That's $35 per character.
The Time of Legends and Stygian Abyss expansions, by contrast, are $19.99 each and cover an entire account.
An extra character slot for all shards on an account is $19.99.
Maxed tamers, who are the most likely to want to participate in this new content, and the most likely to have full stables, now have the privilege of being able to pay nearly twice the cost of the most recent expansion to experiment with the maximum (and seemingly arbitrary) possible number of pets if they want to really try a variety of the new content. Per character.
This is inconsistent with previous content access and wildly out of line with other store content both in substance and price. It would have been preferable to just call it a content pack and charge everyone $19.99 to access both the new tameables AND max slots. I'd have paid that, per account, on at least two accounts, gladly. But this? This is nickel and dime targeting a specific skill class after hyping a revamp for something like three years. No thanks.
I'm not buying more slots, and once I'm through with the sovereigns I already had, I doubt I'll be buying more of those for myself either. This is a straight F2P mechanic in a game I'm already paying multiple subs on. They want to put flashy rainbow unicorns in the store? Excellent. They want to put extended access to new content for one specific playstyle behind an overpriced, one-character-only store token? No.
I get that UO needs to make money, but there is no coherent strategy at work here between items that are rewards/gifts, items that are acquired through normal gameplay, and items for sale in the store. Furthermore, I don't have any faith that the money paid for store items actually even goes toward helping or supporting UO--purchases are made through EA's Origin store, not directly from Broadsword, and we the average players just don't know what the arrangement there is, and aren't likely to. If it's just a matter of money, there are a million non-play-affecting things they could do and sell. I'm disappointed in this move and concerned about the direction for the game that it implies. What's next?