So, the other day I’ve seen that Blizz was not selling the X-Pack and a Collectors Edition but have actually expanded it to 3 Editions. The Base Version, Heroic and Epic. So i figured I’d take a look at what they have added, because up until now the Collectors Edition always had some nice Bonusses for those who are into it and i was curious to see what they had added and maybe I’d be interested in them.
And that came down to 3 differences over the Heroic Edition:
A pet
A Weapon Enchant Illusion
A month of Gametime
Well… nothing special but I’m sure some people will like it. And with a Month being worth 13€ the Pet and Illusion come down to- … wait. A month of Gametime? Hasn’t that always been included in the base expansion? Do we get two now if we buy the Epic Edition?
No we don’t o.O
It’s been removed from the base edition! And the Boost as well! That’s now part of the Heroic Edition.
… … So… Let me try and get this straight guys:
You remove the Month of Gametime that has been included in X-Packs ever since BC.
You remove the Boost that was included since MoP
And it costs… 40€? what? Am I missing something? Or are you just taking the P*ss?
What exactly have you ADDED to remove those things and remain at the same price? 'Cause I’m having trouble finding it.
No expansion ever had a month of gametime beside the collector editions. The base game had one but that’s about it
Leveling will take 50 to 70% less time than before so I doubt anyone will buy a boost for less than 20h before reaching shadowland intro, and afaik the 40€ option is cheaper than BFA used to be. At least now you have the option of having cosmetics or a cheaper expansion.
Could’ve sworn it was, but if it wasn’t fair enough. My mistake.
Every Base Expnsion has cost 40€. And so what if leveling might take less time? We don’t know that. All we know is that there is a squish coming to 60 levels. Less levels does not necessarily translate to less time spent leveling. And even if it ends up being that way, so what? If you remove something and keep a steady price, that means they have increased value somewhere else. Where is that increase in value? What has been added?
By your Logic, keeping the boost, that has reduced worth because of the faster leveling, should have in turn lowered the price somewhat. And completely removing it then somehow keeps it steady?
I refuse to believe that Blizz is stupid enough to bank on goodwill here after how the last 17 months have gone.
BFA was 45€, don’t quite remember for the others. It doesn’t make the cheap one really useful but that’s still 5€ I guess. Older expansions used to be cheaper tho, I remember spending around 30€ on wotlk.
Well, that’s what Ion said about the level squish in an interview at Blizzcon so it’s pretty reliable.
They severely decreased the value proposition of their 60€ boost for the sake of a better in game experience, does it count ?
Not exactly. Imo it’s not that bad to not get a boost as they overhauled the leveling and decreased the value of the boost. Lessening the loss would be closer to what I have in mind.
And I don’t think the lack of boost will prevent people from buying the cheapest version of the expansion especially after seeing what happened in the last 17 months.
They’ll make a safe bet and take the cheapest one to reduce their risks. So maybe Blizz plan to bank on that sentiment and offer a cheaper, more bare bones option ?
That said that’s only true for unsubbed players. There are so many players rolling around with the mount, set or illusion that I wouldn’t be surprised if WoW players don’t actually check the price of the expansion before pre ordering it.
Do you really wanna play the “Ion Said” game? Ion Said that Islands would be fun, varied, challenging and that you would refer to the AI Characters by name because thats how good they were.
My point is that 35-45€ for an active sub type game expansion is a steep enough price as-is. And now they are hacking out the one piece of included content that actually made it a somewhat worth price. If anything they should have kept the boost and lowered it to 30€ to entice the players who have left over the course of BfA
It’s sad tbh.
I brought BFA at 44% discount, a year after launch.
I was pretty happy, because I got the level boost.
Guess I can’t do that again, in SL.
If the basic version goes in promotion a year after launch, it won’t have the boost.
I am starting to think it will be cheaper to finish BFA, for the next two years and buy the 2022 expansion, alongside SL, unless they come out with a leveling event like Korrack’s revenge or Legion invasions.
The only problem here is that they added an additional edition, i somehow think they would have gotten more if they just put most of that stuff in the collector/digital deluxe edition since more people would see the value in it.
They way they did it just makes it look like a cheap tactic to make you fork over more money.
I mean we’re not at Ubisoft levels just yet with their… what was it? 7 special editions for the latest Assassins Credit Card? But given how many players quit during BfA (even though we don’t have the numbers, we’ve all felt the effects of the mass exodus) this just isn’t the time to get Cashgrabby.
I bought Epic for Heartstone, its animation makes me remember anime Gantz, it is one of my favourite animes. The rest is trash, mount…looks like that thing you know, weapon enchant can be ignored as well not so cool, I don’t use pets.
They wouldn’t had come to public and state:
“We learned our lesson.”
Otherwise.
We had mount stores being announced as a reward for 6 months subscription right after patch launch, just in case people might regret and cancel their subscription, before six months.
I wonder if they did really learned their lesson …
I’m not trying to say this is a bad deal for everyone. Quite a few people, such as yourself, will enjoy it’s bells and whistles. And you should. If you think this is worth your money, go for it! No sarcasm, I’m being fully honest.
But: the previous Digital Delux edition, aside from mount and pet, also came with other stuff if i remember correctly. namely a Hearthstone Cardback, some Banners for Tracer in Overwatch i think, i know it had a mount for Heroes of the Storm and some whatsits for Starcraft 2. Not sure about Diablo.
Where is all that stuff? This is the 75€ Extra special Epic Digital Deluxe Collectors Edition mind you. This all seems so bare bones.
One is a detail shared at Blizzcon on how the squish will be done and with no exact value, just a range, and the other is kinda like “we’d like for ilvl to always be an upgrade”, ie random comments.
That’s as reliable as you can get, and I challenge you to find an example of a Blizzcon interview where the system didn’t work as it was presented (and I meant work, not the player assumptions like for warfronts).
And why was it included in the first place ? Could it be that leveling was so bad that it wouldn’t keep the new players ?
They increased the price of the expansion by 10€ to add a boost just to solve a problem that they themselves created : leveling. Now the issue is gone and you believe that it made it worth the price, really ?
I’m not insisting on boosts being included. But like i said, 40€ is a pretty steep price for an expansion to a game with an active sub model. And whether or not you pay for the sub with money or with gold that somebody else has payed for with money hardly matters in the end. Blizz still gets their cash for every month played by everyone, either directly or by proxy. That’s just how wow makes it’s money. And I much prefer this over whatever Player Choice EA is trying to pull this month while twirling their mustache.
Here’s the thing though: Boosts cost Blizz absolutely nothing. They are a fully automated process that has 0 work involved on their end. So one might even agrue that including it shouldn’t have increased the price in the first place. Not only because it is a non-cost to blizz but also becuase it was a baindaid solution to a problem that they themselves had created through bad game design. And now that it’s gone, why hasn’t it fallen by 10€ again?
And while I’m on it where is all that other fluff from the higher tier editions? Where are the Diablo portraits? The Hearthstone Cardback? Overwatch tat?
What it comes down to is wanting more money for less product. That’s what urks me.
Ion Said that Islands would be fun, varied, challenging and that you would refer to the AI Characters by name because thats how good they were.