Originally Posted by derito
I would be very interested in reading that 3 pages analysis.
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This is how I figure it in a nutshell.
A 1.00$ camo is a fair deal. A camo is only good for one vehicle, or armor. So there are literally like a ton of them already on the cash shop. Most people are going to want an assortment and if they are priced where people can pick a few and a weapon unlock or two with a 10$ game card, they will go out and get one. Then it will progress to I mine as well pay for membership because I know I can at least unlock something or get some cool decals,camo's with that membership. If you price them too high, people will be like what is the point of spending money on membership if its only benefit is a free 50% implant. People will be alot more reserved. If I had to pay 5$ to apply a camo to my vehicle then I would probably just pick my favorite and ignore the rest. Or buy them when I had nothing else to buy (which will be never). If my 500 Station cash is barely enough for a camo then its going to feel like membership is just reducing the grind slightly instead of actually giving me something beneficial. 1.00$ is a price that would make me feel comfortable to take the plunge into camo buying frenzy. The idea basically is being able get people to buy them because hey "Its only a buck". Lets say we have 100,000 paying customers, 80% of them are going to be casual spenders and 20% might be dropping hundreds each year. Cater to the people who are modest and dont give them a chance to forum rage because "WTF SONY 5$ for a camo? Greedy sons of bitches!". Noone can complain about 1-2$ items.
Weapon unlocks at 2.00$ is fair. There are maybe 20-40 weapons already to unlock, most people will want a dozen of them. At 2.00$ I think most people would not feel it was a substantial payment. The players who play for more then a month are going to want weapon unlocks, earning them through certs is time consuming. A 5.00$ weapon unlock is going to give people pause and maybe only buy the one or two they really want. Make it a 2.00$ fee and I personally would just spend my 60$ and get a few dozen of the one's I will use the most.
The weapon upgrades again 1-2$ is fair because there are something like 100 all together. Getting them through certs will take years, so people are going to "want" to just purchase them. There is a pattern emerging here, 1-2$ is just fair. There will be dozens we want to buy, at 5$ a piece its going to be a punch in the jaw because when we look at the big picture, its alot of money to get everything we want. You want to obfuscate the big picture as much as you can and make it feel like when customers are paying money, they are getting value and knocking a chunk off the "list of things I want". So they dont feel bad about dropping 10$ here, 10$ there. They will see real gains each 10-20$ spent.
And week long implants are really overpriced at 50 cents, but its low enough of a price where people wont care. Its just a 50% gain, and if a normal person can accrue 300 certs a week, and if it takes 500 certs to unlock a weapon, that week long implant is just going to give them maybe barely enough to shave of a few days game time. 50 cents is fair and I think we would all consider implants necessary at that price instead of a luxury. I mean for 1.50$ a month we could all have implants, I can see that being successful. When you put it in that context people will see the worth of implants. I mean who wants to pay anything more then 50 cents for a squad XP bonus unless it was dirt cheap. Implants and boosters SHOULD BE THE CHEAPEST thing to get. It should be like the food and water of Planetside, everyone needs it, craves it, and survives on it. Make it like a lobster dinner and I might use them a few times a year. I also think the monthly membership should be 10$ instead of 15$.
But ultimatly you have to think "How many items do we have on our cash shop, how much of that is going to likely be bought with certs instead of money, and how much money will we get when they buy the rest". You want to make people skip the earning it part, and going straight to the buying it part. Price it to sell. You will lose the game of making money if you go for "overpricing to make up for people who buy stuff with certs".
Who has the patience to play for a few months to get a few weapon unlocks and their upgrades, when you can get them all for 10$ each weapon. Who is not going to spend to get those last few weapons, upgrades or camo, titles that you don't own when its just 20$.
If you start pricing things at 4-5$ for each thing, then the price to get that weapon line or unlock goes from the affordable range, to the OH SHIT this stuff adds up to the price of a AAA New release console game, why bother.
Any serious planetside player will go to the buy option IF its priced to sell.
And we havent even seen decals yet, titles. They want to add even more camo, more weapons, more vehicles, more sidegrades. If they price us out of the market we will just be jealous and mad that we cant afford it all.
Price to sell, price to sell. Should be a sticky note on Smedleys desk.