I don't know if this is more Blizzard or Activision, but it seems more and more services are becoming premium pay for services. From the remote AH app to talk of paying for extra character slots, there seems to be a lot of things people are paying for. Is there a market for it? Most likely, yes. When you have the number one MMORPG in the entire world, there is likely someone who will pay for this. Just like paying $25 for a horse. However, I would like to pitch and idea to Blizzard on how to make this and more services available that would encompass all of this and make people feel like they are getting a value. I call it the World of Warcraft Premium Subscription. Here is my idea of what it would include:
1) Remote Armory/AH App Service - $36 value per year
2) Additional Character Slots - $5 value per year
3) Free In Game Pet Once a Year from Blizzard Store (No Plushy) - $10 value per year
4) Free Rename/Look Change Once a Year - $10 value per year
5) Free WoW Magazine Subscription - $40 per year
You could charge an additional $10 per month to the current WoW subscription and nobody would argue about this and you would seem like you are not screwing the community to death with $3 here and $10 here and $5 here. Plus, you still make about $20 profit per premium subscription. You could even reduce the price to $9 per month and still make money per premium subscription. If you made it $5 and ate some of the cost for the app, in game pet, and rename, that would be even better.
Plus, you can do some cool things outside of the subscription for premium members, like an extra Blizzcon ticket sale just for premium members (how many people would you get signed up for that alone) or a meetup at Blizzcon for premium members where you get to meet the Blizzard developers. It does not cost you any more money and lets you give some additional benefits to those who would support your game through a premium subscription fee.
2 comments:
I think its an awesome idea, I was talking with my wife and said they should offer copper, silver and gold subscription packages, the everything you have there would be the gold. silver may not include the pet, or AH, etc.
But I agree it makes sense, especially if they want to keep up revenues with new revenue streams.
@Avatar
Absolutely, that is great to have a multi-tier system with gold, silver, and copper so that people who can't afford $10 extra per month can get something extra.
Blizzard is definitely going to need to do something to help their revenue stream. After RealID fiasco, they may need it even more.
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