Zakura Packs another marketing fail?

Communications Center General Discussion
#1

Is anybody buying these Zakura packs? I didn’t expect much from them when I saw the release, but thought oh hey, maybe they put a decent deal together since it’s holidays, and Japan release, and Covid, and because they’ve been making a hash of things all year.

But nope. The $9.99 pack holds about $4.99 or maybe $5.99 of value. The $99.99 pack advertises right on the same page that its main ingredients (90 days Omega and 1100 Plex) are worth $79. So basically you’re paying $21 for an accelerator, 250,000 SP, and some skins. Whoo wotta deal!

CCP needs to seriously get with the current decade. They’re not releasing anything special or unique anymore. I’d rather see them sell a bunch of packs and get tens of thousands of people a little interested in EVE this holiday than just shove a couple thousand over-priced packages out the door to the few whales who’ll buy any crap CCP gift-wraps for them.

(PS: Not a complaint or request for a better deal. I wouldn’t buy such a pack from CCP unless it represented a fairly low price on the Omega/Plex combo, something they’re unlikely to do. I just can’t believe how many marketing opportunities they throw away because they refuse to learn from things like Monocle-gate.)

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#2

It’s not really news, they’re in full-on whaling mode right now. If it works for them, I don’t mind, but I’m not going to support these specific efforts. Old packs gave more, cost less, and went on discount often. We live in an age when many people are looking for deals, but if CCP wants to be a boutique shop, whatever works for them, I guess.

Also, Japanese packs, and no cat ears or anime hair. Lots of missed opportunities.

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#3

Some Kawaii skins, clothing or items would have been worth a premium. As it is the packs really aren’t too desireable.

On the flipside, some warrior or imperial themed items too.

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#4

This is where you’re missing the value that others see in them. $21 isn’t that severe compared to other games, considering it’s not just one skin.

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#5

A black skirt, leggings, pumped shoes, white button-up top and some oversized glasses… :hugs:
And a pink panda skin for my Megathron.

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#6

Hell no, waaaay too overpriced.

Im sitting here waiting on a decent deal but really, CCP just dont seem to want my money.

#7

All those believing CCP needs to adjust the price are hilarious.
If it didn’t work with the prices they set, then they wouldn’t set the prices they set.

Omega-Time deals are a problem, because people “hoard” it. Last time they had a long Omega deal,
people stocked up for half a year or so and PLEX reached 4mill+.

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#8

Errm…If people stock up on subs, PLEX price should technically deflate, since immediate demand for it goes down.

#9

I still waiting on cowboy hats. I’m sure they want to stick with universe appropriate items, but you can’t tell me that Space Cowboy is somehow less appropriate than t-shirts and baseball hats.

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#10

I want the SKIN for my Rifter and Atron,

I cant buy the SKIN for my Rifter and Atron. :man_shrugging:

CCP common…
Also if they would just drop all Zakura SKINS for 20-30 bucks i would buy them, why so many hoops?

#11

You’re right, it doesn’t make apparent sense …
… but that’s how I remember it.

They had this Omega sale going for weeks …
… and over the months PLEX kept going up to 4 million.

That was during the still going SP farming craze just a few years ago …
… so I’d guess people bought lots of subs at cheaper prices …
… to farm more chars for SP, because it paid off in the long run.

Iirc you need to Omega a char at least once to get it into skillpoint farming, right?
SP farms run on PLEX. They aren’t free. To extract at 5.5mill chars have to be Omega.

End result is rising PLEX prices due to more chars being around needing PLEX for subbing.

My post before this one wasn’t worded well at all.
I blame it on a long night and it was still early when I posted.

#12

I´ve seen skin packs for guns in certain 1st person shooters that cost above 50 Dollars. So yeah, if you want to pay for skins, please do so. If you´re not intersted, don´t pay for them

#13

Is there any staff from CCP that was around during that time?

How old were the current CCP developers when Eve first launched?

Why do we expect them to have a clue I suppose? The new CCP takes a vastly different position on who they want their community to be and what they expect from that community.

We should all lower our expectations to null with this company if 2020 is any indication of the future.

#14

Im only ever after 1 month at a time deals anyway.

But these are not deals at all.

#15

So basically your premise is that CCP knows what they’re doing and are doing it properly and wouldn’t do something as stupid as clearly misprice an item? Can we say “Monocle-gate”?

That’s because you’re confusing the cause and effect cycle that went on at that time.

Yes, CCP had sales on Omega time. They also had multiple sales on Plex. This was mostly through mid-2018 to early 2019 if I recall correctly. Likely they were trying to hit sales targets for their PA bonuses or some such.

This was also the height of the SP farming, as you stated. So people were used to steady influxes of reasonable priced Plex to drive their SP farms (among other things), and were Plexing alts like crazy. Subs weren’t a big factor in the pricing. Once the Plex sales dried up, people continued buying Plex for all those farming alts, so there was a considerable shortage in supply.

That was when some smart traders noticed the demand for Plex was outstripping the current supply, and started speculating. If you’d been watching the Plex pricing in various regions at the time you would have noticed multiple strings of similar buy/sell orders being placed across all regions where huge quantities of Plex were being bought up and either held or relisted at much higher prices.

This was a Plex supply issue and had little to do with subs. As other people pointed out, cheap subs reduces the demand for Plex and would have led to lower Plex prices if that was the driver.

Once the supply started to catch up to demand again, the hoarded Plex started to get dumped and that brought prices down to where they are today. As is always the case in EVE despite what CCP says they’re doing, the massively wealthy got trillions of ISK wealthier and everybody else paid through the nose.

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#16

Thanks for the reminder on what happened back then!

Regarding the rest …

This isn’t rocket science. Monoclegate isn’t comparable.
Back then they’ve set the prices before they even knew if things would sell at these prices.
Hilmar had no idea and got his ass handed to him for it.

Now they know.
Now they have the experience.

If they wouldn’t be earning satisfying numbers …
… they would be adjusting the prices downwards.

As long as people perceive the price as justified …
… and obviously they do …
… nothing requires to be changed.

If CCP intends the price to be high to create the illusion of high value …
… and as long as people are willing to pay that money …
… then it’d not make any sense lowering it.

If they cut the price in half …
… they’d need double the amount of people …
… to make the same amount of money.

#17

It depends on what your goal is. CCP’s goal might well be “We want to position EVE as a high-end product with valuations that appeal to an exclusive market. We’re happy to have $50,000 in sales of a high-priced pack to 5,000 players than have $100,000 in sales of a value-priced pack to 20,000 players, because we never want to position ourselves in a lower priced market”.

Giving up potential sales to maintain “high-end pricing” makes sense for some brands, like Jaguar or Tesla. However even the Mercedes and BMWs of the world have realized that a bigger market means more money.

I’m not sure how you come to the conclusion that people perceive these prices as “obviously” justified, or that people are “willing” to pay for these packs, in general. Do you have access to CCP sales figures?

I’ve been looking around undocks, in help channels, and asking people here and there who’s getting them or interested. The overwhelming response has been “Meh, I’ll wait for a better deal”. A few people have said they want the skins and are hoping for a sale. Literally three people have told me they bought the pack.

Are you seeing tons of people wearing the Zakura outfits? Are you seeing every 4th ship in space wearing a Zakura skin? One wonders how you’re coming to these ‘obvious’ conclusions?

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#18

Even the Japanese look at the zakura packs as “…hmm…those seem a bit over the top…”

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#19

CCP make it so we can buy Zakura Rifter skin… please?

#20

Despite your cynicism, I bought that pack and in my opinion it’s a good deal. Also you forgot to include a couple of things.

90 Days Omega, not 30 Days. Cost = 38.85
30 Days MCT (Multiple Character Training) Cost = $19.95
1100 PLEX added to Vault. Cost = $39.99

That alone pretty much covers the cost of the pack. On top of that the pack also includes:

Cerebral Accelerator = +8 Attribute Points for 30 days
4x Cruiser Ship Skins = Limited Edition
2x Apparel items (Male & Female)
250,000 Skill Points

My character would have to purchase 2x Large Skill Injectors costing 1.4 bill ISK just to cover those SP’s. I don’t know how much the Cerebral Accelerator would cost but 30 Days time is definitely much longer than normal Accelerators. Nor do I know how much the Ship Skins and Apparel items would cost but having all those items included in the pack as extra’s is money saved which makes it a good deal.