Discussing microtransaction pricing models on an enthusiast gaming forum is a pretty low bar for "so upset".
Calling out when devs overextend with them should be standard practice from a consumer perspective imo.
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Respawn Responds to Criticism of Apex Legends’ Iron Crown event
- Thread starter Woolley
- Start date
Calling out when devs overextend with them should be standard practice from a consumer perspective imo.
Well, at least if you only want a particular skin or two, you can buy exactly what you want instead of relying on RNG crap. Still expensive but better.
That's what I figured. I may take a night to redownload it. Thanks for the response!
I don't see the heirloom pack on that list lol. But I guess that's because technically you don't gamble on that. You just have to spend $170+ dollars.
The sad part is I know multiple people who did despite claiming they were frustrated by the cost and features etc.
The sad part is I know multiple people who did despite claiming they were frustrated by the cost and features etc.
Yup.
They will push as far as they can, walk it back, and then find a new way to push as far as they can until people complain again.
..and even then that's much cheaper than the Wraith heirloom if your RNG sucked and you had to rely on the 500 crate mercy rule. Ridiculous - about £350.
Translation:
"We've already fully exploited the whales, so now it's time to sweeten the deal slightly and pull in another wave of suckers. Go fuck yourselves, everyone."
"We've already fully exploited the whales, so now it's time to sweeten the deal slightly and pull in another wave of suckers. Go fuck yourselves, everyone."
That doesn't seem possible. 24*7 no? Which is $168 US at the most without bonus coins. Or did items repeat?
Good. The pricing on everything in the Apex store continues to be absurd though; they charge nearly as much as the highest tier of Fortnite skin (which is $20 versus $18 here) which I personally think is already too much, BUT in Fortnite you see your character all the time which you don't come even close to doing in Apex. It's always struck me as significantly odd; I honestly wonder what the internal sales numbers are for that stuff.
I think a good step, for everyone, is simply to make some amount of Apex Coins farmable - even for totally F2P, non Battle Pass players. The game already has dailies, weekly, and other challenges, but only tied to XP or Battle Pass level. If they offered 10 Apex Coins for the 3 dailes, it won't ruin the game's economy.
Another idea would be to have a 30 day login event, with a bunch of small rewards, and on day 30 you get a bigger gift - something like a "Legend Skin Token," for the skin of your choice.
Both of these ideas would have players interact with the game daily - which has to be good for the game in the long run.
Another idea would be to have a 30 day login event, with a bunch of small rewards, and on day 30 you get a bigger gift - something like a "Legend Skin Token," for the skin of your choice.
Both of these ideas would have players interact with the game daily - which has to be good for the game in the long run.
I don't understand the appeal of getting a character skin for a first person shooter. You hardly ever see what you purchased!
The Wraith heirloom is a hidden random drop from crates that has a mercy at 500 crates. The latest heirloom is for Bloodhound (the one you're referring to).
I'd love to go to a parallel universe where publishers sell skins at a reasonable price and see which model is making more money. My friends and I always talk about how we would gladly spend money on multiple skins in games like Siege if they were more fairly priced. I imagine lots of people feel the same way but I guess publishers think that milking whales is more profitable in the end. Though I don't think I've ever seen any of the big publishers try a more reasonable price model so I wonder how they came to that conclusion. Is 10,000 people spending $15 better than 100,000 people spending $5? No idea what the numbers really look like but I've always been curious.
Oh the heirloom! Sorry misread. Yea I agree, but it wasn't so plainly gross to me I guess. Although maybe that's just because I resigned myself to never getting it. Normal Apex packs were gross too that's for sure.
Remember when horse armor was $2.50 and everyone lost their shit?
Good times.
Promises with regards to what, exactly?
Respawn has never been particularly good at doing monetization. From their eyes, they probably saw "cosmetic" as "fair".
They've also never been particularly good at progression or depth either, despite what that post says.
I was playing and enjoying the game for a while there, and was almost considering buying the battle pass and coming back to it but I think I'm done. I don't trust Respawn let alone EA not to do this again.
Is it so fucking hard to find a first person shooter not with bullshit microtransactions.
Is it so fucking hard to find a first person shooter not with bullshit microtransactions.
Good that they changed it, being forced to gamble to get the item you want was a step too far imo. Bit of a shame for those that already coughed up that wouldn't have otherwise though.
That definitely rings true to me. Anecdotal of course as I don't have access to the data that publishers have, but I've spent a decade now in and around many F2P games, and nearly all of the players I've known that actually spend money on F2P games don't care if the item they want is $5 or $20, they'll buy it either way. Those are the people that subsidize the large majority of people who will never spend a dime.
That definitely rings true to me. Anecdotal of course as I don't have access to the data that publishers have, but I've spent a decade now in and around many F2P games, and nearly all of the players I've known that actually spend money on F2P games don't care if the item they want is $5 or $20, they'll buy it either way. Those are the people that subsidize the large majority of people who will never spend a dime.
I mean it's better. But it's still obscenely high and basically prices out a vast swath of their users.
They added temp Solo play, but I havent been able to try it out yet.
To be fair, that's the price since day 1 when you wanted to purchase certain skins. It's not something that came out of the woodwork for this event. But yes, seems ridiculous but I personally know people who still buy those skins... I mean, people pay literally 200 bucks for a knife skin in CS.
Folks were upset enough that Respawn felt the need to officially respond. With that said, you are correct and I won't divert the thread any longer.
Its bullshit. Its EA's attempt of making up for the extra money they would passively get from the randomization element. If people can directly get what they want, you wouldn't see anywhere near the amount of money they're used to with loot boxes.
Because most F2P games are monetised by targeting addicts. Try replace the word apex with drugs and Skin with a hit and win with high.
Ie we are greatful that you have chosen to use drugs and want to make sure everyone has a chance to get high. We understand that putting hits inside loot boxes where a hit is not guaranteed is angering our users and so we will now let you buy a hit for triple the price
This is what gets my son to bug me for a skin. " but it's only on sale today"! That shit made me laugh when I first heard him say that. Parents get sucked in when they think they're getting a deal. As another poster mentioned, I don't mind spending a bit of cash on skins if the game was free and gave me an hours of game time. Sort of like a tip. I don't care about skins personally and never bought any in my life. Just a couple for my son. I sorta feel guilty never spending any $ on Apex because I played enough of that game and it gave me a lot of enjoyment
Just for an interesting contrast on the cost of character skins and such in the free-to-play market of games, take Warframe as a counter-example:
Apex - $7 random packs, $18 skins straight out
Warframe - no random skins in packs, $7-9 skins straight out but likely cheaper overall for many players.
Just thought that was an interesting comparison to make.
- Warframe has nearly no random loot box-type available for purchase with premium currency, certainly nothing with cosmetics like here in Apex. (The only remaining example in the game are packs of five random relics, but relic packs can also be bought with earned syndicate standing.) All cosmetics in Warframe are bought either a la carte or in slightly discounted bundles.
- Platinum in Warframe costs $19.99 for 370p on the low end, and $199.99 for 4300p on the high end. The game also frequently gives out discount coupons as a login bonus, often of 25% or 50%, but also up to 75% off these prices. Price Access packs also include large amounts of plat at an overall lower price. Bought platinum is also freely trade-able between players of the game. So, many players play mostly for free, but for those who do buy in, it is probably not at those raw prices.
- One of Warframe's cosmetics are deluxe skins for the warframes. These deluxe skins are almost always a different model for the frame (so, not simply a palette swap or different textures on the base model). These range in cost from 150p-165p, which roughly translates to $7-$9 per skin if you buy platinum at full price. But consider all that discounted and traded platinum, and the overall price is less for arguably most players!
- There are also community-created Tennogen skins for frames sold though Steam. These have different textures on the body of the frame along with a custom modeled helmet. These usually cost $7 in Steam funds and Digital Extremes shares this revenue with the creators.
Apex - $7 random packs, $18 skins straight out
Warframe - no random skins in packs, $7-9 skins straight out but likely cheaper overall for many players.
Just thought that was an interesting comparison to make.
I buy the battle pass every two months, but haven't paid for an actual skin yet.
it is a part of the model.
they do a ton of research on this.
they had this response planned weeks ago.
Interesting that you use Warframe's price anchoring as an upside, hehe.
Anchoring is definitely on the "deceptive" side of ecommerce practices.
For some people all they play are games like Apex or Fortnite. For them, this is their AAA title.
I can't believe nearly 2 years later this still is relevant to these discussions.
This is basically what I always see whenever I read a statement from EA or their dev teams that include "XYZ has been a lesson".
Awesome move by them.
Edit: Oh wait, if you already spent a ton of money on boxes you're SOL? That's fucking rough.
Edit: Oh wait, if you already spent a ton of money on boxes you're SOL? That's fucking rough.
The skins seem expensive, but since that's the norm on Fortnite. I don't really blame them for following that pricing.