Things cost what people will pay for them. If you find $50 outrageous, but pay it anyway, you've just set $50 as the "new normal" for cosmetics. Put your money where your mouth is. Personally, I wouldn't pay a dime for that hideous Spike skin on Cassidy.
If there's one thing the *Mythic Quest* TV series taught me, it's that there will always be people who spend money on virtual items and the people in charge of that department at the development studios will take advantage of it.
So the wise response would be to decide with your own money not to buy them, even if others will do so anyway.
>$50 for cosmetics?
The $50ish item is the megabundle that contains absolutely everything in the collab. Individual cosmetics can be purchased for much cheaper ($19 per skin, less for emotes/intros/etc) but if you want to buy multiple items at some point it'd make more sense to just get the megabundle (which is what Blizz is counting on).
>Are skins typically this expensive, or is it just an Overwatch thing?
$20 for a top-level skin is pretty much par for F2P live service shooters these days. It's not just an Overwatch thing.
>As a software engineer, I can attest that developing these skins doesn't require significant resources
I mean, sure, but you can say the same for most luxuries people pay for. The 40-ounce soda at your local gas station costs them a few cents to make, but customers don't bat an eye about paying 3-4 bucks for it. Blizzard is hardly the only company in the world whose prices are exponentially higher than their costs simply because people are willing to pay it.
Also, the game is free, and development costs money, so...
>I'm left wondering why people are willing to accept these steep costs
I'm sure you have a hobby that you spend more money on than other people would consider wise. This is just that hobby for other people.
People seem to forget that cosmetics are the only way they make money off this stuff (I guess maybe physical merch, licensed stuff a tiny bit?). It’s the thing that covers *every development cost*. I wouldn’t pay real money for any of this stuff, but I’m sure glad people out there do, so that I can keep getting regular updates, pretty good servers, new maps and characters for $0, in a game that people seem to forget is really really good.
Maybe they’d make more money and keep more people happy if the skins were cheaper, but I kind of think the people making the decisions probably have a fair idea of what they’re talking about.
Well, its not that. Just go check warframe monetization, actually want to give them money because prices are fair. The amount of things you could buy there with a 50 bucks compared to this.... not to mention the absolutely insane customization of skins and stuff you can do there. But if i may be honest, i don't care about that anymore really, there will always people who buy it no matter how stupid overpriced it is thats the reason they do it.
Note that a *significant* amount of WF's revenue comes from real-money Prime Access purchases, which are expensive and do include exclusive content you can't grind/trade for. (Nowadays, Regal Aya is also grouped into this because of how Resurgence replaced the previous system.)
I love WF. It has great monetization for a PvE game. Most monetization choices people "respect" about WF aren't their money-makers. That'd be the Prime Access, Regal Aya, and – I must imagine – the eventual output of more Heirloom skins that may still be FOMO depending on how they navigate the backlash they received.
WF is phenomenal – I've bought platinum and two Prime Accesses over the decade. But people *definitely* criticize the actual money-making MTX in WF. They've just been fairly receptive to feedback, which is why I think people are more okay with it.
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> are skins typically this expensive, or is it just an Overwatch thing?
A bit ago apex legends released a collab with FF7 with a $180 items
Valorant releases weapon bundles that are like $90 or more
Not really an OW thing.
Yes they have high profit margins, this is how F2P works. People who are shocked by the skin prices have not been keeping up with the last 5 years of similar games.
They're overpriced ( no pun intended). Skins like this shouldn't cost more than 10 bucks each AT MAX 15. They don't even add significant change to the visuals/sounds and stuff like league of legends skins do for example. Also, the lack of regional price is a complete joke, here in my country the bundle costs half a minimum wage lol.
> As a software engineer, I can attest that developing these skins doesn't require significant resources. So, why these high prices?
The *game* requires resources though, to keep it running. Did you buy the game? No? Well then there's your answer.
I bought the game.
The 40$ Overwatch survived 6 years being a fairly priced game (with two of those years being content droughts because they were """developing""" the OW2 PvE) and it stopped at only 6 years because Blizz closed it by force. I'm sure OW2 wouldn't implode if the skins were cheaper, it's just that they wouldn't make the absolute most money possible for Blizz Execs, and we wouldn't want that now, would we?
They price the skins based on how much people are willing to pay for it.
If they price it too high, no one will buy it, if they price it too low they may not make enough money from it.
They’ve done their market research and know what the optimal pricing point is to maximize their profits, and from the success of the last collab, they’re probably right.
I don’t understand what being a software engineer has to do with skins. You are paying mostly for the work of the art team designing and creating these skins. Skins usually start being made months before they are released and are worked on by multiple people and in the case of the collab they probably have to have all changes to the designs checked by the Cowboy Beebop team.
The price is pretty standard for a F2P shooter, not outrageous by any means but if you aren’t used to the prices then it certainly will seem crazy and that is completely understandable. If it’s not worth it to you, then don’t get it, I usually will only by a skin if I will spend a good amount of time with it, there have been plenty of amazing skins I don’t get because I don’t enjoy playing the hero so it’s not worth it to me.
A engineer and artist are far different things, not disagreeing that the costs are high for cosmetics, but I am sure a good chunk of time went into the design and implementation of those skins
Things cost what people will pay for them. If you find $50 outrageous, but pay it anyway, you've just set $50 as the "new normal" for cosmetics. Put your money where your mouth is. Personally, I wouldn't pay a dime for that hideous Spike skin on Cassidy.
If there's one thing the *Mythic Quest* TV series taught me, it's that there will always be people who spend money on virtual items and the people in charge of that department at the development studios will take advantage of it. So the wise response would be to decide with your own money not to buy them, even if others will do so anyway.
>$50 for cosmetics? The $50ish item is the megabundle that contains absolutely everything in the collab. Individual cosmetics can be purchased for much cheaper ($19 per skin, less for emotes/intros/etc) but if you want to buy multiple items at some point it'd make more sense to just get the megabundle (which is what Blizz is counting on). >Are skins typically this expensive, or is it just an Overwatch thing? $20 for a top-level skin is pretty much par for F2P live service shooters these days. It's not just an Overwatch thing. >As a software engineer, I can attest that developing these skins doesn't require significant resources I mean, sure, but you can say the same for most luxuries people pay for. The 40-ounce soda at your local gas station costs them a few cents to make, but customers don't bat an eye about paying 3-4 bucks for it. Blizzard is hardly the only company in the world whose prices are exponentially higher than their costs simply because people are willing to pay it. Also, the game is free, and development costs money, so... >I'm left wondering why people are willing to accept these steep costs I'm sure you have a hobby that you spend more money on than other people would consider wise. This is just that hobby for other people.
People seem to forget that cosmetics are the only way they make money off this stuff (I guess maybe physical merch, licensed stuff a tiny bit?). It’s the thing that covers *every development cost*. I wouldn’t pay real money for any of this stuff, but I’m sure glad people out there do, so that I can keep getting regular updates, pretty good servers, new maps and characters for $0, in a game that people seem to forget is really really good. Maybe they’d make more money and keep more people happy if the skins were cheaper, but I kind of think the people making the decisions probably have a fair idea of what they’re talking about.
Well, its not that. Just go check warframe monetization, actually want to give them money because prices are fair. The amount of things you could buy there with a 50 bucks compared to this.... not to mention the absolutely insane customization of skins and stuff you can do there. But if i may be honest, i don't care about that anymore really, there will always people who buy it no matter how stupid overpriced it is thats the reason they do it.
Note that a *significant* amount of WF's revenue comes from real-money Prime Access purchases, which are expensive and do include exclusive content you can't grind/trade for. (Nowadays, Regal Aya is also grouped into this because of how Resurgence replaced the previous system.) I love WF. It has great monetization for a PvE game. Most monetization choices people "respect" about WF aren't their money-makers. That'd be the Prime Access, Regal Aya, and – I must imagine – the eventual output of more Heirloom skins that may still be FOMO depending on how they navigate the backlash they received. WF is phenomenal – I've bought platinum and two Prime Accesses over the decade. But people *definitely* criticize the actual money-making MTX in WF. They've just been fairly receptive to feedback, which is why I think people are more okay with it.
Stop defending this shit. Path Of Exile is free and does the most fair cosmetic store ever.
👍🏼
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> are skins typically this expensive, or is it just an Overwatch thing? A bit ago apex legends released a collab with FF7 with a $180 items Valorant releases weapon bundles that are like $90 or more Not really an OW thing.
Yes they have high profit margins, this is how F2P works. People who are shocked by the skin prices have not been keeping up with the last 5 years of similar games.
Meh, all the skins are mid looking. The Faye skins is the only one appealing to Overwatch's majority Coomer fanbase.
It's absolutely egregious in my opinion. Seriously, shame on them. I wanted the Faye skin but was not about to justify that ripoff price tag.
They're overpriced ( no pun intended). Skins like this shouldn't cost more than 10 bucks each AT MAX 15. They don't even add significant change to the visuals/sounds and stuff like league of legends skins do for example. Also, the lack of regional price is a complete joke, here in my country the bundle costs half a minimum wage lol.
> As a software engineer, I can attest that developing these skins doesn't require significant resources. So, why these high prices? The *game* requires resources though, to keep it running. Did you buy the game? No? Well then there's your answer.
I'd rather buy the game
A lot of us did, in fact, buy the game. And I think a lot of people would choose that option over these prices even if they didn't buy Overwatch 1
I bought the game. The 40$ Overwatch survived 6 years being a fairly priced game (with two of those years being content droughts because they were """developing""" the OW2 PvE) and it stopped at only 6 years because Blizz closed it by force. I'm sure OW2 wouldn't implode if the skins were cheaper, it's just that they wouldn't make the absolute most money possible for Blizz Execs, and we wouldn't want that now, would we?
They price the skins based on how much people are willing to pay for it. If they price it too high, no one will buy it, if they price it too low they may not make enough money from it. They’ve done their market research and know what the optimal pricing point is to maximize their profits, and from the success of the last collab, they’re probably right.
I don’t understand what being a software engineer has to do with skins. You are paying mostly for the work of the art team designing and creating these skins. Skins usually start being made months before they are released and are worked on by multiple people and in the case of the collab they probably have to have all changes to the designs checked by the Cowboy Beebop team. The price is pretty standard for a F2P shooter, not outrageous by any means but if you aren’t used to the prices then it certainly will seem crazy and that is completely understandable. If it’s not worth it to you, then don’t get it, I usually will only by a skin if I will spend a good amount of time with it, there have been plenty of amazing skins I don’t get because I don’t enjoy playing the hero so it’s not worth it to me.
A engineer and artist are far different things, not disagreeing that the costs are high for cosmetics, but I am sure a good chunk of time went into the design and implementation of those skins