News: SOE Changes Premium Plan [Updates from Smed]

[Ghoest9]

Originally Posted by Crator

Most weapons you can buy with SC are worth around 700SC right? So that's already better then 500SC you got with the old sub plan. This of course will benefit the new player who doesn't have as many weapons as the existing players.

It's possible they might charge more for newer weapons/items they release as well. Therefore bringing the 2000SC you can spend with the sub closer to it's full value potential.

I bought many weapons over the year - I think i have bought everyone on salee - ie less than 500 station cash.
This is a straight up bad deal for many people.

[Hyncharas]

Basically the purpose is to force people to invest in an experience boost, but also pay separate batches for Station Cash they can use on items in the store. A better deal would be to offer either 1,000 SC or select an item worth 2,000 SC every month, but I doubt SOE management cares about players if they're doing this...

With this new plan I might as well not renew my subscription at all - not if personal choice is being curtailed, in favour of a free-to-play system that obviously isn't paying its way as much as they intended.

[typhaon]

Originally Posted by Mastachief

I don't think their would be half the up roar over this and the lack of SC sales if it was not for the fact that the PS2 micro transaction are anything but micro.

They needs to look at their prices and pretty much half the lot of it.

That's a BIG issue.

Changing this right after the subs renew for those that have been in it since the start... bad move.

If this is the way they want to go, fine. But - terms should apply moving forward... not to subs that already renewed.

* I totally quoted the wrong post.

[Neurotoxin]

Need more 2000 SC items. It doesn't do much for ya if everything is priced under 1k except gold trim pistols.

[Boildown]

I had bought a year long sub. I let it end and not renew ~ a month ago. The 500 Station Cash per month was a good hedge against Planetside 2 sucking. Because even if PS2 sucked, I'd be able to use that Station Cash in another game. This deal? It increases the value for Sony, not the customers, unless you're brand new to Planetside 2. They should let us pick which deal we want, they're basically telling their most established players to go Free to Play, which is idiotic.

[Dougnifico]

Ya, I'm going to guess this is a great way for them to finally pawn off the stupid hood ornaments and crap. "Here, pick between 3 things that absolutely no one wants!"

[Boildown]

Also this seems to be asking for a Class Action Lawsuit. Because they are changing the terms of a subscription after you've bought it, and they famously have No Refunds. I normally just ignore those things, but I'd sign on to this one to punish Sony. Better they learn now than to be trying this stuff when EQ Next is out.

[Grendalsh]

Let's examine the economics of this decision.
A membership costs between $15 and $10/mo depending on the package. Let's go with an average of $12/mo (6 month sub) as a baseline.
A players subs for 6 months, paying $72 upfront. Previously this would net a total of 6x500sc = 3,000sc ($30), parsed out 500sc/mo.
This was still income for SOE, as payment for shop items went to SOE. Now it is possible for players to spend that 3K SC on Player Studio items, 40% of which goes to the artist. Assuming a player saves their monthly 500SC and spends it all on Player studio items, that means of the $30 worth of SC, up to $12 can go to Player Studio artists, out of a $72 sub; roughly 17% of revenue from subs. From a f2p business model perspective, subs are supposed to be a reliable small chunk of income and microtransactions are a larger but unreliable pool. This places a rather large amount of volatility on what should be a reliable revenue source. That is, while SOE takes in your $72 sub, it can't count on holding all of it, which defeats the business model of the sub.

By giving players a 2000SC purchase per month, excluding Player studio items, SOE keeps your sub money in-house, pushing the payout for Studio items squarely onto the micropurchase side of the equation. In theory, this should be a win-win... We get more purchasing power, SOE stops losing core income to studio payouts.

So let's examine the other side of this equation, Player usage. With 500SC a Player can choose to purchase camo, a weapon, or a bundle, or even save for a sale or a Player studio item. With one 2000SC purchase per month, players are more likely to want to get the full value of this single purchase and save it for a big ticket item. However, most big ticket items are excluded (Player studio, bundles, etc). This means the value of the 2000SC is limited to whatever items it can actually be spent on, and will likely NOT be spent on any item below 750SC; why waste a potential, if virtual, 2000SC on a 150SC camo purchase? Effectively this precludes subscribers from spending their shop allowance on smaller ticket items. They will then likely be less willing to pick up these smaller ticket items as a micropurchase, as any SC they do spend will likely go towards items that they can't spend their monthly purchase allowance on - Player studio and bundles.

The real issue is that the allowance is limited to a single purchase, not the amount of the purchase. If the new plan allowed us to purchase UP TO 1000SC worth of items per month, even with exclusions, it would be more palatable. Instead of choosing a single item to try to get full value from our allowance, we could select several lower cost items we desired and still get our full value.

The SC allowance was a bonus on top of the passive cred, xp and resource boost, and queue priority. With the pending resource changes and the loss of purchasing flexibility, the sub is now realistically only worth the passive cred, xp boost, and queue priority.

For a BR1 Player, this means being able to unlock a new large ticket weapon each month and boosted leveling.
For a BR100 Player, the only value of subbing is the queue priority.

A BR1 Player is more likely to spend SC on unlocking gear, while a BR100 is more likely to buy cosmetics.

The net effect is that subs are now more valuable to new players than to top tier players.
SOE is apparently trying to flip the model to support subs from new players and micropurchases from capped players.

The problem with this model in a f2p game is that new players are less likely to sign up for a sub until they're committed to the game, while capped players are more likely to sub to continue getting value from their invested time. Which means as the game ages and players hit cap, they'll be dropping their subs, negatively impacting the game's long term revenue.

As an experiment on how to increase subs among lower level players, I find this intriguing. However, SOE needs to do something about the value of a sub to higher level players, as that's where long-term revenue resides.

[OCNSethy]

What is going on with you SOE? Every time we get to a good place with the game, you throw something stupid into the mix and we all get FU.

2000 SC eh? to spend on ONE item eh? How generous. Will I get change from this one purchase? Naw, didn't think so...

[WarbirdTD]

This is what happens when you go without content for 6 months and start hemorrhaging memberships. You can't do that, unless your game is in GREAT shape, and Planetside 2 certainly was/is not. Optimization is not a content patch... it's something to do before the game launches. It's arguable as to whether the continent redesigns are even "content," but let's see what's done with Amerish and how many bases are placed down inside bowls for vehicles to shoot at.

I'm a longtime Planetside 1 player and subscriber (paid for about 6 years), but I'm already done paying for Planetside 2 until it's proven to me that this development team can actually deliver. So far, it's not looking good.

[Rolfski]

Not being able any more to save up for that one cool helmet that is now excluded from the new premium program, doesn't feel like an improved customer experience to me.

Not to mention that the daily (membership) deals have now become completely irrelevant to most subscribers.

[camycamera]

not premium here, but wouldn't it be easier to make it optional, to be able to choose between the two?


best of both worlds for people who want or dont want it. if i were to choose.... hell, idk. i was thinking of subbing in the future because of the500sc thing, but heh.

also there is this:
https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/...166053/page-21

Originally Posted by Piestro

...Right now there is a lot of concern in this thread about restrictions and future pricing. The ball is now in our court, to make sure we do this right. That being said 500sc monthly was a significantly greater inflationary pressure on us than the new offer. I can't say prices will never increase, inflation hits us all, but this will not be the reason.

[DirtyBird]

Be careful if and when you decide to cancel your current sub.
SOE will have locked down everything in the T&C's to cover their ass.
Dont rush in before reading what will happen to any outstanding benefits of that sub.


And drop Smedly a polite message of your approval or disapproval, this is a decision he ticks off not the devs.
[email protected]

[Ghoest9]

I called SOE, talked to a real person and got a refund for the unused part of my most recent premium subscription.(they canceled my premium service and refunded me 4 of the 6 months I had prepaid.)

They said refunds are against their policy but because this was a unique situation they would do it.


I dont like that they changed the plan - but I thought the refund was fair.

[Ruffdog]

This is like when Arsenal wanted their fans to renew their season tickets a month before they sold Fabregas to Barcelona. Except that was funny. This is not. I'm only glad I did not renew my sub.

I worry for this game.