UO Promotions...

[outcry]

Ok , this gonna be little rant about how UOjAPAN EA always have promotions from the ea store.. like now with the chests and singing balls... Yet the we never get any promotions from the ea store in the US.. I mean its been years since we have had any type of 10% off EA Store for UO .. Hopefully someone reads this and perhaps gives us a little love

 

[Woodsman]

Ok , this gonna be little rant about how UOjAPAN EA always have promotions from the ea store.. like now with the chests and singing balls... Yet the we never get any promotions from the ea store in the US.. I mean its been years since we have had any type of 10% off EA Store for UO .. Hopefully someone reads this and perhaps gives us a little love

There are big sales every so often - I have not paid full price for any expansions/boosters on any of my accounts, and I've upgraded quite a bit last year and earlier this year.

You just have to look at Origin.com every day or every other day. EA doesn't exactly email UO players about this stuff.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

Origin sales have really only been for SA and HS, maybe once for the booster packs. After a certain point, people aren't going to "need" to buy these anymore.

Sales on the in-game items would be far more welcome and potentially more profitable. The same items as in the EA Japan store, plus sales and freebies like the Asian shards enjoy would be even better.

Apparently, EA doesn't want our money.

 

[Ashlynn_L]

You usually put stuff in a sale in an attempt to move more product. When you have a large customer base (ie: steam sales) it can work out very well. Minor items for an MMO with a not very high population? You could be losing money if you have a group of users constantly buying certain items (transfer tokens et al) just to lure in a few people who maybe kinda might have been considering that pen tool thing.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

You usually put stuff in a sale in an attempt to move more product. When you have a large customer base (ie: steam sales) it can work out very well. Minor items for an MMO with a not very high population? You could be losing money if you have a group of users constantly buying certain items (transfer tokens et al) just to lure in a few people who maybe kinda might have been considering that pen tool thing.

Uhm... These aren't real items. EA won't "lose" money since virtual objects are pure profit. Sure, if they discount transfer tokens some people might stock up on them...but that's one of the points of a sale. People will spend more than they usually might because they believe they are getting a deal. If Origin discounted Transfer Tokens from $19.99 to $15.99, someone who otherwise may have bought just one might buy 2 or more. Sure, EA may "lose" $5 in the short term, but they may have turned a $20 profit into a $30+ profit.

It obviously works for EA Japan, it would work for the rest of the planet as well.

 

[Ashlynn_L]

I mean losing money they might have otherwise made. Certain items obviously sell well and constantly. Transfer tokens being the obvious one. I imagine with all the rares trading and other stuff that there is a constant revenue made from sales of those tokens.

So they put stuff on sale. What do they put on sale? I am assuming everything gets a steam-esque 50% off or whatever.

Will the money from the extra sales of the less popular items offset the loss they take on discount on sales of the items that sell more regularly?

Or do they just put the less popular items on sale? And does that make difference?

I mean honestly if that pen thing was up at 75% off, I'd probably buy a bunch but only because one person I know makes lots of runebooks sometimes. Beyond that, I wouldn't bother. And I'm a sample size of 1.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

They can put anything on sale, since its virtual it doesn't matter. If someone buys something they wouldn't otherwise have bought, EA wins.

 

[Ashlynn_L]

I think you missed what I am saying. They don't always win. It depends on how the sales are structured and what items are on sale.

A general sale on everything just to move more items can result in less revenue if the profit from the additional sold items doesn't offset what they make on sales of their popular items.

If they put unpopular items on sale, they might not move any more (or only marginally more) than they did last month. But they'd make less money.

They are still turning a profit, but profits could be down on the previous month even though they moved more items.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

*shrugs*

So they don't put transfer tokens up for sale, I doubt their sale would beat an RMT site's ~$9 price anyway. The object is to get more people buying things. Once someone buys something from you, assuming the experience as a good one, they are likely to buy again in the future - even when things aren't on sale.

I could point out every grocery or department store that holds a sale as far more likely in loosing money, yet, they still hold them relatively often.

 

[Ashlynn_L]

No, the object is to make money. And money is the lifeblood of this game (I hate this fact as much as everyone else btw). This is EA, not a co-op. If you're making less money on sales, whether across the board, or on specific items, you're not gonna put them on sale.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

And yet EA Japan seems to do that at least once a quarter. Unless they've abandoned capitalism they seem more then willing to put things on sale.

 

[Ashlynn_L]

UO Japan has a larger customer base and from what I have heard, a slightly different business model. An I cannot begin to comment on how UO is perceived there. It is an entirely different culture. Also they offer specific items on sale under specific terms. It's not the same as a general sale or a sale on unpopular items.

Seriously, for all the faults EA possesses, the theory of making money is not one of them. I'm pretty sure they know (well have people who know) the mathematical specifics of how sales work better than the rest of us. I am fairly certain whoever is responsible for UO sales isn't out there with the goal of making a loss.

 

[Woodsman]

Seriously, for all the faults EA possesses, the theory of making money is not one of them. I'm pretty sure they know (well have people who know) the mathematical specifics of how sales work better than the rest of us. I am fairly certain whoever is responsible for UO sales isn't out there with the goal of making a loss.

What I know is that I upgraded accounts that I wouldn't have otherwise upgraded when SA/HS went on sale here and there.

And I won't touch most of the pixel crack that's in the store at the prices they are charging. I'm sure there are plenty of people who do, otherwise the prices would lower, but I won't, and I know quite a few people who won't either.

 

[Ashlynn_L]

Yes but SA/HS is a one-time upgrade for an account. The other things are not. You're not gonna buy more than one SA/HS upgrade for your account, but if you're regularly moving items between shards, you will be purchasing multiple transfer tokens.

 

[SunWolf]

The US is already paying for thier items or accounts cheaper than Japan is, so a sale on anything else on our store will not really be fair. The sales they do, sadly enough brings thier prices down to our lvl of Yen/Dollar Conversion

 

[Poo]

Ok , this gonna be little rant about how UOjAPAN EA always have promotions from the ea store.. like now with the chests and singing balls... Yet the we never get any promotions from the ea store in the US.. I mean its been years since we have had any type of 10% off EA Store for UO .. Hopefully someone reads this and perhaps gives us a little love

this is the same as if your local Ford Dealership was giving out a free toaster with a purchase of a car.
and then complaining that the Ford Dealership in Moosejaw Saskachewan is going out a toaster AND a can opener.
your complaining that a totally different dev team from the other side of the world is doing a little more then ours once a year.

since the marketplace is open for us to move from shard to shard i dont think this a game ender.

 

[Hobo Sapien]

UO Japan has a larger customer base and from what I have heard, a slightly different business model. An I cannot begin to comment on how UO is perceived there. It is an entirely different culture. Also they offer specific items on sale under specific terms. It's not the same as a general sale or a sale on unpopular items.

Seriously, for all the faults EA possesses, the theory of making money is not one of them. I'm pretty sure they know (well have people who know) the mathematical specifics of how sales work better than the rest of us. I am fairly certain whoever is responsible for UO sales isn't out there with the goal of making a loss.

Have ya been to some of these servers, kinda like going to Oceana. No offense Oceana. There is not alot goin on..........

 

[Varrius]

Have ya been to some of these servers, kinda like going to Oceana. No offense Oceana. There is not alot goin on..........

Oceania is slow, but some of the Asian shards are pretty populated. You just don't see them bank sitting as much as we do, so it's tougher to find where people are.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

UO Japan has a larger customer base and from what I have heard, a slightly different business model. An I cannot begin to comment on how UO is perceived there. It is an entirely different culture. Also they offer specific items on sale under specific terms. It's not the same as a general sale or a sale on unpopular items.

Sorry, but an online sale has little to do with culture as we aren't talking about items specific to any one particular culture. Theses are virtual items in a video game.

Seriously, for all the faults EA possesses, the theory of making money is not one of them. I'm pretty sure they know (well have people who know) the mathematical specifics of how sales work better than the rest of us. I am fairly certain whoever is responsible for UO sales isn't out there with the goal of making a loss.

It is highly unlikely there is any one specific person responsible for UO sales, just a team of myopic marketing weasels. Said weasels know that sales are a good thing in the consumer's eye, even if the company "doesn't make as much as it could" once in a while. If you've paid any attention to Origin over the last year, they are constantly running sales on various games - sometimes really good sales. If they can discount the price of ME or DA2 by $30, they can discount the price if the Pen of Wisdom or whatever UO pixelcrack without going bankrupt.