That is how it works, though... The issue isn't lower sales for more money, the issue is stockholders and Corporate overlords. Cryptic has a lot of people getting money from this game, who don't actually know how games make money. As such, it's almost a laughable mafia-esque "we give you that much money, and expect THIS much money in return." THAT'S why prices are so high. People with money and no understanding of their investment don't want the min-maxed math out of it, they want what sounds best.
Cryptic can go over the math and psychology of economics with a person but that won't make the person interested or care. IF Cryptic says We charge a lot for our store AND have Trek Star So-and-So, that investor will be way more likely to invest.
And by your own logic, that IS exactly how it works, because i AM marketing to the whole player base. I KNOW for a fact that there are players who will never spend a dime in this game, my job isn't to MAKE them spend money, it's to make the idea of that more appealing. It's literal human Psychology. There is an actual, literal, psychology of sales and it's ridiculously easy to work with. Case in point, a convenience store can mark up items because you're not paying for the item itself, you're also paying for the convenience of how you got it there. You pay more for Cable, because you're paying for the convenience of all those channels brought to you, instead of having to pay for them separately. Big bulk stores are way too many people and lines, often have memberships, etc but, and here is the thing, the items are way cheaper and you get way more. Items cost less when bought in bulk. Stores like cost co
Here's the kicker about STO. They only have to make it once. They're not manufacturing EVERY item EVERY time it's bought. They make it once. The devs, artists, programmers, etc aren't paid per item. They're paid a normal working wage, so the cost of making that item is already paid long before it's put in store. Anything after that initial cost, is pure profit. So it's not how much you charge, it's how many you sell, that makes you the most money. Charging more turns a lot of people off, in this sense. More so, when i can earn that in Dil. More so, when LTS people get $5 free every month. The lower that price is, the more i'm willing to drop in cash FOR THE CONVINIENCE of it.
This ISN'T a physical product. Ferrari can charge a high cost, because
A) it's quality
it's materials
C) it's brand name
D) they control how many are out there.
STO, is a virtual item without any limits on how many are out there, the quality of the game and store items are very questionable depending on who you're talking to, as is the company's brand. Same with the Star Trek brand at the moment. Some people love it, some hate it, but your goal is to still advertise to the entirety of the Star Trek fan base. As such, they want MORE people to buy their products, as well as MORE products to be sold.
This is why you WANT to go lower price. You have a player that doesn't want to spend real money in game, or as you put it,
WILL NEVER buy anything from this game. Higher Prices on lower quality items will keep players from buying them for real money. If players see something that is low enough priced, they will be more inclined to buy it. If it's VERY low priced, there are people that will feel like they HAVE to buy it. And that's the weird Psychology in it.
"Why not? It's only a dollar?"
"Holy cow, look how low this is priced? I have to get it!"
"Gah.... I wasn't planning on buying this but at that price..."
For the Lockboxes, though, there are OTHER reasons why that sells, and why a lot of people refer to them as "predatory". First off, Gambling will always make money. There are reasons why Cryptic and ANY MMO will rarely, if ever, ACTUALLY tell you the odds of their lotto boxes. Because if you KNEW, you wouldn't be as likely to buy them. Secondly, they put ships in there to specifically entice you, which works so well, they added it to R&D boxes. People will beat themselves senseless trying to get "that one ship", they will spend more money than they mean to, trying to get it, and this PREYS on those people. Again, just look at how EA did it, and the fact that it's causing literal legislation to be brought up against lockboxes. It's a dirty thing to do to people and some people are just more susceptible to it.
One the other hand, there are people that make good EC out of Lockboxes. I don't pay real money for lockbox keys. I haven't since the Borg lockbox and that was just because i love the borg. Otherwise, i get my keys for free via various and legal in-game means, and i turn around and sell everything in them for a profit... which i can use to get more keys without paying a dime. And that's me being casual. There are sooooo many more people playing this game, gaming it for Dil and such. Just look at the Dil exchange and how broken that is. Between LTS people getting free Zen a month, all the people hoarding Dilithium, and all the people buying and selling on the exchange, there is a lot less need to spend real money in the zen store.
So the problem ISN'T how do i get people to buy Star Trek. Star Trek sells itself. People will buy it JUST because it's Star Trek. The Problem becomes getting those people who AREN'T buying more interested in doing so. I DON'T want that 80% of the Market. I already have that. i WANT that 20% who ISN'T buying. I want that person who is close to buying. I want that person who wasn't going to but can't NOT buy.
That's the twisted thing about this.
If an average person sees a legitimate Ferrari for sale, they can't won't buy it because it's too expensive. If the average person sees a legitimate Ferrari for half it's current cost, they will go out of their way to buy it. If people saw a legitimate Ferrari for a fraction of it's current cost, they will literally fist fight other people trying to get it.
While STO doesn't have the quality of Ferrari, it DOES have an IP that draws money. People will ALWAYS put money into Star Trek. The less money you have, the less likely you are to spend it, so lowering the Store prices increases the likely-hood of getting that purchase. People with disposable income are WAAAAAY more willing to buy at those high prices, regardless, but at that same time, will be more willing to buy more items at lower prices than a few items at higher prices. People who earn all of their store purchases in game, would be more willing to just out right buy it, if it were half the going price BECAUSE of the convenience, as you yourself pointed out. The cost versus convenience argument doesn't apply as well to virtual items.
Cryptic made it way too easy to earn dilithium. They phasered themselves in the foot on that one, which is why they're so desperate for Dil sinks AND the Dil store is how it is. IF they permanently dropped prices by at least half, people would be more willing to discuss losing the Dil/zen exchange. They would see a huge burst in sales, immediately. They wouldn't have to keep running sales every month, in an attempt to get people to buy. They wouldn't have to keep running events to earn dilithium.
People who know and study this sort of thing can see what's happening. Running constant sales and having to constantly run events, the lock boxes, the quick cash grabs, etc, that's not the sign of a profitable business. That's either struggling or being poorly run. On the other hand, you look at World of Warcraft or GTA online, how often are their sales? How often are they having to do quick cash schemes or trying to get you to log in every three weeks for old events? They do very little and make a lot because they keep it simple and affordable. They HAVE a good product. They're not worried a lick about what that 80% is doing, because they know that 80% is right where they need to be.
I'll admit, I'm not exactly sure which of my posts you're responding to, so I'm not really sure what most of what you said has to do with what I may have said. Though I will try to respond to it as best I can.
I'm honestly not sure where you got the idea that a ship is paid for before it gets to the store. Especially with modern video game cost inflation where it can cost upwards of $80,000 to make a single character in a video game. And that was back in like 2015ish? Its only gotten more expensive from there.
The first half or so of your post talks about lower prices, and convenience, and overall you're right. But as is Mudd's bundles offer both lower prices, and more convenience. I've seen people say the average cost of keys to pull a ship out of a lockbox is like $200. So three lockbox ships would be $600. A Mudd's three pack is like $295 at full price, and at a 50% discount its $147. So like, even at full price its a 50% discount, and on sale its a 75% discount, compared to getting these ships from lockboxes. And unlike lockboxes where you have to roll the dice, Mudd's packs are right there to just buy straight up. And Mudd's packs are account wide unlocks, whereas lockbox ships are per character. So it's cheaper, and more convenient, all the way.
You also touch on the concept of impulse buying. While impulse buying is a thing, its a thing that only really works for things like candy bars, or bags of chips. Things with low value already. To use your own Ferrari example. Most people know a Ferrari is super expensive, and expect it to be expensive because of its brand. If they see one that is massively on sale, their first thought isn't "ohh man I have to buy this" its "whats wrong with it that they cut the price so much?", or "is it a fake?". Making things like this super cheap isn't going to make them buy it, its going to make people wonder what corners were cut when making it. And impulse buying works primarily on things you buy multiple times. You can get a candy bar every time you go to the convenience store, whereas you only need to buy a ship in STO once from the Zen store.
To build on your Ferrari example for a bit. By the argument you've used Ferrari could make just so much more money if they lowered the price on their cars, so more people could buy them. Well, why haven't they then? Because part of the appeal of Ferrari is that not everyone can have them due to cost. Its a status symbol, and they capitalize on that to justify their cost. Lockbox and R&D ships in STO are no different in that regard. Cryptic almost certainly doesn't want more people to buy them, because that hurts the status symbol nature of many of these ships, which hurts people's desire to buy it. And as I showed earlier, lower prices to allow more people to buy them doesn't inherently mean more money made. It can often mean less money made depending on how much you had to cut the prices to get more people to buy it.
I would also guess that they don't want to undercut the lockboxs too much. People spent quite a bit to get ships from lockboxes in the first place. If they knew that they could just wait a year, and pay like 10 bucks to get it from the Zen store, you have just killed all lockbox sales. Not only are you then making less money from Mudd's, you are making zero money from key sales. That's a lose-lose situation right there. I also wouldn't be surprised if Cryptic is considering possible legal ramifications of making them too cheap. Lockboxes have been in STO since what? 2013? whereas Mudd's is a recent inclusion. If they make Mudd's store ships too cheap I could see someone trying to sue Cryptic over having spent however much they did on whatever lockbox ship back in 2013/2014.
I think you also overstate the lack of a need to spend real money in the Zen store. The huge majority of people playing MMOs are casuals who tend to have, maybe, three characters. They aren't the kind of people multi-character/multi-account farming dil, they don't have the billions in EC needed to buy these things off of the exchange, and dil market, even when it worked, was never really fair to the normal player. I think you are confusing a small minority of hardcore players, and what they have resource wise, with the larger market.
People who know and study this sort of thing can see what's happening. Running constant sales and having to constantly run events, the lock boxes, the quick cash grabs, etc, that's not the sign of a profitable business. That's either struggling or being poorly run. On the other hand, you look at World of Warcraft or GTA online, how often are their sales? How often are they having to do quick cash schemes or trying to get you to log in every three weeks for old events? They do very little and make a lot because they keep it simple and affordable. They HAVE a good product. They're not worried a lick about what that 80% is doing, because they know that 80% is right where they need to be.
WoW has constant income via its mandatory subscription, and GTA is selling shark card packs all the time. Neither game is set up like STO which has no subscription, and no means to just buy EC in-game. You can't really compare them at all.
And events in STO have nothing to do with the market. People complained all the time about there being nothing to do between major content updates, which is honestly a fairly common complaint in MMOs, so Cryptic started putting out more events to give people who wanted something to do, well, something to do. Other MMOs do the same with seasonal/holiday events taking up like half the year. It has nothing to do with games doing poorly, just devs realizing they can't put out content faster then people can consume it, so they use easily repeatable events to fill the gaps.
But that's the thing... events DO have an effect on the market. You can buy out the events. And you can earn dilithium. And some people buy out the event day one and make a ton of dilithium from the event after doing so. So much, they've just had to adjust how the Dilithium is increased per day because of that.
I CAN compare GTA to STO, business wise, clearly because i DID but more so, you earn Cash in game or you buy Shark cards. You buy Zen or you earn Dil ingame (or get stipend). Just because they're different styles of game doesn't mean there aren't direct correlations or things to be learned or gained from examination. Especially when you take into account just how long GTA has been going strong and with how little to buy.
I really don't think the arguments you're making are really doing the job you think they are. Why WOULDN'T cryptic want people buying more? None of these ships are a status symbol. Also, Cryptic has a budget and plans what ships to make, meaning they pay the artists and programmers to build the ship in advance. Those people are already paid for the work, using existing funds from previous sales, so... i.e. the ship is already paid for BEFORE hitting the store. The money those ships make goes for things OTHER than that ship, so i'm not sure why that was questioned.
In all fairness, though, people will always complain when they shift things around, so i doubt there would be a lawsuit but i can easily see people raging on the forums for buying things that get made cheaper down the line.
As for the lack of a need to spend real money, that part IS hard to gauge, since there are a few "Whales" who spend ridiculous amounts of money but considerably more F2P players who just earn dilithium for free. And that's on top of people with stippends, or the rare occassion of one person having more than one LTS. It's actually a thing people will admit to. And here's where i bring it all around. There are more Dil farmers farming more Dil than there are people spending ridiculous amounts of money for zen. And the Proof is the dire need to find so many more dilithium sinks or that the exchange is in it's current state. It's out pacing the zen because more people are going for the option to play than pay. That's why we need lower prices, so that buying is more appealing. Shark cards sell because it's better than Grinding small amounts of money. Dil is so ridiculously easy to get, they have to limit how much you can refine, and a lot of that doesn't require a whole lot of time to earn.
That's what i've been getting at and it's all right there, plain as day. Convenience vs Cost. Their cost is too high for the convenience they've given. And considering the age/performance/bugs of the game, that cost just seems less and less justifiable when i can literally just wait for a Christmas sale and use all my free dilithium to clean the store out.
Comments
That is how it works, though... The issue isn't lower sales for more money, the issue is stockholders and Corporate overlords. Cryptic has a lot of people getting money from this game, who don't actually know how games make money. As such, it's almost a laughable mafia-esque "we give you that much money, and expect THIS much money in return." THAT'S why prices are so high. People with money and no understanding of their investment don't want the min-maxed math out of it, they want what sounds best.
Cryptic can go over the math and psychology of economics with a person but that won't make the person interested or care. IF Cryptic says We charge a lot for our store AND have Trek Star So-and-So, that investor will be way more likely to invest.
And by your own logic, that IS exactly how it works, because i AM marketing to the whole player base. I KNOW for a fact that there are players who will never spend a dime in this game, my job isn't to MAKE them spend money, it's to make the idea of that more appealing. It's literal human Psychology. There is an actual, literal, psychology of sales and it's ridiculously easy to work with. Case in point, a convenience store can mark up items because you're not paying for the item itself, you're also paying for the convenience of how you got it there. You pay more for Cable, because you're paying for the convenience of all those channels brought to you, instead of having to pay for them separately. Big bulk stores are way too many people and lines, often have memberships, etc but, and here is the thing, the items are way cheaper and you get way more. Items cost less when bought in bulk. Stores like cost co
Here's the kicker about STO. They only have to make it once. They're not manufacturing EVERY item EVERY time it's bought. They make it once. The devs, artists, programmers, etc aren't paid per item. They're paid a normal working wage, so the cost of making that item is already paid long before it's put in store. Anything after that initial cost, is pure profit. So it's not how much you charge, it's how many you sell, that makes you the most money. Charging more turns a lot of people off, in this sense. More so, when i can earn that in Dil. More so, when LTS people get $5 free every month. The lower that price is, the more i'm willing to drop in cash FOR THE CONVINIENCE of it.
This ISN'T a physical product. Ferrari can charge a high cost, because
A) it's quality
C) it's brand name
D) they control how many are out there.
STO, is a virtual item without any limits on how many are out there, the quality of the game and store items are very questionable depending on who you're talking to, as is the company's brand. Same with the Star Trek brand at the moment. Some people love it, some hate it, but your goal is to still advertise to the entirety of the Star Trek fan base. As such, they want MORE people to buy their products, as well as MORE products to be sold.
This is why you WANT to go lower price. You have a player that doesn't want to spend real money in game, or as you put it,
WILL NEVER buy anything from this game. Higher Prices on lower quality items will keep players from buying them for real money. If players see something that is low enough priced, they will be more inclined to buy it. If it's VERY low priced, there are people that will feel like they HAVE to buy it. And that's the weird Psychology in it.
"Why not? It's only a dollar?"
"Holy cow, look how low this is priced? I have to get it!"
"Gah.... I wasn't planning on buying this but at that price..."
For the Lockboxes, though, there are OTHER reasons why that sells, and why a lot of people refer to them as "predatory". First off, Gambling will always make money. There are reasons why Cryptic and ANY MMO will rarely, if ever, ACTUALLY tell you the odds of their lotto boxes. Because if you KNEW, you wouldn't be as likely to buy them. Secondly, they put ships in there to specifically entice you, which works so well, they added it to R&D boxes. People will beat themselves senseless trying to get "that one ship", they will spend more money than they mean to, trying to get it, and this PREYS on those people. Again, just look at how EA did it, and the fact that it's causing literal legislation to be brought up against lockboxes. It's a dirty thing to do to people and some people are just more susceptible to it.
One the other hand, there are people that make good EC out of Lockboxes. I don't pay real money for lockbox keys. I haven't since the Borg lockbox and that was just because i love the borg. Otherwise, i get my keys for free via various and legal in-game means, and i turn around and sell everything in them for a profit... which i can use to get more keys without paying a dime. And that's me being casual. There are sooooo many more people playing this game, gaming it for Dil and such. Just look at the Dil exchange and how broken that is. Between LTS people getting free Zen a month, all the people hoarding Dilithium, and all the people buying and selling on the exchange, there is a lot less need to spend real money in the zen store.
So the problem ISN'T how do i get people to buy Star Trek. Star Trek sells itself. People will buy it JUST because it's Star Trek. The Problem becomes getting those people who AREN'T buying more interested in doing so. I DON'T want that 80% of the Market. I already have that. i WANT that 20% who ISN'T buying. I want that person who is close to buying. I want that person who wasn't going to but can't NOT buy.
That's the twisted thing about this.
If an average person sees a legitimate Ferrari for sale, they can't won't buy it because it's too expensive. If the average person sees a legitimate Ferrari for half it's current cost, they will go out of their way to buy it. If people saw a legitimate Ferrari for a fraction of it's current cost, they will literally fist fight other people trying to get it.
While STO doesn't have the quality of Ferrari, it DOES have an IP that draws money. People will ALWAYS put money into Star Trek. The less money you have, the less likely you are to spend it, so lowering the Store prices increases the likely-hood of getting that purchase. People with disposable income are WAAAAAY more willing to buy at those high prices, regardless, but at that same time, will be more willing to buy more items at lower prices than a few items at higher prices. People who earn all of their store purchases in game, would be more willing to just out right buy it, if it were half the going price BECAUSE of the convenience, as you yourself pointed out. The cost versus convenience argument doesn't apply as well to virtual items.
Cryptic made it way too easy to earn dilithium. They phasered themselves in the foot on that one, which is why they're so desperate for Dil sinks AND the Dil store is how it is. IF they permanently dropped prices by at least half, people would be more willing to discuss losing the Dil/zen exchange. They would see a huge burst in sales, immediately. They wouldn't have to keep running sales every month, in an attempt to get people to buy. They wouldn't have to keep running events to earn dilithium.
People who know and study this sort of thing can see what's happening. Running constant sales and having to constantly run events, the lock boxes, the quick cash grabs, etc, that's not the sign of a profitable business. That's either struggling or being poorly run. On the other hand, you look at World of Warcraft or GTA online, how often are their sales? How often are they having to do quick cash schemes or trying to get you to log in every three weeks for old events? They do very little and make a lot because they keep it simple and affordable. They HAVE a good product. They're not worried a lick about what that 80% is doing, because they know that 80% is right where they need to be.
I'm honestly not sure where you got the idea that a ship is paid for before it gets to the store. Especially with modern video game cost inflation where it can cost upwards of $80,000 to make a single character in a video game. And that was back in like 2015ish? Its only gotten more expensive from there.
The first half or so of your post talks about lower prices, and convenience, and overall you're right. But as is Mudd's bundles offer both lower prices, and more convenience. I've seen people say the average cost of keys to pull a ship out of a lockbox is like $200. So three lockbox ships would be $600. A Mudd's three pack is like $295 at full price, and at a 50% discount its $147. So like, even at full price its a 50% discount, and on sale its a 75% discount, compared to getting these ships from lockboxes. And unlike lockboxes where you have to roll the dice, Mudd's packs are right there to just buy straight up. And Mudd's packs are account wide unlocks, whereas lockbox ships are per character. So it's cheaper, and more convenient, all the way.
You also touch on the concept of impulse buying. While impulse buying is a thing, its a thing that only really works for things like candy bars, or bags of chips. Things with low value already. To use your own Ferrari example. Most people know a Ferrari is super expensive, and expect it to be expensive because of its brand. If they see one that is massively on sale, their first thought isn't "ohh man I have to buy this" its "whats wrong with it that they cut the price so much?", or "is it a fake?". Making things like this super cheap isn't going to make them buy it, its going to make people wonder what corners were cut when making it. And impulse buying works primarily on things you buy multiple times. You can get a candy bar every time you go to the convenience store, whereas you only need to buy a ship in STO once from the Zen store.
To build on your Ferrari example for a bit. By the argument you've used Ferrari could make just so much more money if they lowered the price on their cars, so more people could buy them. Well, why haven't they then? Because part of the appeal of Ferrari is that not everyone can have them due to cost. Its a status symbol, and they capitalize on that to justify their cost. Lockbox and R&D ships in STO are no different in that regard. Cryptic almost certainly doesn't want more people to buy them, because that hurts the status symbol nature of many of these ships, which hurts people's desire to buy it. And as I showed earlier, lower prices to allow more people to buy them doesn't inherently mean more money made. It can often mean less money made depending on how much you had to cut the prices to get more people to buy it.
I would also guess that they don't want to undercut the lockboxs too much. People spent quite a bit to get ships from lockboxes in the first place. If they knew that they could just wait a year, and pay like 10 bucks to get it from the Zen store, you have just killed all lockbox sales. Not only are you then making less money from Mudd's, you are making zero money from key sales. That's a lose-lose situation right there. I also wouldn't be surprised if Cryptic is considering possible legal ramifications of making them too cheap. Lockboxes have been in STO since what? 2013? whereas Mudd's is a recent inclusion. If they make Mudd's store ships too cheap I could see someone trying to sue Cryptic over having spent however much they did on whatever lockbox ship back in 2013/2014.
I think you also overstate the lack of a need to spend real money in the Zen store. The huge majority of people playing MMOs are casuals who tend to have, maybe, three characters. They aren't the kind of people multi-character/multi-account farming dil, they don't have the billions in EC needed to buy these things off of the exchange, and dil market, even when it worked, was never really fair to the normal player. I think you are confusing a small minority of hardcore players, and what they have resource wise, with the larger market.
WoW has constant income via its mandatory subscription, and GTA is selling shark card packs all the time. Neither game is set up like STO which has no subscription, and no means to just buy EC in-game. You can't really compare them at all.
And events in STO have nothing to do with the market. People complained all the time about there being nothing to do between major content updates, which is honestly a fairly common complaint in MMOs, so Cryptic started putting out more events to give people who wanted something to do, well, something to do. Other MMOs do the same with seasonal/holiday events taking up like half the year. It has nothing to do with games doing poorly, just devs realizing they can't put out content faster then people can consume it, so they use easily repeatable events to fill the gaps.
But that's the thing... events DO have an effect on the market. You can buy out the events. And you can earn dilithium. And some people buy out the event day one and make a ton of dilithium from the event after doing so. So much, they've just had to adjust how the Dilithium is increased per day because of that.
I CAN compare GTA to STO, business wise, clearly because i DID but more so, you earn Cash in game or you buy Shark cards. You buy Zen or you earn Dil ingame (or get stipend). Just because they're different styles of game doesn't mean there aren't direct correlations or things to be learned or gained from examination. Especially when you take into account just how long GTA has been going strong and with how little to buy.
I really don't think the arguments you're making are really doing the job you think they are. Why WOULDN'T cryptic want people buying more? None of these ships are a status symbol. Also, Cryptic has a budget and plans what ships to make, meaning they pay the artists and programmers to build the ship in advance. Those people are already paid for the work, using existing funds from previous sales, so... i.e. the ship is already paid for BEFORE hitting the store. The money those ships make goes for things OTHER than that ship, so i'm not sure why that was questioned.
In all fairness, though, people will always complain when they shift things around, so i doubt there would be a lawsuit but i can easily see people raging on the forums for buying things that get made cheaper down the line.
As for the lack of a need to spend real money, that part IS hard to gauge, since there are a few "Whales" who spend ridiculous amounts of money but considerably more F2P players who just earn dilithium for free. And that's on top of people with stippends, or the rare occassion of one person having more than one LTS. It's actually a thing people will admit to. And here's where i bring it all around. There are more Dil farmers farming more Dil than there are people spending ridiculous amounts of money for zen. And the Proof is the dire need to find so many more dilithium sinks or that the exchange is in it's current state. It's out pacing the zen because more people are going for the option to play than pay. That's why we need lower prices, so that buying is more appealing. Shark cards sell because it's better than Grinding small amounts of money. Dil is so ridiculously easy to get, they have to limit how much you can refine, and a lot of that doesn't require a whole lot of time to earn.
That's what i've been getting at and it's all right there, plain as day. Convenience vs Cost. Their cost is too high for the convenience they've given. And considering the age/performance/bugs of the game, that cost just seems less and less justifiable when i can literally just wait for a Christmas sale and use all my free dilithium to clean the store out.