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Economics of Cryptic's love of Bundles
ladymyajha
Member Posts: 1,428 Arc User
So serious question that I don't understand and hoping someone more knowledgeable in economics can explain. So I get bundles. I understand that bundling a bunch of stuff in a bundle makes it seem more enticing. What I don't understand that after a few months why the don't release original items in bundles as individual purchases as well. For example there are ships and costumes and items that you can currently only purchase in the bundle, that you can't purchase outside the bundle. Using as an example the Borath robes. $250.00 for the bundle and it has been out for months now, and yet the robes haven't been released individually. Now like I said I get the purpose of bundles, but I think economically, they are leaving a bunch of money on the table by not releasing some of these exclusive items as individual purchases as well.
So economically speaking why doesn't Cryptic release some of these ships, costumes and ground items as individual purchases in the zen store, and insist on bundling them up into bloated overpriced bundles when someone may only one a single item from each bundle?
So economically speaking why doesn't Cryptic release some of these ships, costumes and ground items as individual purchases in the zen store, and insist on bundling them up into bloated overpriced bundles when someone may only one a single item from each bundle?
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If I could purchase it separately I wouldn't need to spend the full amount for the bundle.
See I get that actually. But after what... 6 months... pretty much everyone who is going to buy the bundle has bought the bundle. So now Cryptic economically, is going to leave money on the table, because they hope that after 6 months or so people are going to magically change their minds and spend $250 dollars on the robes when they could charge 2000 or 3500 zen or put it in the lobi store or infinity pack and make more money off it?
Same with the Picard bundle for example. After a decade of being up and running, a lot of people have most of what's in the bundle. So for example the tommy gun. So instead of offering a way to buy just the tommy gun, you make people buy the entire bundle. Same with the "It's about time pack". I can keep going and going.
I mean like I said I get bundles and I get the initial offering of the bundles. But after a half a year or a year, not putting them in infinity packs or the lobi makes no sense to me economically.
The Tommy Gun was an event item from a couple years ago, so it's possible that could be added to either Mudd's or the Phoenix Store at some point. As for the Borath Robe, TWoK Lobi uniforms, and new Terran uniforms those are in those bundles as an extra bit of incentive to try and convince people who aren't sure to go ahead and grab the bundle, so it's very unlikely imo that those will ever be made available for direct C-Store purchase.
Cryptic frequently refers to their 'metrics' to assure us that the things they believe about consumer spending are correct.
The reason they don't do this is exactly the reason you think, to force people to buy bundles. If people knew when a bundle was released that they could get the individual items in 6 months, most would not buy the bundle and would instead, wait. You are likely right that there are those that will never buy the bundle but would buy a single item individually, and you are correct in saying that Cryptic misses out on that sale. But they have crunched the numbers and determined that the loss of that revenue is less then the revenue they would lose from lost bundle sales on people that bought the bundle knowing it was their only option.
In short, the reason for this is because, simply put, bundles sell. They sell like crazy.. and part of that reason is people buy them to get things they can't normally get. Cryptic doesn't break up bundles because they have determined that they would lose more revenue doing that then they would by losing the sale of the individual items down the road. They will always refer to their internal 'metrics' as the proof of this, and no one has access to that information except for Cryptic.
Yeah I get that. Which is why I'm asking from an economic standpoint. How many people would be willing to by the Borath Robes, the Terran uniforms, etc. etc if they were offered individually at some point? How many people would be willing to spend money on Box Keys if they were added into the infinity lockbox? How many people would be willing to spend money on Box Keys to save up Lobi for them in the lobi store?
Which is why I'm asking from an economic standpoint. It seems to me that they've decided that they will not, ever, release certain items individually, no matter the demand for them. It seems to me that therefore, they've decided to leave money on the table that they could be making from individual sales piecemeal, to stubbornly stick to their bundle model.
It's just something I don't get. Leave money on the table for... exclusivity of a small percentage of the population?
Okay well that makes more sense I guess. But I just don't get it. I get the idea of selling things in bundles initially. Incentive.. yada, yada, yada. But you'd think after a certain time frame, sales of bundles decrease for the next shiny thing as people either get the stuff they want... or leave it alone and walk away from it. So what I don't get is that say you sell a bundle for12000 zen. Okay great. Now why don't you after 6 months or a year, when sales decline to almost zero, sell the items individually for prices that if you bought them all combined, would cost more then the bundle would cost if you bought it as a bundle.
But thank you I get a better picture now of why Cryptic does what it does with it's metrics. I'll lump it into the same metrics that said when Delta Rising launched that "everyone loves it" metrics.
So accurate it's painful.
Bundles work, and they work long-term. Cryptic is far from the only company who bundles and never breaks the bundles.
Two years later people are still asking when the 10th Anniversary bundle will return so they can throw money at Cryptic.
People are still asking when the older Mudd's bundles will go back on sale so they can throw money at Cryptic.
Some people think that their willingness to buy 1 ship from the bundle at $x means that the money of single-ship sales will be more than the money from bundle sales. But people also say Cryptic would make more money offering lock box ships at the regular 2400-3000 zen, while Cryptic now has 10 years of data now telling them that is not true.
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Because enough of the bundle-buyers would wait the six months and just get the two pieces they actually want, that it would end up losing money.
After 10+ years, they have enough data on purchasing patterns, to know how many people will buy a bundle vs how many people will actually buy (as opposed to just saying on the forums "oh, I'd totally buy that, if it were available loose") the individual items.
If it didn't make them more money, they'd stop doing it. Therefore, there's enough people buying bundles (which, honestly, I can't comprehend that anyone does - I'm clearly not the target audience) that it's worth more to them to keep going as is.
What I don't get is that there's a lot of stuff in bundles, that isn't the reason people are buying them. Most people (certainly not all but most) don't buy the bundles for the filler. They buy them for the ships, and the fillers are nice to haves, such as the terran uniforms or whatever. I'm sure there's a small segment of 1% who are willing to drop $175 for uniforms but most people will buy it for the ships.
So after while I get maybe not individually selling the ships, the filler stuff makes no sense to not sell individually to my mind. Cryptic isn't losing sales on people who aren't interested in the ships... they're not not buying the packs and living without the uniforms and the guns and stuff. But if you sell the filler individually a year or so later, people who want the ships will still buy the bundles, and the rest will buy the small stuff and Cryptic makes money.
I'm sure that Cryptic's money people have looked at their data and calculated what they would make from every possible situation, and their conclusion was likely that the extra money they would get from delayed individual sales is too small of an amount to make it worth doing. Based on what they've said in Livestreams it sounds like even normal C-Store ships sell better in bundles than they do on their own, that's why the most desirable ships go in lockboxes instead.
Most players don't pay for anything at all and those that do have, through their purchasing habits, essentially told Cryptic that bundles with exclusive items are the most appealing direct purchase option. And I've gotta say it's worked on me, when the Oberth and Clarke came out last year I didn't want either one, but since they threw account unlocks for Lobi uniforms and weapons into the bundle I bought it on day one. Same goes for the 12th Anniversary bundle, I really only wanted the Trailblazer but since the Terran uniform was a bundle exclusive I got the bundle (I also kinda wanted the Adamant's console for the passive inertia, but that is STILL bugged and not working).