Higher PLEX prices are good for CCP, which is why they subtly encourage it. here’s why.
Time is inelastic. if a player has to spend increasing amounts of time earning PLEX, at some point, this bcomes impossible to balance with RL. Therefore they will end up either quitting (closing down one of their characters) or paying real-world money for a sub. This puts money into CCP’s pocket that wasn’t there before. So CCP doesn’t mind higher PLEX prices - in fact it approves.
Stop being Balos.
Wrong. CCP makes more money form selling Plex than from a monthly sub.
Yes they do. But our hypothetical player would rather spend money on a sub (if they have to) than on PLEX because as you rightly say, it’s cheaper. In an ideal world, they would not buy PLEX at all but earn in-game but the rising price has put this option out of their reach. That’s my point.
This makes no sense at all.
I’d like to hear why you think so.
Paid 10 euros to get 1 billion ISK yesterday
If you ask me PLEX prices are too low 
No they are not. There is a difference between being correct within an error margin and being wrong.
hu… I just give my personal opinion. Where did I say that it was something formal about what CCP must do ? Nice job being a dick.
again. Your post is useless as ever.
Read your two posts again.
Because CCP makes LESS money from someone paying for their sub than from buying plex, CCP wants more people to use PLEX
This is with the assumption that the number of Omega accounts remains the same. In order to sustain the same number will PLEXing players have to buy game time instead, thus CCP will sell less PLEX and more game time, meaning they’ll make less money, because game time is around 50%-75% the cost of PLEX.
This also includes the assumption that the sale of PLEX is directly proportional to the number of PLEXing players. As we know is PLEX used for a variety of items now and the sale of PLEX is not directly linked to the number of PLEXing players, but more likely to its ISK value. And the number of PLEXing players is also linked to how much they like to play the game and not solely to the ISK price of PLEX.
Pugilismus’ point is that the PLEXing player never spends money on the game, and so would choose to stop playing as an Omega, and return to Alpha or stop playing completely.
Both views have merit, but I find the later too dramatic and unrealistic. PLEXing players don’t necessarily operate at their limit and not all will be forced to quit. Some may decide to buy game time for their first time, some perhaps because they used to do it in the past. But as the PLEX price increases does it provide plenty of incentive to sell more PLEX into the game regardless of the number of PLEXing players.
Best case scenario is that all accounts switch to omega that were currently PLEXing which at best results in the 50% loss you mention, so even in a 100% uptake scenario they lose a substantial amount of their income
Yes, but the one driving the value of PLEX is omega time as that consumes the most PLEX, second on the list would be MCT’s and then extractors and then cosmetics, and this is a very likely assumption
They spend money indirectly by consuming PLEX, if there are less people buying PLEX ingame then less people will buy it with cash as the value will tank, high supply with minimal demand, so even on the things they are being spent on the price will drop quite a bit
I’m not so sure about that. One view that’s missing is that of the PLEX selling players. Obviously do the PLEXing players have no financial power. They either grind their ISKs to pay or are forced to quit or buy game time. They do however not pay CCP a penny while they PLEX their game.
The PLEX selling player then doesn’t care much of what the PLEXing player does. So will the PLEX selling player care highly for the ISK value, but for little else. Thus will CCP’s profits from the sale of PLEX be linked to its ISKs price in game, because it will give the PLEX selling player more ISKs in return. The whole idea of PLEX then comes from the “gold sellers” and the players who wish to put money into CCP’s mouth in order to gain an advantage. And this will not have changed.
Thus I don’t believe the number of PLEXing players has much influence on the actual sale of PLEX and therefore on CCP’s profit, but the ISK price of PLEX in-game does. And with more ways to spend PLEX does the influence of the PLEXing player only drop further.
The increasing price should bring more PLEX into the game and PLEXing players who may stop playing as Omega will not produce any loss for CCP, because they already don’t pay them.
Don’t talk to me like that, i’m not your mother, maggot. Actual prices have a negative impact on you?
too bad, get good.
No, but they contribute to the money CCP does make, without them there is less demand for plex pure and simple, it doesn’t matter one iota that they don’t pay CCP directly, they result in CCP making more money per month of omega time than they would have normally if that user had actually paid directly
Sure it will, because less demand for PLEX means its value WILL drop, you still need players to actually use the PLEX that is being purchased, and if there are minimal uses for it then people won’t want it as much and the value tanks, people aren’t going to pay 2bil for 500 PLEX just for crappy skins so CCP will lose out on a lot of sales
Then i would not suggest a career in the financial sector 
Its basic supply and demand
Except by removing omega time as an option you’re reducing the number of ways PLEX can be spent, which in turn reduces demand
No. They don’t contribute a single penny to CCP. By believing they would do so do you diminish the contribution by the paying customers. You cannot do this, because it isn’t fair to them. It is entirely the paying customers and them alone who contribute to CCP’s financial profit.
Rather is your belief another form of self-entitlement where people believe that as a sole receiver of a good would then also be responsible for its production, or be entitled to receive the product, or to have helped in making it. It’s however a wrong belief and at best does it underline the weak-mindedness of those in need of receiving the product as they are incapable of making a contribution.
Let’s not forget that those who PLEX their game need to be grateful for those who do sell PLEX into the game and that those who sell PLEX into the game do pay more than they actually would need to in order to play it. So lets not start with posing here as a contributor when you’re not.
Right, and of course, this completely explains how F2P games have come to dominate the market, how a F2P company much younger than CCP was able to completely buy CCP out, how CCP used Alphas to make the books look good enough to enable a sale of the game, how PA who paid hundreds of millions for the game did so after 2 years of Alpha on the books.
Please learn something about how the actual MMO market works, what makes players want to play, stay, and pay, and what makes players give up on a game and move on to something else.
Remaining deluded that only subs and plex-buyers benefits CCP/EVE is just continuing the steady loss of player base that EVE experienced from 2013 until Alpha state was released.
Converted Aurum balance
Calm down, we’re still on the same page. You, too, agree that it is solely the paying customers who keep the companies in profit. How customers are being persuaded into buying the products, if with free trials or shiny extras or addictive loot boxes, is irrelevant to the fact that a company needs to make money. And when money doesn’t come from every player, but only from some then it’s just fair to credit only the paying customers with having contributed to the company’s financial success.
If it helps to calm you down, lets agree that all players, paying and non-paying, do contribute to a game’s overall success. Just step down from the claim that everyone would have had a part in the financial success.
This is exactly the part that is wrong, however. Although of course you can define ‘financial success’ as ‘only someone who paid RL dollars to the company’, and pretend that resolves the issue.
However, the actual financial success of a company translates to ‘how many dollars came in, from whatever source, for whatever reason’. Thus, if a F2P game generally makes more money than a sub-only game, something about a properly designed F2P scenario contributes to ‘greater financial success’. If a company converts from sub to F2P and then makes more money than they did before, obviously something about F2P contributes to greater financial success.
Clearly, companies are converting to F2P games because they make more money that way, not less. Assuming they have a clue about the market, and do it correctly of course. If you can’t design your game properly you won’t succeed under any model.
(One also wonders what the ‘calm down, step down’ comments refer to, btw… seeing as there are no caps, exclamation points, outrageous claims or demands in my post.)
I also do not ‘agree that it is solely the paying customers who keep the companies in profit’. People play a game because of the total environment of that game. The player count, player activity, seeing people doing things wherever you go rather than being alone out there, the amount of buy/sell activity on the game market, the amount of social buzz, the competition with other players to be the highest, the best, or even the coolest looking, the people you meet and the friends you make… those are all part of what makes a person decide to contribute to a game and pay.
In fact, research has shown that a persons social environment and number of people-connections in a game is key to retention. All these activities mean that every player in the game, paid or free, contributes to the overall game environment and the decision-making process of those who actually pay.
Think of it this way, how many times have you heard “This game is dead, the good people have left, nobody plays anymore but the bots”? (About EVE and every other game in its’ decline phase)
How many times have you heard “Man, this game would be so much better if only there were less active players. I would sure pay more if there were a lot fewer players!”. Like, never?
Perhaps you have heard of the marketing tactic where a new bar owner or product launch actually pays people to show up at the bar, talk about the product, make it look like there is buzz and interest and activity. It is profitable for a business to increase the ‘people profile’ of a product.
Free players might be active in help channels, might mentor other players, certainly contribute to market activity and turnover. They are the potential targets, recruits, customers and suppliers of paid members. And if the game and cash shop are set up correctly, they are also people who spend money on the game… they just don’t sub. Alphas are not ‘people who didn’t sub’. Alphas are a financial resource that CCP (and many subbing forumites) simply have no clue how to harvest.