Premium Ships, too expensive?

[Suraknar]

Hello, just like to give feedback on premium ships, and possibly have a civil discussion about it and see how others feel/thing of Premium Ships.

 

My biggest gripe thus far with premium ships has been that I fell they are too expensive in relation to the number available.

If you calculate it, one may wish to have a Tirpitz at the same time maybe an Atlanta for Ranked battles (as advertised), maybe a couple of lower Tier Premiums too, add the Doubloon expenses onm top of it because a Premium requires Doubloons to convert the XP to Free XP thereafter (could be a Catch 22 here), and add Premium account at $14 or per month. And you come to a cost of playing this game upwards of $500 per year.

 How is that better than a Pay to Play game where you have access to all of the content and you only have to pay $14/month?

I personally pay for Premium Account, and I am not willing to pay more than 20-25$ for a Premium ship, if that means I will never have some premium ships, then so be it.

But when a brand new game, newly released game costs $40 on STEAM, paying that much or more for a Ship in one game is plainly stupid in my view.

Maybe if Premium Account was at $5/month then one could consider paying $60-70 for a ship, but it is not. I simply feels that WG Marketing has it wrong. And then there is this Bundled approach which I do not like either personally, but I understand as Premium Ships cannot go without Doubloons. So better get the player used to it from the get go yes?

Feel free to post your thoughts.

NOTE: Before you reply that this is a business and they need money to keep running the shop etc etc, please know that I have been playing MMORPG/MMO Online games since 1997, starting with Ultima Online. I have seen it almost all and experienced many different Games and Plans in all the years of playing. I am very aware that this is a business, and I also know that over the years the Cost of opperating Online games has gone down, not up, with many innovations in Technology. I think Wargaming can do much better with their Plan.

[Tiberius_Magnus]

I think it does kind of suck that you can be roped into spending more on say a regular single buy game for console or PC...these free-to-play's are really well thought out scams for idiots like me lol. I'd be happy to pay less, for sure!

[Ms_Makawee]

It also technically lets you pay less if you like, because ships you are not interested in, you simply pay nothing. You only pay for what you want!

 

I'm not particularly interested in the Mikasa or the Fujin or much of the current lineup. The only ship I am semi-interested in at the moment is the Warspite, so for this month at least, I have spent $0 on the game.

 

 

The bundles do tend to push the ship prices up though, which I don't entirely agree with as some people might not want to spend on the extremities included. Tirpitz would likely have been much cheaper if there was an option in which it was just Tirpitz.

[Fleet_Admiral_Kolchak]

I am fine with the current prices.

 

Provided of course they are hiring more staff to work on the game and bring us more floaty boats

[Istvan56]

The WG marketing department tries to get the most out of the customers while still delivering what they want, usually new content.  The also look at region economics, for example the Russian shop has lower prices for the same ships you have here.  The bundles are not what I like, I would prefer there be both bundles and the ships by themselves.  I also would prefer they went back to selling the flag bundles separately like they do in the Russian shop.  Just look at the other WG games and you'll see similar marketing tactics.  It is the way they do business.  Eventually every ship gets old enough that they just put it in the shop by itself, unless they pull a "Disney" and put a ship/tank/plane in the vault (not for 7 years like Disney though) and pull it out for some special mission/sale/event.

 

BTW, I haven't seen Mikasa for sale, ever, on the servers I play on.  While the NA server has the Fujin, the Russian server has the Imperator Nikolai I for sale.  I bought one and so far I like it.

[Yuubari_Melon]

I would be somewhat comfortable with paying $15-20 to buy the new DD, or by getting gold to buy it in the in-game shop.

Paying $40-50 for it bundled with flags that I'm not going to use anyway? No thanks...

...Besides, the Tirpitz has given me enough flags, and blown a large enough hole in my wallet. Any more and I'll sink.

[The_Vermonster]

wont ever buy ships for the going price due to the fact they like to bring them out and nerf them a month or two later .
 

go ahead and tell me they wont do it .. they got me more than once in tanks ..
its a bait and switch and you cant do a thing about it ..

 

[StingRayOne]

I have bought

Warspite                         $60.00

Atlanta                            $40.00

Atago                              $40.00

Sims                               $37.00

Murmasnk                      $19.00

Fujin                               $39.00

Tirpitz                             $60.00

flags and doubloons at least $50.00

so about $300.00 since July, I do not buy premium time so no 15$ a month there.

I do not remember having a gun to my head and when I played War at Sea I spent at least $1500.00 and still did not have the ships I want.

you do not need to buy anything to play this game and play well.   You choose to buy.

 

I bought all those ships because they train captains make free exp and are cool. I am one heck of a Warspite Captain.

no one forces you too, however since there are so many exp events and free flags, you should forget that money. Buy a premium and play it instead.

 

also thanks to WOW, I still do not miss cable, do not buy music or DVDs like I used too, gave up on Netflix and Hulu.

so I saved about $120.00 a month there.

playing this game is like a new show every time.

 

expensive maybe ,worth it

 

please WOW if you see this,

 

Can I have a Hornet, A Saipan, a Auxiliary, maybe a HMS Exeter...would buy those too.

 

StingRayOne

 

[Fleet_Admiral_Kolchak]

wont ever buy ships for the going price due to the fact they like to bring them out and nerf them a month or two later .

 

go ahead and tell me they wont do it .. they got me more than once in tanks ..

its a bait and switch and you cant do a thing about it ..

 

 

 

I hear you man,

 

however the folks who play World of Warships for free would complain that these are pay-to-win ships without nerfs to their performance if they are out preforming.

 

To Wargaming's credit the Tirpitz/ Atago/ Atlanta are exactly what I paid for and I am happy for making these purchases 

 

 

[Revenge1916]

I have purchased a few Premium ships and i do think they are quite expensive, However we have no idea what it costs to run the company that provides this gaming experience for us. We want our game to grow and expand and inorder to do that the company that supports and develops it must also grow and expand. Keep expanding World of Warships and keep the community alive and I will continue to play and spend money.

[Gaudy6523]

Just because a product is priced out of your range, doesn't mean it's too expensive, it just means that it's too expensive FOR YOU. You are not the entirety of their market, nor do you represent or speak for their market base. You are best just one customer, but since this is a free to play game, there's a pretty good chance that you are not one of those either... Now, why would any reasonable commercial entity listen to someone who isn't even a customer? 

 

Any good sales person knows that a purchase now holds a whole lot more weight than a promise of one later. 

[Sir_Robert_Whitney]

I would just like to take a moment to thank all of you kind people who spend money on this game allowing free loaders like myself play amazing games for free. Being a broke college student kind of makes it hard to dish out $20 for food let alone a game.

[stickdeath1980]

I'm a bargain hunter for game's like this and have kid's and gaming addiction lol

But i live in New Zealand and this Shops both For Sea server and NA server are the same price!!!!

I really wanted the Tirpitz  when it came out but my biggest concren was the $100 price tag on both NA and Sea giving you 3/7 days premium,in my eye's that's not a good deal AT ALL!!!

I looked else where found another game that's in Open Beta at the moment armored warfare and i spent $61 NZD which is about $30 USD got 60 day's premium,$3 million cred's,tier 6 tank,3,250 gold and exp and money boost for a week by 25% NOW that's a deal.

If wargaming did there deal's like this for gamer's i would happly spend more money but the way they are going don't think so.

I have lower tier prem ships well worth the money,they need to rethink that there are people that see these sorta thing's and get put off!!! I know alot of people whom was playing this but hated the grind and needed a premium account just to grind there ship's so they left

[Bravo_Zulu_000]

At the end of the day, WG has a marketing department that has determined what prices they want to charge for the premium content they develop. You can complain all you want in the forums about how expensive it is in your opinion, but how much of that is fact based on marketing data as opposed to your personal opinion and desire to pay less because you want the content but can't justify the cost? 

 

You can bet WG's marketing department is operating on the facts they know about their target market within the game and how much they will pay for premium content to maximize their profit. It's not uncommon to be more profitable selling less items. If you find yourself saying the cost is too much, you can take comfort in the fact you are likely not in WG's target market. The very notion that you're complaining about the cost is proof.

 

Please note I'm not defending WG's practice of bundles and higher pricing, I just understand it and know that the only way they will reduce it is if no one buys it at all. Considering the amount of players waiting with bated breath and credits cards in hand for any new premium content in this game, I doubt that will be the case anytime soon.

 

For myself, I'm not buying it either. The thing looks hideous, I don't want an IJN DD and I don't need more premium time, flags, etc. 

 

 

[Punisher_One]

I have a cabinet full of 40-60 dollar games that are outdated and probably unsupported at this point in time. Premium account and premium ship costs are a tad high imo but at least they continue to add to and improve the games to make them more than a 6 month toy. 

[Suraknar]

Interesting replies. Many view points.

 

Call me old school but being able to afford it is besides my point, I can afford the current prices, but I think it is simply too much (no need for hostility). From my perspective I witnessed all of the industry switching from P2P to F2P, and all of the F2P practices that come with it. So while I see some advantages to F2P especially the accessibility to the game by more players who may, for whatever reason, not be able to afford a 15$/month sub. I am sensitive to the Practices employed in relation to F2P.

 

Personally I set a goal for myself, and I calculate that I will spend no more than 15$/month in any given game, this is 180$/year per game and that is the available budget (I do play several games). Companies made millions and billions with Subscriptions before, and knowing that operating costs have gone down over the years, I cannot see why we "the consumers" should be spending more for the same entertainment that we had before for 15$/month.

 

If WoWs was a Subscription game we would still have the same content, the Premium Ships would instead be offered as Rewards for in game mission or as rewards for Time Subscribed etc, like it is in P2W games.

 

So, while I do not disagree necessarily with anyone's reasons, I have a different view and take on it, and do not share all of those reasons.

 

Oh and btw, the nerfing part of premium ships is another aspect I wait to see if it happens here too as yes indeed it has happened in Tanks. 

 

All in all, yes the data will steer Wargaming, as long as it is viable and returns a profit for them they will not change anything, they have no reason to, so lets see how it all pans in the long run, I still think it is a good thing to share our opinions on all aspects of the game as we experience it, and I do not hesitate to express mine either as a player of Wows.

 

Cheers, see you in the High Seas!

[SwirvinBirds]

I am fine with the current prices.

 

Provided of course they are hiring more staff to work on the game and bring us more floaty boats

 

I would almost bet staff has been reduced since development and launch. Support staffing and such was probably increased but actual game developing staff was probably cut.

[dahdah325]

I have a cabinet full of 40-60 dollar games that are outdated and probably unsupported at this point in time. Premium account and premium ship costs are a tad high imo but at least they continue to add to and improve the games to make them more than a 6 month toy. 

 

This. ^^^

 

I know some here on the forums don't like that WG charges for much of anything, but WG games are, by and large, a very cheap hobby. Having had my share of expensive toy pastimes (cars and mt. bikes) over the years, dropping $15 a month on premium and another 50-60 on gold is small potatoes. Hell you can't take your significant other out for a decent meal and a bottle of wine for less than that. 

 

If you choose to not spend your wages on WG products, more power to you. But the prices here are hardly out of line. 

 

[SwirvinBirds]

 

This. ^^^

 

I know some here on the forums don't like that WG charges for much of anything, but WG games are, by and large, a very cheap hobby. Having had my share of expensive toy pastimes (cars and mt. bikes) over the years, dropping $15 a month on premium and another 50-60 on gold is small potatoes. Hell you can't take your significant other out for a decent meal and a bottle of wine for less than that. 

 

If you choose to not spend your wages on WG products, more power to you. But the prices here are hardly out of line. 

 

Have to disagree, the pricing and bundling has gotten out of line. I have gold dubloons which is in game currency, yet to get either new ships I can not use cash of mine that WG already has. I have to purchase them with new money. Pretty sneaky slick of them don't you think?

WG use to sell stuff like this without all the bundling and higher pricing that comes with it... Bundles are still fairly new. They just figured out they can get more out of you for the same product by throwing on a bunch of extras that WG over values and most do not want in the 1st place. But you have to pay for all the extra crap just so you can get the ship. Fujin bundle effectively doubled the cost to us for the ship.

Then WG pulls the limited time only, will be 'rare' stunt... When in reality 25-50% of the entire 'active' player base gets one. Release it again later and sell a few thousand more to the new players. Rinse/Repeat. Of course again inflating the price.

WoT didn't do any 'rare' junk in the early stages... what was rare was tester tanks and early free gift tanks that you could not buy.

[Frostblitz20]

Russian BB T4 just released in russia in a bundle for about 15USD... where as we have the IJN BB tier 4 no bundle for about 18$... i can see her being over 22$ for us sadly when we get her... 

[Skpstr]

I have bought

Warspite                         $60.00

Atlanta                            $40.00

Atago                              $40.00

Sims                               $37.00

Murmasnk                      $19.00

Fujin                               $39.00

Tirpitz                             $60.00

 

 

This is part of what I find irksome compared to WoT. Not so much the higher prices, but the inconsistent pricing. Typically in WoT, the higher the tier of the premium, the more credits it raked in, and the more it cost to buy.

 

Here I'm seeing a Tier 8 and a Tier 6 BB for the same price, and a Tier 5 ship costing twice as much as another Tier 5 ship, with bundling obscuring the whole deal.

 

This makes it tricky for someone like me, who will probably only spring for 1 Tier 7 or 8 premium, to know what to pick.

[DownhillDino]

Just because a product is priced out of your range, doesn't mean it's too expensive, it just means that it's too expensive FOR YOU. You are not the entirety of their market, nor do you represent or speak for their market base. You are best just one customer, but since this is a free to play game, there's a pretty good chance that you are not one of those either... Now, why would any reasonable commercial entity listen to someone who isn't even a customer? 

 

Any good sales person knows that a purchase now holds a whole lot more weight than a promise of one later. 

 

For what it is, it certainly is overpriced. It reaches simulator prices which have far more involved than these ships/tanks/whatever.

[suleiman71]

You don't have to pay anything to play this game. Part of your point is invalid because of it. Premium content enhances your experience and is never needed for a good experience.

[Crap_Shoot]

I have bought

Warspite                         $60.00

Atlanta                            $40.00

Atago                              $40.00

Sims                               $37.00

Murmasnk                      $19.00

Fujin                               $39.00

Tirpitz                             $60.00

 

 

You realize that you are contributing to the problem, right?  We're trying to ask for lower prices and ships that aren't bundled with crap to double their price, but enough people like you are willing to blindly throw money at every overpriced "deal" Wargaming offers.  You're driving a demand that gives them absolutely no incentive to offer reasonable prices.  Every ship will be bundled for twice it's actual value, they won't put anything in the game to let us use our doubloons (and don't get me started on how they quietly forgot early promises of unification of gold and such).

 

I understand that it's your money, and our free to spend it however you want.

 

But I'm getting tired really quickly of the blatant milking by WG.  Every new ship is store only, and everything is bundle only.  WOT has a few store-only tanks, and does do bundles, but most of the premiums in that game are available in-game for gold, and most of the ones also available in the store can be bought without extra crap inflating the price.

 

I wanted the Warspite.  Not for $60, though.

 

I wanted a Tirpitz.  I didn't $60-70 want it.

 

I want the Fujin.  I don't $30-40 want it.  This one is especially insulting since the Murmansk is both available in game and by itself for half the cost of the Fujin, despite being same tier.

 

I can't wait for the next ship I want to be an unreasonable amount of dollars.   You paid $60 for the Warspite, so do we get to buy it the second time around for $70, because reasons?  Is the Tirpitz going to come back with even more doubloons for a fantastic deal of $99?  Oh, the possibilities, when peoiple throw their wallets at you for whatever price you put on the screen!

 

Yeah, I'm bitter.  I've played WoT since beta, I've spent a good deal of money on these games, but WoWS is milking the player base to a level I've never seen them do before.  And people are lapping it up.

[atPrick__]

Ultima Online was, is a great game...