to go down.  After readjusting to the second last price, the developers will have found the optimal price point. 

Step 3-B: If net profits have decreased from steps 1 and 2, immediately increase the prices by 5-7% per week until the prices are back at the starting point.  The developers are now aware that their fans are incorrect that mass impulse buying is the answer to funding. 

 

Now, I'll be the first to admit that the above strategy suffers from some flaws.  It assumes that the player base will remain constant during the experiment's run time, uses a small sample size, and may suffer from a number of other distorting factors.  But, it's the best I've got, and it might end up saving both the devs and players some money. 

[Invino]

Free to Play games are ALWAYS 10x more expensive for comparable progress to Normal paid games.#

Why? Freetards that would not buy the game if it wasn't free and on other side, folks with more money than sense.

And we wonder why every game is F2P now ...

Edited May 22, 2013 by Invino

[KvotheTheArcane1]

Free to Play games are ALWAYS 10x more expensive for comparable progress to Normal paid games.# It's a gamble, you can buy a $60, which can turn out to be utter crap, or you can play a F2P game, and theoretically pay nothing, but progress much faster if you pay obviously

Why? Freetards (hey, no need for uncalled for insults, lets keep this civil) that would not buy the game if it wasn't free and on other side, folks with more money than sense. what? what about folks with more money than sense?

And we wonder why every game is F2P now ... because they can make decent amounts of money? Because paying $60 for a game without a demo/being able to try it before hand is not something everyone can afford?

[ArsVampyre]

The whole part about MWO is explaining how the game is more unfinished and gets boring a lot faster than Warframe, and that people still pay RL cash to get ingame stuff, even if it's overpriced.

Don't tell me I just had to point that out, while you couldn't do it yourself.

 

You know who cares about other game prices? DE does. It's not about pleasing your community with low prices, but about making the most cash while not making the game outprice the competition.

Again, their economy model is obviously fine and they'll keep it that way because reducing prices will only result in them losing revenue.

MWO has to pay royalties for the content; DE doesn't.

Mechwarrior online is based on Battletech and Mechwarrior, both of which were former properies of FASA but are still the proprieties of someone. MWO has to pay royalties for that content, and chances are much of the fee you pay for a Mech in MWO goes to pay those royalties, which are probably NOT flat rate but a percentage of each sale.

It's not comparable.

[stacey69]

While i get that, being a free to play game, this is where they make the bulk of there money, i think that the current pricing for buying items with platinum is, to put it bluntly, insane. for example, the glaive goes for 150 Platinum. if memory serves, that equals around $10 US. Really? i could buy whole new games for that much on steam. and dont even get me started on warframe pricing. even with the potato and free slot, that just isnt worth the price. the high price associated with buying with platinum at the moment is actually DISCOURAGING me from paying with platinum. i would recommend price cuts on EVERYTHING in the stores. 

 

Thoughts?

It is a directx 11 game. It has everything you need to push a monster pc. This is cutting edge gaming. If you can't afford to play Warframe then you either spent everything you own on your pc or you just do not understand that this is not some directx 9 offering from blizzard that anyone with a 5 year old laptop can play.

 

They are a small company aiming at a niche market of high level gamers who have money to spend. Are the prices wrong? No. Are peoples attitudes wrong? Yes. Its free to play. Just don't expect to play at the same level as your friend who bought a GM package for at least a week or 2 and he will always have better and bigger things than you.

 

I wish they would just charge a fee for this game and get rid of the free to play tag.

[KvotheTheArcane1]

It is a directx 11 game. It has everything you need to push a monster pc. This is cutting edge gaming. If you can't afford to play Warframe then you either spent everything you own on your pc or you just do not understand that this is not some directx 9 offering from blizzard that anyone with a 5 year old laptop can play.

 

They are a small company aiming at a niche market of high level gamers who have money to spend. Are the prices wrong? No. Are peoples attitudes wrong? Yes. Its free to play. Just don't expect to play at the same level as your friend who bought a GM package for at least a week or 2 and he will always have better and bigger things than you.

 

I wish they would just charge a fee for this game and get rid of the free to play tag.

When you make a free to play game, you're aiming it at everyone, regardless of who you want to target specifically. Targeting a niche doesn't always work, and more often than not fails horribly.

Are the prices wrong? No.

Really? Got a reason why besides "we have the wrong attitude"?

 

If you can't afford to play Warframe(...)

That's not a reasonable view, that's like if you started play league of legends and I said "GTFO, UNLESS YOU BUY EVERY CHAMPION, YOU SHOULDN'T PLAY, WHINER" It's just NOT reasonable!

 

 

Just don't expect to play at the same level as your friend who bought a GM package for at least a week or 2 and he will always have better and bigger things than you.

 

This one is obvious, he/she payed a bunch of cash, and bought his/her way in, however that doesn't matter to the casual player (from which we all were when we started), the casual player cares if this game is worth his/her time, and therefore his/her money.

 

My point: they made a F2P game. You can't make one then go "Oh, we are really just looking for X group of people, and we don't really care about the others." and expect it to work.

[KhanCipher]

This is cutting edge gaming.

 

how pretty it looks =/= cutting edge

 

solid game design = cutting edge

 

trust me, dumping every single effect on the screen while playing the game doesn't do good for the game at the end of the day (i don't know about anyone else, but i would like to SEE what the hell i'm doing, and not see a huge blurry mess)

[DeadlyNerd]

 

As for LoL,TF,DotA etc.

LoL has over 100(I have no idea tbh) champions, they can afford to price them at $10. Same with TF2 items, there are probably hundreds each priced at a couple euros, for us in Europe. and that justify's a warframe costing anywhere from $5 to ~$30?

 

 

Those that come as tourists will NEVER buy anything unless they like the gameplay. If they do like the gameplay then they'll be separated into those that have money and those that don't, and then we're at what my previous argument said. but, if they play the game they can see what the prices get them. $5 gets them a color palette, some slots, 3 orokin reactors/catas, 1 warframe (I think), and some other minor stuff like avatar packs, or mod packs.

 

 

Yes, that very much justifies it.

Fewer items and they cost more, more items and they cost less. Both times the company has to get the same amount of profit.

 

That's perfect scenario and there's never a perfect scenario. Devs have to assume that every new player is a tourist who will stay if the game is fun, and if he stays he'll spend S#&$ton of cash. No tourist ever spent money in a resort he didn't like at first, he packed his bags and left.

 

 

MWO has to pay royalties for the content; DE doesn't.

Mechwarrior online is based on Battletech and Mechwarrior, both of which were former properies of FASA but are still the proprieties of someone. MWO has to pay royalties for that content, and chances are much of the fee you pay for a Mech in MWO goes to pay those royalties, which are probably NOT flat rate but a percentage of each sale.

It's not comparable.

Wait, you think people are paying for MC cause they feel pity for the company? They're paying for MC because they've more money than brains. It's completely comparable. Nobody cares that PGI has to pay royalties for BT when they're buying overpriced mechs. They're buying overpriced mechs because they can.

PGI may be setting the prices that high because they have to pay bills, but nobody is buying at those prices just because PGI has to pay those bills.

Edited May 22, 2013 by DeadlyNerd

[KvotheTheArcane1]

Yes, that very much justifies it. assuming you mean the costs, no it doesn't. If I feel I won't get my money's worth out of something, I won't buy it.

Fewer items and they cost more, more items and they cost less. Both times the company has to get the same amount of profit.

 

That's perfect scenario and there's never a perfect scenario. Devs have to assume that every new player is a tourist who will stay if the game is fun, and if he stays he'll spend S#&$ton of cash. No tourist ever spent money in a resort he didn't like at first, he packed his bags and left.

Exactly, if I don't like something, I don't spend money on it OR I stop spending money on it.

Now, obviously not everyone will spend money, but more people are more likely to spend money (or more money) if they can get a good deal on it, which they can't right now!

 

Every weapon costs ~$5 minimum (bo costs 65, cheapest after that is 75p for ~5 items I think, and after that it's 100+ plat for anything) Which is a terrible deal, but their market prices (in game market) is geared for making you buy it with platinum, or spend quite a bit of time farming for everything. Hell, some of the weapons cost ~$15 which is pretty damn high, especially when there isn't much content/choice (there's what, 14 frames (which is decent) and 53 weapons (which would be an ok amount, if over half of them weren't melee/duals) ignoring primes and vandals?)

 

The end result is that if they fixed the amount of platinum you get when you buy it (which cost them nothing to do) would be a good start to fixing the market, and make it more appealing to buy more platinum.

[HomeyCDawg]

I agree the prices in this game are ridiculous. I don't know who they are focusing their market towards, but it much be a very small audience of die-hard gamers who spend hundreds of dollars per game.

 

I'd happily spend more money in this game than I have so far, but the only things I've currently bought are slots and colors, and and those are all I plan on buying until they make their prices at least somewhat reasonable.

[Fortune_Silver]

I propose a semi-scientific approach, which will hopefully help both players and the developers. 

 

Step 1: Approximately every two weeks, quietly lower the prices of warframes and weapons by 5-7%.  Do not announce this as a sale, and do not state whether this is permanent or not (people will buy things more often during sales, which will distort the data).  Monitor sales figures closely. 

Step 2: Repeat the above step until the prices reside at 25-30% off of the starting prices.  At this point, wait 2-4 weeks to accumulate a large number of sales figures. 

Step 3-A: If net profits have increased because more people are buying the goods at a lower price point, then continue to slowly lower prices until net profits begin to go down.  After readjusting to the second last price, the developers will have found the optimal price point. 

Step 3-B: If net profits have decreased from steps 1 and 2, immediately increase the prices by 5-7% per week until the prices are back at the starting point.  The developers are now aware that their fans are incorrect that mass impulse buying is the answer to funding. 

 

Now, I'll be the first to admit that the above strategy suffers from some flaws.  It assumes that the player base will remain constant during the experiment's run time, uses a small sample size, and may suffer from a number of other distorting factors.  But, it's the best I've got, and it might end up saving both the devs and players some money. 

You have a thought out, functional plan, which is more than some people can say. good work.

[ReiganCross]

Kvothe... Can you please, for the love of god, at least put a parenthesis on your quote riffing?... It's annoying as all hell to keep looking for the bold letters in the middle of a post i already read!

Just saying.

[KvotheTheArcane1]

Kvothe... Can you please, for the love of god, at least put a parenthesis on your quote riffing?... It's annoying as all hell to keep looking for the bold letters in the middle of a post i already read!

Just saying.

fine fine, I'll do something to separate it out then (never realized how annoying it was xD)