It has been almost 2 weeks that blizzard added 4 new currencies to the Battle net store and I and others made numerous post complaining about the new prices, all of which were completely ignored.
So i just want to sum up everything into one post and try my best to get it out the the community for some attention hoping someone gives us a reason to why the priced look like someone bashed their head on a number pad.
Georgia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Turkey got their currencies added to the Battle net store with extrema down sides. Keep in mind that this are developing countries(Turkey is debatable for some) and we have to pay the same for a WoW subscription then developed countries. When u look at the price in the store it is the same or a 10% less but it does not say that we have to pay for Double conversion and end up paying more then we should. For example 1month says 299 UAH but the blizzard is trying to charges 321.93 UAH from the bank. In GEL it goes from 34.99GEL to 37.54GEL. if this has a % increase then i don’t even want to know what 241GEL game will cost me, oh yeah and did i mention that this 241GEL game is 145GEL if I’m not signed into battle net, other games have a similar price change if signed in.
Now that this payment randomness is out of the way lets talk about how random and overpriced everything is. I went from paying around 20Gel per month to ~30(depending on RUB price) now to 35, that’s a 75% increase which is outrages. Games in general being expensive for us was never a new thing for us in Georgia, because not even a hand full of online stores support Lari. But Ukraine, Kazakhstan or Turkey didn’t have an easy time even thou other stores give them lower prices. Just going to mention some prices differences Starting with Turkey getting any were from -35% to 86%. Ukraine 10-50% and Kazakhstan 10-55%. Other subscription based games gives them no less then a 47% lower price including that one MMO that’s doing great right now(u know which one I’m talking about). and here’s blizzard giving us a 0-10% lower price + Double conversion problem. Just to point out how much 35Lari a month is that’s almost how much a gas bill for 2people is each month, its also more then my water bill in a house of 4 and a full game costs more then rent. average salary in Georgia is only 1200Lari (400USD/384EUR). This prices makes it impossible to get new player into the game and a lot of existing players have to stop because of this price change.
I hope Blizzard at least addresses this, finger crossed for a change. If other Game developers and publishers think that they can give us a 30% lower priced including the ones that are know to be extremely greedy gives lower prices, what does that make Blizzard then?